Cap on benefits to 26k- am I missing something?

[buggyRunner]

As far as I can gather it's the normal benefits ie housing/ cb and wtc. This seems like a large sum. Is it accross the board or does it include disability related benefits? Are the figures misleading?

If everyone was employed, then the free market so beloved of the Tories WOULDN'T WORK. Because a free market rests on the principle of having more 'workers' than there are jobs. To keep profits high and wages low.

In our local paper, in the last 12 months, there has been 3 jobs advertised. In my local jobcentre, when you do a 'local' jobsearch, the closest jobs are 120 miles away. For NMW. Which is impossible to cover the transport to work costs out of earnings. It's telling someone to go and EARN £45 a day, but pay out £60 a day to get to and from work. .

2.685m unemployed.

Less

400,000 vancancies.

Equals

2.280m unemployed.

Oh dear.

I lost my job 3 years ago. I am a highly educated, multi-skilled person with good references and a good CV. I was confident of finding other work. I actually didn't re-apply for my job as a TA in a school for special needs kids because there was a much older woman who had worked there for longer than I had and who would have struggled finding another job. I thought my chances of getting a job were better than hers so I told her to apply for the one post and I left.

I applied for around 5 jobs every week. Jobs that I was qualified to do. I didn't even get a reply letter. After a couple of months I started applying for supermarket jobs, cleaning jobs, office junior jobs, anything but I didn't get anywhere with them either, I was over-qualified.

It is NOT TRUE that there are lots of jobs. For every job advert there are around 50 applicants. I HATE it when people in a job tell me that there are lots of jobs. Tell you what then, you start applying for some of them and see where it gets you?

I'm now self-employed. My income is not regular and the work is not secure. My husband is a truck driver who earns £14,500k pa. He gets up at 5.30am every morning and gets back at 6pm. He's been threatened with redundancy twice and had to settle for this low paid job rather than lose it altogether.

We are just above the threshold to claim any benefits. We get child tax credit and CB but no help with school meals or council tax and neither should we. However we earn a lot less than these people claiming benefits. I am not saying that they are not entitled to benefits, I know how impossible it is to get a job, but why bother getting a job when you will be in the position that we are in? Struggling to keep your heads above water?

Yes there should be a cap on benefits but also the government needs to ensure that employers are paying a fair and liveable wage because no-one wants to work for peanuts. My husband is not on a fair wage, not by any stretch. But he does it because he's always worked, as have I. Not working is just not an option we want to consider but if he gets made redundant we might have to. However we wouldn't get any help with our mortgage.

The real people who are suffering here are those workers who live on the threshold and there is nothing being done to help them. No-one seems to give a shit about the low-paid workers. It's always focusing on those receiving benefits or those with huge bonuses. There is a working class and it's not those who are unemployed, it's those who work long hard hours in dangerous jobs with no lovely pension plans, no flexible hours, no time off in lieu, no Christmas bonus. Where is our voice? Who fights our cause?

Yeah sure, stick up for those on benefits, but remember that there are equally deserving causes who are being forgotten.

Sorry,

and actually according to the ONS, it's 463,000 vacancies.

So that's 2.685m unemployed less 463,000.00 equals 2.222m unemployed.

How are those 2.222m people supposed to get on their bike and get a job.

Tilly - I'll have that job!

Tilly - doing what, and is it in the SE? I'll do it if you are willing for me to bring DD with me work for you when I have epilepsy, and lots of possible time off sick. I'm a GREAT prospect as an employee.

To be quite honest, if I was the employer, I wouldn't wouldn't employ me when I would have 500-odd healthy applicants to chose from, few of whom would have caring responsibilities.

Who's willing to give ME a job over someone healthy? I'm fairly literate, hard-working when I AM in employment, punctual, smartly dressed, don't drink or smoke. However, I may have to go home halfway through a shift at work, or call in sick with VERY little notice, as having seizures is so unpredicatable. Oh, and I might also need to take quite a bit of unpaid parental leave too, due to having TWO dc with additional needs. OH, and I may also need to bring my 13yo with Autism with me, as there aren't any SN chiildminders locally that are willing to look after her. I wonder WHY I am unemployed?

Thanks for replying re you house HuntyCat, I'm still interested to see the rates somewhere for the new UC.

It seems that your problems aren't to do with your Housing Association more than UC. If they're raising your rent up by 40%, that's surely not a Universal Credit problem.

