General Chat

I'll force my tongue firmly into my cheek, Maggie

Maybe he could volunteer as part of the Big Society?

Shucks, what a drawback. He doesn't have a trust fund to live on.

Sue x

Ironically, Sue, when he was first unemployed, he was doing volunteer work for an environmental group.....

......now he can't afford the petrol!

Oh - that would be because volunteering doesn't pay anything - including the bus fare (nearest bus is 2 miles away) or petrol!!

He traded in a pension he had to pay off his overdraft - it left him £50 - now he's expected to live on £41 a week!

You are truly a genius, Maggie

You'v e spotted the fundamental flaw in the Big Society initiative.

It may come as a bit of a surprise, David, but not everyone has a load of unearned income to depend on.

Sue x

All MP's to live on Jobseekers for 6months - and try to get a job in that time !

How many people is Cameron making unemployed?
How many people is he trying to get off disability benefit?
Increasing the age of retirement will help who? Certainly not the youngsters trying to get a job.
How many jobs are there?

All can be found on the internet, and I bet you there are more unemployed at the moment than there are jobs,
So, vast numbers of ex servicemen, thrown out of their jobs are now 'scroungers'.
How this government loves their heroes, and shows the same 'respect' to their elders.

I am not even going to get angry enough to get into this debate.....so I am going to be flippant and ask.....Which country are we talking about?!

I'm talking about England, Susan.
All the other countries in the UK have their own parliaments.
Although, of course, they can vote on what happens in England, but we can't vote on what happens in their part of the Kingdom!

if this country is in such a bad way

why cat the primeminister and all the MPS
do their jobs for free for a year





thought not lol

Hi Sandie,
There are representatives of the Northern irish, Welsh and Scottish Assemblies in the House of Commons, who are abl to vote - but no English representatives in their Assemblies.

thats a bit unfair Maggie

JBA..I agree well they get their transport to and from work !! and their TWO houses and a huge wage if they took a wage cut wouldnt that help?

why do they need two houses with high speed trains
they could commute many other people do



give them a free rail card and a voucher for mac donalds
and nothing else

This is just an idea ,,
Some people still on JSA after 6 months or 1 year could possibly work for their JSA by doing work for the Local Councils such as litter picking , clearing fly tips and maybe even other jobs that at the moment get charged via the Community charge. It could be hourly rated so that someone would have to earn at least the minimum wage but would cover the JSA benefit that is claimed each week.

Hayley, we have been on a low wage for years and we kept pets, so we havent had an away holiday for about 40yrs, but we live in a beautiful part of the country, so why do we want to go away? I dont consider we have suffered. Now on pension and OHs war pension and we are quite comfortable, but I was brought up in a different era to the youngsters and have never envied those with more. A happy marriage, roof over our heads and not in debt, credit card paid off every month and we have all we need.

That's genuinely nice to hear, Jean.

I'm afraid that it's not possible for young people these days to have no debt if they want to better themselves, ie to go to University.

Student loans don't even cover the cost of student accommodation, especially at the more "prestigious" universities, and, after that, if your son or daughter (the latter in my case) wants to go on and study for a master's degree or a doctorate, then there's no funding at all (loan or otherwise) available, and the only course I had open to me was to re-mortgage the only asset of any value I had, just to cover her fees.

Rachel did her bit by working throughout her five extra years at Uni to keep herself- including a bit of shop work, some bar jobs and her own little business, on top of studying for both secondary degrees.

I'm enormously proud of her, but this is no way to encourage talent. It's only good luck that I had a house to re-mortgage. What if I hadn't?

Sue x

I haven't got a house of my own to mortgage.
My daughter worked whilst she got her degree.
She worked for 6 years after getting her degree (the last 3 for the Environment Agency), and has now started on a PGCE in Brighton - supported by her partner, but her partner (who also works for the Environment Agency) has been told that in November, he will either be made redundant or will have to re-appy for his job - and if successful will move to Reading in April!
Which (if he's 'successful') leaves my daughter alone in Brighton for 3 months - paying rent on her own with no income, as he'll have to pay rent in Reading.

There is no commonsense at work in this country. Education should be free to those who are genuinely making an effort to learn, not spending their time in the bars and lying about in bed, as i have heard from a reliable source, many youngsters do. This young lady has a flatmate who doesnt get up till noon and doesnt attend her lectures. What a waste of money! I do think that is should be incumbent on the authorities to try and find work for those on the dole to keep up their work ethic and their self esteem, instead of just provivding the money. Its surprising what you can turn your hand to when necessary. My Da was a soldier, aclockrepairer, a dustman and a railway worker. Also worked on erecting electricity pylons, and a brickies labourer. I never knew him out of work, he would take anything.

Students who don't keep up with work can, and should be thrown out, BUT I have to say at college it was just as often the ones who lounged around appearing to do not much of anything who got the highest marks when it came to the wire. Natural intelligence lol ( and very frustrating to those who sweated blood to get the same marks) .

Jean, like you I have lived on very little (who didnt when bringing up a family) for years, we both work long hours and earn every penny, and I do want to see the fruits of my labour and be able to enjoy how I want too., not see it spent on people that dont want to work, the point I was trying to make was immigration is so often blamed for cuts or any other objection anyone seems to have with the government, people seem to think that any one from anyother country can just jump off a plane go straight to the local DWP office and drain our benefits system and that is simply not true, for anyone to even visit this country lets say from a 3rd world country they have to have a health visa and so on, illigal immigrants are just that illigal so no they cant claim a penny or can they resecieve mefical treatmemnt, what I would like to see is a shake up in the benefit culture and those whom need have it and those who just think its there for their them get a wake up call, I also think that to cease trading with other countries is not the answereither, I really don't think people think before they suggest these things. Infact this country need to beable to import export simply because we need the revenue, I just think its laughable how people address the problems this country clearly has and pass the blame else where.

i also think if the government ran car insurance
it could put the cost on to the cost of pertrol
and then nobody would be uninsured on the road
even if it was a simple third party insurance
and if people wanted better polices they could get extra top up
from insurance companeys who are making a killing out of us all

Now that, Joy, is a very valid point and one which I've often queried myself.

How/why is it that car insurance is a legal requirement and yet is only provided by private insurance companies who can charge whatever they like (and can get away with!).

MOT's are also a legal requirement but garages that do MOT's have to be registered and there is a maximum charge set by the government for it. They can, and often do, charge much less, but they cannot exceed the set limit.

MOT's are also outside the scope of VAT because they are a legal requirement.

Although it may seem like a good idea to increase the petrol price to include some part as being for insurance, it wouldn't really be fair. Those who do more miles will pay more that way......but it doesn't mean that they are at a higher risk of being involved in an accident. Often it's the opposite! The *Sunday driver* - yep, we've all been stuck behind them at some time lol - is more at risk of being involved in an accident than the travelling sales rep.

Someone driving their car to work and parking it all day is at less risk of an accident than someone not working who will drive occasionally to a shopping centre on an unfamiliar route........and that is from my insurance company, honest.

Mary