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.

I was on benefits once whilst out of work. I was making a huge effort to find work and was very diligent at updating my journal with everything I was doing to find it. Nobody could have cared less about it and didn’t want to actually see it. They would sign what they had to and there you go for the next 2 weeks .

My cousin hasn’t worked an honest day in her life. Now 40 with 5 kids and zero work experience.

She has “depression”. Well that’s because she’s never worked and has 5 kids with two car crash men.

Working is GOOD for people. It provides purpose, self esteem, interest, social life, income, independence.

You’re being naive if you think everyone claiming UC gets harassed. There are loads of people claiming due to “depression”. It’s a piece of piss when you know how.

Between this thread, and the current discussion of Adolescence on another, I am fearful for our collective future. I hope (fervently) that I am wrong. Everything and everyone seems hellbent on destroying society from within.

At some point, we need to turn off the trickle of warm water (for all but the truly disabled) and leave a very cold shower on at full force. And the pain will hit us all, whether you are a corporate paying wages that require tax payer subsidies, or landlords, or the idle/fraudulent claimants.

Exes sister is a life long benefit claimant, fuck all wrong with her other than depression from never working… 6 kids, 3 useless dad’s she had the youngest when she realised the older kids would be turning 16 and leaving home and the benefits would drop…
I felt for the kids, never quite enough money, lazy mother, but fairplay to the older ones - they all left as soon as they could and got jobs…

Great post 👍

So what does she live on? Because if she is unemployed she has to spend 35 hours a week looking for work and prove it.

I am not against getting people who can work to do so. But it's a myth that there are lots of people on e.g. PiP who do not need it. It is very difficult to get PiP so anyone who has it does absolutely need it.
Much of the welfare state has been dismantled. The desire in some places to make the poor suffer for being poor I find utterly distasteful.

I'm on higher rate PIP both elements. I'm a disabled wheelchair user with multiple conditions that have left me housebound. I'm in agony and need constant care. I struggled to get PIP and scored zero points on my first assessment.

My cousin also gets higher rate PIP both elements. She has dropped foot which she's had surgery on and it's now absolutely fine. She laughs about how she has conned the DWP and the local authority who moved her into council adapted housing. She claims she has poor mental health and says it's easy to fake. She does extreme sports at competition level, goes abroad alone, has multiple motorcycles as well as her motability car, does tasks like erecting fences and sheds, mowing lawns, laying flooring, painting and decorating, motorbike mechanics, weight lifting, marathon training. The list goes on. She keeps a wheelchair in her house in case the council ever come to "check". She sticks it in the boot of her car when she goes to gigs so she can get a free carer in, and so she can sit in the best area at the front. She gloats about all of this, but according to the DWP she can't wash or dress herself, feed herself, walk, drive, be alone at any time.

Countless people have reported her. She's extremely active on public social media, so the evidence is damning. She hasn't even received a warning letter from the DWP, let alone been investigated. This is why the fraud levels are zero, because they aren't following up on reports. She openly mocks the system and how great she is at playing it. People like this exist and no matter how many people insist they don't, it doesn't erase their existence.

Does nobody call her out her on social media? Send DWP/local MP a link ?

@SquashedSquid that’s the reason many of us feel as we do on here- regardless of political positioning- I want it to be easier for people like yourself to get all the help they need and people like the one you mention to get their come uppance and stop taking the piss out of the public purse- it’s not because we are all horrible witches who hate disabled people. The idea that it’s just a few like this is for the birds- there’s massive numbers of them all feeding information to each other and having a bloody good laugh about stuffing the system-

This in spades.

@friendlycat thank you- I think I realised this issue when I was living with a new partner post divorce some years ago - he had a couple of his friends we used to pop to see a lot. Bloke, partner and2 kids who were not his kids- one night they went out and I stayed in with the woman , who was busily telling me that they were quids in as she claimed as a single parent - he lived with her and was working on building sites bringing home around £500 a week ( this is many many years ago) she had no issue telling me , acted as if this was normal practice and I realised they were better off than ourselves both working full time and had a council house too - really pissed me off - as taxpayers were paying for them to take the piss- I didn’t report because I didn’t want to cause issues for the 2 young kids- but it did make my blood boil .im social minded too , not very Daily Mail but there’s some very naive people out there who think it’s just a few bad eggs- it isn’t-this wasn’t disability related though- just out and out lying about domestic situation

When I signed on 2 years ago no one asked to see a detailed diary or even any evidence of job seeking. I just had to tell them
how many jobs I had applied for - I could have made anything up!

You don’t necessarily have to prove it. I didn’t - they just asked how many jobs I’d applied for, they didn’t ask for any evidence.

It's definitely going to make racism worse, when the people receiving these funds have them withdrawn and then realise there's a lot of people born in other countries here who are exempt from looking for work because they canf speak much English

Why would non English speaking people be exempt from losing benefits?

Surely they would be included in any change.

They wouldn't be able to take a job as it's unsafe to work without a basic understanding of written and spoken English. The only jobs they might work without basic English would be cash in hand ones that aren't taxed

They need to learn the English language. In the meantime, family members would be responsible for them.

Many such people live in their own communities which means they never learn English, they never have to. Well have to keep paying for them too, hur they'll be expemot from being forced into work which will make those who lose their benefits resentful

If they received no benefits, it would encourage them to integrate, learn English and contribute to society.

It would also help with societal cohesion, which benefits everyone.

That was probably a long time ago before they tightened up?

Or encourage them to "work" for bosses who speak their language and would not be afraid to pay them less than minimum wage etc safe in the knowledge they wouldn't be able to report it.

Your outcome gives them even more encouragement to learn English

Not really, maybe if you are fit and young and confident. Plenty of non English speakers who are non of these things. Modern slavery is very real.