Ladymuck

Thank you Seir - I shall pass your message on to my hubby.

david_carnell Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don't wish to pick fault LadyM, as ideologically > we are on the same side, but there are some flaws > with your "option 3". You pick away DC...because I am going to:)). Apologies for the fisk-style response too - but, I think, it's easier this way. > You do not pay tax on JSA. I am afraid you are mistaken. From HM Revenue Customs' website: EIM76222 - Social security benefits: how much jobseeker's allowance is taxable Part 10 Chapters 3 and 4 ITEPA 2003 Jobseeker's allowance (JSA) is taxable regardless of whether someone is entitled to contribution based JSA or income based JSA. There are special rules for deciding how much of the JSA someone receives is taxable. > Fares to the JobCentre are paid if they are more > than one bus fare ride away. And most urban job > centres are easily with walking distance for most > people. Perhaps. But that means that if the claimant is able to get there on a single bus, that he is not eligible for reimbursement. Easy walking distance? Again, perhaps. My character "Harry Smith" (or was it Jones?) sometimes did the 1.5 hour round trip on foot (from one part of ED to Forest Hill). Time, he felt, could have been more usefully spent pursuing employment. > You only have to visit the job centre once a > fortnight. You have to present evidence to show > you've applied for a minimum of three jobs in that > fortnight. That's not much to ask in return for > your benefit. You are right - it isn't. However, the whole process becomes excruciatingly complicated where our character manages to secure a job interview on "Job Centre" day. The Job Centre proved most inflexible in these situations. In the case of Mr. Harry Smith/Jones, life was made exceedingly difficult. Much time was spent arguing over the phone as Job Centre staff threatened to stop his JSA on the grounds that "failure to attend" on a set day (picked by the Job Centre) would mean that he would have to sign off and re-apply. What a waste of time of resources - on both sides! And what a way to treat an unemployed person, who is already down on his luck and feeling very despondent over having lost his job and not being able to find another sufficiently quickly. > Costs of getting to job interviews are also paid > for by the job centre. That would even include > air-fare if it was the cheapest and most efficient > means of getting there. Ha! Excuse the mock DC, but on the one occasion Mr. Smith/Jones attempted to claim interview fares, he was told that reimbursements were not dealt with at that office but that he was free to visit another (Lewisham) and make the application there. In other words, he had to undertake a further journey (to a different office) to make another application. WTF! Needless to say - he didn't bother. > After 3 months all JSA claimants receive > half-price bus travel. After 6 they receive half > price travel on all public transport. Again, all very well until such time as Mr. Smith/Jones finds one day's work. Then he has to sign off and sign on again (after having performed his one day's work) and because there has been a break in continuity in JSA, he can never be eligible for the reduced fares (because being the hard-working citizen that he is, Mr. Jones/Smith will always take up work - whether it be for one week in ED or one day in Scotland). The system does not appear to be geared for people, like our Mr. Smith/Jones who genuinely wish to help themselves. > Not all job centre staff are unhelpful or barely > literate. I was one. I am sure you are right and I suspect Mr. Smith/Jones would have fared much better (mentally, emotionally and financially) had he had someone like you guiding and assisting him. However, his experience was that of pretty shabby treatment by often rude, uncaring, and - yes - barely literate staff. Shameful. > I agree the current system is in dire need of > reform but the overly simplistic pictures I'm > seeing painted by both sides bear no resemblence > to what I worked amongst for nearly a year in > 2009/10. I should say, I worked (for nearly four years) for various Citizens Advice Bureaux whereupon I spent a good chunk of my time assisting clients who were either being fobbed off or wrongly treated by Job Centre staff. However, I accept that, in that situation, it would be a rare thing to encounter the recipients of JSA who receive a good service.

Tres drole your Maj!

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > LadyM, you could talk yourself into a depression. I know that! I was being facetious - for the heck of it! Or is that not allowed in the Drawing Room? (That last bit is a rhetorical question, esteemed Chair). *sticks tongue out at H*

katie1997 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If HAL doesn't advise you otherwise then I will LM > ... those garlic presses are rubbish, its best to > crush the garlic on the back of a spoon (or use a > pestle and mortar) Okay, okay...you have a point... >or you could simply buy garlic > paste ready-made LOL. I shall let that flippant comment go as it was your 29th birthday yesterday!

Sounds idyllic Lady Kat. Esme xx

DJKillaQueen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------ > > The example of Harry Brown and Harry Smith is a > good one. It would have been had it been complete and shown the full picture - it didn't - so it isn't!

