To think people in decent jobs don't realise how hard it is to get a second crappy job..

[ssd]

I keep seeing comments on the tax credits threads about tc claimants needing to work more, like its that easy.

I can imagine if you have kept up your job since having kids due to either being able to afford childcare or having that and a mix of free family help, then you will be earning a decent enough wage and there might be overtime at your organisation, or at the very least you will be on set hours/days...so if you wanted overtime you'd know when you were available to work.

I can imagine thousands on tax credits arent in this position. I work part time and have been trying to get a full time job, or at least another part time job that would fit in with the job I have.

Its bloody impossible and trust me, I'm trying!!

Full time jobs are very rare, round here its all part time job requiring full time flexibility...so they offer you 20 hours a week and expect you to be free all week to fit around them, this makes it impossible to have 2 part time jobs

So for every poster saying "work more", please consider this isnt as easy as you'd imagine.

StrawberryTeaLeaf sorry! my comment was not aimed at you. Just to clarify!

15 years ago while at uni I ha several part time jobs that were set hours, one in a call centre and one in a fast food place. I had set hours which worked around my lectures etc. Now a days you would still do the same amount of hours but they expect you to do different hours each week, with kids that is impossible unless you have grandparents doing the childcare.

i worked nights... (still do)...when i was a single parent i used to leave my child overnight with my stepmother, collect him in the morning, either have him all day or drop him at nursery for a few hours, pick him up, do all the things mothers do....sleep whenever i could get half an hour ....then repeat..back then 1986 i didnt get any help...no tax credits, no maintanance,i paid all my bills....didnt get any help with my rent....i slogged and had very little sleep....forward a few years met my hubby..he worked days ...i continued to work nights (37 hours a week) he had the children at night, i had them during the day....it was hard...we both slogged....when i think of the help people get now i get annoyed.....i know its difficult for some but there are people out there who work he minimum 16 hours to qualify for the maximum tax credits...and they have 4, 5, 6 plus children....that is abusing the system whatever way you look at it....and it needs to be addressed by the government....the country cannot sustain the benefits system/tax credit system when there are people who know how to work the system....so yes something needs to change....how about rewarding people who actually help themselves and making it worthwhile to work ....with a fairer system!

Exactly unescorted and pausing. Zero hour contracts are not necessarily a bad thing in themselves, and they can be very useful or at least viable when you're young, strong, have no caring responsibilities and are able to choose to keep your living expenses really low. I had a couple myself when I fell into that category, back when the economy was booming, and they worked well for me. As they still might if I were a young Polish lad coming to work for a couple of years to save up and was able to split the cost of a cheap double room with a mate. Bit different when you've got those children thingies, though. You become significantly less able to be flexible, unless you have a lot of support.

With a few exceptions most people in well paid jobs have had a huge leg up one way or another (supportive parents, house full of books, good school, no disability or long term ill-health, not a child carer, academic ability, not abused nor horribly bullied as a child, got on the housing ladder at the right time, inherited little bit of money perhaps, parents bought you a car or loaned you the money interest free, or drove you to and from uni and job interviews... happened to marry somebody with/ on the way to having a good career too, children born without additional needs...)

The list goes on, and nobody has all of it, but most of the people preening themselves about how they "got where they are today" by "doing the right thing" and "working hard" have had a head start in the race (at the very least by dint of their innate ability, and very often though not always because of a family set up in childhood that was not awful, a non terrible education, reasonable physical and mental health, and a bit of luck here and there along the line). In some cases sahps married to a high earner are pointing the finger at couples with one full time worker and a sahp, which surely is the absolute epitome of an "I'm all right Jack" attitude with a side order of hypocrisy...

The amount of money you have only rarely correlates exactly and exclusively with how "hard" you work, once you actually engage your brain and think about it.

StrawberryTeaLeaf sorry! my comment was not aimed at you. Just to clarify!

It's okay. I'm just getting confused myself and don't want anyone else to mistake me for the person that said the thing up there^

Strawberry don't name change. It would be a dull place if people couldn't disagree.

See?

I'm a different strawberry Unescorted

I have a degree from a RG university, and I work full-time in a supermarket. I can't drive for medical reasons, so I can't take a job outside of my town, there's no reliable bus service and taking the train would eat too far into my salary to make commuting a possibility.

I need to bring home a certain amount each month after tax/commuting for us to be able to pay our bills. I can't take another job around here because EVERYTHING is less than 20h/week or requires a car. I can't afford to re-train and I can't volunteer because I already work full-time hours, including weekends.

