to think its no wonder people stay on benefits?

[ruledbyheart]

My DP has started a new job getting the only job he has been offered after 1yr of trying, its only part time but we thought its better than nothing and at least he is willing to work.

He is working for a well known pizza franchise doing delivery and took the job on the basis he got a full 24hrs a week yet he is on week two and has only been given 16 so far.

He signed off job seekers to be told he won't receive anything other than the money leading up to sign off so we will have to survive for an entire month on my CTC and somehow live and pay billswith this.

He is eligible for WTC providing he gets the 24 hrs if not we aren't entitled to anything, without this we still have to pay extra on our rent and council tax out of his barely worth it wages.


However if we stayed on benefits we could afford to live no problems.

If his work doesn't give him the hours promised we will barely scrap by yet he couldn't leave and sign on again as he would be told he made himself unemployed.

So pissed off that we are worse off working.

There is no work locally and he struggled to get this.

I can't work at the moment as I'm pregnant and have 3dcs under 5yrs.

Aibu to think this is shit and we should have just saved the hassle and stayed on benefits?
No wonder people dont want to work.

[expatinscotland]

So cut the spending instead of addressing the reason why it's so large? Why are so many in work needing to claim HB? And that's not even touching the whole problem of spending on state pensions which was by far the largest expenditure at £138.1bn.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

People want things cheap because they have no money.

[CressidaFitass]

Employers should be paying decent living wages

Yes, but don't you shop online/ compare prices at the store then buy elsewhere cheaper if you can - ime everyone does. So anyone paying decent living wages risks going out of business as their product is prob dearer than other people's.

We are the ones who want things cheap, and thus force the prices down.

I agree with what's been said but the answer isn't that simple.

[theredhen]

Employers should be paying decent living wages and not doing things like zero hour contracts, the responsibility for ensuring less people rely on welfare should lie more with employers and less with the government.

This government is never going to do anything to burden employers though is it? They will say it would make us uncompetitive in the business world.

[Darkesteyes]

And Cressida a lot of that will be HB being paid to people IN WORK who arent being paid enough to buy food pay council tax AND pay their rent.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Yes and the majority of welfare is pensions...

[CressidaFitass]

Listening to the evening news on Radio 4 (on Iplayer) it appears that the Welfare Budget is more than Education, Health and the Armed Forces put together. 1 in 3 pounds of Gov money is paid in welfare payments.

As I stated above, regardless of who is in power, the tax payer cannot afford to pay this.

[morethanpotatoprints]

My dh received a letter for registering his employees for RTP, its only him and possibly me if he can find me some hours.
It sounds complicated and you have to include hours on a weekly basis, which should make it hard for accountants.

[theredhen]

I expect employers will not put the unpaid overtime on the reports to hmrc.

[SolidGoldBrass]

But the low-paid are already quite often expected to work unpaid overtime. Is that going to be looked into?

[theredhen]

Lady, with real time payroll coming in from April, employers are having to report actual hours worked to hmrc.

This is being brought in to co incide with the introduction of universal credit.

The self employed are going to be targeted in the same way in that anyone's profits who fall below minimum wage levels will be expected to find a job.

It's going to be very difficult to lie about hours worked.

[SolidGoldBrass]

It's really down to absolute cluelessness. It might sound like a sidetrack, and it's not like I had a high opinion of him before, but when David Cameron had a go at Hilary Mantel over her supposed dissing of Kate Windsor it was a really scary demonstration of what he is: a knee-jerking thoughtless fuckwit. So, let's make all those benefit scroungers do some work translates into allowing large profitable corporations to profit even more by not having to pay wages. Let's stop paying any money to people with disabilities and hope they die quickly.Let's cut off every single option the poor might have to get out of poverty, and then blame them for staying poor...

[gaelicsheep]

Or even councillors. Blardy hell, my English. Sorry!

[gaelicsheep]

Sorry councellors as in interfering, expense-heavy, local do-no-gooders. Not counsellors as in hard-working low paid working people.

[gaelicsheep]

It is about being seen to be fair as much as anything, not that the Govt cares about that. The CB cuts for higher rate taxpayers - which I vehemently disagree with despite being a basic rate taxpayer - will raise barely any money. They were done to make a point. Well they're targetting the wrong people.

Why are MPs getting a food allowance? No other working person does that I'm aware of? Why do local counsellors get free hot meals while their low earning staff have to pay for them?

These are the kinds of things that make people mad when they themselves are suffering. It might be gesture politics, but it would sure be nice to see the right kinds of gestures for a change instead of picking on families (of all incomes) and the vulnerable.

