Look out. New welfare Target

[monkey69]

Its not that easy to get even a part time job now LOOK....Linda Yueh ‏@lindayueh 2m

Job advert: cashier at McDonald's requires college degree http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/up-credentialing/?smid=tw-nytimeseconomix&seid=auto …

[Dew Chains]

many thanks for the warm welcome, much appreciated...and yes I hope to contribute to the forum.

 

Another couple of points perhaps worth adding - firstly the amount of jobs where the employee has to pay - initially - to work. I went for a job interview a few months ago for a company in the Midlands looking for trade plate drivers. The interviewer explained to me that all those applying would have to leave a deposit of £250 if accepted for the role, refunded on successful tenure after 4 weeks. The pay was atrocious - I worked out that if I worked 90 hours a week I would average £150, although he did tell me that if a good job came in (taking a car to Scotland for example, but generally reserved for long-term employees) then earnings could exceed £400 for the week. I declined the job offer (I discovered they offered jobs to anyone who attended) and afterwards did some research. One thing I learned is that the turnover of employees averages at two weeks because they cannot afford the return journeys after dropping the car off - and the ridiculous hours (random starts at 2am etc). This means the company actually make profit - keeping the £250 - from job applicants.

 

This is a growing trend - a lot of the jobs advertised in the job centre are self-employed opportunities- effectively companies want to "pass on" the cost of employment onto the employee therefore making profit from the individual. Ruthless capitalism running rampant during a crisis - not a new phenonemon but very sad all the same.

 

Another point is based on some recruiting I did a couple of years a go. The company I worked for was looking for a receptionist (now labelled Help Desk Manager to fluff up the ego's of applicants making them feel more important). I had to read through all the applications. I couldn't believe the quality of them - we had people with degrees, MAs etc. This was for a part-time (20hours) job paying minimum wage. Just highlights how tough the competition is out there. Some may say to those who feel daunted by this tough competition "well, get some training then" "go to university like I did" (I read that on here somwhere else) - but funding for adult education is pretty much non-existent now and who can afford the time or the debt to go to uni? Walls are being erected everywhere damning the poor and creating a society without hope. So sad to see the modest achievements of the post-war period being eaten away just for the sake of perpetuating a system that enriches the few at the expense of the many.

 

The elites who control this rigged casino (and this is not just the Tories) won't be satisfied until we see the return of the workhouse and children of the poor used to clean their chimneys. Austerity and the attack on welfare has absolutely nothing to do with debt - it's purely an ideological battle.

 

Are there solutions? - as asked by another poster. Yes there are solutions, but it would be shallow-minded to examine only the part-time work problem. The giant edifice of capitalism is what needs to be critically examined. I agree with Orwell that most employments in a capitalist society are absolutely futile and meaningless designed purely for profit. Creating more of them - part-time or not will not resolve societal and financial problems. To use my analogy of a rigged casino - if you were a gambler and discovered the casino was rigged would you continue to gamble there? Would you endorse - as the government does - measures to support the continued maintenance of such a corrupt enterprise. No right-minded person would do so, and yet bizarrely there are those who despite being amongst the losers in this system continue to prop it up. This is not new - read the first few pages of the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, written a hundred years ago, and you will see the same issues being debated between Noonan (representing the frustrations of the writer) and his co-workers (representing the average working man). A hundred years and many amongst those mired at the bottom of society are still propping up a system that only perpetuates disparity, inequality and misery!

 

Oh well, I can go on a lot about this but realize I'm straying off topic.

 

Thanks again

[Tradescanthia]

Nice post Dew Chains. I wonder where all the forum right wing morons are ?????? Nobody wants to disagree with you. Keep telling 'em how it really is my friend. You are a welcome addition to a one sided forum.

[retep]

The politicians have the public where they want them, squabbling over the carcass while they make off with the steak.

[Obelix]

Nice post Dew Chains. I wonder where all the forum right wing morons are ?????? Nobody wants to disagree with you. Keep telling 'em how it really is my friend. You are a welcome addition to a one sided forum.

 

You mean you think you need *more* left wing people to stack your side of the argument?

 

Smacks of extreme insecurity that does.

[I1L2T3]

You mean you think you need *more* left wing people to stack your side of the argument?

 

Smacks of extreme insecurity that does.

 

Isn't that what a lot of the ring wing posters do on here. They tend to swarm out of the woodwork pretty quickly to try and dominate threads and bully posters who have views they don't agree with.

[KitKats]

I this is absurd why should people kill themselves working two jobs?? when some people do not have one job and expect everyone else to pay for them and their lifestyle and their children for that matter why not put the minimum wage up for people who do actually work and contribute towards the running of the country?? and target the long term unemployed who can work but just choose not to after all why should the tax payer work several jobs just to keep the unemployed who cannot be bothered to go out to work??, and that is not all unemployed I understand people lose their jobs, others are disabled and are not fit to work and have worked previously but due to accident or illness can never work again, others are old aged pensioners who need benefit pension to live on who I have no problem with they will have worked all their lives and paid in it is the minority of young people with the wrong attitude who have paid little or nothing towards the running of the country but that think the world and it's Grandfather owes them a living.

 

---------- Post added 06-04-2013 at 12:17 ----------

 

Isn't it also the more jobs you have the more tax you pay?? as well so if the Government are going to take a tax amount from you for two jobs and it would be more than if you had one part time or full time job in that case you would be no better off would you?? unless you did two or more jobs and you earned less than £100 a week a think it is before you have to pay tax?? but depends if your employer does things legitimately and or if what kind of employed you are in self employed or working for someone else.

[I1L2T3]

Kitkats. How big is the problem you describe. How much does it cost us?

 

The danger is that while there may be a case for amendments to the benefits system based on cases like the Philpotts, do these cases in themselves indicate a need to reform the entire system.

 

Payments for pensioners account for 50% of benefits spend. Housing benefit almost 30 bn. Out of work benefits like JSA are a very small proportion of payments. Only 4% of JSA claimants have more than two kids.

 

The Tories have got a lot of people looking in completely the wrong direction. The Philpotts weren't even a workless household. Both of Philpott's partners were in work.

[KitKats]

To me it seems huge as they are always saying that there are so many million unemployed and with how many children are being born some have got to be born to some of the people that are unemployed?? surely, with the baby boom the last few years. I just think the whole situation is unfair on those trying to be honest and decent and earn a living that's all why punish them?? when some people not necessarily the Philpott's people I know of who don't work have not for years and no one bats an eyelid shouldn't they be targeted not the people already working?? I know Mick Philpott's partners worked but in my opinion the Government especially and The DWP still in my opinion have a lot to answer for.

[I1L2T3]

To me it seems huge as they are always saying that there are so many million unemployed and with how many children are being born some have got to be born to some of the people that are unemployed?? surely, with the baby boom the last few years. I just think the whole situation is unfair on those trying to be honest and decent and earn a living that's all why punish them?? when some people not necessarily the Philpott's people I know of who don't work have not for years and no one bats an eyelid shouldn't they be targeted not the people already working?? I know Mick Philpott's partners worked but in my opinion the Government especially and The DWP still in my opinion have a lot to answer for.

 

People in work are being targeted:

Housing benefits changes

Council tax credit changes

Conditionality when Universal Credit comes in

Benefits uprating limits (applies to things like maternity pay too)

 

Because working people are being targeted is it right that the Tories ask working people to direct their anger at the Philpotts? It's a clever trick really because it takes the heat off the Tories.