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 admire your optimism but given recent election results I don't know what your certainty regarding Reform is based on! I do hope you're right, however.

I work but am also on benefits, I don't claim everything that I could but I'm sick of hearing the bile spouted about benefit scroungers etc.

There are NO free breakfast clubs round here (Notts) only the ones you have to pay for!

Over in Leicester and Lincolnshire I know some schools were part of a trial, but these free clubs, one school did from 8:15-8:45 until registration!!! That’s no good for a lot of people unless you start at 9am!!!! I start at 8am!

You're right @Flamingosareflummoxed in most of what you say. People are saying there's lots of jobs, and yes there are, but many of them are zero hours contracts, or just 8, 10, or 12 hours a week, and many are not permanent.

DH has wanted to get a new job for about 8 years, (as his gets him down sometimes,) but every job he has looked at has been 8 or 10 hour a week contracts. Most they offer is 13-14 hours. They offer a low amount of hours, so they can get away with paying National Insurance for people. Oh sure, there is 'overtime' and some weeks you can get as much as 20 to 22 hours! 😱(Usually when someone CBA to turn up/rings in sick.) But there is no guarantee of more than the contracted hours.

No-one can live on 10 hours a week pay. My DH's job is a 30 hour a week contract, and he is one of the last people at his place to get a decent contract. He's been there since 2008/2009, and from 2010 onwards, they stopped giving contracts with that many hours and started offering contracts with 12 hours a week maximum... So DH can't leave really, as he can't drop to such low hours.

Unsurprisingly, the turnover of staff at his place is phenomenal. He has been there for 18 years, and no-one else has been there longer than him. Longest amount of years of service next to him is 5 years! (and that person is the Manager so they are salaried, and not hourly paid.) It's almost like people can't live on 10-12 hours a week pay!

There were a few people who started there 2-5 years before him still there several years ago, but they have either been sacked, or have just left/retired.

.

Ha yes we’re still waiting on the elusive free breakfast clubs here in Yorkshire too… Our DC’s school’s is from 7.30 so it’s useful for us but I am a little bit concerned about how many more will want to use it when it’s free and whether they have the capacity. We rely on it to work but I imagine when it becomes free, some will use it just because.

I'm in my 50s with a lifelong autoimmune disease which is unpredictable and means I need really flexible working as I will have no choice but to take time off sick regularly, both for the disease and the side effects of the medication I take for it. Also tjne off for regular hospital appointments.

I have been out of work for over 20 years and have applied for literally thousands of jobs. I am at the stage now where I have no references or recent experience.

Where are all the jobs people keep telling me are available? I wish you could tell me because I'd love to know.

Sounds like you are well deserving of just staying on disability benefits. They are for people like you.

Out of interest where in the country are you based?

Not many employers will take on someone who's been unemployed for many years is, I think, OP's point.

I don't get any unfortunately. I applied shortly after I was diagnosed but was told I wasn't eligible. The disease had progressed since then and the medication has got stronger and wipes me out for most of the week. But the whole process was so humiliating and dispiriting I couldn't go through with applying again just to be made to feel like a fraudster.

DH works and we get by on his salary, but I hate being a burden and not contributing.

Don't want to out myself but it's a city in the north west.

Thank you

If she has DC under 18 she'd still be better off financially if working. Albeit maybe only a few hundred pounds per month, but it's not an all or nothing situation.

Yes we have said that. If it’s free, it’ll be a lot more appealing to people! Even if they aren’t going to work that day!

My sister is clerk to the governors at a school near her and we were discussing this the other week and how it would all pan out moving forward.

in my kids primary there is a nursery with about 60 odd kids who come for various sessions capacity is 2 groups of 20 with
1 QTS and 2 TA’s per group

then Reception, year 1, year 2, year 3, year 4, year 5, year 6 all have 2 classes of 30

If EVERYONE took them up on this offer they might as well start the school day at 7:30/8 instead of 9!!!!

I’ve no idea how they would facilitate that unless they tell everyone they are entitled to x number of free sessions a week and then allocate the free spaces and then allocate the “gaps” but if people rely on it for work they can’t have a system like this, it just wouldn’t work.

Yes OP and Nigel Farrage wants to do away with people being able to work from home. Flexibility in work is a life line for many people. I'm a teacher, I've no flexibility and I've to travel to work. If my husband wasn't able to work from home and take the kids to school and do pick ups (have them when they are sick etc) life would be very difficult.

