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.

I agree. I know several people in their late 40s/ early 50s, professionals with years of experience, who struggled to find employment after being made redundant, despite sending out hundreds of applications.
Age seems to be a significant factor, in addition to the high numbers of applicants for each job.
I‘m not sure how easy it would be for someone who’s worked for years/ decades in senior roles to get a job stacking shelves or similar, even if they wanted to.

Yes I do realise that, I should have added that this is for the teenagers or kids looking for work who claim they will do anything.
From my experience with the job, they hear oh its only 2 or 3 hours but its actually hard work and very early starts. Ive had people not turn up to help clean with me because they 'didn't set their alarm' and after one or two shifts can't be arsed to do it anymore.

Wow - what kind of industry is this?

I haven’t had to look for a job for such a long time, but I did just go on Indeed and there is pages and pages of jobs, from retail to care,
both public and private sector. There are apprenticeships, part / full time work. Drivers,
trades, all looks very healthy.

The problem (totally discounting disabled) is that as other PPs have said people don’t want these jobs or their situation can’t accommodate these jobs.

The hard and true reality in life is that our lives should fit around work and not the other way round. There are conditions and laws in place that allow for work/life balance. For flexi hours, for sick leave and all of the requirements that the average worker needs in order to go out to work and live.

I live In a large county with many towns and villages and there are jobs advertised across the county.

To say there are no jobs is stretching it a bit.

And in response to the thread title, I don’t know OP, what would be your perception of people on benefits winning?

Life is actually hard for everyone. We all
know that there are vulnerable people who the state does and is willing to assist and provide for. That goes without saying.

It is not the so called “benefit bashers” that do them a disservice, it is the ones that can work but don’t that harm the vulnerable and disabled.

In some ways, but my in-laws did this and actually had a pretty good life. They had council properties right up to their death, which was covered with housing benefit, including round-the-clock care in apartments that were very modern and well-maintained, new furniture and carpets. They wanted for nothing and had holidays every year. It's not as bad as I had assumed.

I’m guessing care work or delivery drivers.

being vague but sort of call centre but not sales and no targets to hit
29k ish

Nooooo. It’s a job that needs decent customer service skills and telephone experience but you don’t need qualifications as such

I’ll throw this in just to wind things up a bit. On nearly every local shoot there will be someone earning cash in hand (circa £50 a day) for beating, walking up to 10 miles perhaps, whilst they’re very long term unemployed. Sometime for multiple days in the week.

There are laws around flexible working but it's not as straight forward as an employee saying 'I need to work flexibly' and an employer having to agree.

At my company we don't get sick pay, we could of course claim SSP but I certainly couldn't live off that.

I'm incredibly conscientious and have a great work ethic and I find it irritating when people don't - but as a single parent I do recognise that I've been fortunate to be saved multiple times by my own mum (who works from home) as my employer isn't flexible at all.

In addition, whenever I've wanted to change jobs in the past, I've had no trouble at all. In the last year I've applied for multiple jobs that I'm perfectly qualified for and rarely even hear back. So there have definitely been huge changes in the job market in the last 10 years or so. Not that there is necessarily a shortage of jobs, but rather many more people applying for each role.

This is not what disability benefits are for ! Many millions of people in the UK have an autoimmune disease (including myself). An autoimmune disease generally does not mean you cannot work, if you really want to. This idea that if you do not have perfect health then you are in need of help from the government is utter madness. We need a bit more of a get up and get on with it attitude in the UK, and if the benefits system did not exist I think a lot of us would magically find ourselves able to work.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the majority of MW workers I know are not English. We don't have a reputation for being work shy for nothing.

Not everyone with the same health condition is the same.

The issue really is that some people just don't think about the future. I say some because obviously there's people that go through hard life experiences through no fault of their own and find themselves in a difficult position relying on benefits. However, there's also people who don't plan ahead. Get pregnant (numerous times) with no real plan of how to pay for said child and no room in the house for them either. Then claim benefits staying they can't work due to all the children and also moan that they have no room in their council property and they need moving. If people thought ahead they could not get pregnant until in a position too financially provide for a child.

