Kemi B - the best form of welfare is a well paying job...

[Oofftheflooff]

She is absolutely right isn't she? Discussing the triple lock pension challenge and instead focusing on getting people into work. Do you agree with her ? Working 3 or 6 or 9 hours to then top up with benefits isn't the way forward (not including disabilities in here )

It very much depends on the circumstances: Lone parents with young children and no support could easily burn out if working full-time.

However, without extenuating circumstances, I don't think people should be able to work part-time or on a very low income with UC top-up.

Agree on lone parents for sure as its difficult and childcare too expensive. They also need to think about how to administer it fairly
But single or couple and no caring responsibilities should be working at least 50 % or more of the time

It’s a tricky one, I work part time due to health issues but would rather the money go into better health care to enable people to work more.

and of course there are plenty of 'well paying jobs' around, aren't there ?;

I mean it’s hardly rocket science and pretty much the basis of socialism. Fair and fairly paid work.

The issue is we have a ruined economy from the last 20 years of government making well paid comparative to costs a hard bar to meet.

Yes now anyone have a plan to create some decent well paying jobs. Not zero hours not minimum wage. Maybe they could also come up with some training schemes or apprenticeships to train the unemployed for those well paying jobs. Maybe we find a way to make caring well paid.

It should be possible for a parent to stay at home at least part time to bring up their children if they want to. Far better for ( most) parents to bring up their children than the state. Work should pay well and allow for flexibility. Early intervention should focus on families who are struggling with young children and support them to be better parents at an early stage , this needs investment. It would help reduce antisocial behaviour in later years. Work is important but so is healthy family life.

Stepping away from individual circumstances work in general is good for mental health.

our welfare system was designed to support those returning from WWII. We are so far away from that now.

Easy to say ‘not including disabilities’ but you also have the grey area group of people not in good health but not technically considered disabled. Just chronic health conditions and they often need to work PT but don’t qualify for PIP. There needs to be a system where this is also recognised. Employers need to play a part yes but the benefits safety net/top up is needed.

Large employers used to employ multiple staff on low hours contracts so that they didn't have to pay employers national insurance contributions as the employee didn't earn enough. This was part of the reason so many people had to rely on uc to top up their wages.

Labour changed the earnings limit for this to make it a less viable avoidance measure.

If companies can't get away with this, maybe they'll employ people on full time hours

Couldn’t agree more.

If the best form of welfare is a well paying job then why is Kemi B so stubbornly against raising the minimum wage? And pushing policies that suppress wages?

It’s a catchy phrase to distract from the fact everything she pushes for does the exact opposite from generating well paying jobs.

There would be if small businesses were allowed to thrive, and not suffocated by increase in NI

Lots of retail jobs for example only offer short hour contracts. Where are all these high paying full time jobs going to come from?

You've rightly excluded disabilities. The approach to working is about personal responsibility, attitude and pride.

Maybe if the Conservatives hadn’t cutting local council funding so much that they removed all the jobs such as park keepers, cleaners, more social work positions, housing officers, planning officers, etc then we wouldn’t be in a situation where so many fit and healthy adults don’t have work to go to…

If only it were that easy, my town has inter generational worklessness, it’s a seaside town with high poverty levels, no industries and the only jobs available are NMW care work roles.

Due to living in poverty with little resources, these families are more likely to have poor mental health, poor physical health and unhealthy lifestyles, therefore more likely to be eligible for disability benefits which pay far more than the NMW jobs on offer.

Due to all these factors the town also has poor performing schools and low educational achievement, a university campus was opened in the town to try and raise achievements but then closed after 3 years when cuts had to be made, the PRU type unit moved to a temporary site whilst a new building was being developed, the temporary site was too small for the number of pupils so they were allocated one hour in school twice a week, what messages are the most disadvantaged pupils getting about the value of education and social mobility?

I don’t know how to make things better and I don’t think any of the political parties know either but restricting benefits is going to increase poverty and disadvantage for those at the bottom who do not have the resources to ‘get a better job”.

We are not far away from all the other wars that have been and are going on now. We are still fighting ISIS in Syria in Operation Shadr plus we have troops deployed to the strait of Hormuz because of the Israel&US conflict with Iran.

Ignoring individual circumstances because there are always going to be people who can't work, it's a hard statement to argue with.

Something tells me Kemi doesn’t really want the carers and lower paid to be paid well. Kemi’s priority is those over 100k having help with childcare. Seems completely uninterested in cross party social care reforms too. What do we expect from the party who pulled us into this mess. You can’t have it all but hey as long as those on above £100k get help with their childcare.🙄 They’re simply not fit to govern and she has no policies just sound bites.

Yet so many public sector jobs are so badly paid that they need to be topped up by UC. Soldiers, teachers, nurses, other hospital staff, prison officers all can’t make ends meet on their pay alone. When Keir Starmer became PM and gave these people pay rises (DS1 got the biggest one of his career) Kemi Badenoch kicked off about it. She can’t have it both ways.

Well there need to be well paid, full time jobs for that to work. Also opportunities to train and gain skills and qualifications

This!!! 👏🏿

Yet the central funds always seem to make their way towards senior management positions, as well as nonsense job titles.

It’s a nice idea but I’m not sure any of the parties have a plan to increase jobs or also improve the education and mental health systems so that children don’t burnout and become unable to work.

None of the parties ever mention reforming the CSA. I have a friend who has to live with her parents because her wealthy ex partner can live off his savings and so doesn’t need to pay her anything. Luckily their child is secondary age so mum can have a full time job but if the child was younger I expect they’d need welfare.