General Chat

Get the work shy off the dole and into work
i agree its time to take action
but where are those jobs going to come from

what do you think ????

In theory it's fine ...in practise?!

I signed on last week...went through 'all' the jobs available in the job centre ... most were either a very specific requirement ( eg legal secretary, fork lift truck driver etc) or for less than 2 days a week.

As the man behind the desk said...we can't expect you to apply for jobs if there aren't any!

I think the government need to sit down and think how they are to tackle this issue before they move to making announcements! how do they clarify the "work shy" from the ones who just cannot find work from the group known as the "dole queue"? how does the government provide not only jobs, but the right type of jobs? and does this mean that yet again the price of labour has to decrease or will they find new monies to pay wages worthy of the role undertaken? more training perhaps may be offered! apprenteships! funding for courses! the issue I see here is the fact that the majority are more "comfortable" on the dole, than if they were in paid employment with which comes respectablity both for oneself and from others!

It's not a question of 'comfortable' on the dole for a lot of people ...taking a low paid job if that is all that is on offer may well mean you lose your home, being on benefit means the interest on the mortgage is paid for a period, your rent is paid..or at least that you get your council tax paid for you...

SG the government have, other than those who as part of the EEC are entitled to come here...as we are to go there, .

you all have valid points thank you
i wonder where these jobs are going to come from

the government may have to spend more money to provide them

my apologies for my inadequacies Rose! it came out a little wrong! the reason I use the phrase IS because when you listen to the news that ALL are being tarred with this brush! and I think the new government would have us believe it to be so! but . . . why should you take the low wages when you work hard and deserve more? why should persons of skill, experience and character HAVE to take what is offered?

i think they are going to target long term unemployed

I am long-term unemployed. There is currently a govt scheme called Flexible New Deal, where you have to attend a consultancy company for up to 30 hours a week, though usually just one or two half days a week. There you do various workshops, CV, Interview techniques, Speculative jobsearch letters, applications etc, and at least three hours intensive jobsearch per week.

When you've been out of work for a long time it is very demoralising, and this scheme actually motivates you and helps you get work.

They need to do more of this at the beginning of unemployment, not a year down the line.

SG,
Illegals cant do a proper registered job of work, they have no work permits,no Ins.no Tax code ,they get expoloited right left and centre and work either on all weather veg picking or washeruppers for a pitance some as little as £1hour......get found and the deported.,,,,,would our people who have been on long term benifits be seen doing this work?I dont think a unemployed business man would go carrot picking do you ,yet its a job.....

There are many families who have 2/3 on benifits and havnt worked for years,,,,why ,because they found they can get by on benifits ,which allows them all day free time to lounge in front of their 42"teles with 200 channels...
Legal Immigrants from EU do jobs that our*natives* wont..

Yes where are the jobs ???even with qualifications they are thin on the ground and often means communting or a total move which often isnt viable.

Well think it will be a struggle to find jobs, the company I work for (example), we have a part cast in Israel sent to us, we then send it to USA for machining they return to us, we then send it Canada for a special surface coating, this because no one in the UK can do it now. What I’m saying that we have over 200 suppliers 80% of them are overseas, we have just about stopped manufacturing in the UK.

I do think we went through quite a long period when having a 'qualification' however irrelevant to the job to be filled, became more important than the actual ability of the people applying for it. ( 3 A levels to work as an assistant manager in a large chain for example )

Now we have a situation where those paper qualifications don't guarantee a job at all, when 10% of last years university graduates failed to find a job in that year, and there were 70 applicants for every 'graduate' job... that must filter down the system as some of those graduates take on the 'ordinary' jobs once taken by the less qualified. The great thing about being young is that you ARE more mobile you can move to where jobs in your field are... that isn't easy with a family.

I was reading the other day that the recession has brought an upsurge in 'young entrepreneurs' unable, after leaving uni ,to get a job they have turned to starting up their own businesses, with some success...maybe the focus should be on assisting small business set ups more...lol cloning Mary Portas and getting her in at the start up!

E-Mail i received this week from the company i work for.

