Guest 728- Registered: 24 Oct 2011
- Posts: 31
I have worked for 27 years. In that period i have had roughly 8 weeks unemployed (i was made redundant once). I've worked hard for what i have and am frankly sick of the "benefit culture" this country has allowed to multiply for the last 20 - 30 years.
I have a few radical ideas for benefits:
If you've never paid in you do not receive any handouts.
If you are under 21 you only receive job seekers allowance if you've attended all training/job interviews available to you.
If you fall pregnant with your first child you receive benefits for a set period of time (2 years).
If you go on to have more children (i.e child 2, 3, 4 etc) you get nothing extra.
When will people in this country start to take responsibility for thier own circumstances?
The block of flats oppositte me has 11 out of the 12 families "on benefits" (i live in a buy to let area) and all 11 flats have a sky dish. The family that works does no have Sky.
This has to stop. When will Cameron et-al make a stand against the underclasses?
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
some interesting comments there steve
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 728- Registered: 24 Oct 2011
- Posts: 31
Keith:
Do you agree with any of my points?
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Is it reasonable to suppose, from what you say Steve, that eleven out of the twelve flats have been purchased with a mortgage (perhaps bought by the one-time Council Tenant at some discount)?
The rents charged are set so that the mortgage is covered, with perhaps a little left over for 'profit'? [not to mention covering the letting-agent's fees]
What with the current job market as it is and the wage levels as they are it must be difficult to plan ahead. For any would-be tenant earning enough to pay such rents must also know that for about the same money they too could join the housing ladder. So, if the properties are to be let and the go-getting ex-tenants - now property tycoons, are to realise their dreams of profiting off the efforts of others... Where are tenants to be found?
If we assume that go-getting types are those we all should aspire to be. Then must we not agree that the way forward is to be in a situation where profit is to be made from the efforts of others?
Who are these others to be?
Is it not now essential that a separate sort of person must be created, one with the wherewithal to pay high rents, but not the gumption to follow the go-getter into property to-let ownership?
BUT. Hey-ho... To cut to the chase.
On the one hand there are people, though unwilling or unable to toil for a £ in order to pay rent of just under a £ (or a £+), that still need a roof over their heads.
On the other hand there are people who have been (part) gifted a property and think it their due to receive in rent sufficient £s for their own needs (and a little bit extra) Or, more generally, those who have made an investment and therefore require a profit.
What a pity that the answers that spring to mind are such as would have the properties empty, the families homeless and the 'investor' severely out of pocket.
If only somebody had thought to build blocks of flats specifically for rent, at reasonable/low rents, to the very people who could work and live fairly well in a low pay - low rent fashion?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 728- Registered: 24 Oct 2011
- Posts: 31
This block has always been private. It was never owned by the council.
I've always been of the opinion that if you cannot afford it you cannot have it.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Sorry Steve, but I am getting heartily sick of this trend to make the unemployed, the poor and the sick the villians in the mess modern society is becoming. Demonising the victims is just a soft option for doing nothing.
At this point somebody will dredge up an old "example" of the lazy bugger their third cousin knew who never wanted to work or the mates sister who got pregnant so that she could get a council flat.
Fact of life time. Prices are rising faster than wages and more jobs are being lost than are being created. Most people on benefits would rather have jobs but most cannot get one.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 728- Registered: 24 Oct 2011
- Posts: 31
I work for the council where i live and see this scenario all of the time.
The problem in this country is a lack of moral values. Nobody can be told "no".
I've paid my wall all of my life but there are generations of families whohave either never worked or may have had a job once.
There is a growing number of people choosing benefits as a "lifestyle choice".
If you cannot get a job why would you be choosing to have kids for example? Where's society's moral compass gone?
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
A true Socialist then Steve?
I say that because anything that relies on 'aspiration' necessitates debt. For instance, the law has it that you cannot purchase goods at a discount for cash that are sold on easy-terms. The Capitalist system insists upon credit and debt.
The trick is ever that some sucker must be found to prime the pump. If too few suckers, then the public purse steps in, to make the necessary sucker of us all.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
# 6..is reality............it is easy to quote cliches when we are comfortable and do not have money or employment problems.
Guest 728- Registered: 24 Oct 2011
- Posts: 31
Maybe Dover doesn't have the extent of the "benefit culture" that this part of North London has?
I've had losts of money problems but 've kept my head above water by working hard and getting extra work when i need something.
That view of getting something by working for it is a problem.
How bad is unemployment/the benefits culture in Dover? Does Dover have large council estates?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
dover is much the same as anywhere else but without a large "big income" base.
the number of people skiving deliberately is pretty low, as seen by how many people return home at the end of the working day.
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
Simple mathematics
Its not surprising Brits are reluctant to work for this pittance
Unemployment benefit £68 plus £80 rent ,plus council tax £25 =£173 per week average in benefits .
Minim wage £6.19=£247 before tax and NI
If the mass movement of labour from Easton Europe had never happened the factory's and salad farms and hotels, would have had to increase wages to attract the indigenes workforce
Withdraw from the EU send back the cheep labour, get the indigenes people back in to the jobs market.
The Europhiles will bleat on but fu.. Them,
They are usually connected to the EU gravy train in some way.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
kieth,i am a europhile but the gravy train forget it,i havent had a sniff of it yet let alonr grabbing some.the gravy train is a eurosectics myth.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Of course it isn't a myth Brian - you must be an MEP or appointed to it to be on the gravy-train.
The whistle-blowers of the corruption there are at the minimum, sacked and ridiculed - sometimes worse.
Roger
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
roger,thats why its a myth,i am not an mep so dont get to see it or evan a sniff.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
come off it brian, i have seen you roll your cigarettes using 50 euro notes and you were seen coming out of h.s.b.c pushing a wheelbarrow.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
nah howard you missed a zero out,they are 500 euro notes.have now retired the wheelbarrow and got a roller can hardly parked around the corner.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Steve, to assess the situation in Dover, you need to reckon that we are part of the Garden of England.
Now: try applying for a job in a Kent salad factory, or in London Fancy Box, or one of many other minimum wage factories in Kent, or doing seasonal farm work (yes even only seasonal).
IF, and I mean IF, you (one in general) got the job, you'd be surprised to find that most of your work colleagues do NOT speak hardly any English.
It's more likely you won't get the job in the first place precisely because many such places recruit out of principle eastern Europeans, usually through agencies.
As it stands now, it is a lost cause. Unless the Government change this, forget even advocating that people should think more about working.
The Government wouldn't dare start a training course for factory employment or apple-picking (or any fruit and vegetable picking), even though it could create millions of jobs. If they did, the EU would go bezirk. And add to that other kinds of minimum wage jobs too, including care jobs and cleaning jobs.
Your best chance of getting one of the above mentioned jobs in the UK, is to move to eastern Europe, and join there a work agency, and pretend you can't speak English.
And change your name... Then you may be eligible to work in the UK.
But don't tell the employer!
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
Steve.
When asking the question "Where's society's moral compass gone"?
Why do you choose those on benefits as an example?
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
Steve;
i have to agree with peter on this one, although there are a number of people happy to live off the state unwilling to work(which is the problem area that needs sorting)
there are so many jobs being lost now and we see over 400 people applying for one job.
of course then with this we see the legal way on other scales we see people getting millions a year
maybe another area that needs looking at
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
