Should benefit claimants do trials for their benefits?

Wouldn't that be natural selection.

Surely the polar opposite of the benefits system.

(Just joking! - for heavens sake)

They should certainly have to do dome work at min wage rates , i.e. 2-3 days work for your jsa or do with out matey, if there's no roads sweeping or graffiti removal etc etc required then something like this would add to the plethora of reality tv out there.
Everyone is always happy to watch the village idiots in the early stages of x factor so I can imagine this proving quite popular , especially if they add a few Krypton Factor styles tests

What do the winners get???

Oh yeah I see they get to eat, lol a bit harsh.

No really. Look at what happens to the ones who lose.

I think they should do community services for at least 3 days per week if they are able.

One of my mad ideas was that we could have a "power generating running machine" . Claimants would have to run on the machine, driving the belt and generating power for an hour or two each day to earn their benefits.

Would you be able to earn more if you ran for a bit longer?

Yes. We could also place the machine by a cliff as an incentive to stay on

I can see a new version of the Workhouse returning, where in return for food and board you are compelled to walk on a treadmill to generate electricity.

Walk? Maybe on their day off. The rest of the time they need to run. Fast. Have a Rottweiller on a chain behind them and smear their arse in chopped ham.

Give it about 50 years and they'll be paying the elderly to top themseleves.

Logans Run. Yehhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Elderly in Logan's Run was age 30

I believe in the fundamental view that no one born in the UK shouldn’t be left to starve in the street ,BUT at the same time people can’t expect to sit on jsa etc etc forever just because they’re too thick and useless to do anything but min wage nonsense and feel it’s not worth their time.
I want the option to not work removed!
Under a sensible regime virtually no one, other than the GENUINELY disabled, would be able to sit at home cos the pavements can always look cleaner if nothing else!

But I like the electricity generation idea, has someone done the maths re the number of Joules that can be generated via iceland economy pizza’s and your average jsa claimant ?????

That would no doubt be far greener and more cost effective than those useless windmills, just think we could have a mini power station/council house down the end of our street  (walled off of course !)

Plus it would save money for the NHS cos they'd be much more fit and healthy.

Sica Dan - A lot of the birds in my home town up north look about 50 by the time they hit 30 anyway.

It would be simply marvellous to see all the lard dripping off the corpulent bodies of the sofa sloths as they give back a little to the people who keep them fed in chips and kebabs.

Can I get a job being the guy who holds the ‘motivator’ (cattle prod) for when they slow down after about 30secs?

The fat fks try to say they’re retaining water, my ar&e retaining chips more like !!

or we could go for the full matrix solution for electricity generation , wouldn't need anything complicated as their version of the matrix would be where they are forever sat on the couch watching jeremy kyle, loose women , x-factor , strictly etc etc. 

would be no point them going to work in their matrix cos they'd just keep trying to 'wake up' from their nightmare......

Should benefit claimants do trials for their benefits?

The 17/18 year old left on his own in the Pounsdtretcher shop in Wisbech is being tested well.

35 to 40 people in the queue and the barcode reader decided to malfunction.

Where was the shop manageress (on a proper wage packet) while he was trying to cope for his 'free work' JSA pittance?

She was located in the pub of course.

For over two hours.

Just to be clear if it wasn't obvious this was a response to the comment about people on benefits not having pets.

serious question pawras - are you  a ****g imbecile?
if the benefit claimants are sweeping the streets well, let me think, that amounts to actual labour, perhaps like a real job! Seems like you want companies etc employing slave labour for nothing.

I don't believe I said anything about people being employed for nothing.

No one should have to work for nothing, well apart from criminals who I'd have on chain gangs but that's another discussion, and I certainly don't think companies should get free labour or have their wage bills subsidised via tax credits.

So jsa is £72 and min wage is £6.5

By my reckoning such jsa claimants should be doing 72/6.50 = 11 hours of work to get it or do without, whether that’s sweeping the streets or whatever I don’t care.

