Does this make you spit fire?

[Dan]

Before I say this, I'd like to preface it with saying that I work at least 60 hours every week in my own business. I work hard and I pay my share of tax; in fact, I could pay less, but I choose not to. Just to clear up where I'm speaking from.

Okay, Paul is an ***. But you know what? There are plenty of other people right now who actually want jobs. One of them might just have got that job that Paul turned down.

So, hell, if Paul wants to stay in bed for his £70 a week JSA, then let him. So long as there are other people out there who want jobs, and haven't got one, then forget about Paul.

Find a job for everyone who wants one and then start compaining about Paul, because it seems absurd to force Paul into a job that he wouldn't do very well, when there's someone else out there who would love that job and work really hard at it.

And if you do that, I think you'll find that there aren't as many Pauls as the media make out. I think you'll find that the majority of people in this country actually do want to work, if they can.

Unemployment benefits come to only 0.6% of our GDP (basically, the total of what we produce as a nation) as it stands; find a job for all those who want them and it'll probably be 0.1%.

If letting a few sad people subsist on a tiny income just so they can stay in bed; if that's the price we pay for a system that supports everyone else should they have the misfortune to find themselves out of a job... then so be it.

Just my opinion.

[Jas11n]

So no harm at all in giving them a benefits card, so they don't waste it on drink, tabs, betting and drugs.

[here2learn]

i grew up with a father just like him

i can assure you your aggression towards them is wholly justified but there life is set

as the gent before has said he is a minority

it is there half dozen children that need to have a work ethic installed from a young age i have worked from the age of twelve. I have no grades but was able to see what a productive life could return.

so next time you see the offspring from a benefit scrounge try not to class them as has also been said before you do not choose your family but can grow from them.

[Dan]

it is there half dozen children that need to have a work ethic installed from a young age i have worked from the age of twelve. I have no grades but was able to see what a productive life could return.

so next time you see the offspring from a benefit scrounge try not to class them as has also been said before you do not choose your family but can grow from them.

Worth saying, there's significant research suggesting that vast majority of the children of people on benefits say they want to work when they grow up.

Of course, a bad parental attitude does hurt them, but that's why the rest of society needs to compensate by giving them opportunities, rather than just saying, "you're just like your dad..." and assuming they're 'bad blood'.

[djh]

There is an 8am

[Michael S2]

I couldn't believe what i was hearing from this guy... i'd rather work for less than dole money than claim it. However, Dan makes a good point that someone else will get the job because this ***** couldn't be bothered. Still doesn't change the fact this guy is the scum of this country. I could rant for ages but i won't.

I'd just like to congratulate the host on telling it how it is, good job.

[90quattrocoupe]

Don't worry, yours is not the only country that has them.

Greg W.

[Pat D]

Could've been a staged interview, but there are people out there like that. We are lucky that we have lots of jobs here in Oz, and many have a chance to get really good money in our resource area of employment. It bothers me just as much that many choose to stay on tax funded welfare or cheat the system with bogus marriages, or have 10 children to get more welfare, etc. The sad part is that most of the time due to lack of proper education and guidance, this attitude gets passed on to the kids and nothing much changes.

[bigdan]

with Dan

You'll never get some people to work, simply cutting their benefits will just push these people further into poverty and will further widen class divisions. This government seems to be succeeding in putting certain classes against each other - employed vs unemployed, working poor vs unemployed poor etc.
People like Paul are a small minority and most people claiming benefits do want to work and don't want to have to claim benefit, the problem is there are not enough well paid and full time jobs around for everyone in this country. It is too expensive to live in this country being paid the minimum wage or working part time hours.
would it ever be possible to have zero unemployment? I dont believe so and i think we'll always have to put up with people who dont want to work. If the minimum rate of pay for a full time job was enough to live on, then work would pay and there might be fewer 'Pauls' to pay for.

Merry christmas

[Colesy]

Unemployment benefits come to only 0.6% of our GDP (basically, the total of what we produce as a nation) as it stands; find a job for all those who want them and it'll probably be 0.1%.

But benefits as a whole come to ~13% of gdp. The governmet receives in taxation ~40% of gdp. So benefits take up ~32% of government income which is a massive amount!

As I see it, the problem we have got is that our labour market is open so there is always someone from eastern europe to fill the roll that a lazy brit refuses. If it was a closed labour market the wages of the open role would increase to the point that the lazy brit would be arsed to get up early and get there at 8am. Otherwise the role would never be filled. But as it is the more lazy brits that choose benefits the more migrants come here and fill the jobs. These migrants save their money and send some of it home. Thereby the poorer country's get richer while the UK gets (relatively) poorer.

