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 I have it all.

Full time career and plenty time for everything else too.

@Topgub I’m sure many of us feel we have it all. Not sure why the PP said the notion of having it was absurd. I think it’s completely possible.

I doubt many men even think to ask the question!

I agree if people can fund themselves it's no ones business, its the ones who are able to work but choose not to, and claim benefits nearly all there lives, like my x son-in-law he's 45 now and haven't worked for 20 years and has no intention to.

Most people work to live, they don't live to work. Certainly nobody is going to feel morally obliged to work because the Tory govt are now realising their is a labour shortage fur to the the genius that was Brexit.

"Oh look Rishi, there's not enough builders now and you just can't get the staff these days to work in hospitality or in factories or picking the fruit. We need a rethink ...., er..., oh I know..., let's blame those stay home mums and pensioners who may have retired before 65.. Put your spin doctors on it Rishi. Get it out in the Mail in Sunday ..,, They'll all forget about Brexit .., The mums! Blame the mums who dare to be with their own children"

there the ones that the government should be getting into work.

It’s so weird in this country (I am English but have lived most of my adult life in other countries.) it’s like brainwashing. Isn’t work a personal choice based on circumstances?
some pensioners would rather work than retire. A lot of mums don’t want to SAH. Some want to study, some have anxiety. What business is it if anyone else’s or the government if they are supporting themselves financially?

Most people work to support themselves.

Someone has to.

I am one of these people. Retired at 60 after many years in a public service role. I do two days a week as a volunteer with disabled people and another day as a volunteer in my local community. It was Covid which made me make this decision. I thought I could die at any time. What's the point in having a pension if I don't get the chance to spend it while I am still young and fit?

I would work 2 days a week, but would want a decent salary and not to be patronised or criticised by colleagues who might not appreciate my breadth of experience.

Those services are paid for through council tax 🙄

If people are swayed by such minutiae that's their problem, frankly. I've never lived my life by "societal expectations" and nor has any other woman I know.

This. We retired at 55. Claim nothing from the state. Will not be going back into the workforce

Hunt's efforts would be better placed forcing employers to be kinder and more flexible to older workers. Some employers are downright nasty to over 50s and treat their employees like a piece of rubbish to the point where some of those workers feel forced out of their jobs, or feel obliged to take early retirement against their will.
Many people would continue working beyond 60 if there were flexible working or part time options available to them.

It most certainly does exist pre kids, it just increases once kids arrive. Lots of info out there backing this up.

Because it’s your opinion I should accept it 😂

diversityuk.org/gender-pay-gap-grows-childbirth/

I don’t think it matters whether most women would prefer to work, most women doesn’t equal all and the remainder shouldn’t be forced to do what the most want. It should be a choice. The decision shouldn’t be taken away from us via lack of affordable childcare and spaces, lack of breakfast or after school clubs etc.

My understanding is that it is those on benefits who are going to be targeted and 'encouraged' back to work. The 630,000 being referred to are those who have left the workforce and are not claiming benefits since Covid struck and the point being made is that those 'missing' workers are needing to be replaced as all sectors of the economy are being hampered by lack of staff. Seems to me that some people on here are mistaken in what they think was being said by Jeremy Hunt, judging by some of the replies. 🙄

No suggestion of those who aren't working and are not claiming any benefits of somehow being forced back into work as far as I am aware 🙄

I think we do have a duty to contribute to society if we are able, I don't think that means paid work. Some of the people I know who "don't work" actually do the most for my community- they are stay at home parents, active retirees and carers for the elderly, but they also volunteer to run community groups, help with charity, run environmental campaigns or do work in the local park, help with school trips and run kid's clubs, volunteer for the PTA and act as Governors. All the things I'd love to do, but which paid employment definitely gets in the way of. I worry with everyone feeling the pinch and needing to work more hours in paid work, these are the activities which will really suffer.

I wonder who the people who strangely disappeared from the workforce after Brexit and used to do a lot of low paid work could be? It sure is a mystery.

Incidentally, on the gender pay gap front, I found my salary suffered for about a decade after kids (not really going up or down, just stagnating) but I kept working and kept up to date with professional knowledge. I've had a couple of promotions recently and now feel like I'm catching up and am back to approximately where I would've been without kids. But my husband does a lot of the childcare and I insisted that if I was dropping my hours by a little bit, then he should too - interestingly we work in the same sector. The reaction to my request to reduce hours was that I'd still be almost full time and was I sure it was manageable? The reaction to his request was that he should do compressed hours instead (because presumably I was expected to give the kids tea every day while he worked his long days) and that he shouldn't do it because he might not be given his hours back again later on once the kids were in school.

I haven't completely stopped working but reduced my hours drastically. Not sure if will ever return to full time work. I am early fifties with teenage children. Covid made me reavaluate how I use my time. Less money but more free time.

Correct

@Battyfumworts

Your link doesn't say what the gap is for young women. Just that it incresssd to 33% by the time the child is12

The decision shouldn’t be taken away from us via lack of affordable childcare and spaces, lack of breakfast or after school clubs etc.

Yes, I agree. However men need to step and do more and stop falling back on the rubbish excuse they earn more

Can I join you? We think alike

A real head-scratcher that one 😉

My wage stagnated for over a decade before having kids, probably due to being in an industry hit by the financial crisis, but still, men were given promotions over women all the time. It wasn’t a male dominated industry and not something that relied heavily on qualifications but experience.

We’ve also experienced the compressed hours situation with DH

Not claiming benefits is one thing, but this group isn’t contributing to the NHS, schools either. So they’re a drain if using those tax-payer funded services.

We need to be asking why so many men are seemingly earning double what their female partners do before they even have kids and why in reality the stats don't back this up.
The PP who said “husbands earn more than their wives” is spot on. A man and woman of the same age in the same profession may earn roughly the same. But women tend to prefer men who are older and wealthier, while men prefer younger women and aren’t bothered about their salary.

Those two colleagues who earn the same - the man will probably marry an attractive woman who earns less while the woman will marry an older man who earns more. So when it comes to having kids both couples are in a situation where the woman earns less.