Feel this country has become rotten - benefits

[She11y]

A studio apartment in my area is about £800 per month.
A minim wage job is around £1500 per month net.
After you've worked in a hard and demanding job - most minimum wage jobs are demanding - you've got £700 to pay for food, travel, bills, clothes.
You might end up with £100 left over each month. Working hard all your life with no hope of owning your own home or having any sort of financial stability.
No wonder people don't want to work. Make owninf a house affordable and over night 1/3 the people claiming benefits will stop.

My point is that a lot of people are on benefits because they're depressed at the hopelessness of their futures, and try to avoid working.

People always respond like that. No one thinks it can keep going up whilst posting high immigration is going nowhere. Usually with an emoji

So what are you proposing? An increasing population for how long?

On AI it will advance quickly and govs are better off thinking about how to retain tax take from whatever that brings, because fewer people in the workforce will mean we still need taxes from AI heavy workforce. Countries that fail to secure tax take will struggle.

If that is a reasonable expectation for a working person then what is one for someone solely on benefits?

We live in a small 2 bedroom house. DP works full time and I work part time. We are on low wages. We have a child so get child benefit no other help. DP's brother and his partner live in a 5 bedroom 3 storey house. His brother works but his partner is a SAHM to 6 children hence the large house.

It does sometimes rankle that we live in such a small property compared to them (we don't even have a back garden) but we know eventually we will own our house and are not concerned by benefit cuts. If I were single and renting a small flat I would think what is the point of bothering to work? We need to make work pay for EVERYONE.

We focus too much on those receiving benefits and not those benefiting from it. Companies making massive profits, whilst their low wage workers receive benefits in order to be able to afford to live. Let’s raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Businesses will whine but they will adjust.

16 billion paid last year in housing benefits because there isn’t enough social or affordable housing. That’s 16b going in to the pockets of private landlords who are making profits off their investment in property. Building more social housing and raising the number of affordable homes these companies provide would reduce that bill.

Disability benefits are increasing because the NHS is underfunded. People are unable to work because they are unwell. Poor health for the elderly means more people need social care. Making the NHS a fit for purpose organisation, able to meet the needs of society, focussing on prevention rather than cure.

Pensions are the largest part of the welfare bill and it’s getting bigger. Reduce the state pension, making it mandatory for people to save their own pensions, which they should be able to do if they are paid properly.

The reason the welfare bill is so high is because of politics. Pure and simple. It isn’t because of lazy people or scroungers, it is because the benefits system, the NHS, business taxation is not targeted for how it will help the nation, it is targeted for how it helps a party’s political capital.

The reason governments won’t fix all of the above is it would take a massive injection of capital. We are too focussed as an electorate on reducing the national debt in the short term and governments can be won and lost on it. If a government was bold and invested in our nation, it would give a long term benefit to everyone.

The reason governments won’t fix all of the above is it would take a massive injection of capital. We are too focussed as an electorate on reducing the national debt in the short term and governments can be won and lost on it. If a government was bold and invested in our nation, it would give a long term benefit to everyone.

yep

1. why would the person from your example stay on min wage all their life?

2. isn’t the obvious solution to make sure that people will always have more at the end of the month when in full time work? That includes benefits in kind, not just monetary.

@hairbearbunches I think the reason they awarded the contract to Poland and not Ferguson is due to the colossal overspend of billions and failure to provide even two ferries on time by Ferguson.
The initial award to Ferguson all those years ago was an absolute stitch up and waste of taxpayers money.

@frillygillymilly

Equal is
births = deaths . As the ons stats I posted

If people stopped having babies and we had no immigration our population would decline. It’s a mathematical fact.
we would lose 600,000/ year in immigration ( the offset figure with emigration)
we would lose 590,000/ year in births
we would lose 580,000/ year in deaths ( exc deaths at birth )

Our population would therefore decline by approx 1.8 million.
It may not decline as much as it could if people died at a younger age but it would still decline.

The only thing that is keeping it stable is an equal ( ie the same number of ) number of births and deaths. Then the changes in our population ( more recently, not historic ) are down to emigration and immigration.

I'm a civil servant, 2 degrees and in a highly stressful and important roll within the criminal justice system. I'm in a specialist roll, extra training etc. I am also a single parent (not through choice) and I claim universal credit as my wage for this roll is not seen as a liveable wage.

How can that be right?

I'm at the top of my field, I work with extremely vulnerable victims, what I do matters. You would only value me if you found yourself needing me. If everyone in my position left, the criminal justice system would be in a worse position that it already is.