Again, we cannot afford to be waging wars that we cannot win (although having seen the BBC programme on Afghanistan I can't believe we're withdrawing leaving a worse state than we started with - don't get me started on that). We can't afford to waste money on restructuring the NHS into a worse system than we have now. And I seriously doubt by the time all the changes have worked their way through, and the costs of those changes, that the benefits changes will save any money at all either. They will just make more people more poor, more miserable and more bitter while the Govt and Parliament and the bankers, etc. are perceived to be feathering their own nests as if nothing had changed.

[CressidaFitass]

The money in bankers bonuses wouldn't fund the health care of a hundered oldies, we are in denial as to the cost of all this. Well the train line will provide jobs whilst being built, and then, hopefully, spread the wealth of the SE a bit wider.

They prop up the housing bubble to calm the populace - if everyone found out tomorrow that their house was worth half what they thought no one would spend anything, they'd just hunker down saving every penny towards vital things, care in old age, univ fees etc. and the country would almost grind to a halt.

[gaelicsheep]

You know how people claim that those on benefits are crying poor and having their children go hungry while choosing to buy designer clothes, lots of booze and Sky TV?

Well I don't believe that is true at all. But that is exactly what the country is doing - spending money on luxuries it cannot afford while choosing to ignore the basic needs of its citizens.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

The bankers bonuses (especially in a company making losses) are just disgusting.

[expatinscotland]

Pray tell me then, Cressida, if the money is running out, how we still have hundreds of millions to pay out in bonuses to a few bankers or else increase their 6 or 7 figure basic salary? Billions for wars, aid, a new train line we don't need, and billions more for private contractors to shaft the poor and working poor? The country is supposedly broke, but has money to pay huge bonuses, prop up the housing bubble with low interest rates whilst inflation fails to fall and pay out to private contractors?

Are people really still falling for this twaddle? If so then they deserve all they will get: a government stuck in the time of George III, a government which denied the vote to men who didn't own property, which was only 10% of them, a Whig party by another name.

[olgaga]

There's no advice anyone can give you, only sympathy. I'm afraid the whole point of these welfare reforms is to send a message to anyone thinking of having children, and that is to think about whether you can actually afford it because the state is going to make life extremely difficult.

Lots of wonderful people who are great parents - and their children - will suffer for the achievement of this "culture change".

Are you in touch with local support services? Look at your local authority website to find your nearest family/children's centre where you can get good advice. Or contact Homestart or Turn2us

[CressidaFitass]

Gaelic , I think that the wealthy middle classes (especially the vast number on retirement pensions) are due for a hammering in the future - how on earth else can they be paid, especially for the vast numbers of retired former public servants. So many people, mostly in this category are being 'let go' or paid off early to cut staff and costs - all that happens is the tax payer takes on the burden. So not the ermine wearers but he comfortably off will be caught as there are not the younger taxpayers around to fund this.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

When I worked I was in management, and I found myself in a conversation about how to get out of employing a girl who was pregnant without opening the company up to a discrimination claim.

I was disgusted with the company for many reasons, but that was the last straw. I found another job soon after.

Companies do not employ pregnant women. Getting a job while pregnant is pretty impossible.

[gaelicsheep]

Which is fine if it starts with people cutting their silk and ermine to fit. But it doesn't does it?

[CressidaFitass]

If I knew the OP I would tell her to go to her MP. I don't know who her MP is but I would research it and make sure you said whatever was most likely to get a good response and some sympathy.

If a local councillor or MP here contacted the supermarket they might jump (on the other hand the MP or councillor might not want to annoy them- but you won't know till you ask).

I would also get in touch with local paper - our local squeak has always got dire tales of a local unfortunate in some dilemma or other. The upshot from that (as long as the speel is flattering and explains their predicament with empathy, not critically) I think there would be a chance that her poor DH might get a job out of it. There are few jobs round here but I would think someone might need a driver/ handyman/goodness knows what ( I dont' know his skills).

The bottom line as far as benefits is concerned, or any money from the tax payer, is that it is running out, pretending that we CAN pay for free health care for all and care for the increasing numbers of elderly and pay people who aren't working or subsidise childcare etc etc etc is pie in the sky, the money is running out, tax will have to go up, benefits will have to go down. If this means people having fewer children and caring for their own elderly then that is what will have to happen. Regardless of who is in government - our standard of living will fall and people will have to cut their cloth etc

[ruledbyheart]

Xpost with gaelic sheep, thank you.
I feel like banging my head against a brick wall now