General Chat

Well Cãt, she has a *choice* you know!

Raise the baby with no money, give it up for adoption (and look for it on GR 20 years later when it comes desperately looking for its birth parents), or terminate the pregnancy.

Decent women don't find themselves pregnant w/o a man to support them, you know. Tsk.

Cat, it is beyound that. We all know, I am sorry to say, there are people in this country that get pregnant just for the benefits they get.,and a certain lifestyle. And we do have the worst record.
Carol

Oh dont Gwynne,

hes pledge 80 miilion this week,,,,,not saying its not deserving where its going but 80,,,,,good lord we could do wonders with that here.....!

"Recall hearing somewhere, in France if you are single and have a baby you get no allowances That would probably stop us having the worst record for pregnancy in Europe."

So a woman is pregnant then her partner/husband decides he no longer wants to be part of the relationship and walks out, effectively leaving her single and pregnant, with no help, when she needs it most and of course the child would suffer too.

Janey, at the FND we are told often that doing voluntary work will keep us work-sharp and increase/improve our skills, yet we are told when we first sign on that voluntary work can mean our benefits stop. You can't win.


Sue, I got contribution based JSA when I first signed on, after 6 months I got income based JSA instead. I also get housing benefit, as my rent and council tax alone comes to much more than JSA pay me. And people still think that the jobless live a life of luxury and should face further cuts. LOL!!!!

Don't worry about the spelling, Daff, my grandmother insisted on 2 ns in Gwynneth because she thought it looked better shortened to Gwynne.

OH's firm used to do a lot of work for the MOD and the wastage is appalling. They demand ridiculous specifications then change them at the drop of a hat. Some contracts he worked on eventually came to almost double the original estimate because of the high ups faffing about and empire building. The Army has plenty of money - they just spend it on the wrong things. Last in line is the lowly soldier.

Gwynne

Just to correct what maggie stated: when I was made redundant I received contribution based JSA and NOTHING ELSE. You only receive other benefits if your total household income is paltry. My OH works so it was a case of yes you can have that for 6 months thereafter we pay for your stamp and that's it!

There is no 'one size fits all' solution within the DWP system. If one was devised it would cost too much to implement.

Employers have to take some responsibility too. They are taking advantage of so many applicants for each vacancy and have reduced pay and benefits because they can get away with it. No wonder some of those jobs remain unfilled.

Sue

I think it comes from reducing things elsewhere, Gwynne... as I said, they lose some of their pay when they deploy... the allowances are meant to cover that. They need to purchase some bits of kit themselves these days too, which the allowances cover.

Sorry, I have been spelling your name incorrectly.... please blame Gwyn in Kent and the two Gwyn's in my family!

I don't begrudge them a penny... but then cutbacks will be made elsewhere to pay for it. You wait, lol.... there'll be a big slammer fairly soon, and some military budget or other will be slashed.

Love

Daff xxxxx

edit, and yes, those veterans.... in fact all of that generation, because they all *fought* one way or another, they were hard times, deserve to be treated better, too. They are equally as deserving. I wouldn't have denied them that extra when they serving, either, if I had been in a position to do something about it atthe time. xxx

I can see that, Daff, sorry if I didn't make it clear, I meant serving in Afghanistan.

I'm not sure I believe they are any more deserving of extra cash that WW2 verterans struggling on a pathetically small pension, though.

I was making the point that there must be some money left in the pot if he can do that.

Gwynne

TW: "I'm not saying there should be no conditions to claiming jobseekers allowance, but do you know that if you do voluntary work, you can have your JSA stopped, because it renders you unavailable for jobseeking."

I was thinking about that too.

An easy fix would be to *allow* people on benefits to do volunteer work -- with an approved non-profit, maybe for a set time with some kind of specific goal, and a reporting procedure.

People really do gain valuable skills from volunteer work -- I always put all mine on my c.v. because I think it shows several things: initiative, skills, reliability. For instance, I recruited and supervised volunteers working with an organization to assist women accused in the courts, while I was in law school. I figured that looked better than joining the law school women's hockey team (what a bunch of the women law students were too busy doing to volunteer for my program) -- that's why I put it on my c.v., but I was doing it because I believed in it and enjoyed it.

And I always encouraged unemployed clients to go out and do that. One told me he already was -- he had a degree in some computer stuff and couldn't find work, so he was "working" almost full-time computerizing a local community group's office. Imagine how good that would look on his c.v.

But it isn't volunteer work if it isn't voluntary ...

Recall hearing somewhere, in France if you are single and have a baby you get no allowances That would probably stop us having the worst record for pregnancy in Europe.
Carol

Gwynne, that is not their normal pay that is being boosted. Just their operational pay... they get it only while they are in a theatre of war. Many of them will have taken cuts in one way or another when they are deployed to war zones, so are often worse off. I remember my husband having to pay for his water n the 1st Gulf war, although a water allowance was pushed through the week he left the first time... his water took up all his deployment pay!!

*Serving soldiers* are not just those in theatre, but those who are at home on leave, or in training ready to go.... but they do not qualify for this extra.

Love

Daff xxxx

*edit to spell Gwynne's name properly, so sorry!)

