in thinking that the Government cannot possibly ensure people are better off working than on benefits unless they increase wages massively?

[TheJollyPirate]

TBH I cannot see how the Govt are going th achieve their aim to make sure "nobody is better off financially on benefits than in work".

I work part-time as I have a son with a disability. I take home £849 and get Tax credit of £190 plus Child benefit of course - Working Tax credit adds another £50 - all in all just over £1100. I am just over the limit for housing benefit and all other help although if DLA is approved for my son that may change a bit.

One of my families gets housing benefit of £700 a month plus tax credit, plus income support, plus child benefit. On paper at least they out-strip me and unless wages drastically improve (oh - was that a recession I just saw over there) then nothing much CAN change. The Govt are talking big but cannot deliver no matter what they say.

I will stay worse off financially than the family I work with who will remain unemployed because wages are NEVER going to amount to enough for them to get work and maintain their home. Not their fault and I am more fortunate in other ways but financially - nah - they are doing a bit better than me (but probably only just).

I am watching the Govt but not holding my breath on this one.

Or do you know different?

If so - explain because I am being a bit thick about it.

No problem.

Again - there are plenty of jobs where I am

toccatonfudge - Many single mums and mothers from working poor households are carers. The biggest problem we have here is there is not enough carers and due to the shortfall the care provided is suffering. My mum is a care assistant and she says this all the time. They do regularly take on single mums and mums from low income households who train inhouse with them. Again though a lot of people are selfish and dont want to bother caring for others. I think thats a shame as well you can gain a lot of satisfaction from the care of others.

Where are you? What are these jobs?

Tocca - I did care work without an NVQ, and thoroughly enjoyed it and felt good about helping those in need. I would happily go into care work again tomorrow if I could. I agree though, there are some carers that arent fit to do the job - but I knew some that had the NVQ and STILL gave shocking level of care..... putting residents to bed in dirty nightclothes and without changing pads etc.

I think carers should be paid a lot more than they are though - minimum wage, long hours and heavy duty graft is demoralising which is why care homes are inundated with "foreign" workers.... because a job is a job to them. Joe Bloggs wouldnt do that level of work for that level of pay. I would, have and will hopefully again because personally I feel the personal feeling of reward was enough to counter-act the shite pay. I cried the first time one of my residents died.... that is what a carer should feel!

but what sort of jobs, how many hours, what hours, temporary or permanent.

Violet my partner has no pension so we both have to live from our pension.

I also have a 5 year hole in mine. I also worked for 2 years part time. I enquired about overpaying but was advised to focus on increasing my wage.

We also at present do not own our own property, I am sure we will do within the next five years but it is a possibility that we will be paying rent in our retirement.

We will both have to live from my pension.

I am in London and there are plenty of jobs - yes not everyone lives here or could move here either and I have already stated that there are ares where you can't find a job HOWEVER that does not apply to everyone. There are also people who do not want to work

"oh gee"?

Are you an american?

'but what sort of jobs, how many hours, what hours, temporary or permanent. '

My mums does permanent contracts 16 - 25 hours you can choose. Many of the mums just do school hours and the ones that are childless or kids are older do the other shifts. Some of the mums have their kids with childminders that do nights/unsociable hours etc. She is at just one care home that is doing this but there are loads about

What difference does that make?

Mingg it is a complete mystery to me how anyone with a normal wage can afford to live in London. So if I was out of work seeking employment London would be the last place I would choose.

JARM - I know - I didn't have an NVQ (though started working towards it) when I was doing care work. I hated it, but it's changed now, you now have to either have one, or be working towards one - part of CSCI's new rules (except they're not called CSCI now are they?)

I certainly wouldn't want any old joe bloggs looking after any of my family..........or me.

Such was my misery in my job, conditions and low level institutional abuse I encountered (in an "excellent" rated home no less!) I nearly did't do the degree I'm working towards now. As it's Health and Social care and it took me nearly a year of looking at the courses avilable for hours a day to finally get it into my head I would never have to work in a care home again.

May I also add that these jobs are always advertised in the job centre they come up all the time as people dont stick at it. Again they have the same retention problems with the jobs again. Its very hard to recruit reliable staff

Katycarr - I am talking about people who already live here. There are plenty of people who could work and plenty of jobs yet some choose not to

Mingg, yes there are many, many job vacancies in London. I know I lived and worked there for years. However, housing and living costs are so high as to be prohibitive. Even with "London weighting" few could afford to raise a family there. I'm sorry, but however way you look at it, finding a partner, settling down and having a couple of kids is a basic human impluse. Few are willing to give that up in order to work themselves into an early grave in a dead-end London job.

I lived in London for years but either lived like a student or had a man with a six figure plus income who could pay London bills. As soon as that stopped and I wanted a family I had to leave.

wow - care work in a care home that's just school hours. I have never seen those before! Usually it's 7-2 (8-3), 2-9 (3-10), 9-7 (10-8), with rotating shifts and weekends as a "MUST" be able to do.

There are no childminders that do unsociable hours round here, certainly not as late as 9/10pm.

Mingg, your post of 19:46,

"what difference does that make?"

Did that refer to the fact that I asked if you were american?

If so it is very relevent.

Americans grow up in a very different poltical and social paradigm to the Brits.

Yes and the answer is no

nowt wrong with Americans - I'm getting myself into a nice little too and fro of messages with an American man (now living in the UK).........and I'm even seeing past the missing out of u's and replacement of s's with z's

(for those that were following my FB status Colin the plumber got cold feet after giving me his number and I've not heard hide nor hair of him for 2 weeks )

Fair enough, but your logic does seem american. I apologise never the less.

expatinscotland is American.........

No, there is nothing wrong with individual americans.

There is however a much greater hostility to the idea of a welfare state over there - and the use of the word "gee" sent me off on the wrong track.