Does This Man Know What

[Psybbo]

the real world is like?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21490542

[strann]

He doesn't because he's never had to live that way. He's a rich Tory.
So who voted this bunch in, despite the warnings from their past Thatcher government, and how will they vote next time? I know how I will vote and it wont be for the three idiot groups we have at the moment.

[DaisyNonna]

No.
Job Centres are staffed in the main by box tickers. Absolutely no help to people who have educational qualifications and really want to find employment. One size fits all. The lowest denominator.
Woe betide you if you have more qualifications than the person supposedly interviewing you.
I was made to go on a course to learn how to write a CV. Had been teaching that skill for the previous 5 years.
On the plus side I helped at least five people to write their CVs. Person running the course B....y Useless.

[karenmac60]

And if he were to lose his job you can bet your arse he'd be bailed out by some of his rich cronies and not have to stack supermarket shelves just to get benefits.

[FredPuli43]

There's a grain of truth in it. Some people are work-shy. Add to that , that it's sometimes possible to be better off on benefits than working. And the principle in the old saying "Beggars can't be choosers" applies; there's really no room to be picky, because, after all, a job is a job.

This woman was still being paid by us, the taxpayers, working or not. What is so offensive in this scheme, is that the employer is getting menial labour, with no educational or improving value, for nothing. I don't see how doing it prepares the employee for paid work or improves their chances.

[sandyRoe]

"...the importance of effective shelf stacking..." Did IDS say that with a twinkle in his eye?

[emmie]

not living in the real world, the woman was being asked to work for nothing, is that what we have come to. More cases like this will coming your way very soon..

[EDDIE51]

Doing any job and doing it well is the way to get noticed and progress up the ladder . Tesco have a policy that everyone starts by stacking shelves and then if they show enough skill / enthusiasm they graduate to the tills and then onto better jobs. My son started at Tesco 12 years ago , he wanted to be a baker but had to stack shelves first. Now he is bakery manager for 3 large stores with a company car.
An unpaid job still teaches you the importance of getting to work on time , getting on with the job and working with other people, you can't learn that from sitting at home on benefits.

[BlueToffee]

Pretty much the same as the rest of the Cabinet!

[emmie]

Eddie, the difference is that your son had support presumably from you his family. Economics plays a large part of the problem, for those who are being asked to do these low paid jobs have rent to pay just like everyone else, and if there is no financial help how does one propose to live.

[emmie]

the woman who took her case to court was doing voluntary work already, and was told instead to work in poundland, hardly a job that would give her cachet in the real world. Taking on any job may be fine for those who have sufficient support, from family, but if you are on your jack jones not exactly sure how you can do it.

[LyndaB]

I cannot bear IDS, but I actually agree with a lot he said yesterday. The problem lies not with the woman working in a shop (she is by no means the only student supplementing their student loan in this way!) but the fact that Poundland is getting labour for nothing, rather than paying someone who would be far better suited to the job. Sounds like the YTS scheme all over again to me. But yes, I think that shelf stackers ARE more important than geologists - they are to me anyway!

[EDDIE51]

If you are in a low paid job you can claim housing/ council tax benefit to be able to pay your rent . It is often not realised that over 85% of housing benefit recipients are actually in work full or part time. Any one who works 16 hours or more a week will also get working tax credit if they are on a low wage.
One problem is that we now produce huge numbers of graduates often with obscure degree subjects who assume that 'the world owes them a living'
There was a question on here a while back from a Mum complaining that her son had to do a job as a shelf stacker despite haveing a degree in 'Theatre and Stage Lighting' she just could not see that there are very few jobs around for Theatre lighting experts. If he had got a degree in engineering , maths or science he would have had a choice of jobs.

[tamborine]

They are gaining valued work/employment experience practices in an alternative business, surely thats of value ? She was paid by Gov. Private businesses regularly take free labor on the YTS scheme.

[emmie]

she was already gaining experience before the poundland escapade, doing voluntary work in a gallery i believe, so hardly sitting on her backside doing nothing.

[emmie]

not a gallery but a museum, and she wasn't the only one to win her case,

http://news.sky.com/story/1051035/poundland-graduate-cait-reilly-wins-appeal

[tamborine]

The museum may not have been linked to Gov standard training schemes

[emmie]

but she must have had the nous to get the job, and wasn't just sitting around at home

[emmie]

as to the job centres, job training schemes, it's a nightmare, have been in that situation and believe me i never ever got a full time job through one in my life.

[VHG]

>>>>So who voted this bunch in, despite the warnings from their past Thatcher government,

People voted "this lot" in because yet again Labour managed to nearly bankrupt the country.

And Thatcher was voted in (3 times) because people remmeber the "winter of discontent" when the country was brough to its knees by the unions and the Labour government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_Discontent

And the only reason Blair and Brown were able to get into power with a strong stable economy was because of the great way Thatcher ran the country. We were the laughing stock of Europe before she came to power.

But even then Blair and Brown (and Labour) managed to take it from a strong economy to a bankrupt one.

I would rather have a few "rich tories" running the country than the labour party who are happy to let anyone in the country who wants to come here, and pay them huge benefits for sitting on their backside doing nothing.

[tamborine]

The tax payer has to maintain the comfy cushion for idealists ?