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.

Having interviewed many candidates who blatantly do not want jobs but are just meeting their job seeking requirements I have to say you are incorrect

They do though. My daughters friend who is 19 chooses not to work. She gets PIP for a mental health condition, UC too . She’s out every weekend with the girls, clubbing until 3am . She spends her days doing absolutely nothing except a couple of times a week travels to London to visit her girlfriend. She actually brags about it and how she gets round it with UC. I also know of another young man, almost 18 that has a mobility car and I have absolutely no idea how he qualifies for enhanced rate mobility as he doesn’t meet the criteria in any way shape or form. Free driving lessons too.

Because one lot (your words not mine) are expecting to be supported by tax payers for not working, whilst the other lot are supported by their working partners.

I was on JSA recently. Absolutely wasn't asked to job seek for 35 hours a week. There aren't enough new jobs each week to fill that time. Unless you're copying out your cv for each position in your best italic handwriting and illustrating the margin.

Someone I know who is extremely isolated with bad mental health worked even sge was younger, until she was held up by thieves. Next job managed customer care but pushed into sales which she couldn’t handle, leading to manic psychotic breakdown. I had to help her apply for incapacity benefits, and when she was a bit better she filled out a great job application with my help. Got the job but couldn’t cope after a week. Since then she has done gardening which keeps her fit and gets her out of the house. But even this she can’t manage sometimes, so it is very variable in terms of income, and therefore the pitiful amount of benefit she receives is the only thing that pays the bills etc. I really don’t see any employers willingly taking on someone who is volatile and unreliable. The amount spent in employing the staff to push people into unsuitable work will be high , and will counteract any savings made. Equally it is cheaper to have universal benefits rather than means tested ones. Transport is also a barrier when getting employment. Politicians and others really don’t have a clue about actual people’s lives. So YANBU.

You're right. I am very likely entitled to PIP because I have so many health issues. I can't even get out of bed at times, let alone feed, wash, and dress myself.

Am I going to apply for PIP so I can get treated like some scumbag scrounger and told I'm making it all up - no. I've got no energy for being dragged through traumatic tribunals.

In the part of the country I'm in, which I would hazard a guess isn't yours...

Signing on as your income stream and that being a lifestyle choice is more prevalent than you would like to think.

Mum and dad stay at home and sign on, have x amount of kids because, you know, revenue stream, those kids copy that, they start having kids young and so on and so forth

It was once termed the underclass - and it very much exists, that's the uncomfortable truth

That's not to say I agree with how Labour are tackling it, because I don't

They're too scared to take on the underclass because guess who- those that do vote- vote for

Both are supported by taxpayers, as is anyone not paying tax - we all benefit from health, education, roads, defence, police and other emergency services and so on, paid out of taxes. Working partners might pay the rent/mortgage and provide spending money, but they don't pay the non-working partner's contributions to life outside the home.

I should introduce you to my uncle. He definitely has chosen “not to work”.

They should be villanised. The SAHM is not supported by their working partner. They mutually support each other. The same is not true for those who want the taxpayer to pay for their lifestyle.

It’s not the same though is it and lets not pretend it is.

I’m not pretending anything. It is true that taxpayers support both groups, and it’s not fair that single parents get criticism and other sahps don’t - in fact they get NI contributions paid for years.

Your posts show everything that is wrong. You make it sound like it’s some kind of hardship to me made to look for work. It’s not ‘harassment’ to have someone follow up and make sure people are looking for work in exchange for the taxpayer paying for them to live for free. And yes it is living for free. It’s just a factual statement.

It’s not some kind of victimhood to be expected to do everything to support yourself.

Of course lots people are not choosing not to work. How else have we got 9 million people of working age not working with the majority claiming some kind of benefit.

The sense of entitlement around benefits is off the charts in the society. And if anyone dare expect these people to actually be inconvenienced enough to do more than the minimum to look for work, the victim mentality comes flooding through.

That is what you are saying. What exactly is the point of your post, if not that. Why shouldn’t people who are having other people pay for them to live for free not be expected to make huge amount of effort to look for work. Clearly that doesn’t happen today, or else millions wouldn’t be living off benefits.

You don't have to work if you can support yourself. So that's not EVERYBODY by a long chalk!

Say it then. What’s your point and what does it have to do with this topic?

I don't know many people that have never worked, but I do know of one, and that is my sister (well, I'd estimate she may have worked about 3 years, on and off, in her adult life). We are both in our early 40s for context, and I love her dearly.

My sister got pregnant when she was very young. She had her first child at 16, and lived with my parents until she was 18. She then moved into a flat. I'm sure my parents supported her financially, but they did not buy the flat or pay her rent - that was not something they could've done financially.

She went on to have two more children.

She has received benefits even when her children became adults, and she did an amazing job with her kids, one of them is a teacher, one is studying medicine and one is still deciding on their future career.

My sister has recently been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, and so is entitled to benefits. I don't know what she gets and wouldn't ever ask.

I've worked since I was 12, albeit it was a paper round, followed by other part-time jobs whilst I was at college and then at uni.

Now, I'm two years away from being mortgage free and I'm financially solvent. I live a comfortable life and don't need to worry about the bills - I know that could be taken away instantly though.

My sister is not financially solvent. I'm glad that she has had help from the state, and I wouldn't want it to be taken away from her, but I can guarantee you that she's never wanted to work and I've heard the words straight from her mouth.

We have similar issues, not UK. Wherever you are, some people know how to game the system. I've sat at my friend's table (who pulled themselves up & broke the welfare cycle) and heard her other friends talking about what to claim, what you have to say to get X payment, who will tick the box for you etc. These are people with little education, no plan to ever work. But wow, they know the system inside out! Honest people are the ones getting stressed to meet obligations - the lazy few know how to fake it - that's their job.

It doesn't matter what the government brings in to counteract it. We have reporting avenues for employers to report applicants obviously throwing the process to fail. We have regular reporting, checks, evidence & laws changed to make it more difficult to get welfare & uncomfortable to be on it. It works for the honest. The dishonest just find ways around it.

The amount that we're spending on the fakers is getting unsustainably high, though. Do you see a way to target just just them while keeping genuinely disabled people mostly intact? There is certainly no perfect system and some "deserving" will always slip through as they do now as well, but is there something that would be a better fit?

I sometimes think it would be better if there were far fewer rules/paperwork but you had to go in front of a committee of post-work drinkers at the pub and convince them you're not taking the piss with the money they spent all day earning...

@LifeIsBadEnoughAlreadyWithoutThis

you don’t need to post to justify yourself here, the type of people being discussed here are not chronically sick like you are, they are the types choosing “not to work” for whatever trivial reason. I’m sick of them too.

i am not sick of anyone in your position needing to claim all you can.

My SIL could have worked in some capacity for the first 25 years I knew her but she always made excuses like her brain was too foggy. Now there’s no way she can work because years of inactivity have taken their toll. I think she decided from a young age she didn’t want to work and she succeeded.