Nobody is allowed to choose not to work. Fed up of hearing this expression.

[girlfriend44]

I keep hearing people say people who choose not to work. Target them.
Nobody is allowed to choose not to work. I wonder if some people actually know what they are talking about?

Nobody is allowed to just lounge around and not look for work.

Able bodied people on UC who don't have a paid job are harassed all the time.
They will probably be attending interviews at the jobcentre once a week, where they have to provide evidence they are jobsearching 35 hours a week.

They can be sanctioned over any little thing.
They have to attend any courses they are sent on, even if they are useless courses. Non attendance will end in a sanction.

The staff can arrange interviews on their behalf if the employer has a tie up with the jobcentre which some do.
If it's deemed you didn't try hard enough at the interview, the employer can discuss this with the staff,and you'll be hauled up and sanctioned for not trying.

Those who think people choose not to work please be educated.
It's a hostile environment for anyone out of work.
Not every able bodied person can find employment.
Your not just allowed to sit at home and choose not to work though.

You'll have a claimant commitment and you have to provide evidence of jobsearching. 35 hours too.

I think alot of people who comment don't really know. Everyone is under pressure.
The days of just signing on once a fortnight and not having to.prove your doing everything you can have long gone.

You know, I do take your point...But...seeing as so many people seem to believe the sick and disabled are NOT genuine, and PIP has been brought up frequently as the refuge of those who do not wish to work, I do feel included under the judgemental allegations of fakery and feel very much under attack.

The laughable thing, that people pontificating about "scroungers" and "fakers" from the saddle of their high horse atop the ramparts of their ivory castles, is they have no idea what shaky ground sits under it all. I wasn't always ill. I had 40+ years of perfect health before everything fell apart. Saying that, I would not laugh at a single one of them if they too fell into the mire next to me. I'd not jump to the conclusion of faker but commiserate and point them towards the kind people who helped me in my hour of need.

There's been a lot of nastiness and bs on here over this issue. It has really irked me and I'm afraid I've let it show for a change. I've been on here for over a decade and never seen it so hostile to those on benefits as it is now. It's like Left and right supporters have merged and come out on the right, all singing the same tune. Dangerous times for the vulnerable.

There's no way that everyone who is unemployed and claiming anything is going in that often.. I know that people who get the jobseekers element are expected to faff around regularly but that isn't all of the people on benefits. If someone has young children or they can't speak much English for example, they're not expected to look. The job centre wouldn't have the staff to see everyone claiming. And indeed the majority of people on UC are actually in work.
I think the bigger problem.is actually there aren't enough jobs to go around..especially in some regions, there are virtually none. What's most unfair is people claiming benefits while working only half of what a full time worker does, while some people are full time and can't afford a basic life. It literally makes no sense. If people had something to earn from working they'd be more inclined to do so.

People say this but usually when you dig beneath the surface they are insecure and lack confidence. I love my job gives me a purpose I know that I'm making the world a better place, I get to travel earn money meet lots of interesting people. Generally people that don't work unless they happen to be born into wealth or marry into, lead small uninspiring lives. I am not particularly well paid but my job gives me much more than money. I'm not in any way envious of people that don't work.

Let's be honest, nobody cares if people work or not. What people care about is public money being paid out to enable people not working.

This pretty much sums up the benefits system. It’s a gravy train for millions of shirkers. The system needs cuts so deep that there is no scope left for this free lunch to continue.

A more rational take away from this would be that the non benefit claiming general public had had enough of this con.

Delusional.

Actually, I say nobody cares, I have teenage children (A Levels, Uni). I'll go mad if they think they can laze around in bed all summer, they're getting up and getting jobs! We don't get any benefits.

I'm fine with healthy people not choosing to work. Just don't expect society to pay for your chosen lifestyle.

A friend of mine gets nearly £2000 a month enhanced UC because she has learning disabilities and so can’t work and never will, apparently.
on top of this, she also gets a full PIP. I think that is about £700. She gets a carer’s amount of over £500 a month as she cares for her husband. He also gets an amount of UC. He also gets a PIP although I don’t know what level as he has previously worked. He gets the carer’s amount as he cares for his wife. Their children get free school meals, worth £15 a week per child. They get free prescriptions. They get free bus travel. They use à food bank often. They get free injections to help them lose weight. They get free parking with their disability pass in most places. They get a card which means they pay a lot less at the leisure centre and get a discount on anything they buy there. Their older daughter gets a free bus pass to sixth form and gets a grant. She will also get an enhanced loan if she goes to university. Their children get all their school uniform, shoes, bag and school supplies paid for. Their children have had free holidays most years. Their children also get cheaper entry to leisure centres. Their children get their ingredients paid for for cooking at secondary school. If something goes wrong with their council flat, it gets paid for straight away and sorted. They recently had a whole new kitchen fitted by the council and are getting a new bathroom soon. They pay less for their water and internet package. They get the winter fuel payment and got enhanced cost of living payments last year. Their children have both had new beds and furniture for their bedrooms, paid for by a grant. They get free weight loss groups (if they want it). They have railcards to give them reduced fares. My friend also has a cash in hand small job as a cleaner, working a few hours a week.
So in their case, if definitely does pay not to work!!!

