Why aren't people on benefits be asked to pick fruit? Why bring in immigrants?

[quietandcomplex]

Can someone explain to me why, when there are so many unemployed and on benefits, they aren't picking fruit for the farmers? Why bring immigrants into the country to do the job? This is not a political or racist or anything other post, it does not make sense to me, what am I missing?

Apparently it’s very very hard physically demanding work which means only the physically fittest can do this job.

It beggars belief of all the jobs you can think of, fruit picking is the one you’d choose.

How do you suppose millions of people in cities get to farms to work every day?

You’ve outed yourself as a DM loving Tory.

Fuck fruit picking, bring back workhouses

Rule Britannia! We can then ship the lazy folk off to the colonies!

Have you ever asked a farmer if they want any random person do to fruit picking? They don’t, it’s incredibly difficult work that needs to be done quickly and skilfully. Farmers don’t want their crops rotting in the field because an unskilled labour force can’t pick it quick enough.

It’s generally piece work so the fast people earn pretty well. Your average person probably wouldn’t earn minimum wage. I also wouldn’t be quick to blame farmers for paying low wages, supermarkets drive prices incredibly low so that we can eat cheap food. Our food is, apart from America, the cheapest in the world.

What, you mean like a job?

In any event, we are as close to having full employment as we have ever had in this country (I think we actually meet the technical economist's definition atm - though no politician will ever use the phrase), and this is in part what is driving inflation.

So you're either coming from a position of ignorance or intolerance. Which is it?

It doesn't pay below nmw. That would be illegal.

The issue is the location (often miles from anywhere), and long hours expectation for a short season. It means practically you need to live on site which doesn't suit anyone with children.

What it would suit (the strawberry and raspberry industry especially due due to timing) is young people looking for summer work - after GCSE, and a-levels finish, and there should be national campaigns or incentives to encourage this.

The number of unemployed who have no caring responsibilities, live close enough to farms, and are physically able to do such hard work is going to be incredibly small. Extending your statement to say 'people on benefits' is just stupid as many people on benefits already have a job. Or maybe we should ship the pensioners out there? They are the biggest benefits cost.

In the future seasonal summer work could be offered to students who have the summer off, but to achieve this there would have to be a huge increase in the working conditions and pay, no one in the UK would (or should) be working for less than minimum wage plus cost of board.

However this would make fruit to the consumers much more expensive, as all these random people with no fruit picking experience would need to be trained, be slower to pick, and as above would need to be paid.

Actually the ‘cherry picked’ group represents millions in the UK.

Commenting on the ins and outs of your mums neighbours family just says it all about you really, it’s none of your business.

Even the Tories have more sense to see this is a very stupid idea.

Benefits is a safety net that is there for all citizens who find themselves in a position of needing it.

Op, you might think, that would never be you; but life can throw a curve ball or two.

You might be surprised by how many people relying on benefits never thought that this would be them one day.

Assuming fixing potholes was a very simple job, it's not but meh.

Where does the protective equipment come from, who pays?
Who brings the hot tarmac to site? Even if you use the very expensive stuff in a bucket, who gets it to site and how?
Even if this wasnt a problem, how far should people have to go to fill potholes? A mile from their house, 2 miles?
How many people are needed to fill potholes? One, seven,
Who supervises? How much does the supervisor get paid?
Now that all potholes are filled by locals, what happens to the jobs of those who used to fill potholes? Oh yes, they are now unemployed.
Once all potholes are filled in say a two miles area from your home, what do you do then to "earn" benefits? And what happens to your now used protective equipment?

Ffs critical thinking skills are rare around here somedays

And councils probably wouldn't have the money to pay them, anyway. If they had, they'd be paying contractors to do it.

This thread and it’s supporters reasoning is just vile.

Read the room, many people working full time such as single mothers or families on low incomes work flat out full time but need a top up to cope with living costs, rent, energy bills. Yet you’ve classed them as work shy.