So the easier our benefits system is the quicker that we get poorer. The economics of it is called convergence. The EU is essentially a large tool to get all the countries of Europe to converge to the same economic levels. While convergence is good for the poorer countries of Europe, it can only be bad for us being relatively richer. We are still relatively rich in Europe so we are only at the begining of decades of pain as we get relatively poorer to the point that migration accross Europe balances out. Meanwhile the rest of the world is booming and we are being left behind...

[Acidburn]

There is an 8am

As one of the vast number of unemployed people currently residing in this country there is a lot of people out there that feel like this. I've now been unemployed since around sept time, but only started claiming job seekers etc since the 19th nov and this is the first time in my life i've ever done it. I have only been unemployed for a total of around 2months since I was 16 and that was only because i'd moved from one end of the country to the other and was trying to find out what places was good to work for.

They changed the system in october apparently. Now everything is done online, you have to sign up to the job match program and it lets you choose what jobs to fire off your cv to online.

Also you now have to go to sign on once a week rather than the old setup which was once a fortnight. They give you a plan to stick to otherwise they will take your money/benefits off you. Mine is I have to do 12 points a week (basically I have to apply for 12 jobs and register with 2 agencies) The problem with the job match site is that for me if I put in swindon it comes up with areas all over the country, apparently there is 3 swindons in the country so its useless.

They organised for me to go to a meeting with a local agency called per temps (i've dealt with their staff before at my old job) so I knew where i'd be sent if I was hired etc. Upon turning up at the job center at the correct time no one was around for this meeting, turns out they didn't have the decency to tell me they'd changed the time of the meeting to later that day so it was a wasted trip down as I couldn't attend the later meeting. I rang Per temps whilst I was there and they said they'd be in contact, i'm still waiting two weeks later

Thanks to Fitzy for letting me know that honda's taking on again, I applied online to them and went to a 5hr interview which I passed and have been told to come to the next interview so if all's going to plan I will be working for them at the end of january. This is the first time i've had to sign on and tbh i've no intention of ever doing it again, its a proper ball ache to put up with them changing stuff and not telling you and just the general attitude. When my password for the job match site went wrong I went in and asked to have it sorted, they said come back the following week. This meant for a week I couldn't use the site or find out if i'd had any feedback from potential employers

I will be glad to get off it and not have to use it again, tbh I think that after january that will hopefully be the last time in my life I ever have to use that service
The majority of the people who use it are in it for the long haul, most know the system inside out and how to get away with it for weeks on end. They all meet up on the same day in there and chat about what drink they are buying with the money or how ever else to waste it, I can't see that changing for the majority, its free easy money to them.

[4WheelDrifter]

would it ever be possible to have zero unemployment? I dont believe so and i think we'll always have to put up with people who dont want to work.

I think the previous government were working towards this.
If you make sure people stay in education for as long as possible, make as many unemployed be re-classed as disabled or incapacitated, over complicate tax and welfare systems, bring in lots of new laws and regulations that need enforcing, pay people with clipboards to make sure other people with clipboards are using them correctly, build lots of new houses and create lots of free money from cheap mortgages for the masses, encourage a population rise to bring even more suckers into the system. If it creates lots of debt, who cares? We can pay it back later, or just moan about the state of the country when the next government is in power.

I quit worrying about this stuff ages ago. There is not much you can do about it. Just work with it and make hay while the sun shines. There may be a nasty storm ahead.

[Dan]

But benefits as a whole come to ~13% of gdp. The governmet receives in taxation ~40% of gdp. So benefits take up ~32% of government income which is a massive amount!

The single biggest item on that bill is working pensions. That's money that's paid in by people as they work so they have a pension in old age. To say 'we can't afford it' with something like that is ridiculous because if we got rid of it, those people would still have to take the money they save in tax and put it into a private pension, or something else to look out for themselves in their old age.

It's wrong to treat that as if it were a black hole cost, because it's not; it's an investment.

Then you've got things like DLA, which help people with disabilities compensate for the extra costs that come with living with a disability. That's paid to working people, too. Again, it's not an economic loss because it represents a very real, justifiable cost and makes a difference to people's lives.

There's also things like child tax credit, which again, a lot of working people will claim. Again, this can't be treated as a loss because it's money that's going back into people's pockets.

[4WheelDrifter]

Drat. I knew I'd leave a load of stuff out. Encouraging early retirement is also a winner for keeping unemployment down.
What about prisoners? Surely they don't count as unemployed? We could always send them of to a large island on the other side of the world if they do.

[Dan]

What about prisoners? Surely they don't count as unemployed? We could always send them of to a large island on the other side of the world if they do.

Yeah, and what do you suppose they'd say when we show up 100 years later?



(g'day mate!)