To ask for opinions on the 'Get Britain Working' white paper?

[Locutus2000]

Now it's out in full?

We need to stop the benefits for all healthy non workers. We have to get people to work, we can’t have people languishing on UC for a life time. They can take caring jobs, factory and farm work etc.

It makes sense, on paper, but I’ve been hearing this since the 80’s, and notjing ever changes. 🤷‍♀️

Ok, but what about those people who are healthy but have other factors stopping them from working? A single mum who can’t afford the thousands of pounds for nursery, or can’t take care work because she has no one to take care of the children during a night shift? What about people like myself, who are full time carers for those with disabilities? I’d love to work, but I’m not sure who is hiring for the 2 hours a day I have to myself at the moment…

They quoted nine million people "out of work" do they mean on benefits? Surely a number of these people do not actually need to work and do not claim benefits.

9.2 million are people not working that are of working age. Eye watering isn’t it…

I haven't read the paper yet but....

Low wages

AI

Sort out these things and we'll have more jobs and more incentive to work.

Single parents can and do work with children why would you think they don’t?

A lot of people on UC ARE working, they need UC to top up their wages to a livable level. Maybe the government should end corporate welfare where companies can get away with paying peanuts knowing the tax payer will stop their employees from starving to death in the streets.

It also depends on what they mean by work - do they mean 9 million completely not working, under pension age and claiming all possible benefits entitled to them? Or are some of these people working but not to the acceptable hours (I’m sure it used to be a minimum of 16, so are they including those working 15 or less for example)?

Yes, but you don't have to work.

It's not obligatory if you can afford not to. 55 is working age but people can take their pensions then. I know a colleague who did exactly that, retired early for health reasons after being unwell in the pandemic and realising that life was too short to carry on working and that he could manage on less money.

And how many of us are in that position? Very very few.

Of course they do, I was raised by a single mother who worked. However that was far before the cost of living crisis and she had a 40k a year job (which was worth far more than it would be these days). Someone with young children are not going to be able to just walk into a full time care/factory job without it taking a huge detrimental effect on their outgoings. It is a complete rock and hard place situation.

I think quite a number. Not vastly wealthy but realised they can eke their income out rather than working. That's why loads of older people did not return to the workplace after the pandemic.

I'm one of them but I'm not on benefits.....my DH supports me. So does that really matter. Not all of those people will be claiming benefits.

Is the government going to set an example and go out of their way to hire the disabled and chronically sick? Are they going to allow people to work part time or work from home so they can work while maintaining their physical and mental health?

Employers don't want to employ the physically disabled or the mentally ill and they certainly don't want to employ people with learning disabilities. What is the government going to do about that?

The problem is they are still using the health system, the social care system and all the other services and not contributing at all for decades and decades.

If these are the changes eg transforming job centres it won't do much at all, plus growth has declined this quarter and job losses being warned from those hit by budget

They are mostly talking about the "economically inactive"

A lot of these will not be claiming any benefits.

You cannot (or rather there is no point) cutting or sanctioning benefits that people are not getting.

For example, the headteacher at a school I worked at had a heart attack. His parents died during Covid and he inherited a lot of money. Technically he is still of working age... but he doesn't want a high stress job (doesn't want another heart attack) and is enjoying himself releasing albums until he's old enough for his pension.

He is economically inactive. Not claiming benefits. Could be doing a part time job.

Or a friend of my daughters who had a serious heart problem during Covid. It wasn't treated until a year or so later and now she lives with the impact of it. She's not well enough either to go to uni or to work full time. She lives with her parents - no benefits as her parents support her - and would like a part time job but would also like not to aggravate her heart condition and die.

She can't be sanctioned or her benefits cut because she doesn't get any. But she would like to work.

And there is fuck all support out there for people with physical or mental health problems to get them into work.

Jobcentres don't help people like this.

Plenty of people ‘in work’ don’t actually contribute anything, by the time you factor in all the assistance claimed. People who are out of work, but supported only by other halves are not any major cause of the issues

DH and I are both retired and pay a shedload of tax each year. Presumably that goes towards something useful and not Keir Starmer's suits.

We can’t sustain an aging population of 70 million with so many benefits, free healthcare etc etc. Do the maths. It tells you everything you need to know that even a labour government are making this a priority…

So they will just wave their magic wand and all people with disabilities/health problems will suddenly be fit for work! Marvelous! I can hardly wait.

Good luck with forcing people into work who can manage to live on a private income, however small.

The figures are high and likely unsustainable and Labour are talking about it, but I doubt it will a priority in the way that it changes much

And what do you think a Conservative government would be doing now that would be better?

They'd still be fighting amongst themselves like cats and wasting money trying to send a tiny number of migrants to Rwanda.