Nick and Margaret: we pay...

[TattooEnvy]

Anyone watching?

I'm hoping Nick and Margaret are going to take a balanced non judgy view...

[LynetteScavo]

I think the point that some people who work are no better off than people on benefits.

I work with someone who was on benefits, started working part time (and kept some benefits) then went to working full time, and was only a couple of pounds a week better off than if she had continued to claim benefits. As a single mother of three DC, she would have an easier life if she'd continued to claim benefits. But she chose to grab the job when it was offered, and now has to juggle working full time with being a single mum. Not everybody would do that.

It shows how close the gap is between working full time on a low wage, and claiming benefits.

Wages do need to rise. But they won't.

[susiedaisy]

Some of the 39 grand is sat in his bedroom I think!

[smokinaces]

Goal, my bugbear with it is the constant "as a taxpayer my money is paying for" crap they're saying. That's the bit that bugs me.

[susiedaisy]

SoYo.

[timidviper]

Lynette Was he a gigolo? Your post reads very cryptically

Agree this is propaganda of the worst sort, all obvious spin and it is bad timing, on the the day MPs get their pay rise announced.The only way to sort his mess out would be if we truly were all in it together and everyone took a hit according to ability to pay. As long as pensioners, the rich, etc are exempt, people will feel aggrieved and it will be easier for Cameron and co to play us all off against each other.

[Goal]

Smokin - you have just shown why media is a pointless degree. You did well through getting experience and working hard which is what actually counts in most industries not a pointless degree

[Jellykat]

No Goal its never a balanced view, these programmes never include any of the 200 people going for 2 jobs at McDonalds, or the single mums who don't eat to feed the kids.. these people exist, DS1 had a 1st class degree and worked as a waiter after graduating, his best mate at a call centre, yet here we have Liam, its not a reflection imo..

[smokinaces]

Goal, it was like that. Fifteen years ago. Now i wouldn't get a look in without that degree paperwork. Part of the reason I've had to start retraining now to get a degree. Days of working from the bottom on experience alone without a degree seem to be long gone. The amound of jobs I've seen recently which i could do with my eyes shut on my experience, and i wouldn't even get past the first round as i don't tick that box of "graduate". That's a big issue nowadays sadly.

[expatinscotland]

Pile of wank! Long past the time the BBC was dismantled. Sick of paying for them to churn out this fuckwittery just so I can turn on the telly.

[Goal]

The irony is given the income of most of the taxpayers in the program, their tax probably wouldnt even cover their own "tax credits" which are just hand outs as well!

[DamnDeDoubtance]

What ever happened to the Frothers..

[LynetteScavo]

smokinaces I happen to know my colleagues DC are very proud of her.

[Goal]

Exactly jelly your son wouldn't have been chosen because he was working,don't you see the difference!

[Darkesteyes]

Exactly Goal The woman who was telling Kelly how to spend her money in the supermarket......Debbie runs her own cleaning company. I wonder if any of her employees claim tax credits.


Surely not though because that would make her a hypocrite.

[Goal]

Smokin - but it's not media degrees that people are looking for. Blair has a lot to answer for with os 50% to in target,more like 15 would be appropriate! With the exception of some professional roles eg lawyer or doctor etc degrees are largely pointless.

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

DH works and for the most part I have aswell. I have had 18 months off over 3 children and he brings home currently £1400 and I do go without food, I wear shoes with holes in and only but clothes when they have holes in ... I am not a single parent and our combined income because of childcare issues is usually about £180-£2000. Life certainly isn't always great for non-single parents too.

As an aside since I am looking for work can I claim job seekers? It has never actually occurred to me.

[smokinaces]

Lynette im glad :-D

I feel bad that I only work four days a week. That I get so much help. But I miss out on the children. If I had a husband here it would be different. But he fucked off and procreated elsewhere. So i try and do everything. I used to judge single mothers. Till i walked a mile

[sparklesandbling]

working in a factory would give Liam a good kick up the arse of reality. That's what I did when I finished uni so I could pay off the debts and repay loans taken from parents.

It annoys me that some people think they are better than that!

[Goal]

Maybenext week it will be net contributors judging the tax credits lot in manner of the two ronnies sketch!

[smokinaces]

Goal, the idea that everyone should be able to have a degree did indeed fuck it up. I saw someone the other day with a design degree moaning they couldn't get a job in finance even though they were a graduate. Eeeer wtf??!

I have a sister with a degree in a simialar payscale job to my current one. and I have family with degrees working in high street stores. Twenty years ago it all made more sense. Now everyone is expected to go to uni, and there are so many pointless degrees. Its ruined the workplace for so many.

[Chubfuddler]

The thing is that long term even low paid work pays by comparison with being on benefits. But it takes a certain mindset (assuming there are jobs available, which by and large there aren't) to think I should work now even though I'll barely be any better off because in twenty years I will be much better off than I would be still on benefits with no dependent children.

I find it hard to castigate people who are too bogged down in the kind of daily mental arthimatic shown on the budget programme preceding this one for not having that foresight. They are too ground down to look that far ahead, a lot if them, and even if they know they actually would be better off working and want to work, they can't get a job anyway.

I felt quite annoyed by the woman going on about how she had claimed unemployment benefit for a brief time but then rolled up her sleeves and had been in work ever since. Well yes. If you are skilled, and with recent relevant experience being out of work for a few months won't do your career any harm.

Being out of work for ten years is a bit different. It's not just a case of getting on one's bike.

[cafenoir]

I watched this with amazement. My family aren't from England. People at home take any job they can get. There is no room (and should be no room) for pride. You do what you have to do to put bread on the table, whether that's working in a factory, cleaning streets, wiping bums and mopping up sick. Job satisfaction is a luxury. I'm not saying my country is right because it isn't. There should be help for those who genuinely need it. No one should have to starve/beg/live on the streets. That clearly is not the mark of a civilised society.

It shouldn't be possible though to get more on benefits than you could get for working. Benefits should be for those who really can't work or for when you really need them (if you are made redundant etc). I didn't see anyone on this programme who couldn't/shouldn't work. In all cases it is their choice not to. The government creates a system that endorses this. Benefits shouldn't be cut. They should just go to people who genuinely need them. I can't believe that virtually all the people filmed who were on benefits had pets too?! I'm completely [shocked]

[Jellykat]

Goal, what i'm saying is not all grads have the same attitude as Liam, many would/ do work in crap jobs and many unemployed grads apply for shit jobs but don't get them.. but they weren't on the programme, only Liam and his bad attitude... i.e not all unemployed grads are unemployed through lack of trying!

[ShadeofViolet]

Chicken fillet lady had me raging at the screen.

[Mumzy]

So basically the taxpayer has paid £39,000 for Liam to do a media degree which he will probably never earn enough to pay off sheesh!!!!