The State Is Subsidising Our Largest And Most Profitable Retailers.

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32272817

Aso the Sunday Times :::: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1542849.ece

These firms are able to pay their workers below the living wage, knowing that us, the taxpayers, will have to subsidise their poor wages with "in work" benefits.

This isn't a Party-political issue, as its been going on for years. How can this be right ? Why should my hard-earned wages go into the coffers of already wealthy companies, like Tesco, ASDA and Amazon ?

[Orderlimit]

Mikey, you claim that immigration has nothing whatsoever to do with wage levels but surely the supply/demand of workforce/ vacancies issue has had some impact, or a lot of impact ?

[retrocop]

How can you not bring politics into it? It is the Government treasury who set the minimum wage set up by your Labour party back in 1998 not thhe Andy Pandy Workers co-operative. So your pips are being squeezed by this are they.Well our pips have been squeezed since Europeans have been allowed to benefit their families back home by sending child benefit to Poland paid for by us.Of course it is a Party-political issue and as you say this has gone on for years. May be the man you despise and wouldn't accept a Gold Rolex from would have other plans for this subsidy given the opportunity because Mr Miliband sure as hell wouldn't do anything about it except squeeze us more.

[retrocop]

Orderlimit
Well I would of thought so to and that is why I mentioned it.

[mikey4444]

No orderlimit, this has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration. To bring the immigration issue into this debate is similar to the argument used by Farage, when he was late for a meeting in South Wales, on a Friday evening, because "there were too many immigrants in front of him on the M4"

[Baldric]

Not forgotten Mikey, The national minimum wage gets a mention in my post @ 1154

[Orderlimit]

I'm sure it does retrocop, it's bound to but of course we shall be ridiculed and branded racist in some perverted way.

[mikey4444]

Retro...you are now just having a rant. Please try to debate this and other issues without getting your anti-immigrant and anti-EU soap box out.

[Svejk]

Vote Ukip. I tried to explain all this to you months ago, mikey.
And got abuse for my trouble.

[Baldric]

\\\I seem to remember it was ok years back for the State to subsidise the uneconomic Coal Industry.\\\

///Baldric...an interesting comment but entirely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.///

It's got everything to do with the State subsidising Business

[Zacs-Master]

Good point Balders.

[tamborine]

Great....am all for clawing back taxes, however! No one is forced to take jobs they dont like.

[retrocop]

mikey
I am not having a rant and I am not actually disagreeing with you. You are saying this is not a party-political issue. You drew our attention to your concerns by posting this OP.Who is going to put your concerns to right. It will not be HMQ herself or all the Kings horses and men.So tell me who can resolve this issue? Not you here on your soapbox so who will address this if at all?

[Zacs-Master]

No they're not. And that's why we have a class of people who have never worked and never intend to, costing the taxpayer billions and encouraging immigration.

[Svejk]

Any fool could foresee the disaster which was introducing a minimum wage. Coupled with in-work benefits, I suppose it expanded the Labour Party client base.

[tamborine]

As the benefit cap is £500pw....how does any employer compete?

[fiction-factory]

Exactly, tambo- even if an employer paid double the minimum wage there would still be some workers receiving in work benefits.
Does the Times article mention how much these 'subsidised' workers pay in NI/income tax?
Surely it's better to have someone in a job paying between minimum and living wage than to have them unemployed?

[fiction-factory]

I would agree though to an increase of maybe 5-10% a year in the minimum wage for the next two years coupled with a freezing of 'in work' and some 'out of work' benefits so that work is an even more attractive option

[mikey4444]

Retro....I see that you are in agreement !

The minimum wage which now, no one disagrees with, needs to be expanded gradually until it is at a more realistic level. To be fair to dave, his Government has gone some way towards this in recent years. But it doesn't seem to make sense to me that people in employment should be able to claim such huge amounts in benefits, because their employers are not paying them nearly enough.

Surely that makes some sense doesn't it ?

[mikey4444]

ff....I agree with you at 13:18 !

[fiction-factory]

Maybe you are looking at it from the wrong angle or at least from only one side. The other important question is why are some people receiving benefits which are higher than some people earn?