Has anyone heard of the change to UK benefits/tax credits called Universal Credit?

[Eternal]

This is the way things go.....Labour get voted in,they balls everything up,give out money we don't have...conservatives get voted in,they have to sort out all the mess Labour got us into,so are seen as the devil for making all these cuts,then people think ahhh nice Labour....

I don't think they are solely responsible for the debt, but I do believe they buried their heads in the sand and were too afraid to upset people and sort it out.

Now this party has had a raw deal as the recession has hit hard. I hope they fix is mess but I am not holding my breath.

 

[Harveysmum369]

They certainly made it a damn sight worse,Tony B-liar didn't give a damn about what he did,just getting up George Bushs arsehole...

It pisses me off when people say 'Oh I hope the people who voted conservative are happy' as most of the time they voted Lib Dem and they forget that they are also in the government.x

 

[omfgski]

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[LPF]

I guess no one is going to make you get a job or sit in a room looking for work - they just aren't going to give you any money to choose to stay at home.

Personally, I believe if you can't afford to live, you should work. If you can afford to stay at home, great, but the state shouldn't support you. If you can't afford childcare, you kind of have to stop having children - just my opinion and my situation exactly. I think this is what the government are trying to achieve too - they have to make it pay to work not stay at home.

I think by getting rid of the huge benefit debt will free up a lot of money in the economy to create much needed employment.

The thing is, I can't afford to work. I won't be able to manage my rent, bills, food, clothes for the kids and nursery fees on a basic salary which is why I intended to use this time, before the kids started school to retrain, get a qualification to enable me to hopefully get a better job with a higher salary. My concern is that I won't be able to do this now and will instead be expected to find the first job that comes up, possibly on a minimum wage and end up being worse off.

If the Government want to make it pay to work and not stay at home, then they need to look at energy costs, council taxes and rent fees as these are extortionate and make it impossible to survive on minimum wage.

I'm sure the system will recognise that further training is part of the process of improving your job prospects and future. Getting qualification is not the same as being better off not working.

 

[Eternal]

I guess no one is going to make you get a job or sit in a room looking for work - they just aren't going to give you any money to choose to stay at home.

Personally, I believe if you can't afford to live, you should work. If you can afford to stay at home, great, but the state shouldn't support you. If you can't afford childcare, you kind of have to stop having children - just my opinion and my situation exactly. I think this is what the government are trying to achieve too - they have to make it pay to work not stay at home.

I think by getting rid of the huge benefit debt will free up a lot of money in the economy to create much needed employment.

It's very easy to say that but there are not jobs for everybody. If someone chooses not to work then fair enough they should get no money but if there aren't jobs out there, why should people be forced to sit in a room for 8 hours a day applying for non existent jobs, jobs they can't be considered for due to lack of experience/specific qualifications or rewriting and rewriting CVs and also pay something towards nursery fees for the pleasure of doing so. Not everyone who claims benefits is doing it by choice.

I appreciate that would be pants, but if your getting benefits for it, then I would look at it like my job, if that makes sense, treat it like an admin post.

I have seen some of the applications people have submitted for jobs, it takes a long time to fill in an application properly, but people just cut and paste and use the same cv over and of again. If people actually read the application, job descriptions and job spec and answered accordingly then they would be more likely to get it.

No there are not enough jobs, but being paid to sit have time to fill in applications isn't really that bad.

I am sure there will be help for training too.

 

[LPF]

This is the way things go.....Labour get voted in,they balls everything up,give out money we don't have...conservatives get voted in,they have to sort out all the mess Labour got us into,so are seen as the devil for making all these cuts,then people think ahhh nice Labour....

Exactly - if labour come back in they will continue to dish out benefits and make it easy for people not to work. The current government at least are trying to shake the system up.

 

[LPF]

I guess no one is going to make you get a job or sit in a room looking for work - they just aren't going to give you any money to choose to stay at home.

Personally, I believe if you can't afford to live, you should work. If you can afford to stay at home, great, but the state shouldn't support you. If you can't afford childcare, you kind of have to stop having children - just my opinion and my situation exactly. I think this is what the government are trying to achieve too - they have to make it pay to work not stay at home.

I think by getting rid of the huge benefit debt will free up a lot of money in the economy to create much needed employment.

