How is 'the soch' short for 'social (security)' spelled?

[BrickBiscuit]

A current thread has confused people by referring to social security as 'soch', without further explanation. I am very familiar with hearing 'on the soshe' (as I might spell it phonetically), meaning receiving soc(ial security), but I can't remember ever seeing it written down. Also, I think the abbreviation always takes 'the' and is never just 'soshe'. How should it be spelled?

I've never heard it called the sosh. It's the social where I come from. But I would guess at sosh rather than soch or soshe.

in my area it’s the social.

soch confused me aswell

Thanks, that explains some of the confusion - some may never have heard it. However I have heard 'on the soshe' all my life, yet still didn't understand the post. The spelling threw me, and I can't imagine what spelling might have worked.

It's spelt dole where I'm from or if you are posh it's unemployment benefit. Nobody actually says social security.

If it rhymes with ‘gauche’ then the pronunciation symbols would be ɡəʊʃ but replacing the ‘g’ with an ‘s’, I suppose.

Or you could write it ‘sōsh’?

I'm used to 'on the soshe' covering disability and other benefits (but not state pension) - 'social security' being the posh version - alongside 'on the dole' for unemployment.

Interesting. The spelling needs to indicate pronunciation while maintaining a strong enough relationship with the root word to be obvious.

In Scotland it’s spelled “broo”, I had never heard the word from that other thread before.

I've heard of 'the soshe' and would spell it that way although I've never written it down or seen it written.

Never heard that as an abbreviation, and have lived and claimed in several parts of the country. Haven't even noticed it cropping up on TV. You're probably only asking out of curiosity, but I imagine as long as you transcribe it in a recognisable form it would be understood by people who use it.

I think the OP's point was that 'soch' as used on the other thread didn't mean anything to most people who would have read it with a ch sound, as in such/much/which.

The other thread was about paying into your 'pench' and many of us only looked at the thread to find out what that meant.

Yes, that's what I'm asking. What would be a recognisable form (given that 'soch' isn't)?

I think your 'soche' works fine (unlike the original poster's spelling of "soch'). I don't think there is an official 'proper' spelling of it, which doesn't matter as long as it's clear what's intended. 'Soash' or 'soshe' might work but 'soche' is better because the 'c' gives a hint that it's referring to 'social'.

It took me ages to figure out what that poster was on about, perhaps because it’s not a term used round these parts - at least not in my age group. In my head I was pronouncing it to rhyme with ‘sock’. I can’t think of a spelling that would work AND give a clue as to the origin.

The poster seemed to be using it to mean paying NI rather than claiming social security. We used to say ‘paying your stamp’ for the former and ‘on the dole’ for the latter.

I noticed that one - and also on another thread “pensh” or maybe pench for pension 😨. And I though text speak was bad enough!

That original poster was asked what 'soch' meant and said it was self-evident. It clearly wasn't!

That poster also claimed that ‘sosh’ or ‘soch’ meant NI contributions, rather than being on the social, as in drawing benefits.

No wonder nobody had a clue what the thread was about.

I address this dilemma by not using the word , verbally or written.

I hadn't appreciated that distinction, you're right. My experience is 'on the soshe' meaning claiming benefits, not paying NI or tax to fund them. This makes the other thread even more confusing. If they'd said 'paying stamp' I'd have understood. Or just simply 'paying NI' or 'paying for social security'. I doubt any of us have heard 'paying soch' used as such.

That's what I knew the dole as when I lived in Scotland. Short for Unemployment Bureau.

Never heard anyone say sosh/soshe anywhere I’ve lived in England.

Yes, ‘the social’ was the unemployment office, aka the dole office, the DHSS, or the Broo. It was about claiming unemployment benefits. The offices were where you signed on and they usually had a Job Centre on the ground floor with notice boards with job cards you took to the counter.

It had nothing to do with National Insurance contributions and state pension eligibility which is what that OP was wittering on about.

On the rock
Rock n roll
Dole

It's Nash where I live.

I was on the old jam roll for a while.

Oh, I thought it was a similarly stupid expression as the ‘pench’. Both just annoying. :-)
Never heard any, not even being ‘on social’ just as being on ‘on benefits’.