Regarding getting 2-bed rate while living in a 3-bed, is that something to do with this?

england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/home_safety/overcrowding

You've got 2 under 10 tens, an under 1, an over 10, and an adult. That should translate into a right to one bedroom of at least 70 sqft for you and the under 1, the same for the under tens, and also for the 13-year-old.

If they have got you as living in a 2-bed for LHA is that because the third bedroom is too small? (under 50 sq ft)? I couldn't see anything that says there's a lower limit on the total property size? If so, it seems like you are overcrowded and need to apply to move.

I guess you will be entitled to a 4-bed when your second child turns 11.

TheRhubarb - but that is EXACTLY my point. Getting employers to pay a LIVING WAGE to ALL of their employees would solve the need for in-work benefits like Tax Credits and Housing Benefit. And if your household income is LESS than £16,900pa - you SHOULD be getting Free School meals. It's a little-publicised criteria that LEA's like to bury in the small-print of the form. Worth getting your local FSM's form and reading it carefully...

Well, yes Rhubarb - no one is saying that we can't do both. I am equally vocal about the shitty NMW. I haven't had a payrise in four years, no xmas bonus, no pension, 20 days holiday per year - I know how much of a struggle it is, but I absolutely refuse to believe that my situation would be better if someone poorer than me was made even worse off and I find the level of persecution by this government to be abhorrent.

HuntyCat, have you tried applying as a TA at your local school? With your experience you could be a TA for children with special needs. Talk to your school and make sure they know you are interested in any possible vacancy. In fact phone round all the schools. The hours are perfect, the holidays fit in, etc.

It's what I did and it worked fine until my pupil left to go to secondary school and there was only post available for the next school year. I left at a time when schools were expecting huge cuts and so TAs were scaled back, but I've noticed that in some areas, TAs with experience of children with SN are in demand so it might be worth a shot? A lot of schools only advertise internally too which is unfair, so make sure you have a word with the head of each school and send them your CV. If you haven't got a CV I'm willing to help you put one together if you'd like?

You would lose a good percentage of your benefits if you got work however, but you could earn up to £10k pa doing this job.

Shirley, you're forgetting the two million or so who are looking for work but aren't claiming IS or JSA.

5 million people are chasing 500,000 jobs

and with the introduction of Workfare, it's going to get a whole lot worse. Why pay someone NMW when you can get them for free on workfare.

By cup of vile I guess you mean expressing views that don't fit with your own.

It's all gone a bit quiet - can someone who keeps saying "get a job" please respond to the disparity between vacancies and the sheer number of unemployed please?

Huntycat - my dh earns £14,500k pa, I earn around £9k pa. Like I said, just above the threshold for things like free school meals.

Shirley, I don't believe that some benefit claimants are poorer than us. I think some of them have a lot more to spend each week on themselves than we do. There are plenty of people in our situation, who work and find themselves scrimping and saving. I don't believe anyone should be poorer no, but I also don't think that will happen.

The government needs to focus on employers paying decent wages. That would provide a proper incentive for many to get work. But right now, if they did what my dh does they'd get a pittance. Why would you get up at 5.30am and work until 5pm when you can stay at home and earn more by claiming benefits?

Not everyone plays the system. Some people on benefits deserve what they get and they DO try hard to find work, those with mental health problems find it particularly difficult to find a job. But where we used to live, there were plenty of families with satellite TV, designer clothes, new cars and the teenagers of these families were also on benefits. There was no work ethic and seeing that on a daily basis made me cynical. However I have also seen the other side, I've been a carer and visited families of very very sick people, who struggle to pay for basic essentials. They certainly weren't on £26k pa.

It's just stupid logic to argue if there are 2 million unemployed and not 2 million job vacancies that there are no jobs. Even stupider to use that to justify not needing to look for a job.

It's an insult to everyone who are actually sending off CV's, trying their best to get a job.

There will ALWAYS be an amount of people unemployed. There will always be people being fired, made redundant, seasonal work/whatever.

Some jobs will be oversubscribed yes. Some will not be. Yes, some will require a degree of flexibility which again....some cannot have due to family circumstances.

But hey...no job out there is perfect. As a single dad I've had to leave my kids with friends/relatives/whoever I could when I have to travel on business. I often have to work late. There isn't an ideal job out there.

But again...we're getting off the point.

I still maintain that £26k a year is a lot of money to be giving a family with no disabilities. And it's absolutely bizzare that some people think it's OK if a working family cannot afford to live in a certain area because they don't earn enough. Yet an unemployed family shouldn't be subject to the same restrictions.