It's very easy to say that but there are not jobs for everybody. If someone chooses not to work then fair enough they should get no money but if there aren't jobs out there, why should people be forced to sit in a room for 8 hours a day applying for non existent jobs, jobs they can't be considered for due to lack of experience/specific qualifications or rewriting and rewriting CVs and also pay something towards nursery fees for the pleasure of doing so. Not everyone who claims benefits is doing it by choice.

I appreciate that would be pants, but if your getting benefits for it, then I would look at it like my job, if that makes sense, treat it like an admin post.

I have seen some of the applications people have submitted for jobs, it takes a long time to fill in an application properly, but people just cut and paste and use the same cv over and of again. If people actually read the application, job descriptions and job spec and answered accordingly then they would be more likely to get it.

No there are not enough jobs, but being paid to sit have time to fill in applications isn't really that bad.

I am sure there will be help for training too.

Exactly this.

I've often believed that people should always do something in return for their benefits - they aren't a hand out, they should be treated as wages. Therefore if in return for benefits you have to sit and work in a room applying for jobs and getting your working skills up, so be it.

I also think there are a lot more jobs than people think, it's just maybe some people feel the 'hours don't suit, not my thing, wouldn't like it, don't feel the pay is high enough for what I want, I get more on benefits' etc. not everyone thinks that but I imagine a few do. Entering the working world is difficult and scary but if you had no benefits to fall back on, I bet the cleaning job / night shift job / litter picking etc job would look appealing.

It would be crap, I agree, but something in this society has to change and people need to grow up thinking its the norm to carve out a career, profession, role in society etc and that working is how you pay your way. Before the welfare state, people that didn't work were destitute - the work ethic was so strong in order to survive and I think that was lost a long time ago.

 

[Kate&Lucas]

I don't know about anyone else but I am already SO much better off if I work. Currently on benefits, I get paid on a Saturday and by Sunday by bank balance is £0. I have been given a breakdown by the Jobcentre of exactly how much better off I will be weekly if I work and I would be a fool to want to stay at home going on that. I am desperate to find work right now and am looking and applying for everything I fit the skills and requirements for - having a hot poker in my back pushing me into it won't make me any more employable.
If the change comes with better advice and help into work then wahey - bring it on now. If it is the same pathetic 'help' the Jobcentre offer currently (when I asked for help into work not long ago I was given the amazing advice of 'search online for vacancies' - gee thanks, I only do that every morning) - then I fail to see how it will be an incentive to those who are already trying.

Those who make a living out of dodging employment will always find a way I believe. They are professionals at it! I will never forget a CAB adviser once giving tips to someone I know on how to avoid being made to get work - like genuinely at a proper meeting!

 

[omfgski]

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[Midnight_Fairy]

Oh, I didn't mean Labour would get back in but inevitably they probably will. They did MUCH better in the general election than people thought! Either way, I am not fussed, good and bad come with both really.
I am glad carers are left out of it as the disabled get a rough enough time of it as it is.

All in all, the concept seems fine. I just dont understand the whole 9-5 thing and covering peoples childcare. Childcare for the under 2's is very expensive.

 

[Kate&Lucas]

It is amazing how many people are applying for very crap jobs. It's like anything that requires no experience or qualifications everyone jumps for. I know my sister works in HR for a security company and had thousands of applicants recently for a security guard position. My older sis had an interview last week for a full-time cleaning job - she was shortlisted from something like 600 applicants.
I must sound very defeatist when it comes to this subject but honestly, I am! The amount of rejections I have had for jobs I assumed I would be interviewed for, I could cry - having a rejection letter from a charity shop doesn't exactly do wonders for ones' self-esteem

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

What about the people who would do that litter picking job, that cleaning job etc but the job isn't there? If I have to go out to work, I will do but the jobs aren't there and the competition is. A few months back, it was in the local paper that our council had ten binmen jobs going and that 2000 people had applied for them. People aren't afraid to work hard I think, the chances to work hard are few and far between.

Plus in regards to training, I don't think the government is going to want to spend money on people like me who already owe them student loans lol.

we had the same problem here! My friend applied for binman job and so many went for the job that he didnt get it! He has no kids, transport, lives at home etc and he will do ANY hours and ANY job and he cant find anything other then temp work here and there!

 

[LPF]

I guess no one is going to make you get a job or sit in a room looking for work - they just aren't going to give you any money to choose to stay at home.

