Unemployed Face Work Scheme Or Sanctions

[GastonJ]

and still the amount paid for the unemployed is tiny compared to the budget that the DWP have. There'll be nothing really in savings coming from this move, if anything it will cost more money to pay private companies to organise those doing the 30 hours - so how does that save money? They should be looking at not subsidising employers who don't want to pay people enough to live on, but that won't happen - too easy.

[rds60h]

and still the amount paid for the unemployed is tiny compared to the budget that the DWP have. There'll be nothing really in savings coming from this move, if anything it will cost more money to pay private companies to organise those doing the 30 hours - so how does that save money? They should be looking at not subsidising employers who don't want to pay people enough to live on, but that won't happen - too easy.

Plus, when are these people who will be forced to do "voluntary" work going to look for a "proper job" ?
I keep hearing people say about all these jobs advertised, so there is plenty of work.................firstly there are more people unemployed than there are job vacancies, and secondly it has been proven that the majority of these job vacancies (even on the DWP job search site) are fake and scams.

[Snowy79]

Also a lot of people are not employable due to lack of qualifications, criminal records or attitude. Sadly our attitude to giving handouts instead of hand ups have bread a certain amount of people like this. We've become too liberal and are always looking for excuses. The day that someone coming into this Country from a Country outside of the UK can't get a job I'll have more sympathy. There's various reports as to how many jobs go to foreigners from 9 out of 10, 77%, One in 8 etc. All taken from different ends of the spectrum but even if it was 1 in 5 it still shows there are jobs out there just not the right UK citizens to fill them

There's just not enough money left in the kitty to pay all the benefits that people currently get. I know it's human nature to go for the most you can get but it's got to stop somewhere. The housing benefits bill alone has increased by approx 50% in the last 10 years. Not surprising when some countries in the EU don't hand out free accomodation yet the UK does.

[Meat-Head]

Fake and scam, UFC (iShit Failiure) uff got phone call about winning an iTurd after applying on some job sites, of course he quite rightly told them to shove it

[gmb45]

it all boils down to pish poor wages in this country ?6.50 odd hour minimum wage is a joke, plus unlimited amount of cheap foreign labour keeping wages down.

[Meat-Head]

I didn't vote for them .

michal cane had the right idea, don't throw bloody spears at me.

[GastonJ]

The biggest difficulty with raising the minimum wage (and I do think it should be a living wage really) is that he second it's raised people will have more to spend, princes rise, bills rise and we end up where people on low wages actually receive next to nothing extra. Question you have to ask is "Why are utility companies, who you have no choice but to pay, allowed to raise their prices each year more than the average pay rise?" these utility companies are governed by so called regulators who let them get away with any rise they want. It seems a nonsense to give people a living wage only for the bar to be raised higher. Anyway that's OT

A way to save paying out a fair chunk in benefits is to make the minimum wage a living wage, saves paying out tax credits, family credit, housing benefit and all that sh*t including administration. That'd save a fortune straight away, but as I've said before, government won't do it they'd sooner take money off those that can least afford it and make us all subsidise companies to pay sh*t pay.

[rds60h]

There's just not enough money left in the kitty to pay all the benefits that people currently get. I know it's human nature to go for the most you can get but it's got to stop somewhere. The housing benefits bill alone has increased by approx 50% in the last 10 years. Not surprising when some countries in the EU don't hand out free accomodation yet the UK does.

There are 3 main reasons why Housing Benefit has risen so much in the last 10 years and those reasons are (not necessarily in this order) ::

1) More people in employment are having to claim because of low income.
Solution ? .........A Living Wage, Abolish Zero Hour Contracts and Full Time Employees instead of using numerous Part Time Employees.
2) Recent Migrants given Social Housing and/or immediate Benefits.
Solution ? .........A Qualifing period and amount of tax and national insurance paid before eligible. Stricter checks on whether housing or property ownership in home country is/was available, because all British people have to prove they do not have property and/or that they have not made theirselves Intentionally Homeless before going onto the Social Housing Waiting List.
3) Huge Rent Increases in the Private Rental Market.
Solution ? ........Put a Cap on Rental Prices and also put a Stop to Buy to Let Mortgages, these are given when "entrepreneurs" state they can achieve a rental price of X amount ?'s and yet those who will have to pay the rent are turned down for mortgages for lesser amounts and so end up renting at the higher amount and then claiming the difference in Housing Benefits.

[GastonJ]

Item 2 already exists, it's just not what politicians like to admit when they're busy deflecting the sh*t from themselves. It's a 3 month must have worked in this country for benefits and no access to council houses. That's for migrants. However more than 50% of the migrants in the UK on benefits are *not* from the EU. Government needs to get it's lies and rhetoric right.

"From March 1, all migrants from EU member countries will have to show they have been in Britain for three months earning at the level at which employees start paying national insurance before they can claim benefits. That is roughly ?150 a week, equivalent to 24 hours at the national minimum wage." - though it's sh*t, but proves such things are already in place.

1 & 3 totally agree

Oh except 3, the capitalist in me is looking to buy a few houses to rent out in the next 4 years, sorry

[GastonJ]

and here's the breakdown on DWP budget

?74.22bn - Pensions
?16.94bn - Housing
?12.57bn - Disability
?4.91bn - Jobseekers

in 2013


HMRC paid out ?12.22bn on tax credits in 2012.

Short of killing off pensioners and issuing the people in overpriced housing with tents where are the big savings that the government are going to make? Sorry pensioners the way to the cliff is that way, stay in single file and march like a lemming

Radical idea, build council housing and rent it out at a reasonable rate to those who don't earn a living wage that'd save money not the Tory way.

[Snowy79]

It would be nice to see how much money has been paid in to cover the Pension bill in comparison to those claiming it. My money is on more money being paid in than that been paid out. More like the money that has been paid in rather than being put aside and invested by Governments to gain interest and make the pot larger has been spent and now current pensions are being paid by todays workers.

As for building more homes and renting them out to those on a low income again you need money for that. I'm sure the government has smart enough people to work out how much it costs to build each home and how long it would take to make that money back including maintaining those properties and paying the interest on the loans to build the properties. Add to this you've got to give others an incentive to work and buy their own home. I'm seeing more and more people who have never worked a minute in their lives being moved into new counil properties that are better than anything I could ever buy. When I take into consideration my mortgage payments, council tax and other bills I'm left with the same amount of money as some that are unemployed yet I work 50hrs per week. They go out and do the odd cash in hand job and they're better off than me. Surely that's not right.

[GastonJ]

No government has ever invested the pension money directly, they've just spent it and then prayed that they had enough coming in each week to cover it. There's plenty of public sector pensions where they've just taken the money, spent it and then they claim that the taxpayers have to pay the pension and it's so unfair, maybe if successive governments hadn't just spent and instead invested it wisely then they wouldn't be in the sh*t they're in. In a few years the government of the day will devalue the pensions again of that you can be sure.

I don't disagree that some of the unemployed work when they should, but that's the minority. What I disagree with is this government subsidising employers to continue to pay low rates and then, as headline news, accuse the unemployed of being a burden - when they know full well from the stats that jobseekers is a very minor part of the overall budget. Saving anything less than 10% on jobseekers will only be swallowed up in administration costs 'saving' that money. To make the largest savings you'd have to kill off pensioners, better to wait and they'll go anyway. So that leaves 2 areas that can be cut, housing and disability. ?16 billion goes a long way in building houses tbh. Councils have done it before which is how they ended up with council estates, cheap or not makes no difference really it's investment in the future and would save money. You could also argue that disabled people like to be independent and rely on no-one if you wish, in which case why do we pay them money and so treat them differently?