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.

This is rubbish.
There are chicken factories and food factories near me were the entire shop floor workforce have very little or zero English. The H&S signage and employee manuals are in several languages. I know this because I visit them as part of my job. Some of the employees don't even understand 'hello'. All three of these factories pay above minimum wage and literally have not one single local British person on the shop floor doing the grim chopping up chickens work. The offices are all staffed by locals.

I get that, I really do, and it makes me angry, upset and frustrated that people do this. But realistically, it's people like me who are now going to suffer.

To the other poster, no, she never gets called out on social media. It's mostly blokes fawning over her. There isn't anywhere on a DWP report to put links or evidence.

Well plenty of posters have said, and I believe the official line, is that disability benefits have zero fraud. Maybe this is one reason.

Why not report him? I'd do it in a heartbeat. Scamming bastard.

Have you ever reported anyone for benefit fraud? I have, I had evidence, not a single thing happened it wasn't even investigated.

I had the same experience in early 2023. I wouldn’t call that a long time ago?

Yes, I said that above too. If you can't report properly, and even if you do, they don't investigate, then it's no wonder that PIP fraud is 0%.

Rubbish! I used to work in a hotel where a number of employees didn’t speak a word of English. They worked in housekeeping, kitchen porter etc - jobs where they didn’t have to interact with customers.

There are loads of office cleaners in London, mainly from South America, who speak little or no English. So common most people in London offices will have seen signs for the cleaners in Spanish

They can get jobs in the ethnic minority economy. The place where I live people are employed in factories who do not speak English - they do not have to as their own language is used in the workplace.
Not speaking English is not an excuse for not working.

It actually makes me laugh the people who have replied to this convinced that there's endless opportunities for non English speaking workers in this country. There aren't enough jobs in the country for English speakers nevermind those with none.

You clearly do not live anywhere near where I live. A whole swathe of employment is available to non-English speakers locally - mostly clothing factories.

Yes I'm sure your area is reflective of the entire British Isles

So, Leicester, Bradford, Nottingham @Veronay. It's not like that in Devon. Our kids have to scoop icecream or run around waiting tables, and smile; they don't make anything. And worse, there's only jobs for five months of the year.

@Veronayyep not many clothing factories here in Bath - mind you to be fair haven’t met any non English speaking residents either

It isn't. But it is reflective of areas with immigrants who do not speak English.

Why is the answer to "our immigration system has brought huge swathes of people who are completely unable to integrate into our society into our country" therefore "we should pay them money to exist without any requirement to work" and not "we should radically reform our immigration system"?

Same with reporting tax evasion. HMRC do nothing. All they do is record statistics, like the police recording minor crimes. There’s no political will to force the authorities to actually act upon reports.

Immigrants tend to go where the work is and people from their exisiting community are. Therefore plenty of people with little or no English will work many is manual jobs such as cleaning.

Of course most economic migrants to the UK speak good, often excellent, English.

I agree, I mean offer to pay for people to live without anything in return and of course you'll have half the world on your doorstep

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell you you're making it all up...

How original.

I don’t think you can force an unemployed person to do a job they don’t want to do? If the only available work is cleaning or being a carer and they don’t want to do those jobs, then are they allowed to say that doesn’t suit them so they’ll still need unemployment benefits? I know many do work in those jobs and thankfully so, especially carers, we need more of them but it takes a special, caring kind of person to do that job.

Loads of people choose not to work. There are families all over the country where generation after generation don't work. Prison, drugs, school exclusions, teenage pregnancies and neglect are real issues which lead to vast numbers not in work and with no intention of ever really working. Lots of people don't see any real ability to support themselves through low paid work so they rely on benefits long term - trying to blag sickness benefits, pip or uc. To drop off benefits and take a minimum wage job with long hours or doing manual labour takes quite some determination.

The thing is, there were just under 100,000 asylum seekers who came to the UK in the last year. The population of the UK is 68,350,000. That means that the percentage of asylum seekers is 0.14%. Asylum seekers do not get benefits as we know them - they get housed in hotels usually, one family person room, or single people in dorms, and they get a basic cash allowance called 'asylum support'.

There is also legal immigration, where the government is actively advertising for vets, nurses, scientists etc (quite why we can't train enough of our own is a subject for another thread). Those people are also not eligible for any benefits, not universal credit, nothing.

So instead of making gross generalisations, please check facts.