Hiya Kay ~~~~~~~~~

For the time being, yes, they are.... but in order to do that, they had to make cuts elsewhere... they were given their housekeeping, and they were able to choose how to spend it. As I said it does mean that cuts and compromises have been made elsewhere though... so we pay, one way or another.

It was in place already, when I first moved home, so I don't know the history behind it.

Our local Health Authorities are having to make massive cuts and that is before the election, and it is frontline services that are going, not the managers and penpushers... I see the point of some of them being in their jobs, we need good administrators to oil the wheels and make sure people are paid, stock is ordered etc... but at the moment the tail is wagging the dog. But the waste is silly... it is stupid stuff that money is being wasted on.

I don't agree with our WAG (Welsh Assembly Government, but the other connotation seems apt, somehow) being elected as an extra, either. I really feel it is just another Town Hall Quango. Where are they paid from? The taxpayer.... oh whoopie dooh! So they are really just another lot of Lord Mayorites with additional control and power... tsk.

I really ought to read up more about it.

Love

Daff xxxxx

We can't be that much in need of cuts. Cameron is giving serving soldiers an extra £15 a day.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/11/david-cameron-troops-afghanistan

Gwynne

HI Daffy~~~~

Are all prescriptions still free in Wales?

I have been trying to find the links used just before the election to show that spending per head has decreased in Wales these last couple of years. That included the bill for benefits as well, which previous breakdowns did not include.... the only reports I can now find go back a few years, and do not include a comparison including benefits... purely NHS, Education and something else but can't think what it is just now... will get back tomorrow when brain is in gear.

By adding the benefits bills for each area, the difference was quite substantial!

when i was the link goveror of a school
we were sent to a posh hotel for a three course meal
at £60 a head and an after dinner speaker

and allowed to stay over free of cost (which i declined )
all in the name of staff training

staff training my foot the school was never mentioned all night

it was a dam waste of public money

Arriving for interview? Chance would be a fine thing. No, you only have to look at the number of applicants for a single job on any number of the jobsite currently online, to see how many others are applying for the job.

The application stage is the easiest, you sit at home and either send a CV with covering letter, or fill in an application form, and send it off, then wait.

Interviews are the rare second-stage, and it's difficult to get to the interview stage, even when you have covered every one of their essential job specification requirements. More often than not, 99.99999% of employers won't even answer your application if you have not been filtered down to the interview stage.

You can't 'enable' jobseekers any more than they are now. As it is, we have no control over our lives really. We apply for jobs, we do what we are supposed to do, if an interview comes up, we prepare for it, we take notes with us with questions to ask, or if competency-based, notes to evidence your skills and experience, and we attend said interview suited and booted.

How else, apart from creating jobs, can you 'enable' the unemployed?
We already know there is lots of help for getting back to work, they have made life a little easier in that respect, but of course, to get back to work, you have to have work to get back to. In the meantime, JSA is not a large amount to live on, it's a struggle. The majority of unemployed would much rather be out earning their own money, in spite of probably huge dents in their self-confidence and morale through being made redundant in the first place (or the third time in 5 years as I have.)

It's not easy, in fact it's damn hard, and we dont' need to be punished for it too.

Well, I don't find it at all acceptable as you have proposed, so if this were an election, no vote, I am afraid!

I would reduce the numbers on non essential bureaucrats and managers... the town hall jobsworths, the quangos and freeloading unelected in the government and Europe. The multitude of managers in the national health service (there are more managers than there are doctors, I believe) this would allow for an increase in Frontline staff such as nurses, doctors, cleaners, and ward administrators... they are vital, it is the top heavy managers I would do away with/whittle down.

I would try to find a way of reducing the amount of paperwork police and teachers have to complete, which takes them out of their main job, and why they went into in the first place...... and keep them in the place they need to be, that is teaching and policing.

I would reduce the number of Mickey Mouse degrees, and introduce the old fashioned Apprentice/journeyman/vocational system. Not in a half hearted way, but with a proper structure around them, so that they are supported and trained, and also treated as skilled labour in the same way that nurses are now (degrees) so that they have the eqivilent of a degree in their field of study... it shouldn't matter if that *degree* is car maintenance or nuclear physics... they both have a valid role in society. Do you know.... many of these could even be earning minimum wage while they are on work placements! But based on what they wish to do, not forced to do.

Eddie... my husband, and a lot of Welsh lads and lasses, spend their working life (and their lives) keeping your English butt safe in your towns and cities... not talking overseas here, either. If you look at the statistics, as well.... head for head, the population in Wales has LESS spent on it in terms of health, education and welfare than in England... don't know about Scotland or Ireland, so can't comment. There is beginning to be an increase in outside investment here, and many call centres are moving here. But head count wise? You certainly do not *keep* me! My husband, me, my 7 siblings and their partners, nieces, nephews, cousins... we all work/have worked in my case, and all pay our taxes into the coffers at Westminster. I am British, and have every right to remain a part of Britain.

Lizz, in all fairness, there are a great deal of unemployed who, like me, are genuinely looking for work on a daily basis, who are trying really hard to get off the dole and back into the rat-race.

The kind of people you are talking about are really in the minority here, and if you have evidence, you should report it. However, please resist the temptation to tar us all with the same brush.