Is it acceptable to choose not to work?

[jinglesticks]

I have a friend who made a decision to never work and live off benefits instead. His father worked all his life, retired and died that year. As a result he became very angry with the work ethic in our society and decided life was too precious to waste working until you die. He now lives on unemployment benefit. He has to live very simply. He doesn't go out much, brews his own beer and plays the guitar all day. All this will presumably change under the new Universal Credits system. What do you think? Should one be able to make this kind of choice, or is it wrong to live off the taxes of others.

Incidentally, I wouldn't change places with him. Not for moral reasons. I'd much rather work in a job I love and feel that I earn the money I spend.

Oh lets slag off the unemployed again ....

I'm sorry but people like your 'friend' really make me cross. I'm sure there are many people who would choose to lounge around all day doing bugger all, all day, but few of us can afford it. To not agree with the work ethic but happy to go and claim his benefits, gathered from the taxes who those can be to go to work ..... how dare he?!

I don't think this is slagging off the unemployed. It's slagging off choosing not to work EVER, as a lifestyle choice to be supported by others.

Absolutely not. Makes me feel sick actually. No one really (if we are totally honest) wants to work in order to live. Most of us do. That's life. It's for the greater good of society. People work in benefit offices so he can get his money. Supermarkets so he can get his food. Nearly everything in his life will involve some one, somewhere, doing a job so he can live like he does. So no, I don't think it's fair he opts out.

He is a bit of a twat now you come to mention it.

Anyway don't they need some evidence that you are actually looking for work or they stop your benefits?

How is this news? Shouldn't this be in AIBU, rather than the "in the news" section?

Yeah, wasn't sure where to post it. I was interested in people's ideas towards those who choose not to work (linked to the governments new benefit system - as announced in the NEWS today - hence posting it here)rather than a discussion of my daft mate.

I think it's amazing that people may find themselves in a position of losing benefits if they turn down 3 jobs. 3? 3 ? THREE?

I can't be the only person here who has taken every single job offered to them to put food on the table & pay for the roof over my head? Turning down jobs? Egads - it's a different life.

The point is that someone who turns down three jobs is either moonlighting or, like the man in the example, bone idle... Same applies to the people who don't take the temporary/voluntary jobs spoken about earlier in the week. Both measures are ways to catch out the dishonest claimant because most honest claimants want to work, need to work and would accept the first job that came along.

I hate working. I am not very intelligent and can't work out a career which I am capable of doing which pays more than the minimum wage. I do love making stuff, baking stuff, growing my own fruit and veg, writing and reading etc. And wow, it would be lovely to have more time to pursue these hobbies. Maybe even learn some new hobbies - playing guitar etc.
I'd give up work like a shot.... IF i could look aftermyself without relying on others to pay for my choice.
Trouble is, I have a social conscience and earnestly believe in playing my part in society, helping in some small way to contribute to the greater good.

He sounds very selfish.

molly Please don't say you're "not intelligent" when you've just articulated and analysed your situation so clearly. :)

I can well imagine a situation where you'd turn down 3 jobs.
You pretty much have to apply for something, and I can imagine applying for a job that advertises school-friendly hours available (eg working in a department store). The thing is, once you get to this sort of interview, it's not uncommon to find out that you're being interviewed for a different kind of position. Same job but different hours. It happens a lot, especially with places which just have a rolling ad in the job centre.

I did that sort of thing in student holidays and I could always take what was on offer because I had no children.

If I turned up now for an interview and they said 'oh, sorry, what we really need is someone who can do 12 to 4 3 days a week but 12 to 8 on a Thursday and alternate Saturdays....it doesn't really take that much imagination to see how that wouldn't be a goer for people with small children and no childcare.

But apparently that would make me unwilling to work, or something

But unprune, there are nurseries/childminders/afterschool clubs.

I don't hold with using children as an excuse not to work if you're physically able to do so & claiming benefits.

Ofcourse it isn't ok. Why should others who do work pay for those that don't when they are able? I really hope there is more to your "friend's" story than you are telling, otherwise he is nothing more than a lazy, useless sponger disguising said laziness with some kind of stupid protest.

mollyroger you sound like you'd enjoy living in a commune - have you ever looked into it? :)

OP - I know people like this - the thing is they are mixing up cause and effect - working and dying. It's quite a compelling argument for him - dad worked and worked and then he died.

