Well it seems pointless working these days?

[Sharpend]

So with all the rising costs and inflation though the roof Boris has come up with a cunning plan,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61739816
So why work?
Allow the state to support you and pay for your home? Which you could sell once they’ve brought it?

Am I the only one seeing the fundamental flaw in this, will we not just bankrupt the country, still at least the unemployed will all have nice homes.

 

[binky]

so apart from the shortage of affodable rental properties that this will further worsen for the low paid, he wants to sell off housing stock for a pittance, and for tax payers to cough up for the mortgage

I also think this will inflate / maintain the rediculous high prices of property in general?

 

[Mike.J]

Giving mortgages to the unemployed is what caused the last USA crash, but and its a big BUT the state i.e. the employed where not paying the mortgage, it's a nonsense that only a desperate politician could think up.

I suppose it's one way of giving all those desperate people (illegal immigrants) in boats somewhere to live rather than a perfectly adequate Army barracks that we expect our own defenders to live in.

 

[ProDave]

You are asking the wrong question. It should not be "how can we help the unemployed" at the moment it should be "WHY is anyone unemployed"

Last I heard there were more job vacancies than there were unemployed people, so I ask the question to all those living a life on benefit, WHY are you not working?

 

[Murdoch]

Personally I think that benefits, especially tax credits need major reform.

Why does the tax payer top up the income for a person who works 16 hours to such an extent that for the individual it doesn’t make sense to them to work extra hours?

I’d raise the threshold to 25 hours, if not more

Tin hat on

 

[ElectroMarko]

How can the country get worse?

 

[Mike.J]

Add another into the mix, why do we pay people to have children?

 

[mikekeily]

Personally I think that benefits, especially tax credits need major reform.

Why does the tax payer top up the income for a person who works 16 hours to such an extent that for the individual it doesn’t make sense to them to work extra hours?

I’d raise the threshold to 25 hours, if not more

Tin hat on

The issue is real however it’s not the part time worker who is getting the state subsidy, it’s a back door route to fund employers and allow them to pay wages it’s impossible to live on and then seek too ups to a living wage by the tax and benefit system. We need more investigation of poor practice by corporations rather than picking out the low hanging fruit. Real change is required not just picking on the lowest earners in society.

 

[binky]

Personally I think that benefits, especially tax credits need major reform.

Why does the tax payer top up the income for a person who works 16 hours to such an extent that for the individual it doesn’t make sense to them to work extra hours?

I’d raise the threshold to 25 hours, if not more

Tin hat on

You are allowed to top up benefits with 16 hours of work, and not lose any money. Once you go over 16 hours, just about every penny you earn is deducted from the benefits, so effectively you are working for nothing. So that's why it's hard to get people to work more hours. It does totally miss the point that no one should be reliant on benefits in the first place, but with rents being so high it's difficult for those on minimum wages to earn enough money to live.

 

[binky]

The issue is real however it’s not the part time worker who is getting the state subsidy, it’s a back door route to fund employers and allow them to pay wages it’s impossible to live on and then seek too ups to a living wage by the tax and benefit system. We need more investigation of poor practice by corporations rather than picking out the low hanging fruit. Real change is required not just picking on the lowest earners in society.

So true, we are effectively subsidising business. Not sure how we can get out of that trap now.

 

[apprentice87]

On the subject of the 16 hours, you are ALL wrong.. It is only sixteen hours if you are disabled or looking after kids, anyone else it is 30 hours so far as i know.

As for "a life on benefits" there are three things you should know.

1, the "ordinary" unemployed, if they do not make proper efforts to find and KEEP a job, their money is simply cut off.

2, As for the disabled, unless you have some SERIOUS medical backup, you will not get a bean. All this stuff about people pretending to be ill and "scroungers" that is a deliberate lie that the government WANTS you to believe for its own political ends..

3, Unless you are a druggie or a drunk that is.... Druggies rule the world.. No law applies to them, they get sent to hospital instead of jail [after burgling 300 houses] as it is "not their fault" Once in a hospital they treat they staff like ****, threaten the staff, assault the staff and other patients and even if asked do they intend to stop the drugs [they are usually on drug rehab programs, the rest are permanently psychotic] will tell you no, only they do not put it as nicely as that..

john..

 

[Murdoch]

You are allowed to top up benefits with 16 hours of work, and not lose any money. Once you go over 16 hours, just about every penny you earn is deducted from the benefits, so effectively you are working for nothing. So that's why it's hard to get people to work more hours.

the hospital where the misses works they can’t get the support workers to do extra hours because it’s mostly clawed back - what a hopeless situation

SE people can’t claim much, if anything so we just work more , to get more. Just like I remember doing in the 1980’s

 

[binky]

the hospital where the misses works they can’t get the support workers to do extra hours because it’s mostly clawed back - what a hopeless situation

SE people can’t claim much, if anything so we just work more , to get more. Just like I remember doing in the 1980’s

it's the same with care home staff. What also doesn't help is the slowness of making a claim eg a job comes up for 3 months work, so you sign off as you can support yourself, but signing back on again when that contract ends takes 6 weeks or more, meaning you can't pay the rent and risk being made homeless. The system just traps people on benefits.

 

[binky]

On the subject of the 16 hours, you are ALL wrong.. It is only sixteen hours if you are disabled or looking after kids, anyone else it is 30 hours so far as i know.

john..

I'm not so familiar with how the system works these days, it's been decades since I had to claim anything.

I'm a fan of the pay everyone a minimum amount, just enough to live off and then if you work you still keep that money and pay taxes etc on what you earn. Effectively that is what the benefits system does, but in a disorganised, crap, complicated way. That system is being trialed in some countries, apparantly it works quite well, so far.

 

[myke]

Add another into the mix, why do we pay people to have children?

I have brought up 8 children no free meals or trips at school worked very hard and long hours to keep and feed them plus buying a home.
Then I see folks getting everything free. Boils my piss

 

[Murdoch]

When tax credits were introduced by Gordon Brown they were expected to cost £1 billion.

they now cost the UK about £30 billion

 

[Mike.J]

I have brought up 8 children no free meals or trips at school worked very hard and long hours to keep and feed them plus buying a home.
Then I see folks getting everything free. Boils my piss

So you had no child allowance?

 

[binky]

I have brought up 8 children no free meals or trips at school worked very hard and long hours to keep and feed them plus buying a home.
Then I see folks getting everything free. Boils my piss

what you have to remember is that they will spend their entire lives living on the bones of their bums. As they don't own their own homes, when they get to retirement age the state pension will leave them f'all to enjoy life with coz they will still be paying rent. Where as I'm guessing you have some form of pension, and Ok you still have to maintain your own property, but rent will include that, plus a profit, and rents are shooting up due to the lack of housing.

In my own case, I'm semi-retired at 57, will fully retire at 60, wifey retired at 55, we have savings that amount to more than enough to enjoy a few things in life, and when we do finally get to 67, I'll be better off than I have been for years between our own pensions and state pensions.

 

[Mike.J]

When I bought our current house interest rates on the mortgage where 16.75% repayments where near £2000.00/month which was over half of my then wage, no holidays for ten years, but no credit card dept either, I don't think the current younger generation would put up with that, seems they buy holidays on credit cards and worry about it later, perhaps I ought to buy another house and let the Government pay for it.

 

[revjames]

It does seem that the gap between working and non working people is getting narrower to the point, as the title of this thread says, why bother working anymore.
2 words - self respect