Personally, I believe if you can't afford to live, you should work. If you can afford to stay at home, great, but the state shouldn't support you. If you can't afford childcare, you kind of have to stop having children - just my opinion and my situation exactly. I think this is what the government are trying to achieve too - they have to make it pay to work not stay at home.

I think by getting rid of the huge benefit debt will free up a lot of money in the economy to create much needed employment.

It's very easy to say that but there are not jobs for everybody. If someone chooses not to work then fair enough they should get no money but if there aren't jobs out there, why should people be forced to sit in a room for 8 hours a day applying for non existent jobs, jobs they can't be considered for due to lack of experience/specific qualifications or rewriting and rewriting CVs and also pay something towards nursery fees for the pleasure of doing so. Not everyone who claims benefits is doing it by choice.

I appreciate that would be pants, but if your getting benefits for it, then I would look at it like my job, if that makes sense, treat it like an admin post.

I have seen some of the applications people have submitted for jobs, it takes a long time to fill in an application properly, but people just cut and paste and use the same cv over and of again. If people actually read the application, job descriptions and job spec and answered accordingly then they would be more likely to get it.

No there are not enough jobs, but being paid to sit have time to fill in applications isn't really that bad.

I am sure there will be help for training too.

I agree with the bolder section.

We had a job going recently - didn't require any experience as such as training was provided. We had over 70 applicants and then they had to close it due to the high applicant demand.

Only 3 applications met the criteria and were shortlisted - not necessarily because they were crap applicants but because they didn't put enough time and thought into the application and really scrutinise the job and person spec and tailor the application to it. Grammar and spelling errors in an application is just asking for trouble too!

The job was offered to a 40 something mum who'd never worked due to raising a family. She also was offered a very coveted job in a school and took that instead - she was obviously very good at the recruitment process and 'walked the walk' so to speak.

We're left with a post unfilled and having to go through the process again - probably the same issues will flare up and lots of good people will be rejected for interview just based on their poor application.

 

[Eternal]

Yeah, I have been lucky in getting jobs or at least interviews for most jobs I have ever applied to as have my family, it's not always to do with experience or qualifications, it's condo with scoring on the form and the interview.

 

[Quackquack99]

I live in a town of around 70,000 and there is a new tesco that has opened and they put a sign up that they received over 1700 applications but the amount of people i know that have been rejected and they seemed so disheartened every time. I really wish the govt would delve further, i mean when i was looking for a job for my oh there were plenty of jobs going in the engineering industry yet obviously there arent enough people with the relevant qualifications. I wonder are the govt going to train people up?

 

[Sarahwoo]

My oh regularly recruits - these are good jobs on decent money for a very good company. Often they just ask for a little experience - but they will train the right person. Every single time a good 50% don't even turn up for their interviews. Of the ones that do, again a good 50% don't make any effort and turn up in jeans and trainers. These people don't want the job! Anything that makes it harder fit them us good in my book.

 

[LPF]

My oh regularly recruits - these are good jobs on decent money for a very good company. Often they just ask for a little experience - but they will train the right person. Every single time a good 50% don't even turn up for their interviews. Of the ones that do, again a good 50% don't make any effort and turn up in jeans and trainers. These people don't want the job! Anything that makes it harder fit them us good in my book.

That's the same thing that happened with us - we invited 9 to interview once and only 2 turned up without any notification as to why

 

[mummylove]

So where are we meant to find these jobs when there isnt any?

I get money for being unable to work and i had to have a assessment. I had been on the money for 12 years and now they check on me. I have had the assessment and been signed as unable to work but still got to go job center for work in the future

 

[Harveysmum369]

I think when it comes to signing people off work it should be what they can do rather than just saying they can't work,full stop.x

 

[Tasha]

I cant find the letter but essentially it said that from next year single people will be able to have up to £350 a week in benefits (the universal credit) and couples/families £500 a week (so they are doing the whole not helping the more children you have thing). It said it included housing benefit (council tax benefit is being scrapped), child benefit, child tax credits and a few other benefits but not dla or carers allowance.

It also said that the cap doesnt affect those on DLA etc and also those families who qualify for working tax credits. I think the idea is that then you will be better off on a minimum wage job than on benefits, which is just how it should be IMO.