I grew up in a northern town in the 1980s on benefits. The expectation was that you finish school and sign on so this generational unemployment is nothing new. We were ok. We had a secure council house and enough money to spread thinly. Fast forward 40 years. We still have generational unemployment, difference is, people don't have access to secure housing so readily. If you can get yourself signed off sick, this adds more points to your council application giving you a better chance of a real home than working.
This mantra that people are better off in work simply isn't true if the only work you are qualified for is low paid. And posters with their 'get a better job' can just fuck off. These jobs are essential for society to function and plenty of people just can't get a better job. These jobs need to give a better life, perhaps by priority for council housing or something, so that the people who do them ARE actually better off financially working because at the moment they're not.

I think the point that many people may be making when they say this, is that far too many fit and healthy people are pressing to get themselves diagnosed with a condition or recognised as being unfit for work due to their anxiety, their MH and/or their alleged ASD/ADHD rather than accept that they should push themselves out of their comfort zones and get a job. All that hounding they get on jobseekers miraculously vanishes once they've been deemed 'too sick or disabled to work' plus it brings much more money in, and they know it.

It's actually really sad because half their problems could be solved by having a job, a sense of purpose, a reason to get up in the morning and go out and contribute something to the world, instead of hiding behind whatever insecurities and worries they have and giving in to learned helplessness and feelings of futility.

I worked in a supermarket for ten years before my current job 😂
These are her words, not mine.

I agree, it irritates me. She's genuinely such a lovely person with a vibrant personality. She's has a social worker degree and yet she has found a loophole and used it to her "advantage." Amongst the distant friendship circle she's known as a taker. She forever calls or messages me to borrow money as she ran out.

But she gets so much "gifted" income, I can't understand why. I hate to call universal credit "gifted" income, but for her- it is the correct term. I never understood the media trained hatred towards those who are intentionally unemployed, but I can understand the mindset towards a few, as I'm seeing this in real life.

I work and I'm not earning millions or even thousands. I'm going through a bereavement of losing my sister nearly 3 years ago, I haven't had the time to process any of the abuse I went through after coming out of the refuge. But I don't have time to sit and pause, as I have children to sort out and I have to still survive and get on with my life. The year of not working- I was bored and the three months after of leaving the refuge, I was bored and struggled.
*Unemployment is not for me.

*Disclaimer- I'm not targeting those who can not work due to illness etc. I'm stating those who deliberately choose not to work.

You are so right that 'you are better off in work' absolutely doesn't hold true if you are only able to do a low paid, low skilled job. We've really created a monster by allowing wages for basic blue collar work to stagnate for so many years by taking an endless influx of cheap foreign labour while simultaneously creating a benefits system that pays as well as that work, or even more in some cases, if you know how to play it right. You can't exactly blame people for preferring to take advantage of that.

The only thing that would have stopped it was a no-deal Brexit.

Companies use the EU's free trade rules to put money through Amsterdam as royalties tax free. That money is then offshored.

Would you have supported a no deal Brexit? If not, give it a rest.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Lots of people don’t earn that much working full time. If you consider all the discounts and freebies, it amounts to well over the median income. I appreciate your friends are disabled and may not be able to work, but there’s also an element of playing the system (how can they be each other’s carer for example?) and that’s what most people are fed up with.

he is one of those people who has managed to get himself on a lot of benefits back when it was easier to do so and now seemingly no one is inclined to tell him he can't have them anymore.

This is exactly the issue we have with someone in our extended family. He is 28, left school at 16 with no qualifications (never sat any exams) and has been on benefits ever since he was able to claim. Yes there is/was some degree of depression and anxiety but he has been medicated for years and is functioning as an adult (as much as you can be still living at home with your parents).

He could absolutely do a whole host of jobs but has no intention of doing so. His options are limited though as with no GCSEs and no experience/skills who is going to take him on? He also doesn't WANT a job and doesn't WANT training or education or coaching to improve his chances of getting a job. He is exactly one of these people the government is targeting, on "disability" benefits because of his "illness" but who is more than capable of work but because he is "disabled", nobody is checking up on what he's doing and what his plans are.

Original comment almost seems naive, yes people aren’t allowed not to work, but I’ve seen plenty of people both personally and through work who actively chose not to work by ensuring their “illness” didn’t let them. Many many people who are disabled , physically or mentally , want to work, but there are definitely a significant number who are only too happy to not bother these are the people who should be targeted

OP I think you're quite naive. It may shock you to hear this, but some people will lie about things to get what they want

Exactly. As a minimum, either you claim disability benefits or you claim carers allowance. If you are too disabled to work you are so surely too disabled to care.

I worry about this a lot because if my husband got ill i wouldn't be able to care for him (and I am able to work, and I don't claim benefits)

Good luck there mate - where are the jobs

Technically you are correct, nobody is allowed to choose not to work, the benefits system is designed to support those that can't.
Unfortunately many people know that the system is open to abuse and manipulation.
The government is trying to reduce the bill and targeting the bone idle.

Bravo the government

Reporting doesn't seem to work. My neighbour claims to have such bad anxiety and panic attacks that he can't leave his house and therefore can't work. He in fact leaves his house Monday to Friday to work cash in hand and also leaves to go shopping, walk his dog, go out with his girlfriend etc.

He has been doing this for 2 years now and I have reported him several times. Nothing happens

And possibly his whole family would be worse off if he got a job. Let's say he lives with his parents in rented accommodation and the parents get UC. If he got a job, this would also mess up their claim as he would then be expected to pay their rent (not unreasonable). So likely this man would be working in a hard boring job, losing all his unemployment discounts, free prescriptions/discount travel etc and so would end up worse off financially working and all his free time gone.