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.

but that is not the fault of the person taking early retirement? I am in awe of anyone who can and that is my goal in the future. both me and my husband are in mid 40s working full time both of us since 21.we are exhausted. my husband self employed and has now reduced his work (he is a builder a very experienced one) due to not being able dealing with shite clients a mountain of paperwork working 7 days a week and chasing for money. I myslef travelled exetenailly for my work had very long comutes long hours etc. workied hard to get where I am but now diagnosed with a long term chronic health condition. I am very lucky my job has been accommodating of this have flexibility and hybrid working because of it. but that can all change if god forbide we get a new director who wants every one back in office etc and doesn't allow any flexibility. you see it here every day on mumsnet companies want robots and you supose to bow to them at every request. companies should be looking at retaining older staff by allowing them flexibility part time work but also paying them properly too with respect to their service

Lots of married mothers work from when their child is 9 months or a year.
If a man chooses to support his wife who doesn't work that's up to him but the state should not pay for this. And no, looking after your own kids isn't a job.

"And indeed the majority of people on UC are actually in work."

Only 38% of people claiming UC are actually working. That's not a majority.

It's like I said, focusing on the few cheats is unproductive

Give it up OP. We all know that people know how to play the system and won’t get a sanction and you can’t convince us otherwise !

Well, quite - @kellygoeswest (despite being heavily tattooed with vision problems) managed to get a job in a short period... via her revolutionary secret called "actually applying to a large number of jobs"

Job coach could probably tell that she wasn't a scrounger so let her get on with it.

Soooooo no experience but lots of opinions and accusations designed to silence.

Cool

Also @Printedword
“Tory POV”

Are you aware we have a labour government and it is THEM who are currently decimating our benefits system?

of course there are conditions which have to be met for certain benefits. Some seem to know how to play the system though. I hope this is a minority.

I was on longer than 4 months and that was my experience too

The longest JC meeting I had was with a different job coach who talked about himself for about 20 minutes then said everything else was fine

If anything, I'd say the longer I was on UC, the less they cared so long as I kept putting up a bunch of jobs I'd applied for

Sadly, that isn’t true in my experience, OP, though I wish it was.

Unless my DSS us keeping information VERY quiet, he has claimed benefits for 5 years. One training course, no interviews. He doesn't even talk about work. Very frustrating.

He is an able bodied, graduate, single, 34. A good few years in tv and film production.
Absolutely no reason not to work and should be. What a waste.

He definitely chooses not to work.

Instead of suggesting ‘please be educated ‘ OP - I would suggest a week for you at the DWP in the fraud department - quite an eye opener! It is not ‘the odd few cases’ personally I think anyone who is left leaning ( and I am) has a duty of care to those who aren’t gaming the system and are truly in need be it short term or long term to come down on those who see the benefits system as a giant ATM to enable them to have the same lifestyle as those working long hours in many cases for very modest salaries - I’m with the gvt on this- those with chronic diagnosed situations and who genuinely are unable to work at all will I’m sure be kept in the same position- those who know they are at risk of losing certain benefits based on not much at all will be the ones at risk - see the BBC app today for details.i fail to see why 2 of the 3 receive it - the chap with dementia - no issues with that

all hearsay and guesses, very few have direct experience on being on jsa themselves, its all i know someone.

you said your experience, then you said its your son/stepson.

Hes not going to tell you everything is he?

What is the point of forcing both though? I do work very part time but will work more once my youngest is in school as I have no family nearby. The government will be paying out more for childcare than savings on UC by forcing both.

The reason the free breakfast clubs are being rolled out is to help people get back to work.
the reason the sickness/disability benefits crisis is happening is because of a mixture of, over diagnosed, laziness and people playing the system.
there is a whole lot of young people who have never worked or contribute to anything and are to anxious to do so ( apparently ). These people cannot live on handouts for ever.
its not sustainable!

@girlfriend44

i signed on for 5 months between jobs relatively recently and i can promise you nobody checked that I was job hunting, I had to verbally tell them what id be doing, was offered some courses that counted too, and had to upload a list of jobs id looked at or websites id found, no verification required. I secured another job within 3 months then had to wait to get my dbs so I was doing what you are meant to but it would have been easy to claim long term

In my experience… in my family….

No he isn't going to tell me and his dad everything, but you are saying he tells us nothing.

Surely it is very hard to not occasionally mention a job he has seen, an interview he has attended, any feedback from said interview or even any volunteer work.

He did tell us about his IT training course, two hours a week, online, completed 18 months ago.

He does tell us about his hobbies and his gym training at home.

We really want him to work. The rest of us all work hard.

Excellent post, agree with every word.

The “free” breakfast clubs are completely unworkable.
The government are giving schools 60p for each child who has attended the breakfast club; once they have received the numbers. The initial outlay will have to be financed by schools and the 60p per child won’t cover the extra staffing costs, extra entities etc.

@girlfriend44 I don’t actually doubt your experience on jsa- although it’s very erratic nationally - however the main issues don’t appear to be with jsa but the health related benefits-

@TENSsion so is funded nursery hours but it’s not stopped it happening

Nurseries get £5.88 per hour per child and while this is not sufficient, 60p per child to include a meal, is laughable.

How do you know otherwise? What’s your source of data if everyone else’s on here is not credible?

Same with DH. He got made redundant and signed on. Just had to mention a few jobs he'd applied for and that was it. Could have gone on like that for months with nobody checking.

He actually wanted to get a job and found one within 3 months.