"It is the first time we have run this Global Survey covering 400,000 employees in 180 countries. Do you have any suggestions about how we could improve the process of running it for next year? Please e-mail the UK survey team with your thoughts."

I wonder if they know me,LOL

Well....I'd love to have a job, and it's not through lack of trying that I haven't got one yet. But if you think I'm better off on benefits, think again. I get by, yes of course I do....but what choice do I have? I dont' go out, I haven't had a holiday in years, my furniture needs replacing, I have a chest of drawers in the bedroon which has collapsed, I rarely if ever get new clothes, and then only when necessary. Two tops, two bras, one pair of trousers and a shirt for interview and a pair of trainers hardly constitutes overspending in 16 months does it? Oh and two £4 pairs of jeans and two £6 sweatshirts for my OH.

Yes I get my rent paid in housing benefits...well most of it...but if I have to feed, clothe and keep warm two of us on £97 a week...How am I supposed to pay £105 a week in rent? I can't eat cheap rubbish from Iceland...my OH's sugars go through the roof, so decent fresh food is the only way.

The absolute truth is, if you can get a full time job on national minimum wage, there is help available, in working tax credits, housing and council tax and others. Do you really think that the minority of lazy beggars who don't want to work is justification enough to reduce what little the rest of us get?

I'd be better off working....I'm not here by choice.

People who are out of work need HELP, they need encouragement, and they need jobs....they don't need to be penalised even further for being somewhere they don't want to be.

Edit: and I've only paid my GR fees, I haven't bought a cert in two years...as much as I'm itching to. I'm entitled to keep up my membership if I choose.

It must be difficult to motivate yourself to get a job (when you want one), when nearly every time you apply you never get a reply. Maybe companies/firms should be made to send out at least an acknowledgement to applications.


I did see in the local paper this week. In a report about a prospective new motorway service station which could open near here, and the claim that it would bring jobs for local people. There was a reply from Morrisons that they had adverts out for staff and couldn't get anybody!

i agree with somerset girl[my mom came from yeovil]xx
im all for helping others i swear.but we cant afford to keep doing this letting peeps in from other countries when we need to sort our own out first.we would be more use then to help others.

also,when single parents try to get out the system by doing work ,irrelevent of having children to think of.they get less help.instead of more support.
yet near me theres a rough area where every drug dealer ,low life,and general waste of space lives.but there houses are fantastic.i cant afford all those nice things and i work.one particular family neither work ,keep producing the kids ,he fixes up cars and does a spot of window cleaning,but hes on invalidity.he suffers from his back and occasional nerves .jeeeeeeeeeeeze.gimme a break.

Good idea about companies/employers being made to acknowledge applications, Ann. I have found that with applying for part time jobs over the last year - I phone up, they say to e-mail a CV so I do and then I hear nothing back at all. This has happened to me at least three times since last May and all I really want is a part-time job to supplement my income because I'm self-employed and I'm making very little at the moment. I even sent follow-up e-mails and made phone calls about one job saying I was still interested and when I asked for the contact name I'd been given by e-mail, the person who answered the phone claimed never to have heard of them.

Interesting point you made about your local Morrisons because a private shopkeeper in our town wrote into the local paper saying that they'd advertised and had no response and I wondered whether it's because people are so fed up of hearing nothing back that they are thinking twice about applying. Which is a vicious circle but I can see how it starts.

I've found that Kate, but then again, one job might have 80 to 100 applicants, and it's just not cost effective to send letters to the majority of those applicants.

However, when you've been for an actual interview, and the STILL don't contact you after, that's a pretty poor show. That happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I've since written and asked them for some feedback...because I know I exceeded all their essential AND desirable criteria...they've ignore me.

T,some havnt got your drive to want to work......you will get there and have the good times back again....x

I see families dad and son each run a car,,each spend nights at the pub ,darts ,pool, have latest gadets never seem short of cash,,either they are doing something illegal,going without food,to have what they do,,,,,each havnt worked for years......this is what questions peoples take on the benifits they may get,,,,,some working cant afford skyfull works,each have a car,and spend at the pubs,,surely this seems not right to how you have to manage.....

TW i have witnessed you trying to get work
i know you are a hard working person

good luck in your search xx