If they’ve been planted in somewhere like poundland and they want them for more than 11 hrs then they should be paid normal rates.

I just want the option of not working and being paid for it removed.

So its just the £70 JSA you object to?  No problem with working people claiming many more times this amount in tax credits, housing benefit, council tax benefit etc.

Seems to me the govt distraction tactics are working very nicely.

I believe I wrote
"or have their wage bills subsidised via tax credits."

Wages have been stagnant for over 10 years due to tax credits, housing benefit, council tax benefit etc. I don't see why anyone with a job should be claiming anything in handouts. Plus I don't see why the total claimed by a husehold (excluding GENUINELY DISABLED) can be anymore than someone earning min wage for 40 hrs work.

I object to my taxes subsidising the balance sheets of companies via tax credits etc etc just like I object to useless lazy fcks deciding a life on handouts is the way to go (I have an ex brother in law who is a prime example). I.e. working people , who are not net takers, are basically getting shat on from both sides.

The point I'm making is that JSA is the benefit that gets people riled up even though its only a small part of the total benefits package.  The whole system is rotten. It serves govts well as a nice distraction from people noticing that the low wage economy can only be sustained by benefits, so we end up with a situation where people work full time but still claim as much in benefits as those on JSA.

Govts have created a system that is ripe for exploitation.  I've known several people working full time who have manipulated the benefit system but just see it as normal thing that everyone does, MPs and Lords included.

As long as you don't claim the visable £70 a week JSA the rest seems to be fair game.

I agree the whole welfare system is rotten and is ripe for reform from the ground up.

Instead of tinkering around the edges they should start with a clean sheet and redesign it from top to bottom.

I would do much the same with the tax system as it's unnecessarily complicated.

If both were redesigned and simplified it also have the benefit of requiring less civil servants to manage and maintain them.

At this thread header.

I did a hypothetical "Better off Calculation."

The Unemployed on JSA receive £77.20 per week.
Someone working 16 hrs per week @ £6.60 per hour would be £08.04 a week better off.
Someone working 30 hrs per week @ £6.60 per week would be £89.00 a week better off.

Both still receive "working tax credits" to top up their wages. Rent and council tax deductions have also been factored in.

Forget the feckless and work shy unemployed, even our workforce are on benefits.

Which bright spark on here has the answer?

^ £72.20* not £77.20 (heavens forbid they get even more)

I was advocating removing the option to stay on jsa if there's a job in starbucks, so there's none of this only x £ better off having a job.

As for all the working tax credits etc etc they should all go so that wages start rising instead net contributor tax payers subsidising companies wage bills

I blame the companies for not paying people a decent wage, otherwise known as the living wage, £7.65 per hour.

How many people apply for a single job in a Starbucks? Google it

I know a couple who both work.  They have two children a mortgage and a car.  He earns works about 35 hours and has a fairly easy local job for about £18k, she does about 15 hours evening work minimum wage - could do more hours.   

They get various in-work benefits (e.g. working tax credit, child tax credit)  They are very aware of them and the implications of how many hours she works.

If there was no benefits system, I am sure she would do more hours and/or he might look for a better paid job.

Should they be congratulated for both of them working - or criticise them for milking the system?

it's human nature that if free money is there you'll take it i.e. so remove it. the tax credits etc etc are a big factor in depressing wages for the last 10-15 years and kept inflationa and interests low. Unfortunately someone has to pay for it , i.e. the net contributors on decent wages.


I just used starbucks as an example. If it came to the crunch they'd be sat emptying sand from bucket to another until something came up just to recondition them pavlov dog style that there is no free money.

oh dear people on here can't have a sensible discussion on my original thread on benefits. So they have to start their own daft little fred to satisfy their own starved attention.

the better bettor, provide a link and i shall do my best to investigate said thread.

p.s. people on bf who offer 1.2 v 1.6 should be put in stocks (not shares).