I’m sorry I am pretty much more politically small c conservative these days than anything else, but this policy is an affront to basic human decency. People in poverty are not some sort of resource to be used by the rest of society, such an attitude slides perilously close to indentured servitude and even slavery.

Furthermore we have to get away from any notions of the deserving vs undeserving poor. We HAVE to have a social safety net set up at the lower end of society.

What we need are routes out of poverty, via education and new skills acquisition.

What you really mean OP is that you don’t think people should get their benefits in return for ….nothing?? That receiving benefits should be conditional on some kind of work or something ‘visible’ to make all the tax payers feel better ?? Because you begrudge those who need help getting it.

This reminds me of a food bank local to me - they deliver it’s amazing, and they bring fresh flowers and pastries that need to be distributed the same day or they get binned. You should see the absolute hatred for the scheme plenty of ‘they should go to the other food back and queue’ and ‘they should get tins/pasta and be grateful for it’ etc etc.

Absolutely disgusting attitudes. Sometimes people need help and they shouldn’t have to do anything in return for it

I really think you’re on to something! We could de louse them on entry, give them a uniform, a single bed in a dormitory, segregate the women from the men, give them basic food rations, enough to provide the energy needed for breaking rocks into smaller rocks, their children could then break the small rocks into pea gravel. . Those small rocks could be sold to the road mender gangs. We could even make the men work for the road menders by filling in pot holes in the road.
( Tongue in cheek)

OP clearly says unemployed so why are people talking about top up benefits of those that work

It often does pay below NMW as the farms are allowed to deduct accomodation costs from wages. They only want people who will live in their shitty caravans all summer, so they can pay them less.

D'you know what would be really progressive and forward thinking? If we put all the poor people in a big house and made them work. There should also be a special prison for anyone who falls into debt.

This is my view too. Just goady shit from someone pretending to not understand.

Quite 😂

However tongue in cheek you intend it to be, I think the OP would actually go for this suggestion.

OP clearly says “on benefits” - twice.

MANY are just plain lazy, like my mum’s neighbours children. He has 3 children- I say children they’re actually all in their twenties and are happy to live off the bank of mum and dad. They’re too lazy to walk the dogs, go food shopping, do washing - their parents do all that for them and work full time. Are they holding out for a management position perhaps ?

Yes, it sounds like this bunch would be an amazing help to a farmer needing their fruit picked efficiently in good time. Perfect solution! Don't even walk the dog - I'm sure they'd be fit and strong enough to do this job well!

What an ever decreasing circle.... 'fruit farms pay below minimum wage'. Why though? How do they get away with doing that? And if they start paying minimum wage, will their profit margins be squeezed even further or will those costs be passed on to the end consumer? If it's the former, then it is again time to have a long hard look at what we pay for food. And before you jump on this with 'what about people who struggle to buy food?' I go back to my opening sentence.

For those posters saying that some people who don't have a job want a job. Ehhh???

The premise of the OP opens up a whole can of worms but the idea is a solid one. To be entitled to benefits when you are fit for work but seem to have trouble finding one - not to mention for your own self-esteem, mental health, sense of belonging -you ought to be given opportunity to give something back. Shouldn't you build some resilience and knowledge and ability and desire to be more than you are?

It's not just about people living miles from fruit farms, childcare, disability blah blah blah, it's the chance to have a wider conversation about the current expectations and gaps and issues around all of it. Not just dismiss the idea totally but find solutions to problems. The need doesn't stop because someone throws an obstacle in the way. The conversation shouldn't be halted.

Many unemployed are youths with no caring responsibilities, no ill health, just plain lazy so perfectly capable of living in caravans and picking fruit

MANY are perfectly capable but CBA.

MANY are just plain lazy, like my mum’s neighbours

Do you have statistics?

Why do some think people think the majority of those on benefits are lazy people having a jolly? The vast majority already have jobs & are pensioners. Pension cost 111bn, the unemployed cost 2.2bn.

OP says on benefits.

And even if it would only be for unemployed it would be nonsensical bullshit.

This is definitely a wind up thread.