Working families £18k worse off than benefits claimants after budget

[shoelances]

This is madness. Can the last taxpayer in the UK please close the door behind them.

www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/households-on-handouts-to-be-18-000-better-off-than-families-on-modest-wages/ar-AA1RqxlQ

In what jobs?
There are 2.4 job seekers (people actively looking for work) per job vacancy right now. Those jobs are not all full time. Some are zero hours. Some are ghost jobs.

There aren't, though. There are 2.4 job seekers for every 1 vacancy, and that does not include those already employed but wanting to change jobs, or those who are currently classed as economically inactive, e.g., living off a spouse or the bank of mum and dad.

If all those jobs were filled by people on unemployment benefits, it wouldn't halve the number of unemployed people there are.

In the scenario you describe, our productivity as a country would go through the roof. We would see unprecedented economic growth and it would be much easier to top up low paid workers wages with the increased tax revenue this would generate. The increase in tax revenue would allow the government to make tax cuts for businesss that would stimulate further growth and generate even more jobs. This would be fantastic for everyone apart from those that are quite enjoying a life without work and on benefits as they would have to actually contribute something like the rest of us.

You are obviously not looking hard enough. The care sector for instance is crying out for people

There would still be several million on benefits as there not enough jobs.

I am using ONS figures. Care jobs are included in that.
Not everyone is suitable for care work. To say anyone could do it devalues it as a role, as well as the people that need care.

That backs up my point of that there are jobs only people don’t want to do them

Care work should be something that people want to do. Sadly, it is undervalued and underpaid.
Vulnerable people deserve carers that have pride in their job and actually want to be there.

I have a job but when I was looking for work recently I found that around 40% of the jobs advertised did not exist or were not actually jobs (those are included in the ONS figures) including one guy who invited me to an interview for a sales role and then tried to sell me a time share, various MLMs and one lady who told me I could earn between £8000 and £20000 a month as porn star and I wouldn't even have to show my face as long as I paid an £800 joining fee upfront.

If you don't understand how dire the job market is atm you've clearly not looked for work recently. It's brutal.

Millions of people work in jobs that they don’t want to do either but they do it anyway because they want to support their family. Not wanting to do work in a sector so instead claim benefits paid for by someone else is a disgrace

Absolutely! It is awful for job hunters out there at the moment, especially for young graduates.
I have seen jobs that advertise as NMW but then say it is a self employed role, so you are actually on less than that. I am not sure how that is even legal.

"Just do care work" is ridiculous. There are still so many barriers to that. You need a clean DBS, a driving license in a lot of cases. Community carers who travel between clients are often on less than NMW once their time in factored in, and they still have to pay for the wear and tear on their own car.

People who need care deserve to be cared for by people who are want to do the work.
Unless you have forgotten things like the Winterbourne View scandal?

I'm sorry but this is unbelievably naive.

There simply aren't enough people with a desperate desire to do care work in the way you imply. This isn't a problem that is unique to the UK. Very few people would actively choose this kind of work even if it was more highly valued/paid. It's hard, unrelenting work and can be physically, emotionally and mentally testing. So what can we realistically do?

At the moment we are simply importing our care workers which is extremely questionable in itself. Do you really think all of these foreign care workers are dedicated and proud carers or do you think they are potentially agreeing to do this work in order to get into the country? Is this really better than encouraging our own people to do this work through whatever levers we have available (yes paying a bit more but also making a life on benefits harder and less of a viable option for so many people)?

I'd much rather someone be on benefits than work in a sector such as care which needs people who want to be there if we want our elderly and vulnerable people cared for well.

I know I wouldn't want any elderly family member cared for by someone who doesn't actually want to be there and in that case, may not actually be doing a good job.

We aren't talking about stacking shelves here.

So you think the answer is to force people into care work instead?
How about a slaughterhouse? Or reviewing CSA images?
I do not think there is anything wrong with knowing your limitations in terms of what work you could do. Not everyone is cut out to do care work. Some people should never do care work.

Honestly you need to stop making excuses for people especially when it’s others picking up the tab. I merely illustrated where people could get jobs. They just don’t want them. This is an area the government needs to be looking at.All the part timers claiming benefits to stay at home half the week

Yes because it’s a a job. You really can’t afford to be choosy when it’s someone else paying your bills. There’s also cleaning people can do. Or aren’t people cut out for that either?

I doubt you would do those jobs.

Cleaning is a job typically topped up with UC.

I've worked in care with people who were pushed into it by the DWP. It's one of the reasons I left the sector.

When you have 2 hours to get 12 people fed, medicated, washed, changed and into bed, you need someone who not only wants to be there and wants to work, but is capable of actually doing the work, quickly but with patience and understanding.

Sending me an 18-year-old who is going to cry when I ask her to attend to a resident who can be grumpy or who will ask me "what should I do with this?" while holding a pile of clean laundry is not helpful for me or the people who are relying on them to meet their basic needs. Continuing to send people like that to work there is only going to push more experienced careers into leaving the sector.

There are currently
1.79 million people unemployed
723,000 job vacancies (advertised )
273,442 people here on work visas ( half of which are care workers)

If we add the vacancies and work visas there are
996,442 jobs available to U.K. people.

Of note A lot of jobs are advertised locally so won’t be part of the ONS figures

Another 1million out of unemployment would certainly help the economy and prevent total reliance on the taxpayer

I don't know what you mean about 'forcing' people as I wouldn't be sat there with a gun against their head forcing them to be a care worker! But ultimately we need more carers than we have people willing to be carers. Unless you are happy for vulnerable people to have their needs unmet then we are going to have to incentivise people to become carers somehow. At the moment we do this by trying to encourage people from other countries to come here and work in the sector with the promise of a much desired visa. What percent of these carers do you think are carers because they are compassionate, proud, motivated carers and how many of them are simply desperate to get to the UK by any means possible? Why do you think they are so much better suited to caring than our own population?

Not many people have a burning desire to be cleaners, slaughter house workers, litter pickers or carers, yet society has a need for these jobs to be fulfilled by people. We can all say we aren't suited to the roles as we don't want to do them but where does that leave us. Somebody has to do them and if you can't find alternative work then why shouldn't it be you? Why assume that there are loads of people that are well suited to dealing with people with dementia or wiping bums when it's obviously not true

Topped up is better than being fully funded by the taxpayer

There aren't enough people in this world that want to be carers compared to how many carers we actually need. We are going to have to push some people into doing it or end up with lots of vulnerable people having their needs unmet. If you think our current strategy of importing carers isn't also effectively 'pushing' people into the sector then you are completely wrong. Most of those people would also rather so something else if there was another way of getting a visa.

What I do is neither here nor there because I work and pay taxes. I have absolutely no problem with helping to support a full time worker on a low income as-they are actually contributing and I have total respect for them. It’s this attitude which shows quite clearly in your posts that it’s okay for people to claim benefits because the jobs available don’t quite suit or are somehow beneath them so won’t bother. It is not the role of the taxpayer to support those who are holding out for a dream job that will never come.

But a single job seeker does not have the choice of 996,442 jobs to pick from.