7 out of ten children in poverty

[Gilead]

Come from families where at least on parent is employed. 40% of UC claimants are working families BUT Sunak blames those on Welfare for inflation and he wants to cut benefits by at least £1000 per annum.
AIBU to think that the Tories are trying to create a two tier state?

I think when household budgets become more and more squeezed it always opens the discussion about benefits .

Personally I don't think any healthy working age person should be allowed benefits for a prolonged timescale . The welfare state was there to support those in a period of need not be an income replacement for life . The only people who should be on long term benefits are the disabled and pensioners .

That was 30p Lee 🤪🙄🤔

Oh, ok. Thanks for the words of wisdom 😂

I don't think the courses are free but even if they are what are you supposed to do with your children while you train?
People on benefits or where only one person is working can't afford childcare,
It's not as easy as you make ou6

You can get free courses if you're on a low income but you still have to be available for f/t work so the courses cannot be more than 16 hours a week. You must leave the course if offered a job that does not work around the course and it's reliant on there being useful courses in your locale as you must be local to get the grant.

There are also free online courses but these really aren't worth the paper they are not written on. They won't help anyone become employable.

And, as another poster pointed out, you can only get funding if you don't already have a level 3 or higher qualification, so that useless GNVQ in Media Studies you did when you were 16 means you cannot retrain.

There is the option of OU but that option is open to everyone not just those on a low income.

@jcyclops it’s odd it was definitely about this morning. Check on me, I’ve been around these parts for a good many years and don’t usually balls things up. Always apologise when I do. Also freely admit to being a Labour Party member.

What about carers? If you're caring full time - and full time for some carers is pretty much 24/7 - you can't work plus you're saving the country a lot of money.

Nobody should want to live on UC.

Maybe the 20 quid a week will stop some smoking or gambling
It won't. Remember that Scotland tried minimum alcohol pricing? Instead of cutting back on drinking, those who were addicted just cut back on other things, even to the detriment of their children.

If you're working full time and so poorly paid you're having to claim top up benefits when are you going to find time to do extra courses even if you're eligible for them?

Absolutely! Carers get paid PENCE per hour. PENCE.
They can't strike. The pitiful carers allowance they are given is taxed as a wage, and counted against benefits, when they've usually given up a decent job to care for their charge. Official carers get paid a proper wage. My toryscum MPs response to this? Suck it up buttercup. Proper carers are fully trained. He thinks unpaid carers can't wipe a butt, or change an ng tube? Hoist someone immobile?

But isn't it awful that two, full time working adults don't bring in enough money to live properly.

Effectively employers can get away with underpaying because the Government will step in.

We've allowed housing prices to become extortionate with daft policies too.

Not many moons ago families could manage on one working income. Why have successive governments allowed things to deteriorate so badly?

@Gilead it seems it depends where you live as to whether you get pushed to find work.

When I was 60, not in great health, I found myself out of work and went to claim benefits. The job centre were telling me to apply for jobs that were 2 bus journeys away (I don't drive) and would take over an hour to get to and often quite manual jobs which I would not have been capable of doing.

I only signed on for 2 months and they made me feel lazy and useless. They kept on and on about jobs that I just would not have been able to do. This was when I was living in Essex.

I now live in East Midlands. I have neighbours who have 4 children aged 12 to 3 months. They are both 30, left school at 17. Mum has worked 2 years since leaving school, dad has worked 5. He has not worked for the last 7 years. They can both drive, they have 2 cars so no problems getting to a job.

They tell people that they don't want to work. They think my DH is crazy to still be working at 65. The woman actually said that the reason my DH looks so old is because he has worked too much!

They manage to run 2 cars, feed 4 children plus 2 dogs and 3 cats because he works cash in hand doing delivery driving for a takeaway and doing gardening, decorating and other handyman work during the day.

The job centre don't push him to find work. There is plenty of work where we live.

My next door neighbour recently signed on and because he said he was depressed because his job sacked him they said they won't push him to find a job so not to worry!

I would bet there are factors they aren’t telling you as this isn’t typical if both can work unless one or both is a carer or they have a disability themselves they may just not want to say? Or maybe he is self employed and declaring the cash jobs ?

@newfriend05 £328 for four weeks is for a single person under state pension age. Unless that person has a disability they aren’t getting benefits for, it should only be a stopgap between jobs. I live in an area where unemployment has traditionally been high, and there are lots of vacancies. Unskilled? Volunteer and get some skills. There is help available from a variety of organisations to complete applications, and for basic qualifications. The charity shop where I volunteer (I’m old) has helped some ‘never worked’ develop the skills and confidence to find paid jobs.

Of course people who have genuine barriers to working should get help, I’d advocate for more generous disability benefits and far more support for carers.

He is definitely not self employed and declaring the cash.

It seems unlikely either have a disability. He, as I said, is doing manual work and she cleans the house, gardens, walks the dogs, drives to and from the school. Of course she has the excuse of the children as to why she can't or won't work.

They have said a few times that people that work are mugs and that no way would they work set hours, days etc. He only really works between 10am and 3pm. My DH offered him work a while ago and he turned it down saying he was not prepared to work the hours DH wanted him to or register as self employed

People are actually far less reliant on the state these days.
In my life time, I've seen 60 year old women able to retire and rely on the state for a pension.
I've seen elderly people able to rely on the state to provide care, while retaining their assets.
I've seen people able to rely on the state for eye care, prescriptions and dentistry, a GP who will see them without a month wait and ambulances that arrive in time to save their lives.
To rely on the state to provide their children with milk at school. To go to university, relying on the state to pay their fees, and living costs.
To rely on the state to provide an immediate income if they dont work, with top ups on request for unexpected expenses and to provide long term income if they are sick.
Reliance on the state these days is the lowest I can recall, given there's so little left to rely on, and it hasn't done a thing to help or 'motivate' people escape poverty. All its resulted in is a decline in basic quality of life, higher incidences of child poverty and people relying on charity to eat.

Are benefits not going up in line with inflation in April? That's a bigger pay rise than a lot of people in work will get.

The families I work with can’t get appropriate childcare and they are also physically exhausted they need full support it’s heartbreaking.

Why not, don't the poorest get subsidised childcare so they can work?

Many of the women had become mothers very young, been given council housing, been able to claim a decent enough amount of benefits to get by, had had pretty alright lives considering they’d never really had much ambition for anything else. Like I say - not bad people, just human, and with human flaws. But pretending that it wasn’t an active choice for a lot of them is disingenuous.

I know a few of these from school. They often didn't have many other choices though as they were usually the ones who left school with no or few exam passes.

What happens to them when the kids grow up and the benefits and maintenance stop? I know of 2 women who had children in their late teens and then have had another at 40 to keep the child related benefits. They are still going to financially screwed when they hit their late 50s though, when the child they had at 40 grows up and the benefits and maintenance stop again.

No it isn’t. Ten percent of fuck all won’t touch the sides.

@Blossomtoes

So benefits are going up by 10% next year?

They then become carers for their parents so you’ve got emphysema due to a lifetime of bloody smoking at the taxpayers expense.

I mean it’s no life don’t get me wrong I’m not bloody jealous but these people exist

Benefits are expected to increase in April 2023 by at least the inflation (CPI) figure from September 2022. This is expected to be over 10%.

If they go up in line with inflation - which is what you said - then yes. Still fuck all.