Not everyone is struggling financially. If anything some are getting very rich indeed. For many there is no cost of living crisis whatsoever.
The reason people may grumble about everyone being on benefits is because there are so many people on them. So it doesn’t feel right or good.
Working tax credit is the biggest employer subsidy going. Once upon a time it didn’t exist. The employers like it because they pay a NMW and the taxpayer picks up what in the old days the employers had to pay. They keep more of their profit.
And there are so many things to claim for now. That never used to be.
And the thresholds for claiming some tax credits /benefits seem rather high to many. The fairly well off now claim credits. Which feels wrong too.
Ditto housing benefit. People renting out their social housing because they are allowed to and claiming housing benefit.
There has been a large rise in young people claiming disability benefits. Some people realise some children have problems that do need financial support. But some also think that there are many who see the opportunity for extra cash. Don’t bash the messenger here. You asked why people moan about people claiming benefits.
People often point to the state pension and call it a benefit. It is not one in the sense that the others are. And I would wish it was separated out from what people usually think of as benefits.
The usual benefits bill is unsustainable as it is. The reasons for it being so high are long debated. Reasonably well off people claim for things these days. They never used to do so.
And many don’t pay enough into our tax coffers as they should. That should change.
Either it comes down or overuse will kill the golden goose. There will be a massive reduction in benefits anyone can claim. I think the choice is to change things in a measured timely way. Not remove them overnight as some would do.

Yep, I’d love not to have to juggle work, two kids with complex needs and all my household duties. Life would be much easier if I could just focus on caring for my kids but I have bills to pay, children to feed, an example to set them of working for what we have.

You're right, but they do.

Other countries have different ways of dealing with benefits, it doesn't need to be all or nothing. In Spain you can only get unemployment pay under certain circumstances - not if you quit a job for instance. The amount you get depends on your last wage: starting at 70% I believe or maybe its 80% and decreasing every three months. The amount of time you can receive unemployment depends on the amount of time you have paid into the system: 6 months work = 1 month unemployment pay. The maximum amount of time you can accumulate is 2 years no matter how long you have worked.

I’m not so sure about this as I’m way better off in work than not.

However, when my DC were younger I really struggled to find a job due to childcare and being a single parent.

Nurseries/wrap around care only opened at certain times and I didn’t drive so had to rely on public transport and a lived rurally so there was only 1 bus a day each way.

Any job that I got had to fit in with those bus schedules and the nursery times.
The jobs that were available were extremely difficult to get as everyone in the area would be applying.

I think work is really good for people and everyone should be encouraged to work.

However, I feel a lot of people (especially on MN) do not live in the ‘real world’.
They assume everyone lives in places like London, with a good support network and has a bit of money behind them and so think it’s easy to get a job.
Single parents find it extremely difficult because it’s not just the being successful at interview - it’s the logistics of actually getting there.

I was very lucky as I did manage to get a job and have been able to slowly improve my circumstances but I know not everyone is as lucky.

For a single adult they get £300-400 a month plus rent. But that £300-400 has to pay for everything including all other bills, which is not a lot at all.

I've technically only been out of work for 3 months and am starting to think about how Im going to get back into work and not feeling optimistic.
I'm not working at the moment because I'm having chemotherapy. As my cancer is incurable I will be on some kind of treatment plan for the rest of my life.
So any employment will need to be

• flexible to fit round my treatment, doctors apprs, scans etc
• not physically demanding
• I"m 61 - not exactly the most attractive recruitment age.

I'm not 'above' retail or hospitality work, but those of you old enough to remember Julie Walters as Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques - bear me in mind I've worked on a check out in a large supermarket before, but I was 40 and healthy. I don't think people understand how physically demanding retail work is. I dont qualify for any benefits. Thank God my mortgage is paid off. I have a small pension which leaves me short £350 - 400 a month. My savings will get me through to September if I"m careful. I've got wonderful friends who have offered me money, but thats not a long term solution.

Its not the first time in my life that Ive been on sticky ground financially. Ive always done what I needed to do, taken all sorts of jobs.
But I was young and healthy then.

Unemployment is 1.8 million (plus most of those on benefits count as inactive, not unemployed) and vacancies stand at 0.7 million.
Whilst not all vacancies are recorded, the stats aren't exactly promising given the larger number without jobs, not just the strictly unemployed.

The NMW combined with working tax credits has meant everyone with a modest job can not progress and everyone ends up on almost the same money.
It wasn’t always like that. People sought to move up at work. To get more pay. And they could. Sometimes employers needed workers and had to put their hand in their pockets, sometimes it was the other way around. But it motivated people.
These need to wither on the vine as the expression goes.

They really can't.

Especially those who want more disabled people working but also seem to complain if they come across someone who might be a bit more slow etc at doing the job in retail and the such like.

I can't work because my son is disabled and it is unlikely he will be able to work in the future.

I run a business and am always advertising for roles so I dont agree there are no jobs.

Ive been shocked at the amount of people we get simply not turning up for interviews without being bothered to let us know (if you've changed your mind- totally fine, but at least have the courtesy to not waste our time waiting for you to turn up for interview when you cant be arsed).

There are jobs out there. Sure, they might not be paying 70k for 3 days working from home which is what a lot of people seem to think they are entitled to, despite the fact they are flaky as fuck and have very few actual skills

A lack of experience is exactly the issue. No matter how keen, and seemingly how able, few employers have the time to waste on someone potentially not up to the job and that could be in many ways.
In the 70s it was easy to roll in one position then another, as no technical experience was needed in most, bar traditional trades. As time has gone on, the desire for maximum profit has got keener and staff that aren’t delivering for their full buck is seen as an expense too far.
But it comes back to that old adage. You can’t get experience without the experience.