Jobcentre suicide attempts.

[pat err]

Its policy to make "signing on" less user friendly the rational being if some people give up the policy is working as the cost and figures go down,a win win situation.

We live in a Democracy, vote have laws and a free press, so where is the headline hungy

media?

SO ANS SO`s latest wag! that`s the real scandel!

[chem1st]

The man failed to turn up to appointments repeatedly. Being sanctioned for that is hardly something that is a recent thing.

 

He had mental health problems.

 

There was recently a program on channel 4 about people with mental health problems and work. It was an eye opener.

 

"World's maddest job Interview"

 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/worlds-maddest-job-interview/4od

 

Now, plenty could work and many want to. They just need help.

 

Carrot, not stick.

 

Give em a carrot and they will yield 2, rather than waste a stick! that is that problem solved.

 

We all lament the situation where people can be better off on benefits than working, and rightly so. Let's solve that by making work pay! Not by imposing arbitrary working hours and changing them, (16/24/30) via working tax credit. Rather than work 16 hours for bonus X. Have a earn 2X keep 1X system. - Solve that problem.

 

Idle land - Let the unemployed use it for a small fee or one that is a percentage of profit, rather than giving tax breaks and cash subsidy to landowners.

 

Then instead of having people with barriers to employment forced into poverty, with no incentive to work in the first place, whilst those with inherited wealth claim a greater share of consumption of ever shrinking production. - Depression and poverty

 

We might have a state which helps its subjects into meaningful employment, encourages them to work and rewards them for doing so and workers claim a greater share of consumption of the rising production. - Growth and prosperity

 

It beggars belief that an unemployed man/woman in the UK who is homeless or in a flat cannot rent an allotment to grow some food. Whilst a homeowner with a garden can do so. In a world where people are starving to death.

 

That is not capitalism. Capitalism would allow a man to compete, there would be no monopoly. Adam Smith himself argued for Land tax and against monopoly.

 

You cannot have a free-market and continue to accumulate wealth when there are people denied the ability to create wealth in the first place.

 

You cannot exploit/tax the idle man whom sits beside the idle plot of land. But denying him access to land might ensure your monopoly. You can corner the market at the expense of all. But that my friend ain't capitalism.

[hard2miss]

there are jobs if you have a skill and know where to look, if you are not too bright and have no skill then you will spent the rest of your worthless life bottomfeeding off scapes

 

 

That does not make much sense dyslexia or not.

[tinfoilhat]

Council houses often have large gardens. What percentage of those do you think are chock full homegrown veg ? Do you think those with serious mental health issues like the poor sod who tried to off himself in Liverpool would make good gardeners/ farmers ? Did he have a garden ?

 

It's easy to rattle off these ideas but they aren't going to solve anything.

[hard2miss]

I think the answer to that is in the words mentally ill.

 

Its easy to work out solutions for the average rational person.

 

Good point though, council gardens should be used more for veg, but do we then go down the 'your cats crapping on my garden' arguments?

[Anna B]

The system clearly isn't working. It costs too much, is poorly targeted and creates the wrong incentives. It allows some people to milk the system whereas people in genuine distress who have paid in all their lives to fall through the cracks and end up in the gutter.

 

There has rarely been a clearer need for the parties to put politics aside and work together to improve the system. They all need to start agreeing and define what our benefits system will look like for the next 10-20 years.

 

They could cut the welfare bill by stopping tax credits and upping the minimum wage to a livable standard.

 

Employees deserve a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. We are, in fact, subsidising employers and allowing them to increase their profit at taxpayers expense.

 

Maybe there should be a two or three tier system, depending on the size of the organisation, so smaller employers are exempt, in which case their employees could be subsidised.

 

The gap between rich and poor is growing alarmingly and fast. When it reaches critical mass, we will become a third world country.

[Happ Hazzard]

Upping the minimum wage would just put people out of work, just as introducing the minimum wage in the first place did. Firms would increase automation and eliminate

low-skilled jobs.

 

The problem isn't that the minimum wage is too low, it's that the cost of housing has been kept artificially high for years, and no political party has the balls to do something about it.

[danny128]

That does not make much sense dyslexia or not.

 

Thats why you are unemployed/in a low paid job

[eastbank]

With the ongoing economic troubles due to the housing bubble, unemployment is getting out of control.

 

In times of recession/depression suicide increases, unfortunately the burden of recessions falls mostly on the young, poor and vulnerable and not on those whom caused the problems in the first place!

 

This year there have been suicide attempts at job centres, one man slit his wrists. Whilst another set himself on fire.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/20/mental-health-benefit-claimants-risk

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/29/man-on-fire-birmingham-job-centre

 

 

 

Our welfare system clearly isn't working.

 

I keep banging on about access to land, people cannot grow their own food, this is insane!

Only today figures were released showing shoplifting is up in Rotherham by 50% and the biggest rise has been people stealing FOOD!

 

Foodbanks are springing up across the country and experiencing never seen before demand!

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131010/Staggering-rise-British-food-bank-One-opens-week-families-pay-packet-away-having-money.html#ixzz22QSCOqmc

 

People are denied the ability to grow their own food.

People are denied benefits (vouchers for food).

And now people are sent to foodbanks (which they can only use a few times).

 

Pretty soon people will be forced to travel to new foodbanks.

 

This is like a return to the 'spikes' of old times.

 

 

 

http://www.charlotteville.co.uk/thespike.htm

 

It is interesting to note the rough sleepers count of London in the past!

 

 

 

http://www.mungos.org/homelessness/history/_20th_century

 

In the 1930s, 80 people were found to be sleeping rough in London.

In 1949 a low of but 6 people were found to be sleeping rough in London.

Today 446 people sleep rough in London, and many more in squats and asylum camps. This is repeated across the country.

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/23/number-rough-sleepers-rises-fifth

 

now they are a drain on the NHS...

[MrSmith]

Council houses often have large gardens. What percentage of those do you think are chock full homegrown veg ? Do you think those with serious mental health issues like the poor sod who tried to off himself in Liverpool would make good gardeners/ farmers ? Did he have a garden ?

 

It's easy to rattle off these ideas but they aren't going to solve anything.

 

Sadly many of the gardens belonging to the workshy are full of weeds encroaching into their neighbour’s gardens.