Benefits. for or against a cap?

[Kerrse]

We spend about £300+ a month food shopping & there is just me & the Mrs, we do however buy a lot of meat from the butchers which may cost a little more but is much better quality

[bob23]

I have offered but would only be allowed to work 1 week 2 at a push without my jobseekers being affected and I need to tell the jobcentre about it first so they can check the company out and make sure there is really a job there at the end, then they will tell me if I'm allowed to do it or not. Also most of the work is over 20 miles away, which would cost me £10 per day in travel which I can't afford, I'm nearly £2000 in debt now so I only offer if the job is near me and I could bike or walk there.

I look for work up to 60 miles away, permanent/temp, full/part time, day/night, I was working as a labourer but there is no work around so my boss had to let me and another go, third time I've been laid off by him, I have only really done labouring, fencing and worked at a racing kennels, only 1 job ever had any tax or NI contributions paid on my behalf even though I wasn't self employed for any of them, so none of them will admit I worked there let alone give me a reference and I never went to school.

So for me work is hard to come by, as on paper I have not gone to school, don't have any qualifications, don't have any employer references and have not worked since I was 17, if you were in charge of recruitment would you employ me? I know I wouldn't

You have missed my point. Yet managed to help me make my point also. Excuses...

why do you need to pay £10 to travel... bus? walk? bike? get help from a friend that may just appreciate that you are not sat on your a$$

If there are no jobs where you are... then how do your neighbours earn a living?

Not paying NI or Tax are choices you have made and reeped the benifits of. Not me.

Again its any excuse to not do anything... I was unemployed for 3 months last year. I didnt even go to the job centre to sign on. I knuckled down and found work by voulenteering where others wouldnt invest their time.

Try it

OK so you have managed to do something most people can't, you have royally f**kced me off!

When you have worked from the age of 16 supporting your family because your no good lazy ars3hole of a father chooses to claim disability rather than work and work for £3 per hour doing 50/60 hour weeks then get another job where you think your employer is paying your tax and NI contributions like they should, (NOT MY CHOICE NOT TO HAVE IT PAID, IT WAS TAKEN FROM MY PAY!) then you keep lending him money to pay the bills on top of the rent your paying him end up giving him £10,000 in one lump to pay off mortgage arrears so as not to lose the house bringing the total owed to you to £30,000 to £35,000 only to be kicked out of the house a couple of months later with nothing left in the bank, not knowing anyone with no friends because you weren't allowed, then come back and talk to me because you haven't got a f**kcing clue!

I have had sh!t jobs that no one else will do just so I'm working, that's why my tax never got paid because I have always worked for ars3holes!

Driving is cheaper than the train/bus that's why!!!

If you weren't so quick to judge and took the time to read properly you would have read that I offer to work for free if I can walk/bike there, this is up to 10 miles as that would be all I can manage.

I don't get a friend to drive me as I only have 2 one leaves for work at 01:00 Monday morning and gets back at about 19:00 Friday night so he can't take me and the other works out the country during the week so he can't do it either.

Most my neighbours are retired, a few are out of work, the others have jobs that they have had for years, 1 bloke is the most skilled engineer I have ever met and even he can't get a job.

last week I worked over 90 hours for £250 so that I'm not sitting on my a$$ I've told the jobcentre and I'll have a week deducted from my benefit, when was the last time you worked for £2.77p per hour?

Every job I've ever had I have always got to work early, not once have I been late or not turned up, I have always been lowest paid and hardest worker in the company, I have never taken a days holiday even when I worked 13 out of 14 days for 3 and a half years and even worked Christmas new year and every other bank holiday for the same pay.

It would be nice to have enough money in the bank to not claim for 3 months, unfortunately when I have a job I work for a living and get little pay for it, unlike people who work in an office.
 
and as I've already said I'm waiting to start a temp job as relief so it's not like I don't want to work, so If you can come up with helpful suggestions instead of being a pr*ck I'd be grateful for the help, if not keep your trap shut about things you know nothing about and bother someone else.

Tigerj360 The Astra is gone, the golf is going to replace the bmw and I'll sell the bmw, already ahead of you on that, the Astra was only worth £200

Oh and seeing as I suffered brain damage when I was beaten as a child I don't ever need to work, I could play on that, claim more money and never work again, difference between me and my dad is, as long as I'm able to work I will.

[AudiA8Quattro]

Maybe regional difference make a difference to shopping prices, or maybe it's just internet prices 

[kittie]

I can't understand how they spend that much on shopping either, if you stick to the basics and cook your own food (especially using cheap cuts of meat for slow cooking, buy frozen veg on special offer so nothing gets wasted, no snacks, buy things in bulk etc) it's not hard to keep the cost of a shop down. £240 a WEEK is ridiculous.

[JulesS3]

...lots...

Sounds like you working for sh!t pay has made you look unemplyable. Why would someone employ when you have only done rubbish jobs at low level pay?

I turned down work if it didnt pay enough, so was able to slowly build my hourly rate and only picked CV boosting work.

You need to become employable. How old are you? (23?)

[Kerrse]

...lots...

Sounds like you working for sh!t pay has made you look unemplyable. Why would someone employ when you have only done rubbish jobs at low level pay?

I turned down work if it didnt pay enough, so was able to slowly build my hourly rate and only picked CV boosting work.

You need to become employable. How old are you? (23?)

The point being most people can't afford to turn work down as they don't have the money to live if they don't work.

I don't think it's anything to do with what he has been paid in the past preventing him getting a job.

[dTEA]

The point is he is looking for work and not scrounging!!!! and good on ya!

[AudiA8Quattro]

The point is he is looking for work and not scrounging!!!! and good on ya!

Yep, i say give the guy a break.
Not everyone on the dole is a scrounger, i say stopping reading the right wing press 

[Hartside]

£26,000 per year capped benefits - still to bloody much, remember that's 100% "take home" Most people I know may earn in the region of that, but then have tax + NI to come off, bringing the equivalent working mans wage in at approx £20,000 after deductions

[golf-sib]

£26,000 per year capped benefits - still to bloody much, remember that's 100% "take home" Most people I know may earn in the region of that, but then have tax + NI to come off, bringing the equivalent working mans wage in at approx £20,000 after deductions

I wouldn't say thats too bad to be fair, I have a daughter and me and my partner earn a fair amount, nothing to fantastic, but the child tax credits and child benefits really do help with childcare otherwise it wouldn't be worthwhile for us to work, by making the cap to short it would mean if two people work in the household one of them would be better off with no job. Plus them two benefits is really all that the working class receive.

I worked as a student and have continue to work, never once had to sign on and same for my partner, I rather be in work than at home as dull as work may seem.

If it weren't due to ridiculous child care costs I wouldn't need to worry about any form of benefits, but whatever the government seems to govern seems to make that particular thing high priced, before they governed childcare the costs where a hell lot less, same with the SIA argument earlier, if they didn't govern the security industry it would improve wages as a whole, plus the SIA is as pointless as anything as it doesn't really help with your job and the exam can be passed by a monkey.