Jobless Scum

[DodgyAgent]

Almost everything you outline above incurs substantial additional costs. So because of your idealogical problem with the fact that if you pay JSA some recipients may conceivably be spending less than 24 hours a day looking for work, we all have to pay increased taxes. Not a great sell - and for that reason, I'm out and so are most people - which is (just one of a thousand reasons) why it won't work.

As for "it works in other countries" I'm getting tired of hearing that tulip - this isn't other countries and I'm getting really tired of people from other countries turning up here and telling us how to run the place like the tulipholes they came from or aspire to go to. One of the things I like about it here is that it itsn't like other countries.

What costs? We are paying people welfare anyway so instead of them sitting at home they are working. Furthermore they are not committing crime and the fact that they are working means that they are much more likely to move to a regular job. So the costs will go down not only the cost of the welfare but the cost of administering the welfare.

The costs of police and crime not only from the jobless themselves but the generations that follow, with children alien to work becoming members of the underclass. These are the true costs of paying people not to work and they are the true costs of the faiulure of the public services that are supposed to educate them.

[DodgyAgent]

If I work up one day to find I was an employment agent I'd feel like I was being published by a higher power.

ALan Sugar types defending themselves they're entitled to every penny earned when really they did not earn it, instead they relieved someone of it by selling them something of little value.

Man will never make progress with this sort slowing us down.

Choo choo.

Well if you want to play the sanctimonious tw*t that decides who should earn what then lets start with hearing you justify your enormous earnings

[scooterscot]

Well if you want to play the sanctimonious tw*t that decides who should earn what then lets start with hearing you justify your enormous earnings

I sell businesses information about the survivability and cost of ownership of their assets in the years ahead. I'll earn bog all when others take up math in a big way, until that day arrives toot toot.

That's looking ahead, for long-term gain rather your Las Vegas style short-term win.

Was it Oscar Wilde who said, In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

Clearly you'll never learn! So stop trying and do what makes you happy.

[vetran]

Long term unemployed=unemployable in most peoples minds.

However a person that turns up and does any type of job = has a chance.

50% of those in trials that were forced to attend work on benefits failed to turn up. Which to me suggests fraud is endemic. I have a friend who 20 years ago who regularly signed on while working, still the same today.

Many of the complaints employers make about potential employees are literacy and basic knowledge which could be taught as part of a back to work scheme. Possibly as a reward for doing unpaid work?

I have no objection to funding long term unemployed to become electricians/plumbers etc. so long as it is managed so its not an easy way to get the qualifications.

I have personal knowledge of a number of people that are / were on benefits who have avoided taking work because it was less generous than benefits. In some cases I can understand it but they need different benefits.

Remember its the package not the headline amount. JSA is not the complete benefit sum, housing benefit etc can be quite generous.

The transition from benefits to work is too abrupt.

[scooterscot]

The transition from benefits to work is too abrupt.

A bit like being told your contract is not going to be extend in 3-4 weeks time.

That's too abrupt for me, could I have another 4 weeks please?

[NickFitz]

Why isnt it practical to make people work for their benefits? they can join work gangs to remove graffiti, paint walls and pick up dog turds (I suggest you carry a whistle around in case you get mistaken for one ). The workers will then have a sense of satisfaction and it will mean they will find it easier to move up the ladder. I don't mind organising it as long as I get 20% of their benefits.

Yep, people get a real sense of satisfaction out of being told to pick up dog turds or starve; and my local rag's job ads are full of "Must have experience of picking up dog turds" caveats

[EternalOptimist]

Yep, people get a real sense of satisfaction out of being told to pick up dog turds or starve; and my local rag's job ads are full of "Must have experience of picking up dog turds" caveats

It's funny in a way, but when I was long term unemployed, I actually applied for a street sweeper job and I got knocked back. I only just remembered the whole horrible episode.

of course in those days, it was nothing to do with collecting dog turds. dogs were allowed to poo with abandon. It was only when the namby pamby airy fairy arty farty wishy washy politically correct socialists got in, that we started to worry about dog turds.
In those enlightened times, it was all about picking up ciggie packets and chip wrappers

[NickFitz]

It's funny in a way, but when I was long term unemployed, I actually applied for a street sweeper job and I got knocked back. I only just remembered the whole horrible episode.

of course in those days, it was nothing to do with collecting dog turds. dogs were allowed to poo with abandon. It was only when the namby pamby airy fairy arty farty wishy washy politically correct socialists got in, that we started to worry about dog turds.
In those enlightened times, it was all about picking up ciggie packets and chip wrappers

In the Eighties a mate of mine was a street sweeper. He reckoned the worst thing was having to scrape up a flat cat on a hot summer day - and then wheel it around under his nose in the barrow for the remainder of his shift

[EternalOptimist]

In the Eighties a mate of mine was a street sweeper. He reckoned the worst thing was having to scrape up a flat cat on a hot summer day - and then wheel it around under his nose in the barrow for the remainder of his shift

he got my job.

i bet he thought the sun shone out of his fkng @rse

i used to Dream of sniffing dead cats


etc
etc

[NotAllThere]

In 1995, I got a contract away from home, and got lodgings in the friend of a friend's house. My landlord was on benefits and had been for three years, ever since his business collapsed. He was a qualified accountant, but at the age of 55, couldn't find work. He was 58 by the time I stay with them, and he was resigned to never working again.

I stayed with them for 6 months. During which time, we had to fight with the benefits office to show that I wasn't part of the household, so my earnings were irrelevant to the family's benefit entitlement (including council tax benefit), and that to reduce their benefits by the exact amount of rent I was paying was moronic and against the rules. But also during this time, he took inspiration from the idea of contracting.

He'd created and conducted some internal training courses for his emplyoer in the past, so we concentrated on that. He developed training courses in Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and then started getting contracts. It did take a few months to get the first one, but after that he never looked back.

What was profoundly irritating was that there was me, actively working to get this guy back into the workplace, yet the whole benefit system was geared against it. They offered him no help whatsover - just kept trying to cut his benefits.