Are we morally obliged to work ?

[Justthisonce12]

630,000 economically inactive people in the UK not claiming benefits. Early retiree’s I guess.

Hunt plans to tackle this and encourage work force participation to allow businesses to grow. ie cheap labour I presume ? But also preventing a brain drain.

Will be interesting to see how he plans to address this.

I think there are a lot of early retirees who think or feel as though they’ve earned their keep and thus the right to sit back and claim their pension, when the reality is that the tax and NI they paid during their lifetimes didn’t even cover the services they and their family used, let alone decades of a state pension. Which isn’t an attitude I’ve much time for.

I’m childless so have never made use of many of these services, and my taxes when working were going towards those who did use them.

I think we are morally obliged to contribute to society in some way, unless we somehow are fully independent and take nothing from it (rare).

This doesn't only mean paid work - because for many low income jobs, (under)paid work does not contribute any tax revenue anyway.

Carers contribute to society as do volunteers. In fact it's quite hard not to contribute to society as we all have to buy goods and services, which somewhere along the line contributes tax (VAT) or profit for others that should give tax revenue.

So no I don't think morally we are obliged to be in paid work solely for the benefit of sending money upwards into the pockets of Jeremy Hunt's friends.

and I haven't got much time for yours. There are so many different situations and experiences that people have - it's ridiculous to imagine everyone should be obliged to operate an input/output spreadsheet and get the shoulders to wheel if they "fall short". I have been a net contributor for 90% of my working life but I don't begrudge the people who haven't been able to get such a good job. I don't blame individuals for government policies.

I think there are a lot of early retirees who think or feel as though they’ve earned their keep and thus the right to sit back and claim their pension, when the reality is that the tax and NI they paid during their lifetimes didn’t even cover the services they and their family used, let alone decades of a state pension. Which isn’t an attitude I’ve much time for

Early retirees can't claim state pension early.

If people don't want to work then they shouldn't be made to work.

Unless their claiming state benefits of course.

I suspect that in sone cases people are making a moral decision to quit the rat race , quit putting money into other peoples pockets and quit supporting growth that damages the environment

I wish MPs were economically inactive. If they could just actively not shit up the economy even more every few weeks that would be a start.

Then presumably you don’t fall into this category, and aren’t one of the people saying “I’ve paid for my pension, not like those lazy benefit layabouts” when the reality is that they’ve in no way paid for more than a fraction of their pension.

From the BBC...

Hunt says he is committed to helping people raise their income, find work and become financially independent.

To this end, he announces he will ask over 600,000 more people on universal credit people to meet with work coach "so they can get the support they need to increase their work hours or earnings."

Early retirees can only claim a pension they have personally saved up for

They can't claim state pension

If I won the lottery, I'd retire.
No way I would work if I had the means not to.
I'd feel like I'd be taking a job away from someone who needed it.
And I doubt with my cv I'd be able to get a job in hospitality or wherever else the gaps are.

I would love a proper job! Could someone please point me in the direction of a decent job which allows me to work 9-2 only? Or work 9-2 in the office then make up the rest working from home? Thought not. How am I supposed to work when I have to pick up the kids from school and no employer will accommodate that?

We should all work until we are too old and ill to be of decent use.Then we should be put in the workhouse and work sifting ashes or something and be grateful for it. We should die whilst still tugging the forelock to our betters. Anything else is just lazy and self-indulgent.

Are early retirees counted as economically inactive?

I think they mean the thousands upon thousands of people who worked all the way through the pandemic only to be shit on yet again by society. Anyone who can get out, gets out.

They took a good look at how they were treated and said enough, I can get by with less.

It's no coincidence that the people we are short of are the same people that were clapped for on a Thursday night.

Alas, turns out you can't feed and house your family on Thursday night claps.

Childminders or after school club?

No issue with help to work and incentive so it’s more attractive

There are employers that will accommodate it. Mine does, I asked for it during the interview process.

The civil service is generally family friendly when it comes to allowing part time positions working around family commitments. You’d need to be willing to offer some flexibility in return, but when I was with the CS several colleagues worked mostly term time only or flexitime.

I work in IT, roughly those hours, and my employer is very flexible about it. I think there are probably quite a few jobs where the exact working hours aren't vitally important and people can WFH and have some flexibility on working hours.

When I was doing a less flexible job, I used nursery and after school clubs instead.

I never went back to work once we had children and our children are now teens. My partner works, we don’t claim benefits. I do lots to contribute but I like being here for the kids, even though they’re teens.

Morally, should I work to personally contribute tax, who knows?

So he's coming after the low waged then? Like carers and nursery workers? And no doubt the 'support' will be in the form of sanctions when your employer won't pay you a wage that they deem suitable enough.
Can't possibly ensure these jobs pay enough so people don't have to claim UC in the first place, can't have profit for private companies dented can we?! Nope, let's beat the people doing them that benefit society (which is valueless apparently because they don't earn enough) a bit more instead.
Fucks sake.

This post is so wrong at least get what he said right he is talking about people on universal credit identified they could be working more.

It's better for workers if these people stay out if the workforce

Employers are starting to recognise that's it's no longer an employers market and they will need to offer decent pay and conditions if they want to recruit people.

If we want people to make the decision to re-enter the workforce then we need to address the factors that keep them out of it. The biggest one I can think of is the cost of childcare. Sorting that out so that it makes economic sense to return after having a child would be a sensible place to start.

I haven't heard a whisper from this lot about that though. It doesn't suit their narrative.

THANK YOU. I've said it twice now and nobody is listening. Why be outraged at something that isn't true.