600

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Option One > > Visitor: "Who's that bloke there?" > > Resident: "That's Harry Smith. Poor bastard lost > his job last year, but we all club together and > pay his rent and his bills. He's a smashing > feller, to pay us back he cuts the hedges, does > the shopping for Granny Jones once a week and > takes the local kids on fishing trips." > > Option Two > > Visitor: "Who's that bloke there?" > > Resident: "That's Harry Brown. His parents take > money from us every week on threats and menaces of > jail and give it to him. He spends most of the day > in bed or down the shopping centre. The evenings > he gets pissed on cheap cider. I caught him > vomiting in my garden the other day, and when I > asked him why he didn't get a job he spat on my > shoe and told me it was his 'rights'" Huguenot! You forgot Option 3! Option 3: Visitor: "Who's that bloke there?" Resident: "That's Harry Smith. Poor sod, lost his job nearly a a year and a half ago after having worked since the age of 16 and barely taken a day's work off work sick in nearly 40 years. He's in his 50s but cannot for the life of him find a job despite looking in earnest every day, being registered with some over a dozen agencies, and having bunged his CV on the internet for the whole world to gawp at. At first he received just over ?64 a week JSA, on which he had to pay tax at 40% because he used to be a good earner and it was right - then - that he should pay his share of taxation. And for that enormous sum of just over ?64 per week (taxed at 40%) he had to pay fares to visit a job centre and sign on and suffer the indignities of interrogation as to why he hadn't found a job by staff who were unhelpful and barely literate. He is now in his fifties and has become very depressed. He has a wife who earns a low income, but as the pair of them worked hard over the years and were prudent to save for their retirement, his JSA stopped 6 months after first receiving it. He receives not a penny from the State now despite being out of a permanent job for nearly a year and a half. Thankfully, the odd contract job pops up now and again. However, as the jobs are short-terms (some as short as one day) and via agencies, he no longer enjoys holiday pay, sick pay, pension rights etc. All work related expenses are down to him (including flights and accommodation - yes, he goes to most places - including abroad). He remains depressed - his self-esteem at an all time low. But - somehow - he manages - but only because he is eating into his savings - which aren't huge. He isn't complaining. AS I SAID HUGUENOT - YOU FORGOT OPTION 3!!!!

I think motive is an issue here. If the Government genuinely wishes to help the unemployed back into work by making them feel socially useful and training them etc., then fine. However, if this is about demeaning or punishing so-called scroungers or malingerers, then I am not comfortable with that. fuck fuck fuck fuck (because Brendan says we can)

'bout now Wrote: ------------------------------------------- > ...is this the end for the Lib Dems? I think it has to be. Once the favourites of students...not any more...

SeanMacGabhann Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You start > waving a large debt in front of them, in a time > when jobs are scarce anyway, they will not even > risk it and more feasibly end up in a minimum wage > job Ha! They should be so lucky! In the event that they are unable to obtain such relatively lucrative employment, they may well be forced to undertake menial jobs for a pittance of around ?1 an hour (in addition to that already vast sum of just over ?51 per week JSA of course). And, naturally, they will only have themselves to blame because they will so obviously not have tried sufficiently hard enough to look for work. And we all know that there are just STACKS of jobs out there - right? An abundance in fact!(6) *bangs head on wall*

Sue Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------ > The terms and conditions say "Text tickets are > non-transferable" and "We will only accept > original text tickets...The T&C also say that tickets are issued on a > priority basis to active Orange mobile customers > spending over ?5 a month You are right - I wouldn't be eligible. Thank you so much for such a full reply Sue. Weegee, I have this thing (which has been sitting at the bottom of my ruck-sack for years) which I do not know how to use. As far as I am concerned I (effectively) don't have a mobile. And as for the number, I haven't a clue! It should properly be in a museum...remind me to show you it when I see you next.

This latest tactic of utilising an unpaid workforce will only serve to enable the state to cut jobs even further. Maybe they consider that to be morally justifiable. Can I really say things fucking wankers on here? OK: fucking wankers!

Thanks for the tips so far - so, thermals and more thermals. If he goes, it will be about an hour outside Helsinki (some little phone company which begins with an N;-)). Beautiful picture Mr. Piers.

Loads of yellow/soft crab apples in St. Francis park opposite Sainsburys DKH.

What did you have to do Sue? Hubby bought me an Orange mobile years ago, but it sits at the bottom of a bag as I don't know how to use it. Does the Orange Wednesday thing involve texting (which is alien to me)? And if I wanted someone else to benefit from my OW, would I be compromising anything (such as security - or whatever)?

Oh!:-$

Pretty too! But it's one thing being able to act, sing, dance, chat and what have you. Possessing emotions, knowing right from wrong, being able to reason (as we do) etc. is quite another. Could a machine therefore ever be equipped with the technology to make ethical decisions in the way that we do?

What won't last? The rioting or the coalition?

Hubby might be working there in the New Year.

What is it like - other than cold, dark and expensive? I've been to Helsinki on holiday during the summer, but of course that isn't the same thing. Any advice on what it's like to work there would be appreciated. Thanks.

I can't see why it should have... *whispers* ...exploded... unless you forgot about it and it fermented? Also, I don't see the point of making it in advance - all you have to do is pass the cloves through a press at the time it's required - but I'm pretty sure you are going to advise me otherwise...;-)

HAPPY...AHEM...29TH...BIRTHDAY LADY KATHARINA VAN DER WOTSIT Hope you are having a lovely time in the country. Bisoux xxxx

Good luck PR xx