To ask if you have had any contact with benefit 'scroungers'

[JumpRope]

I utterly believe that we need to protect the poor, vulnerable and those unable to work and they should have help to live.

I grew up in a very rural area, fairly poor, very hard work for non land owners - workers werefarm labourers mainly. And there were many people leaving school in the 80s and 90s and then abusing the system - picking up the dole, laughing about it, straight to the pub until it ran out; I remember a dog called Giro. People just sold a bit of marijuana for extra work. After moving to a bigger town, I came across families like this, where the dad would start it off, and the children would just grow up and do the same.

There were jobs around. As students homes for holidays, we picked up work without trouble, and could have stayed on, got promotions etc.

How do you deal with these situations? How can we make sure we are not making cuts to those who desperately need it, whilst absolutely changing the mind sets of able bodied men (and women) who have grown up believing they are entitled to money for nothing.

Unemployment is at its lowest level for 7 years.
The number of people signing on and claiming jobseekers allowance may be at its lowers for years but that says nothing at all about the number of non productive working age UK residents

All those zero hours contracts have helped the unemployment figures. My f send who is healthy for the first time in twenty years accepted that he would have to take a zero hours contract. He's been on it for nearly a year now and has rent arrears like you wouldn't belive as he has no idea what he is going to earn from one week to the next. Even overpaying in full months is not making up for the months when he earns little. Add to that he is paid a month in arrears so the HB is covered and then he finds he has been overpaid in HB. The local council have said that zero hours co tracts are now their biggest cause of rent arrears.

The amount of money spent on out of work benefits is UTTERLY dwarfed by the money paid to

• pensioners
• those in work
• the disabled

There are less than half a million families claiming any sort of lone parent benefit
and as a fair few of them will be bereaved or divorced
and a huge proportion will be in work
its really a load of Daily Heil froth tbh

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/426815/dwp-stats-summary-may-2015.pdf

Just been reading this article - it's quite enlightening!
workingclassstudies.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/the-power-of-stupid-ideas-three-generations-that-have-never-worked/

Agreed talkingpeace. Which is why the £12 billion cuts the Conservatives talk about have to come from those in work and the disabled.

I consulted with IDS about the disabled, last week. I told him to rub the final two letters off, thereby removing an entire class of claimants. He was so delighted that I'm to be given my own department.

Fucking hell, Helena

I know, Thumb - the study you linked has been shared far and wide, yet still people rant on about these mythical multi-generational shirkers. And entire government policies are based on a made-up statistic!

YY Gralick Did you notice the bit about having to help stop shoplifters. They are having to potentially put their life on the line for their JSA now.

a. are they insured for this.
b. Prisoners inside arent expected to lay their lives on the line. How the fuck did we get to the point where peadophiles rapists and murderers are treated better than someone who is simply unemployed.

This time around, it appears that Job Centre advisors have been encouraging claimants to register as self employed, and claim tax credits. Which also removes them from the unemployed count. And now.....they're planning to slash payments to the self employed, when Universal Credit comes in. What a jolly wheeze eh .

On another of my threads is a lady whose husband is recently disabled, but because he missed 6 months NI three years ago has been denied all benefits.
Its around £200 and the DWP will not allow them to pay back the gap and thus be entitled to benefits.
Job Centre want him to get a full time job, but he cannot walk.

Oh, TP :( There are so many of these stories.

Yes I have it was quite common back in the day for people from parts of my home town to get deliberately pregnant at 18 or 20 and then use that as an excuse to never work when the rules allowed this - whilst your children were school aged there was back then far less pressure to find a job - I know a few 50 year old mothers of adult children who never worked since getting pregnant young - yes some of them didn't live in luxury but many had more than the low wage earners living in the same area and others had second non legit jobs or criminal careers and were actually very well off.relatively speaking. That said a cousin of mine had her kid at 17 and it was the making of her and she did work so I don't say it as anything against young mums just that there was a culture of getting pregnant early as a way of life and then those mothers getting stuck on benefits for decades -

Talkin Peace that is truly shit