You mean I’m not lazy or lacking in will power? Perhaps it was those ‘generous benefits’ that kept me on JSA for nearly a year, yes Lordy Massa, that £65.30 enabled me to live the Life of Reilly sho’ did.
I will say one thing though, the question I can’t find the answer to in the report is this. How many of the 45% who answered ‘Too Generous or Lazy’ have ever had to sign on, seen their job outsourced to another provider / country, been let go as profits have dipped 6000 miles away.
I bet you the answer would be as close to none as statistically possible +/- 1%.
Nobody who has ever had to sign on, could ever come out with such blatant horse shit. Life on the dole is no life, it may seem they have everything (in some cases) But it’s no life, the flat screens are mere fripperies, it is shallow, empty and bereft of meaning.
And I will probably back joining them on June 1st, I have so far sent 32 CV’s in the last 2 weeks for jobs I could do standing on my head (not that I would). Not one has had the courtesy of responding.
So next time someone lumps all the Unemployed together and calls them lazy, please send them round to my house and I’ll explain things, nicely I promise.
May Update More Later: Need to go for a walk
Full Story :The Daily Telegraph
Heartfelt commiserations; I found myself in a similar situation some years ago, nursing a bruised ego and a P45, overqualified for menial jobs but lacking experience in any field except the narrow one I had previously worked in.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of anything helpful to say that you won't already be telling yourself - and from a position of much more experience - but all the best anyway.
Tell me about it. The experience was an eye-opener. And, to add insult to injury, through February and March I received nothing as the DWP decided that I earned too much during 2009/2010 to qualify. Yes, really generous those benefits.
ReplyDeleteI've had brief periods of signing on (none for more than a couple of months) and no, if you crave work (and more importantly, money!) it's not fun. Though I wouldn't do what I do now if I could afford to give it up, I'd still do something. Holidays are nicer when you've something to have a holiday from.
ReplyDeleteBut if you've never known anything else, and can 'supplement your income' if you know what I mean, I'd imagine it would be something to be clung to.
I think the problem is that people get muddled up between those on JSA (which by all accounts is no easy life) and those on other non-unemployment related benefits - ie those on disability benefits, single mothers, asylum seekers etc etc.
ReplyDeleteFigures show that a huge % of those on JSA are off of it within a year, whereas I suspect once people get on the other types of benefit they tend not to come off them. After all what incentive is there to?
For example I know plenty of people who are on benefits, but very few who are purely on the dole.
£65.30 ensures one stays at home.
ReplyDeleteLike JuliaM says, I don't think people begrudge the JSA, but they complain about the rest of the benefits on offer. You'll note as well that the poll was about the long term unemployed - I'm not sure what their definition of that is, but to my mind it at least implies someone that is living that way.
ReplyDeleteI know a girl - she's 19 now, I think. She's got two kids by a father who she claimed used to beat her up, was in jail but is now out and back with her again (although it should be noted that he's fathered at least one other kid in the mean time). She gets a flat which is probably about 2.5 times the size of the place that my wife and I rent (with our combined income of £45k or so), she gets money for travel, food and the like and she doesn't have to do any work at all for it.
I didn't think too much of it until she was robbed. Some git stole her pushchair (iirc), and she tearfully told us how she needed some help finding the money to replace it, as she didn't want to touch the £1,500 she'd managed to save up since the boys were born(!).
Never mind that the wife and I are working on paying off our debts, student loans and the like. It was our duty to help her, because she was a single mum and didn't get enough help from the government (that's what she told us).
Oddly enough, I didn't have any spare money at that time...
(I meant living that way by choice in the first paragraph).
ReplyDeleteI was taking new claims today (as a permanent member of staff called in sick)
ReplyDeleteThat's it ask the contractor whose got 4 weeks to go and was told part of the reason for the non extension of contracts was that you didn't need the extra staff anymore. Irony thy name is lost on them.
It's very hard to stay upbeat and positve to people who have just lost their jobs, knowing you can't find new one yourself
The stress is killing me.