And lastly don't forget that this £26k value is calculated from direct benefits such as HB, CB, JSA etc. There are also a lot of other 'benefits' which push up the overall real figure such as free school dinners, free prescriptions, free dental/eye tests etc. etc. A family with only three kids will be saving over £100 per month on school dinners when compared to a working family. Again, not a number to be sniffed at.

Why is it that anyone who questions the cost is painted to be an uncaring heartless right wing daily mail reader? Last time I checked, money didn't grow on trees.

With regard to the comments above re the continued increase in DLA claimants over at least the last decade, it's not simply the ageing population.

Here are the data, broken down by age group:

83.244.183.180/100pc/dla/ccdate/cnage/a_carate_r_ccdate_c_cnage.html

The number of claimants in ALL age groups have increased. For example, the number aged under 30 was 431,000 and is now 640,000. That's a rise of 49%. By comparison, the number of claimants aged 60 and over has increased by 43%. Clearly we have an ageing population needing more help. But that doesn't explain things fully, given that the biggest rise in claimants was among young people.

so £26000 minus the £21515 outgoings and bearing in mind im being consertive with Gas and Electric bills and not include d tv licence in that

leaves me £4485 a year

6000

£13200 to the Landlord

£1950 council tax benefit times 12

1065 free school dinners £7.10 a day.

Eletric £1040

gas £1040

Water £720

outgoings of £17950

£375 add in dinners for ds1 at collage consertive £2.50 a day

£240add in his top of £8 bus fares

rent top of £1200 a year

someone ele can checik as doing on paper but ima round £21515

There are some pretty cheap houses in parts of Wales. You know, where the mines were closed and unemployment is at a record high and you have fourth generation unemployment.

My Mum was telling me about all the recent closures and job losses in the local paper and we're in the S.E, forty minutes from London. It's expensive but Christ knows what the job situation is like in other parts of the country.

Workfare, haven't we seen that before? Was it not called the YTS scheme. Ah yes, I worked in a dog kennels on my own, i.e. unsupervised 5 days a week for £35. I got 2 buses in and walked the last mile. Then I cleaned the kennels, walked the dogs, fed the dogs, bathed the dogs - all on my own. I got attacked a few times, but thought it came with the territory.

As soon as it came to the end of my training, where they could either employ me properly or not. They made up some story about me not feeding the dogs enough and not caring for them properly and so let me go.

What a joke.

HuntyCat IT. i almost gave the job to someone with dyslexia & had had time of work for stress but decided he was a knobber & i would process him! as a small employer, someone with a disabity can be an opportunity because they would not look at you if they could get work in a larger organisation.

basically it is a way of me getting a quality person. actually i offered a part time job to a woman recovering from DV - again me giving her flexibility for childcare meant that i could get a quality person doing receptionist plus anything else i could put her way.

Spike

There are not 1800 jobs in Crawley...your search area also takes in a large chunk of Surrey and Sussex. I even saw a vacancy in W. London there. Very disingenuous of you.

I scrolled through them...there is one post for which DP is qualified, and he'll be up against most of his department when applying for it.

"It's just stupid logic to argue if there are 2 million unemployed and not 2 million job vacancies that there are no jobs. Even stupider to use that to justify not needing to look for a job."

"Sorry,

and actually according to the ONS, it's 463,000 vacancies.

So that's 2.685m unemployed less 463,000.00 equals 2.222m unemployed.

How are those 2.222m people supposed to get on their bike and get a job."

Huh? How am I using "stupid logic"?

I think if there's any "stupid logic" being used it is the logic of "Why not move to get a job?"

When I have clearly demonstrated that by going on Government bodies own stats there are a huge number of people unemployed and a relatively small amount of jobs.

niceguy2 - completely agree. We have bought an ex-council house. The area isn't one of the best and there are certainly no rubbing shoulders with the gentry, but it's a house and the best we could do.

Why should someone on benefits live in a bigger, nicer house in a lovely part of London? If you can't afford to buy it or rent it then you have to look at other parts that might not be so nice, but are still liveable. It's a choice thousands of working people make every single day. Yeah it sucks not being able to live exactly where you want but hey ho, that's life.

However there are countless people on benefits who are left to rot in dodgy estates too. I'm sure they'd love a nice house in Notting Hill. It's unfair on everyone.

TheRealTilly, if the job is anywhere near me I'd love to consider it. I don't work in IT but I do write content for websites, have a good knowledge of SEO and CMS systems - I've built two of my own websites. I am very proficient with Microsoft Office and can do remote working because it's what I do now. I'm a copywriter but work is slow as many website businesses are struggling too.