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 )

I often wonder why supermarket workers don't go on strike for better terms.

Oh yeah. I know. We used to live in a hole in the ground and we ate gravel for breakfast. And we were grateful for it. Do me a favour.

They earn just enough not to claim UC but it's literally just enough

https://www.health.org.uk/media-office/press-releases/uk-care-workforce-twice-as-likely-to-live-in-poverty-as-average-worker

And where exactly are all of these well paying jobs?

Kemi B represents the party that decided in the 1980s that Britain should focus on services rather than on manufacturing and primary industries, removing hundreds of thousands of well paying jobs from the national economy. Then these services were outsourced to other countries where wages and conditions are lower, and that while services might generate a profit for someone on paper, they rarely actually increase or generate any wealth.

She represents the party that decided that vital public services should be run as profit-making businesses by private companies rather than as services that take into account the needs of the consumers, of the environment and of the country as a whole. Billions of pounds have left the UK economy in the form of dividends and interest payments made to foreign investors - money that should have been used to improve these services and that would have circulated withing the UK economy.

She represents the party that sold off the affordable council housing and that refused to allow the councils to build more homes with the money generated. One of the biggest issues facing the country is the lack of affordable housing, and even if wages increased, demand for housing would remain the same, house prices would increase and landlords would increase the rent.

She represents the party that spaffed the billions of pounds of revenue from North Sea oil and gas, setting the license and extraction fees too low (in order to benefit their chums in the oil industry) and using the revenue generated to cut taxes for the wealthiest. Compare and contrast with Norway, which set up a sovereign wealth fund using North Sea oil revenues to finance the state pension scheme and which currently has assets of over $2 trillion.

She represents the party that removed the UK from the biggest and most unified trading bloc on the planet, conveniently located just 21 miles away - a decision that has cost the country billions in lost GDP and that has cost every adult in the UK around £3,000 a year since 2016.

Nobody will disagree that well paying jobs are vital to the economy, and vital to the health and well-being of individuals and families, but the Conservatives do not have a track record of delivering these jobs - in fact, quite the opposite.

Likely because of their household situation and not that care work pays enough to support yourself.

My Dad was horrified when I suggested claiming benefits between school and university and I didn't. Nowadays, young people have no shame when it comes to getting free money. I blame the furlough scheme. People sitting around at home improving their golf swing or their French at the taxpayers expense has changed attitudes to getting free money.

Plenty of people under this government surviving on crap wages, working all hours to get more money in. Those are the people we should be applauding - the ones who are too proud to go on benefits. This used to be common practice. Working long hours for a better life. Now too many choose benefits.

How patronising. Looking down at the poor proud people.
I'll await your applause when I find myself out of work at the end of the year, rattle through my savings to pay my mortgage and then find anything on minimum wage (if I'm "lucky") and work 18 hour days rather than claim the small amount of UC I'd be eligible for.

on a midwifery fb group I’m in someone who has recently qualified and been offered a job is discussing not accepting it as she will be better off on universal credit (she has kids). How can someone have more money being unemployed than being a midwife! 🤷‍♀️.

Could you post a screenshot?

Well there might be more if previous political parties hadn't made myriad decisions

Including rhe supposedly temporary introduction of working tax credits intended to help industry rebuild post financial crashes

There are many antecedents but the WTC/UC system is none of the more egregious. Mostly because it ushered in the gig economy, shifted the burden of workers rights from employer to tax payer.

It's a shit benefit, all the right intentions and all the wrong executuon

No we can’t all earn the same, but employers are looking for higher levels of skills and experience for much lower wages. I recently saw a job for a service manager in an organisation working with at risk young people, so highly skilled work, carrying high levels of risk with significant emotional impact. The salary on offer was £32k, for someone with professional qualifications and extensive experience. Absolutely ridiculous.

I'd be interested in it too. The whole point of topping up low wages with UC was so that no one would be better off unemployed. Every hour worked only loses 55p to the £1 on UC so every extra hour worked means extra money in the overall income. Someone is lying, a midwife wouldn't be better off on UC.

Narrow minded views I think. Sorry. Others will always have different experiences and views. When Thatcher died, a couple of colleagues told me her policies had helped them get on the housing ladder. They were still working on a low call centre salary in 2012 so not likely to have been able to get onto the housing ladder otherwise.

What about student loan repayments?

Typical Tory/Capitalist way of thinking.

Not everyone can have a 'well paying job' in a society where those who own successful businesses need workers who are nowhere near 'well paid'!

Her party back business owners in their poor treatment of staff AND THEN make allowances for them when they skip paying the fair taxes their workers are forced to make!

These fuckers have only and will only ever think of themselves.

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence is able to understand that the core of Kemi Badenoch's economic strategy prioritizes wage reduction over wage growth.

Seeing as people are anonymous I guess so. I assume you weren’t sure whether I was making it up or not. 🤷‍♀️. So quite a few comments with people saying they’re working and still get UC inc one person who gets over £500 in UC. Peoples jobs should pay enough that they don’t need propping up by the state. Ironically in this case it’s the govt not paying nhs workers enough but it will be repeated for private sector workers I guess.

Exactly. I voted YANBU because the headline can’t be considered unreasonable. But we can disagree with Kemi’s policies as a way to achieve this.

It's very simplistic. Not everyone can get a well paying job and even if they could, there's not enough well paying jobs for everyone.

Not to mention the fact that someone has to do the minimum wage jobs.

There weren't all the modern conveniences and labour saving devices back then and being a housewife was actually a full-time job or close to it.

Student loan repayments aren't 45% of total income so I don't see how they would make someone better off on UC.

Thousands of people got on the housing ladder thanks to Thatcher, but she pulled up the ladder for the generations that came after by effectively stealing the council houses (they were never the government's to sell) and at the same time preventing the councils from using the money to build the next tranch of homes.

She also destroyed whole communities when the primary industries closed - towns and regions where once the major employers closed the entire local economy collapsed. People were forced to move to other areas of the country where employment was available, putting even more pressure on the local housing in the prosperous areas and leaving the older towns hollowed out. There's a reason why a one-bedroom flat in North Shields can cost £50k while a similar flat in North London will cost £500k.

So you knew when you posted that she wouldn't actually be better off on UC, but you posted as if she would be anyway.

To me another issue is that “mid level jobs” just aren’t rising in line with minimum wage, or even inflation.

Jobs that used to be considered “good” are now only a small fraction over minimum wage.

Twelve years ago I worked in an office and was paid £25k, about 40% more than minimum wage, now a days the same job only pays about £28k, around 10% more than minimum wage. Plenty of other jobs are the same.

That job, at the time, would be enough for someone to live alone, renting a 1B flat, pay your other bills and maybe run a small car. Not anymore. What will happen if the minimum wage goes up again? So called “skilled” jobs will be paying the same, and employees will have no incentive to stay in roles that require learning new skills and taking on responsibility. Why would they when you could make the same working in Tesco, or similar for the same wage, with a lot less stress and responsibility?

I wonder what will happen in ten years time.

I'm guessing they would all get sacked?

The minimum wage is way too high and has continually been raised above inflation year on year, resulting (as was predicted when it was introduced) in employers seeking to reduce their employee liability as much as they can by operating on skeleton staffing levels and eagerly embracing automation. £12.71 per hour for even the easiest and least demanding or responsible of jobs is madness.