This year is the first time I have got more that 1% pay rise, I got 2%. It doesn't even make a dent in everything I pay out. the cost of living has risen so much more than 2%.

But hey, at least I get that gold plated pension and get to work from home all the time. Except... I don't, they have down graded the pensions and I travel substantially (at my expense) all over the region. I don't have a work vehicle. I'm expected to use my own mobile phone for work purposes and I pay for items I need for work (pertinent to work) out of my own funds.

Exactly, how do you live it up as some suggest on a basic income like that on Universal Credit.

Holidays to Disneyland lol.

if you were single, with no dependents. Your income from benefits would be £393/month. I would challenge anyone to live on that.

What is the salary threshold regarding UC?

I sympathize with this view. However, the structure of society has evolved significantly from the traditional sequence of JOB-MARRIAGE-FAMILY to an emphasis on individual independence. I'm uncertain whether any economy can support widespread independence from cradle to grave.

They are building plenty of new houses round here , every company had a new build estate going on in this town , Persimmon , Wimpey etc
The problem is that they are all too expensive …
Nobody on minimum wage eg £25 k per year is going to get a mortgage for a 250,000 house.
Even with two minimum wage earners at 50k combined the 250,00 - 300,000 mortgage is unattainable.
There needs to be properly affordable houses that people on minimum or low wages can afford

A lot of immigrants don't work anyway. Huge amount rely on benefits and many that do work have cash only businesses or work cash in hand so don't pay tax anyway. It's a massive swindle.

AI will only get bigger.

@FreedomandPeace of course it would decline but not straight away which is the point 🤦🏻‍♀️

* The only thing that is keeping it stable is an equal ( ie the same number of ) number of births and deaths.*

But this doesn't mean we don't have an aging population, you are still confused but I give up!

A lot of immigrants don't work anyway. Huge amount rely on benefits and many that do work have cash only businesses or work cash in hand so don't pay tax anyway. It's a massive swindle.

Never claimed they do just said governments won't stop it. You can disagree though.

Work in a barely above minimum wage job and from looking at people trying to survive if day minimum wage jobs should be only for people new to the job market or teenagers. After that people should be trying to find a better paying job/ moving up to a more managerial role etc if at all possible. It’s so hard trying to live and not be stressed on a wage like that. Add to that your lack of sick days/ choice on holidays and the demands on you.

Re
your housing comment
I absolutely agree
We must build more affordable property

A lot of our big developers get planning on the back of a standard % quota of affordable housing. They start building and then put in a planning change for less affordable housing. The reason?…their projected profit does not meet the current profit allowed.
So they get away with providing none or very few
Other things they get away with because of their spurious claims on profit reduction have been ( in my experience)

• no money for upgrading roads and infrastructure
• no money for environmental impact
• nothing for schools
• nothing for gps / nhs provision

If we lowered or removed the profitability clause local areas would get exactly what was agreed on the original planning approval and we’d be building a more sustainable future.

These are the employment rates for UK, EU and Non EU/UK nationals, living in the UK:

74.7% UK
80.8% EU
74.2% Non EU

Equal is births = deaths

But what are you claiming is equal? 1 person dying and a baby being born doesn't mean the population isn't ageing & is equal.

In 50 years time who will be paying for everyones pensions? Housing?

Unless something is done drastically now, society will have collapsed long before then.

I’m saying the same number die as are born
Thats equal

I think I’ve shown clearly by the official ons stats that I have posted that population increase has nothing to do with births and deaths. They equal out.

Theres no point arguing that that isn’t the case
Proof matters.

But as I'm keep saying a birth and a death doesn't mean a population is stable or not ageing. I don't understand why you think it has any relevance?

@frillygillymillyyou’ve said immigration isn’t going anywhere, and quoted 30 year stats.

But that population won’t just keep going up either.

So what are you proposing?

@She11y , do house shares exist in your area? I know quite a few professional young people who house shared when they were starting out because it was all they could afford. It’s obviously not an economical use of resources to live alone. People really should not expect to have everything they want straight away, I do think that the mentality of people who do is a great part of their problem. What is needed is hard work and ambition and with those two things a person won’t be earning minimum wage forever.
Enough with constantly telling yourself how hard done by you are and convincing yourself that you are at the mercy of circumstances you can’t change because you absolutely do have that power. Short of money? Get another job part time, yes you’ll be tired like so many more before you who wanted to get on in life. Need further training? Do it, find the time, find the money. It can be done and some will do it and in a few years they’ll have a more comfortable life, you can too if you only stop bleating and start working towards it.