To be amazed at this generous benefit system!

[Pinkrose1]

Not a benefit bash but more information sharing and do you think it's reasonable of the French government to want to cut this benefit?

Listening to the BBC world service thanks to my insomnia it was saying that the French government want to remove the over generous benefits to artists including actors.

Apparently if you are registered as an artist of some type you only have to work 500 hours in 10 months (which would be about 4 months 9-5 hours) and get 2 months free. For this they are paid enough to live on. Effectively 8 months of the year without any type of paid work! This benefit makes up a third of the French benefit (presumably unemployment) bill, so it's hugely expensive to the tax payer.

The French government is not in a good way I think but clearly value their artists. The artists are demonstrating (it is France after all) their displeasure.

WIBU to pack my watercolours and head to France?

I have actually heard newly arrived Norwegians in London saying 'wow, it's so cheap here!'

icimoi these might be interesting too :
www.topuniversities.com/where-to-study/europe/denmark/guide

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10369467/More-European-universities-teaching-students-in-English.html

www.careersportal.ie/ed_training/study_abroad.php?parent=16&ed_sub_cat_id=31#.U9TYgvldVyU

Interesting comparisons, will file away for future reference...

Scandi tax rate is something like 40%, I think, but their state benefits are generous (free childcare etc), and the people are happy! It's swings and roundabouts.

What a lovely idea. If there's a recession and all creative types have to take 60 hour a week jobs waitressing to live on don't you think it would be sad, OP, that very little art, music, literature would be creative? Shakespeare didn't work (except writing). Neither did jane austen.

I'm a writer and had to take a job to live. I now can't write as I'm too busy working I haven't worked on my book for months

I want to drama school in the 90s big - tuition funky funded, half a maintenance grant and the other half in loans (was in the transition period to loans). I was bright enough for an academic degree but actions was where my heart was. I was massively unsuccessful but I'm now a full time writer so in that sense, I use my dip every day. I also think that creativity/team work/discipline taught there helped me massively in all my subsequent jobs.

Would I have the bollocks to make the same decision now though, when it would leave me ££££ in debt? Really not sure. When creativity stops being valued we all suffer. It's not just the 'pure' artists - its the people like me who received a state-sponsored creative education and have gone on to use that in every day life. But the other side of that is should the state have sponsored me to become a 'failed' actor? That said, I guess there are plenty of 'failed' engineers out there but we're still concerned about getting enough DCs from low incomes to study engineering.

I know this is a lighthearted thread but I find this whole area really interesting.

FFS tuition fully funded and acting was where my heart was. I can actually write, honest!

I think it depends on how you look at it as our system does exactly that.
We have tax credits to top up earnings for any profession including the creative industries.
If you have 0ne appearance/gig/concert per week at about 3 hours, that's enough to qualify for full time job where tax credits are concerned.
When you factor in travel time, business admin, practice, composing or learning lines, rehearsals etc. The hours soon add up.

I went to a rubbish school so got into Uni with one A'level. Science was totally the wrong direction for me but hey ho. It was half loan, half degree. I'm so reluctant to let ds go to Uni in the UK. I don't want him starting his career saddled with a shit load of debt.

Creativity should be valued. It's where the paintings, the books, the movies come from. It should be nurtured, just as science should be.

I'm loving France for this.

In comparison to other countries the benefit system in the UK is quite generous as well.

The important question is, is it sustainable, and if not, what happens to the recipients when those benefits are reduced or eliminated?

One word for you, CallMe... ASOS. I strongly disagree with how the UK treats its disabled and vulnerable. It's a measure of a society and we're shit at this. Disability benefits are cut left right and centre, so I don't think these are generous. The lower rate DLA is £20.50 a week. With prices rising so much you can't get a lot with this. Tax credits, however, are generous for some who know how to work the system, and housing benefit only goes to cover the extortionate rent charges from private landlords, which could have been avoided if Maggie Thatcher hadn't have sold off the social housing stock.

sorry if this comes up twice but the internet seems to have eaten my post.

I've recently started selling my art, sold my first one last week (dead chuffed :) ) but there's no guarantee of me selling anymore ... maybe I should bog off to france ;)

LadySybil - as shocking and challenging as this may be to grasp, benefits for the disabled in the UK, as insufficient as they seem, are far superior to those elsewhere.

I am speaking from experience, as have a severely disabled and medically complex daughter and am disabled myself.

I am not going to turn this into an "I have it worse than you" debate as it is wholly counterproductive, but as I live in a country that does not have DLA, direct payments, carer's benefits, housing benefit or motability, this is personal knowledge.

Well done flower!

Fwiw arts, creativity, books, paintings, plays, cinema etc etc are one of the things that makes us as humans appreciate the gorgeous world around us. A lovely piece of engineering (like my washing machine) does nothing for me, but when I looked up at Turner's paintings many moons ago, it truly moved me. I guess that what the Arts are all about.

I would have loved to have tried writing, painting or even knitting but bloody life got in the way!

Oh lord! I am painting!

It's a fucking disgrace. I'm not surprised they're looking to cut it. I'd be hopping mad if I was French and my taxes were paying for this shit. Mind you, our benefits system is far too generous and needs some major cuts!

major cuts how??

Maybe, just maybe, if you were French and had grown up in a culture where the arts and (specifically) French language was highly valued, and where there is a strongly socialist belief in the country, you'd be quite chuffed bigdog. You never know, do you?

Part of me says the French system is fabulous and necessary to promote the Arts, but another knows resources are finite and when people are dying because expensive drugs are not available on a cost basis, is it really sustainable?

I believe that to be an artist/writer/actor there has to be that burning desire which puts your art first. I read the writers will write no matter what the other distractions are In their life and I do believe that. I won the English lit prize 3 years in a row at school and was convinced I would be a writer. 30 years later I've only ever written a shopping list, so that desire is obviously missing in me!

Enid Blyton apparently neglected her own children to be on her own and write, so she had what it takes!

Maybe just cut the benefit to make it fairer?

Oh on the surface it totally looks over generous. But then writing/painting for example are solitary pursuits. You said in the OP actors are entitled to the benefit as well and I do 'get' that - you can't act on your own, iyswim. I don't know enough about it to agree or disagree really.