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

[Locutus2000]

Now it's out in full?

I think if we want to get people back into work. Then they need to sort out the childcare situation. Because I don't get with this insurance business. Because there used to be carers that would come to my home and say they were really struggling to find somebody to look after their children and I said, well, if the children are old enough, they can sit on the iPad in the living room. But apparently, they can't do that because of insurance, but they could probably keep them in the car which is ridiculous. So realistically, Claire things like that need to change. maybe people feel could sign a waver, that it doesn't matter if they stay at your place.

Let's not forget, the 'economically inactive' figures were significantly bumped up by the rises in retirement age. Strangely, raising retirement age didn't magically rejuvenate all the over 60s ...

It sounds like this poster has enough on her hands, caring for her own child. The Government should not be looking to people like her to go out and work.

Fair enough but she said if she wanted to and that she said she has no experience i said you do have experience as a carer

Well, either way, people shouldn't be incentivised not to work. If they don't want to work then they can deal with that themselves, at least they aren't also a drain on the system.

Ok@Littlemissgobby , I can see what you are saying now.

Exactly this, I was coming on to say very similar.

I live in a deprived area on a council estate. Most people don't work. People in their 30s and 40s, with children, that have never worked a day in their lives. They grew up in their parents council house, lived on benefits, then left home straight into emergency housing and the cycle of benefits and social housing continued. You will never, ever, get these people into gainful employment. They will either cause chaos for employers, or more likely, turn to crime to earn money once their benefits stop.

I know this because I was one of these people. I had a horrific childhood and so did the majority of them. Some as bad as little Peter Connelly or Victoria Climbe, but it never made the news because they survived it. These people are not going to suddenly become productive members of society because they carry too much trauma. The only reason I turned it around is because I moved overseas.

What the government can do is target their children and break the cycle. Pour funding into schools, social services, mental health services for teens, jobs and apprenticeships for school leavers. But governments are far too short sighted for that, and what would be the point if the next government that gets in reverses all the good work?

Where's the incentive to work when you get people on double the average income posting on here that with housing, nursery, student loans, energy bills, etc, they're struggling to make ends meet? Successive governments - New Labour included - have killed social mobility by enabling house price inflation, devaluing degrees, encouraging wage stagnation, rewarding unearned income and protecting inheritances. Work isn't a route out of poverty anymore.

I said if I needed to. Thankfully I don't.

I agree about the lack of digital skills. My 18 year old is bright, attended school, from a stable family and left school/college with no clue how to do a CV, cover letter or even send an email. He ended up getting an engineering apprenticeship because I did his CV for him and helped him massively with job applications/emails.

I worked it out once.
I forget the exact figures at the time but:
Basically. The amount of cash that goes to the unemployed is about 1.2b a year.
There's about 33.3milion over age 16 in employment, so presumably paying tax.

1.2b Tax payer cash on unemployed a year.
33.3million employed

Divide one by the other.

Very sketchy and rough maths, but the "drain" on the average tax payer, how much of their yearly tax bill that goes to unemployment.
About £36 a year.

And yet the media and "spin" would have the tax payers believe that the "lazy scrounging feckless scum" are taking thousands of 'their' tax money a month. They aint.

Corrr I had no idea the figures were as high.

In todays age of Google it would take less than a minute to find a decent CV template.

And just as a bit more info.
When people talk about "the welfare bill" , some people think of unemployed people or houskng benefit payments or disability payments etc.
It's understandable.

Some people don't quite get that included in welfare is pensions.

They read the big figures of 100s of billions of pounds spent on welfare and jump straight to thinking "lazy never worked scroungers" cause everyone seems to always know at least one family who aint not never worked... (And probably own a flat telly and a goat)

Anywho...

Pensions.

So 1.2b on unemployed. Sounds a lot

Yep..

Pensioner benefit spending is forecast to total £138 billion in Great Britain in 2023-24, of which we project £125 billion will be spent on state pensions.

It's always been baffling why the government and media focus so much on the unemployed, sick and disabled when the reality is, even if there were no unemployed, sick or disabled, the savings wouldn't amount to a hill of piss.

The only reason I can come up with is because punishing the poorest, the lowest, the ill and elderly is a vote winner with abhorrent cunts.

@SunQueen24 It isn't a template that's needed for a a successful engineering apprenticeship application, it has to be tailored to the job, which I created for him. I've taught DS how to do these things myself which is fine as he's my son but my point is that both school and college taught him nothing about applying for jobs, email etiquette, CVs. And he's a high achiever- did well in his GCSEs and started studying A Levels.

And like some others, he really struggled to get work after dropping out of college. He managed in the end after hundreds to get a stable trade related job (but not a full trade) which helped him get his apprenticeship. That was all with a massive amount of help and input from me.

I don’t think they have ever taught that though? I’m mid-thirties and wasn’t shown either.

Regardless of what the number is, it's still money from people who aren't lazy and useless going into the pockets of people who are. Removing benefits for the voluntarily unemployed is one labour policy I fully agree with.

And, I'm sure, in your next reply you will provide the facts and figures of how many people are within the category you're demonizing.

Unless you're suggesting all the unemployed are what you describe?

Please enlighten us how many there are and how much it would save the tax payer every year to force them into minimum wage work.

Then we can calculate the difference between them claiming £390 unemployment a month and them claiming every thing they'd need to work a shift somewhere. childcare / nursery fees / travel help / wage top ups etc.

Could be fascinating.

Not a single mention in the document of the elephant in the room - long covid. My DP has now been unable to work, or really live life at all for nearly 4 years. The government does not want to talk about it, fund research into it, or treat it.

The (good, inclusive but not particularly unusual) school where I teach does cover letters, emails, CVs, practice interviews with a focus on year 10 and year 12.

I'm sure this stuff is in the Gatsby benchmarks.

I'm afraid though that while you can take a horse to water, you can't make it drink. I've seen over and over again the students who would most benefit from this stuff, avoid doing it.

I heard today that due to new government policy there will now be 2.5 million less jobs at lower wages/entry level.
So everyone who can't work/ never has needs to find jobs in a market that can't sustain well/ experienced people trying to work full time.

Brilliant post, I absolutely agree.

10 million people of working age not working. And this is what they came up with. A sixth form essay.

Pathetic. This country is in real trouble.

Same situation here. Engineering apprenticeships are massively competitive and as you say applications need to be tailored to the job. Ds has just completed stage 3 of a 6 stage application process which involves initial application, in-depth 40 question questionnaire, introduction video, maths, English and reasoning online assessment, telephone interview and finally a full day at an assessment centre. At each stage you can be rejected. He has not had any help or advice from college on any of it. All the help has come from me. He is applying to university as a back up plan and the college have been more helpful with that.