Lets talk about the dole.

Greetings.
With a conservative government in the UK running things and the liberals sat on the sidelines watching the game, i expect over the next 5 years alot of changes will occur in the UK. I expect the unemployment rate to rise and for the minimum wage to freeze. So lets talk about the dole.

History
The National Insurance Act 1911 originally it was available only to those who had paid National Insurance and then had lost their job.
Source

It was a good system. It worked. It was fair. You worked, you paid tax, and if you happened to lose your job or get sick, you were covered.

Current Benefits System
Lets start off by a break down of what you would get as just one person claiming JSA.

The current weekly rates are:
16-24 = £51.85
25+ = £65.45

If i was 25 and living by myself, that 65 quid would be expected to pay Gas, Electric, Tv licence, water, food and travel expenses to find work. have i missed anything?
So i could try and break that down as...
£20 for Gas & electric (Variable for time of year)
£5 for water?
£15 travel expenses
£20 for food.

I think thats a pretty tight budget and quite possibly an inaccurate breakdown although still proves that the dole isnt a life of riley. You'll notice that it does not cover socially accepted addictions such as smoking (Currently £5 a 20pk?)

One parent families.
Lets say i'm a lone parent bringing up a kid. Thats my benefit plus my only child, which would receive £20.30 a week. Sou rce

In total thats £85.75 p/w. Kids cost money, so i can bet you now that 20.30 wont cover the cost of raising a child. It would be the same break down of costs but never enough to pay for the basics. 20.30 would just about cover some nappies if you had a baby but nothing else, such as baby food & clothes.

I know there is alot of stigma of people saying "You have kids, get a house, live in luxury all your life" but the truth is, they are just stories glamorized by the daily mail needing to sell papers by lying to people. They call people that sit on the dole lazy when the truth is are many reasons people sit on their asses, one of them being there is no benefit of working.
Work 40hrs a week on minimum wage and you'll get just under £200 after tax. Wonderful right? Not really, you'd be living off of £800 a month, at least 300 would be going to rented accommodation, a little less if your paying a mortgage. £500 to pay gas, electric, travel costs of getting to and from work 5 days a week, food and maybe even one or two nights out. If you are a lone parent then that night out? Kiss it goodbye because it aint happening. Overall, you'll have no prospects of ever leaving the minimum wage bracket because managerial positions require an applicant to be sufficiently educated. A dead-end job does exactly what it says on the tin.
The simple fact of the matter is that you Have to live poor. Its just that some are choosing to do nothing and be poor, rather then work their asses off and STILL be poor.

Other reasons why people cant work include substance abuse.
I dont know how many of you have been in a dole office but i can tell you that they are filled with people who are addicted to things. Alcohol & Heroin being the main perpetrators. After years of substance abuse you'll find that these types of people are very rough in nature. Incapable of blending in with "Normal" dealings of society. Really, do you expect a heroin addict to magically get cured and work 40hrs a week in a dead end job while living happily ever after? I dont think so.
Yes, these people are scroungers, but you kick them off the dole? Thieving is going to sky-rocket and with the CONservative plans to cut policing AND people serving jail-terms, now is a VERY bad time to cut their only source of income. Unless you would like to get robbed while your out working?
One things for sure, the Upper-class wont need to worry about being robbed because they live no where near this type of "Scum" So why would they worry about its effects?

Discussion
So what exactly would be the point of working 40hrs a week if your living no better then what you would be on the dole? Makes no sense.
Surely to get more people into work they *Must* increase the Minimum wage in order to give a proper incentive? You could argue that the media is using the benefits issue as a divide and conquer stratergy, turning the working class against eachother rather then uniting them against those that ensure we have nothing (Sorry for the revolutionists tone)

I agree the dole shouldnt be used as a life-support system. But i dont agree that people should work just to pay for their basics and have nothing else out of life. I just fail to see the point.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


But how will any increase in the minimum wage be paid for? if the minimum wage is increased that will put costs up, and businesses will make decisions on if they want to remain in the UK. if they leave, that will increase the pressure on the benefit system.

One area would be greater policing of the benefit system so it is used by those who need it. And guess what, those would can not work because they are addicted to drugs and drink, deserve nothing from the benefit system. They have their decisions

Originally posted by Freedom ERP
reply to post by SearchLightsInc

 

But how will any increase in the minimum wage be paid for? if the minimum wage is increased that will put costs up, and businesses will make decisions on if they want to remain in the UK. if they leave, that will increase the pressure on the benefit system.

I see your point.

One area would be greater policing of the benefit system so it is used by those who need it. And guess what, those would can not work because they are addicted to drugs and drink, deserve nothing from the benefit system. They have their decisions

Everyone has to live, how would kicking these people off the dole help them in anyway? Yes they made bad decisions but removing their source of income helps how exactly?

i lost my job a couple of years ago and went on the dole and believe me i was off it as soon as i could, the jobcentre staff were rude and treated everyone life layabouts granted there were a few like a guy who refused to look for jobs and i quote because it was ton hard!
but i wasnt like that my little book i had to fill in with what i did to look for a job was always full every fortnight when i had to sign on and i appyed for everything but i was still treated like scum.
by the third month id had enough so i stopped the dole and decided to go back to college lucky for me i have alot of support from my fiancee he pays alot of the bills while i try and get a better education and hopefully a job.
i try and find weekend or part time work but obviously with so much unemployment its like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

i do think people on benifits are stigmatised but there are people that have caused thi.
girls who get pregnant as soon as they can so they can get a house and free money and those who just pointplank wont get a job, but some people like my self were in dire straits but never again would i go in the dole.
being treated like scum by the same people that are there to help you.

the best one is when me and my partner tryed to get on the houseing list but we got told because we are not with child or have children, imigrants or of an ethnic colour then we had no chance.
i can understand why the bmp and such are getting a high following around britain even though its not for me i dont blame them its the system.

Originally posted by SearchLightsInc

Originally posted by Freedom ERP
reply to post by SearchLightsInc

 

One area would be greater policing of the benefit system so it is used by those who need it. And guess what, those would can not work because they are addicted to drugs and drink, deserve nothing from the benefit system. They have their decisions

Everyone has to live, how would kicking these people off the dole help them in anyway? Yes they made bad decisions but removing their source of income helps how exactly?

I would certainly give them a chance to kick their habit on the state but only one chance. if they lapse back, they get nothing. They have had their change and there are plenty of decent people who are out of work because of no fault of any decisions they have made, and they deserve all the support of the state