I will add that I got pregnant young and unplanned. I had my son and I made damn sure that I worked my arse off to own my own house and be financially secure. I will add that I have no qualifications and I started in a council house on a minimum wage job. I never left a job until I found another better one. Theres a lot of sacrifice, I was a single mum and missed a lot of my son's school events etc because of work but it is the sacrifice I had to make. Others would work part time and rely on benefits, I never wanted that. It can be done but people rarely have the right work ethic now.

Which is why PIP isnt awarded becsuse somone has a.diagnosis its awarded on how that diagnosis impacts a person.

I work for a small business (in admin personally), we've got colleagues who've stuck around many years, some nearly a decade and several have kids that used to be babies when they started, they like the job, it pays more than min wage and is reasonably easy to do once you get the hang of it, I used to do that same job myself and I enjoyed it personally, but what happens is, when we need to recruit, for every job ad we run there are quite a few applicants, but when you do call them, they very often show big enthusiasm for the job then just disappear, either just after the initial contact call (they then block you) or during the onboarding process they just change their mind.

I don't know the reason why they do this, it's a complete puzzle, I can't see the motivation for people actively chasing work and then just going away again, but it makes it so hard to get new people who would genuinely like to do it, with these ones wasting time each time, so this is part of the problem. A job can be on offer but people who don't want it waste our time and then weeks go by with nobody new starting until all of a sudden, a genuine person starts and all is well again. God knows what this is all about but it's a pain and this makes it hard to think people are desperate to go to work, but it could be that it's different in different locations of the UK (I'm North West)

The majority of people on benefits are either too old or ill to work or can't speak much English so wouldn't be very safe for them to work and follow instructions etc.
Also depending on where you live, there either are some or no jobs. There is nowhere with a. Great abundance of jobs, some areas have practically zero vacancies.

I say this as someone who has been in full time continuous employment since before I finished education.

Nobody's saying that. 🙄 Of course jobseekers need to apply for jobs, and they do. I'm just being real about the difficulties involved, maybe you should try it sometime.

Nothing will change until people realise how untrue this statement you have made is.

Have a run through with I think it is Mcmillen Nurses for possible benefits.
I wish you well love x

They could have been offered a different job that suits them and their situation better.
That has happened with DM and her company. Someone turned down a job offer because they had been offered one that they liked more.

Oh ok. Very dependent on location, I would think? I come from Bristol and everybody’s first job seemed to be BT cos it was shift work - but it was in the centre so dead easy to access. There must be places which don’t have call centres.

@HobGobblynne , your situation is very similar to mine when I was a young single parent. Thankfully I had my mum also for emergencies and nurseries were provided by the local authority.

I never had problems changing jobs either and would give myself a two week limit to get 2 or 3 interviews lined up.

Things have definitely changed and the reality is that fewer jobs are available because of NI, wage and energy costs.

Attitudes change as well. It was socially unacceptable to be on benefits unless you where on your knees or you were one of those families that were just on benefits, when I was younger.

Believe it or not there are people that still hold that attitude and will do jobs like hospital and
kitchen porter jobs. I have worked in both hospitality and the NHS, seen it!

My view back in the day was that if you really wanted a job you could get one. Yes it is harder but surely no able bodied, mentally stable person needs to be out of work.

@IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken

Thank you for your good wishes.

Believe me and Macmillan have been through it all. A combination of my age and tiny pension currently exclude me from benefits.
If my consultant tells me on Tuesday that I'm terminal as opposed to just incurable then I will be able to get PIP
Hey ho, maybe a small financial benefit to dying

Some cannot work due to disability or caring duties. Some have spells of unemployment between jobs. But people that choose to claim benefits because it’s easier than working for it ought to get some self respect.