To think people on benefits can’t win

[Flamingosareflummoxed]

I’ve heard so many people this week, in real life, moaning about people on benefits. I get it that we are all struggling. The cost of living is crippling.
But every week there are posts on here from women who were in 70K per year HR positions who are finding it difficult to get interviews for MW jobs.
There are no jobs.
The few jobs that there are will be flooded with applications, why would recruiters chose someone who has been unemployed for years?
Plus all those with long term disabilities who need reasonable adjustments.
Its like people want to bash people knowing there is no real alternative.

It's still not free...you're exchanging your PIP allowance for it...

I mean maybe the point has been missed that you aren't supposed to "win" on benefits.

I'd actually like further classification of benefits into 3 types of recipient.

a) People who can work, but are not working and don't want to work. These people often have benefits and supplement their income via other activities such as cash in hand jobs and crime.

b) People who can't work.

c) People who have recently lost work and are seeking new work.

If we stop lumping together all these categories as "on benefits" we might get some better resolution of the deserving and less deserving.

But grants are available for people on low incomes meaning some people do not have to pay for their car, apart from their pip allowance.

He will take anything .

You're perfectly correct, @Zov . People who are on benefits purely because they are unemployed, ie not because of ill-health, low income, or caring responsibilities, are expected to look for work. DWP work coaches will expect them to apply for a certain number of jobs every month, and to produce evidence of job-seeking.

If that's the solution then we need to be actively promoting immigration to fill the gap that we are already heading towards by people in general having less children.
We are heading towards a point where we are going to struggle anyway without a sizeable next generation coming behind us and the dialogue around immigration is going to compound that.

No because if we bring people in to do the low paid jobs they will need to be subsidised with benefits plus benefits will still be being paid to British people who could be doing the jobs. I agree that we should welcome skilled immigrants doing well paid jobs but we cannot afford to increase the population of people needing support.

People quite often quote the Scandi countries as having got the balance of working and benefit support right, forgetting that they have far smaller populations and a greater sense of social cohesion and fairness (I'm sure that not everything is rosy but they must benefit from the above). I don't think that's true in the UK.

It doesn't help that absent tosser fathers parents get away with paying basically fuck all support for their children. Maybe men would be less keen on having children if they knew that they would actually have to financially support them, especially if they had to pay even if they were living on benefits.

But posters on here fight tooth and nail for their benefits NOT to be changed by the payment of CMS

Probably because payment of CMS isn't guaranteed and rarely enforced. If the system changed to guarantee that the correct money ended up in the pocket of the RP, then I don't think people would be adverse to changing things.

... and then they go for interviews and present themselves as unsuitable. So the cycle continues.

UC, PIP and carers allowance.

It’s the ‘there’s loads of jobs’ that gets to me. Sure there is but you can’t just do any job.

I’ve just lost my job (no fault of my own!) and I’m looking for new work. The barrier I keep coming up against time and time again is timings. I’m beholden to the hours in between breakfast and afterschool club. I’m a single mum of 3 kids and I also don’t drive. Making it really hard to find work I can actually do. Everyone seems to also want weekend availability, I don’t have that either.

It’s a struggle and it’s causing a lot of stress.

I also just don’t understand how people survive on benefits? I’m not and money is so tight. I don’t understand how they have any disposable income?

Some people will have to if the car needs adaptions etc
We have a mobolity car for my don his second
Becsise he qualified due to severe mental impairment
We didnt need adapaptions
We also happy to to pick a car that didnt require a deposit( very limitrd choice )

But posters on here fight tooth and nail for their benefits NOT to be changed by the payment of CMS

I think it's more that they don't trust their ex to actually pay the CMS. As I recall CMS used to alter the amount of benefit you got but the exes were so crap at paying what they should that it was easier to take it out of the calculations. It seems mad to me, I think the CMS should just use the powers that it has and actually pursue the fathers properly.

@x2boys ..so sorry. I have a 26 and 19 year old both of them applying for all sorts. The 26 year old also has a 'good' degree. It is really really crap.

Only the mobility component which is £80 a week. It would likely cost more than that if they got the same car on finance and had to pay tax, insurance, any repairs etc.

Anyway, beside the by, I wasn’t arguing against the cars because I’m not an animal. Just highlighting the fact they are technically “free” for some people.

But they only get those things if they qualify for them don't they.

I thought the point people were making was that perfectly able people were making a career out of not working? So when their children are grown up...what will they be entitled to? Certainly not enough to live on.

They can through direct pay but it only works if the dad is employed. It falls apart when they’re self-employed or unemployed. They do take a nominal amount from benefits but I think it’s like a fiver a week so basically pointless. We’ve all heard of the men who work cash in hand to avoid paying it.

I guess we just disagree on what free means. I don't see anything bought with 'benefit' money as free.

We’ve all heard of the men who work cash in hand to avoid paying it.

Yes but most of MN seems to have no issue with that when it's their cleaner/window cleaner/gardener/builder etc.......

Maybe you could add another category:
d) people whose disability means they cannot work without incurring large additional costs on transport, equipment, other help but who DO work and need benefits to support them to do so.
I fall into this category as do many others - PIP is not an out-of-work benefit.

Got to LOL at the people saying there are jobs! Yes there are and about 100+ people applying for every vacancy. The problems with the job market mean that lots of people who are in higher paying jobs, are struggling to find those roles at the moment and are taking NMW roles to keep a roof over their heads which mean people who usually get those jobs are struggling massively to find employment. I also think there are HUGE regional differences in employment environments and availability. What is happening in one area isn't necessarily the case in another. I know a lot of young people who are unable to find paid employment at the moment because competition is so intense and they are not fussy about the roles they are applying for, have previous retail experience etc. Its not a fun environment to be looking for work at the mo!

Well said.

Oh I’m not saying I think MIL is getting a free luxury car. I’m saying SHE thinks that. I’ve looked into it and it looks like she can get a mobility-adapted car. Which would be appropriate. Looks like Nissan do some good ones that come under the scheme. It seems that even people who receive the benefits have been misinformed and continue a narrative about people on benefits living in “free luxury”.

I agree it's really hard, especially if you don't drive. The only thing that really springs to mind is a TA job in a school.

My local Tesco used to have loads of women in their 30s/early 40s working there, but now it's mostly older people or people who appear to be student age (the latter especially in the late afternoon or evening).

Mind you, now that most of the staffed checkouts have been replaced with self-service ones (aka "scab tills"), there's nowhere near as many people working there at all.

As it always has been, keep the poor fighting for scraps, whilst the rich live off the cream of the land.