House of Lords blocking 'commons' bill

But we do have a big brother state already.
The tax office knows exactly how much money I earn each year, they also know my circumstances.
If getting benefits is only down to filling in a claim form, with no checks, then you can see why we have got into this state of affairs.

You try and get help if you are unemployed, and see how they go through your finances with a fine tooth comb.

 

Blimey we should rule the country I think

 

Problem is, it's not the 1970's any more where you can walk out of one job and into another.
Jobs are limited which actually restricts peoples choices.
Many employers embrace the minimum wage and offer only that, which further reduces peoples choices.
So, unfortunately, the "look for something else" argument isn't actually as viable as it may first appear.

I prefer the old adage though: cut your coat according to your cloth

 

Hi M,

There are plenty of jobs out there but a lot of people nowadays just cannot be bothered to get off their bums and do them.
We are forever hearing here in the west midlands that companies cannot get the staff.

As for minimum wage.....

Anyone who is in full time ( ok, lets say for example 35 hrs a week ) on minimum wage of £6.70 is earning
£236.50, they'd probably take home out of this approximately £210 a week.

The trouble nowadays is that people need to be educated in how to spend money wisely, after all it's only common sense.

Anyone who cannot cope with living on this should try my £61 a wk.

As for a so called " Living Wage " of £10 an hour that is just a joke from start to finish. What's that going to do to smaller companies which simply can't afford it.
More company closures more people unemployed.

 

There are plenty of jobs across the whole country, but there are wide local and regional variations. In my locality, 2200 people have just lost their jobs. Some of those will be able to travel to find work, but many will have young families they won't want to leave behind. 2200 people all looking for a new job in the same area at the same time would probably get quite upset if it was suggested to them that there are plenty of jobs but they are too lazy to do them.

Now as for the minimum wage bit. Thankfully it doesn't apply to me, and I'm in quite a lucky position. But let's imagine I was on minimum wage, bringing home £210 per week, or about £900 per calendar month. Let's say my mortgage was typical for the area, at about £500 per month, and about £110 per month council tax. That leaves £590 per month. Now I want to pay the utilities, at a total of about £120 per month. That leaves £470. I want to feed and clothe my family. That costs me about £200 per month if I'm careful on shopping days. That's £270 left. Now I need to actually get to work so I can earn that £900 per calendar month. In fuel for the commute alone that's about £200 per month.

Great, the numbers work. I still have £70 per month spare. But I need to tax and insure my car so that I can legally drive it to work. There goes about £50 per month. Just £20 left. Let's hope my son isn't going on any school trips, or my car doesn't need any maintenance, or my wife or kids don't want to do any leisure activities. And let's be thankful that I'm in a cheap area. If the typical mortgage rates were more consistent with other parts of the country, I'd be stuffed on minimum wage.

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Many employers also only offer weekly and in some circumstances daily casual contracts and for them it will make good economic sense to do that, but that does nothing for the standard of living of a couple trying to raise a young family and pay the weekly bills.
There is a lot of spin put on the minimum wage but since the witch hunt on unions many employment laws have swung in favour of the employer at the expense of the ordinary working man. I am not suggesting for one moment that we should return to the days of Arthur Scargill or even Hugh Scanlon but perhaps a new Jack Jones could rise to the surface and offer hope to those who only want a fair days work for a fair days pay. To put it into context, when my wife and I go for a drink to Nero's the coffees probably cost more than the Barista earns in an hour and that cannot be right.

 

You should try it, it helps to keep people in low paid jobs.

 

I'm applying for voluntary redundancy - which will deliver enough 'spends' before my pension kicks in at 55.

I am now 50 and have never been unemployed - the benefit I would receive...ZERO POUNDS STERLING - because I would tell the truth that I have no intention of working - unless it was something that I really fancied doing.

If I lied, I'd get £70 a week for 6 months and then nowt. There's no way I'd get involved in this 'new deal' farce.

In return for my years of tax and NI contributions - I'd get diddly squat.

The plain and simple fact is that the Government want you to work yourself to an early grave, so that they don't have to pay you a state pension .

Sod that......

 

Do you never ever need the nhs?

I kind of agree with the essence of what I think you mean. The honest person who hits hard times is treat like dirt by the state, while the deceitful get everything, but it's wrong to say you get nothing for your contribution, because presumably someone empties your bins, someone will help you for free if your house is on fire or if you need the coppers for any reason, and if you become ill you won't need to worry about who is paying for your treatment, because you've already paid for all those things through your taxes and NI contributions.

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Im unsure how you have come to be living on £61 a week but the facts are people are Never going to be motivated by the NMW. Its just ridiculous to have rents and the cost of living so high and expect folk to be able to make ends meet.

As for ten quid an hour and companies going bust well that's just exactly what they want you to believe ! As long as people believe this they will just sit back and rake in the coin and laugh behind closed doors.

We are in a ridiculous state in this country. We have a Daily climbing population rate which is utterly unsustainable .

Latest forecast is that in 20 years the population will rise by 10 Million. Yes that's TEN MILLION..................... So where do we house these people ? In real terms health cuts are an every day occurrence . How much longer can it go on ? We simply do NOT have the infrastructure in place to cope with what we have now and yet cuts keep coming and the population rises on a daily basis.

Add to this the fact there are so many available to do the jobs offered and the wages will never rise above the stupidly unfair NMW.

I feel fortunate to come from the generation I do. We at least had decent prospects in the jobs market. We had some protection and rights like holiday pay. Sick pay and so on. Now its all been taken away with Zero hour contracts and the NMW which will ensure a generation will have little chance of bettering them selves.

Make no mistake this country is going to the dogs.................

 

It is a credit to you that you paid good wages to your staff when you were in business but if I was to stop supporting companies that only paid the NMW I would struggle to do my weekly shop, eat a meal in many restaurants or put diesel in my car never mind have a coffee when I had done it all.
At the moment every major supermarket, including the two so called discounters, pay their supermarket floor staff less than the new living wage, most pay only pennies per hour above the NMW. This will soon change with some moving to the NLW by the end of November and the rest promising to follow by January 2016 but even the NLW will leave many families in or near poverty.
To get back to the original reason for this debate, this illustrates, at least to me, that the House of Lords was acting in a right and proper way when it told George Osbourne to reconsider his Bill.