I hate it when people are smug enough to say that I picked the wrong career path or I'm wasting my time in a supermarket. I didn't chose to have medical problems that restrict my life to this extent. As it is, I'm grateful I can work full-time, even though I don't earn a massive amount. If I tried to get another job I would just run myself into the ground and end up off sick. Hardly ideal!

yanbu

Ha - teach me to skim read!

The cost of property as well as childcare make low wage jobs difficult for many.

The other thing Strawberry is that most (male and single) new arrivals will live in Houses of Multiple Occupation. My old terrace house was turned into one by the landlord. Each tenant was paying £60 per week form room (£300 per week from 5 tenants). Great - but hardly suitable for a parent/parents with children.

I would consider myself to have a 'good' job.

I work full time, 35 hours a week with a huge multinational company. I also work within in walking distance of my home for which I am HUGELY appreciative, and if necessary, I can work from home.

However, I am 33 now with three kids. My husband has been out of work for nearly 3 years as he was made redundant. He is a SAHD as we can just about cope - but I only earn £25k a year and we live in a very cheap area of the NW.

I'm not yet experienced enough to do this job elsewhere and my last job (with this company) was call centre agent. So I can't move. I can't afford to put myself through additional training - although I'd like to, as it would be good for my career.

I've worked hard since I was 16, I have a degree. It's not far to have a blanket 'get a better job' attitude for anyone as sometimes, it's simply not possible!

I just don't understand why supervisors don't try to keep Rita's the same each week with the exception of covering holidays?
When I worked in retail as a student all the Saturday staff did 5hr shifts which could be anytime but in reality it settled into a predictable pattern and some people always did 9-2 and others 1-6 and more did the busier 11-4. We had routines, early staff knew the opening up jobs and late staff knew the locking up routine.
I just don't get what the benefit us in switching rotas around all the time.

And zero hours contracts are an absolute disgrace to this country and should be abolished. It's a strange world we live in isn't it when I earn less than the national average but am so obscenely grateful because at least I have a job and it's regular hours!

Oh common, we all know that it's not just single, childless males coming to the UK from Southern and Eastern Europe. There just as many women and families as well.

I have had to do extra training while jobless myself. My two postgrad degrees from 2 different countries didn't count in my field as much as the professional qualification. The classic route of attending course in college would have cost a bomb I would not be able to afford even in my dreams then, but there was a self study option, buy used study books from eBay for rather symbolic cost, study at home and do exams towards the qualification. It did help me to get back to work and get that decent job pretty quick.

Yes, childcare is a bitch in this country. It will have consequences on me as well, I will have to go back to work full time after maternity cover because childcare and transportation costs would eat up my part time salary and in jobs like mine it's not that clear cut how much is 50% part time, 70% par time or full time, I might end doing more for less money. So I will only see my little girl on weekends.

I work FT - as a single parent I get a small tax credit towards my childcare costs.

XP pays me the CSA minimum which doesn't even amount to 2/5ths of my monthly childcare bill which seems crazy to me. If either one of us was doing what the childminder does then we could only work PT, but the childcare cost is 100% mine as I am the resident parent - ho hum, whatever.

If I worked more I wouldn't get to see my young children (and they me) I'd have to pay more for out of hours childcare too. And as I am salaried any extra paid work would have to be PT work in a bar of something - which I would actually enjoy as I don't get to get out much - being a SP responsible for looking after my DC at night/weekends. But I doubt I would earn much at all after paying for a sitter.

So you don't have children yet Strawberryfield?

Of course I have, why would I be on maternity leave with no DC?!

Well, possibly advanced pregnancy, but I'll rephrase; You have no experience of working as a parent yet Strawberryfield?

but then arrives a guy from Eastern Europe with 5 words in English and ta-da in few days he has a full time job, one of those crappy jobs btw.

The gender assumption wasn't mine. Also looking at EUstat who model population statistics there is a 4% bulge between indigenous and migrant populations in the 20-25 age group, with a significant lower number of migrant females - this would suggest that there are significantly more single, childless males immigrating to the EU. It does not give a breakdown for Eastern or Southern Europeans.

I am shortly due to return fully to work, have done "keep in touch days" where I actually worked full time on those days. DD is 11 months old.

Okay, so you are speaking from a position of less than a year's parenthood, completion of maybe four (?) KIT days and still being on your first maternity leave?

Thanks for clearing that up.

I think you are just clutching on straws to dismiss an opinion different to your own. Its much easier to tell off people and say they talk bollocks if they dont agree to you instead of pausing for a moment to consider whether there's something to take in account in that other life experience.

Well, not really. Working full-time when you have your health and no dependants is a very different thing to working when you have DC/childcare, health issues etc.