Dispatches- Britain’s Benefit scandal

[Sunnywalker]

Anybody watched this? It’s made me so angry. Some highlights include a company that can’t recruit an apprentice on 26k because sickness benefits would amount to 24k so it wouldn’t be worth it. 500,000, 25-34 years old on long term sick, a woman who has never had a FT job and claims 35k in benefits, this lady would like to work but says will never achieve the same income if she worked.

This country is bankrupt, public services crumbling! What is going on? Why isn’t there an overhaul!

100s of people apply for even the most basic job though !

Its you and your thought process that is pretty simple

We did this already. Cannot remember the name of it. Tesco's as I recall did really well out of it. Free employees for a set time 3 months maybe, then send them on their way as no paying job for them, next unemployed person comes along and so on.

I thought we were mostly in agreement that if there is a job there, one should be paid the full going rate for that job. Not job seekers plus your bus fares.

Community service roles like? Cleaning rivers? Sweeping streets? Assuming yes, it will require someone to be team leader, it will require transport for the unemployed, it will require health and safety, a thingy*assessment, work gear, insurance, who the hell will pay for this in the first place, mostly you cannot re use safety gear like boots, waders, similar.
I'm all for these jobs being done, but why should companies benefit AGAIN from free labour, and if river cleaning is a real job, pay real wages. If you were thinking more like picking fruit and veggies, think about where people live compared to farms, how will they get to the farm, what happens when picking season is over, if they stay in digs at the farm, what will happen to their current home? And there waaay more

*Thingy is because I cannot remember the name .

Thanks, I'll swap you stage 4 cervical cancer and metastasised lung cancer.
I am sure you are more than entitled to anything you get, my problem is people who have no desire to work and admit it and know how to fill in forms, yet have a much better lifestyle than someone working minimum wage.

The point is, some people are too unwell to work. This includes people with certain mental health conditions, as well as those with physical health problems (or often both).

The notion that work is the solution for poor mental health is nothing more than a neoliberal fallacy.

The government need to raise the national minimum wage; employers need to pay more, and housing needs to be affordable. It's relatively simple.

It's disgusting. YANBU.

Would you?

I have MS. The only benefit I get is full PIP because my multiple sclerosis affects every part of my life. I have worked all my adult life and now work part time (with adjustments from a supportive employer) because full time is impossible. I even spent many thousands of pounds retraining for a new career so I can work from home self-employed in the future.

Be very careful about implying that everyone on sickness benefits is the same. Some of us were decent earners before we became disabled. We just got unlucky. Many of us still strive to have meaningful careers. The group that needs targeted are the ones for whom it really is a lifestyle choice.

I worked really hard in a fairly well paid publishing role for a decade from aged 23, then had my eldest DD. Then after being back at work for a few years, I became very unwell after a head injury and post concussion syndrome before being injured by off label psychotropic drugs.

I'm not eligible for any PIP or benefits (apart from child benefits), so if essentially it wasn't for the generosity of my parents' financial support, I'd be buggered.

There's a friend of my DH who's undoubtedly spent the past 16 years on benefits as a single mum - since her DD was born - and lives pretty much in poverty, scraping by. She said she'd rather live on benefits getting by as it seems apparently the same type of paying equivalent job won't be as worthwhile. It's such a shame as she could be a better role model for her DD who could have a better quality of life.

@Sunnywalker how much of the benefits is housing benefit (or whatever they call it these days?)

That is for many people the difference between work being an option and work not being an option.
The amount paid for rents is huge.
Low cost rents would benefit everyone in the country. But by building good quality, well insulated social housing only.

So why are we getting people into the country for fill up positions? Why are farmers struggling to get seasonal workers?

What's going on is the increase in wealth inequality and the rest of it is the consequence of that. Gary Stevenson explains it really well. People on decent income have to claim UC. Many can't afford to buy property, because the passive income the very rich have means they are buying assets and driving property prices up.

Wheelchairs, mobility aids, carers, support workers, specialist foods, some medical equipment that isn’t provided by NHS, incontinence products (because what you get free is never enough), nappies for longer than most children will need them, household adaptations, ready meals being more expensive if you can’t safely cook for yourself…

That’s off the top of my head. There’s probably loads more. Some of those things you may get some money for but it often isn’t enough to cover what you actually need.

This, exactly 💯. I earned a decent amount before I was injured. I now work part time from home earning less than the minimum wage.

I'd give anything to be healthy again. Health is most definitely wealth 😢😞

My fund management job wasn’t any more stressful than other jobs I have had and the office was dead after 6pm. DH regularly works into the small hours 7 days a week - he has a STEM
phd. The fund management sector where I worked was shrinking and the people who worked in it were very aware they were on to a good thing compared to the wages others around them with similar educational levels were receiving.

He did get it back dated thank you and spent it on a new custom state of the art power chair. The pip pays for his taxis to college and the aids that he needs to continue his education. He's extremely bright and is expected to go to university next autumn. my son and daughter in law are in the process of trying to find new personal assistants for him because his previous ones had to be let go because the council stopped his direct payments when his pip was declined

Google UC extra help, maybe there is something you're not getting or claiming that you'd be entitled to.

That is why I said most! But speaking from experience of having ptsd, depression anxiety and adhd work can be very beneficial for people with mental health problems on several levels.

She would lose her PIP and ESA which is £1200+ 4 weekly in addition to her UC and other benefits. If DWP see she can work they will investigate and reduce/strip her PIP massively - that’s what she meant by no point working. It’s a two tier system - regular UC yes you get little, it’s tapered and you are almost always better off in work. Disability benefits - entirely different system and very generous benefit.

People are just trying to give their children the best they can give them. They have a choice between providing a parent working full time, barely making ends meet, barely seeing their children, stressed and tired all the time. Or a parent home all the time, taking the kids places, still barely making ends meet but better than the alternative, happier, more rested. I don't judge them for the most part. Everyone is struggling, most of us are just doing our best. People need help aren't the enemy. Companies earning absurd amounts and not paying tax, politicians siphoning off our taxes to themselves and their friends are much bigger issues imo.

This is where I think PIP should be paid but along with therapy to help someone with agoraphobia or other anxiety conditions to help someone get back to work. I read about a true case years ago of an American lady who stayed home for 30 years with agoraphobia. To cut a long story short she only reached out for help when she literally had no other choice because she had no money. She had counselling and therapy and eventually was able to go out to work and even gave talks at conferences on overcoming anxiety and went on to help loads of other people.

gh point of the job centre etc is to help people find work? if they can find a set them up with a job, where they work for a company why is it for free?

why is the JOB centre unable to find them JOBS unless its working for free. clearly its not fit for service.

Sounds a very niche and small area. It was probably shrinking for a reason. Most people who have the type of salary you describe work v long hours with lots of stress

Trouble is, we all want cheap, cheap services and goods. Big wages don't come for free. Businesses can only pay wages from what THEY get paid.

Same old blah, 'I did it so everyone can!'.

Meanwhile in the real world it has got progressively harder to do so.

All the young people who would be able to do the seasonal work have been priced out of rural areas and the only accommodation the farmers can usually offer is inadequate. The would you be able to leave your family for weeks at a time to go and do backbreaking work for minimum wage and live in a smelly old caravan with 3 strangers?