I would personally point out to him that his dad probably didn't look after himself and died as a result of that much more than working and lazy tossers who do bog all all day are much more likely to have heart attacks because they get lardy arteries.

No of course it's not acceptable.

I don't work at the minute, I'm lucky enough not to need to work for money but I will go back in time when the kids are at school for the personal satisfaction of earning money (oh and because my personal brand of wit and wonder deserves a wider audience ).

Prozac and a trip to the jobcentre for your mate I think.

Op, the 'I don't pay my taxes,sense of entitlement'brigade will have a field day with this one

It's not 'using children as an excuse', it's perfectly valid to turn down a job because you can't find childcare - and it's not that unusual. I realise they can't make rules that say 'oh but if you can't get a place at a childminder then we'll bend the rules' but in the interests of imagining scenarios where people are trying to get a job and are not able to take what's eventually offered...it's not so outlandish

I used to hang around a group of people who had who have choosen not to work (in a hippy middle class way ) many would never consider getting a job and sign on because they could.

Almost all of them activately made that decision.

For a few years they enjoyed it (bit like being a student, get stoned/pissed during the day, get up at noon and laugh at the rat race losers)..as the years go by some of them are getting increasingly bitter, as people they know who have always worked lifestyle improves whilst theirs stays the same, they get less employable, more bored and their bitterness grows.

A few of them always blame someone else for their joblessness, not the fact that they were getting fucked whilst the rest of us had shit jobs and they all laughed at us.

Some of them have changed their opinons and gone to uni/got any job going.

I did get a bit as I worked my shit jobs
then a bit as they began moaning
as the years went on I got more
and now I'm a bit at the waste of their lives. They are in their late 30s and I can't see them getting out of it.

Their own faults really though so they don't have much sympathy from me.

Of course it's not acceptable - it's a total misuse of public funds, and means there is less money in the pot for people who CAN'T work due to illness/disability etc. I don't see how anyone who cares about the genuinely needy could disagree

" it's perfectly valid to turn down a job because you can't find childcare "

Yes it is acceptable to turn down a role for that you are genuinely unable to do. If children mean you can't work particular hours (or if lack of a driving licence meant you couldn't do a driving job), those wouldn't 'count'. But if you turn down three jobs that you are able to do - even if you don't particularly like the look of the job itself - then that's going to be a problem in future.

As the whole world and the omnipotent all powerful people of the planet Zarcon know I was on the dole for 10 years.

With the exception of my sister I never met anyone who didn't want a job, we all just kept going round and round in circles in that circus doing the same rubbish over and over that didn't help anybody.

I wager that everyone wants a job there are just reasons why they don't get one, which are all valid IMO and need addressing.

Like mental illness/depression/lack of motivation, disability (the job centre is very harsh on people who fall into the trap of not being disabled enough to not get JSA but being not wanted by employers because of there disability), lack of skills, lack of ID /bank account/permanent address/work/school history and the biggest reason I think is fear of poverty, people have all ways been frightened of losing everything if they get a job and ending up on the street. thats not saying living in a high rise with 60 quid a week is better then working it's saying the wages are not even enough to continue a hand to mouth existence, which is just plan wrong and needs sorting out.

Most people know nothing of their rights anyway and what benefits you can get when working or otherwise, the Job Centre provides no information they tend to just point you towards the internet, something I've all ways found entertaining, why do they assume everyone is online? they expect you to go online to look for work, apply online for jobs etc, if people say they are not online they get told to go to the library has anyone seen the internet PCs in a library 3 lumps of useless junk with a waiting list .

I don't see why it's a case that only the rich can be hippies (lets face it thats all he is), he isn't hurting anyone, he isn't bitching about anything or demanding a massive house, you are paying to keep prisoners inside so why get bothered about a hippy.

Guy should just be a freegan, he can live in a tent with his guitar and busk for a few quid, nothing wrong with that, would anyone have a problem with that?.

I wouldn't have a problem with him living as a freegan at all. At least not until he turned up at hospital expecting treatment, whether it was for an ingrowing toenail or for a lifesaving operation.