Well that last post certainly set a few furs flying. Here is my reply:
First off Danny said: 'what if you had found yourself unemployed in a society where there were no free handouts, and everyone had to fend for themselves? It's not that hard to imagine.' We don't; We live in a society where I pay taxes for such an occurrence. So this has no validity. If I was in such a society, I would be working. Simple as.
He also says: 'At the end of the day, I think it's a massive luxury to be given three whole months to sort yourself out at the taxpayer's expense, before they start applying a bit of pressure on you. People should be bloody grateful for it!' I would have been working for the past three months had there had been work for me. I am grateful for the pittance I am given by the Dole, I am certainly not 'sorting myself out' at the tax payers expense. I am doing it out of my Tax, that I paid whilst I was working. It is not like I have never worked and am just taking it for granted. Like Archer, this made me rather angry.
Darren is correct, rather than forcing me to work outside of my area of expertise the Job Centre should be forcing other genuine Dole scroungers back to work. You can see it when I go to sign on. I see the same faces and I see they don't even bother checking the computers for new jobs, which is something I do everytime I'm in the Job Centre. I know that the markets will pick up again soon and there will be work. I am currently weathering the storm.
Archer is also correct, Danny you were on the Dole for years back in the day, same as me. I'm not particularly proud of it, but we got away with it because we could. I am now genuinely out of work and have paid taxes in order to support myself during this hard time. If I want to go and stack shelves in Netto, that should be my choice. I am not a scrounger, I want to work, but I want to work in the Profession which I am trained for and which, incidentally, I ran up £12,000 worth of debts to train for. These factors are not taken into account by the present system. The reason is it is a JOB centre, not a CAREER centre, two very different things. To them we are just numbers and as long as the monkeys behind the desks punch enough numbers into the computers they don't give a shit about your circumstances, past or present.
Friday, 2 April 2010
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6 comments:
Sinatra is a gangster film.
Anyone fancy a pint? This is getting too gay in here.
I wasn't sure whether to reply to this and risk fanning the flames further, or just let it die. I chose the former. Hang onto your trousers.
I read Archer's reply. I agreed with most of it. I'm not sure exactly which points of mine you were so angry about. You never said.
Just to make it absolutely clear, I am not anti-dole, I do not look down on genuine benefit claimants. As Alex says, I was on the dole for most of the 90's.
I wasn't a genuine claimant, I was just taking the piss. Life was made very easy for me, why on Earth would I go out and get a job when I could get free money and do exactly what I wanted for the best part of a decade?
It was great, to be honest. Like Alex, I'm not proud, but so what? It was free money on a plate, I took it, I had a great time with it.
So I've been there and done that, I don't think it makes me a hypocrite to have an opinion now. My opinion now is that it shouldn't be allowed to happen, the taxpayer shouldn't have to fork out for lazy idiots like that. Like I was in the 90's. It's not really on.
Listen, I think the Dole is a wonderful thing for geuine claimants such as Alex and Archer, I just wish that people were a bit more grateful for what they're given. Maybe someone who knew me back then can correct me, but I'm sure I was a pretty humble claimant back in the 90's. I was grateful for what I got.
Plenty of people I knew back then (nobody in here but Alex will know who I'm talking about) were always self-righteous and indignant about their God-given right to free money from the state. If their beer token was a day late, they'd go barging into the Jobcentre demanding their money. They would kick up a stink about anything. It used to annoy me.
Let's just be grateful that such a system exists where genuine claimants can get money and support. Let's not kick up a fuss everytime the Jobcentre asks us a question after three months, let's just be grateful that the system is there in the first place.
I don't agree when people disparagingly call the dole a 'pittance', like the dole is an insult or something. It's not. Loads of people out there refuse jobs because they've worked out that without housing and council tax benefit, they won't be much better off, so why bother? That can't be a pittance then can it, if they have the luxury of making that decision?
A lot of people here are making distinctions between 'genuine claimants' and 'proper piss-taking dole scum'. A common phrase that seems to be popping up regularly in here is "They shouldn't be bothering me, they should be hassling all the other scum."
How is that going to work? Honestly, I'm interested in practical solutions to this, how are the Jobcentre staff going to make that distinction? If you had a job once, will you be alright?
Anyway, that's about it. I'm not sure exactly which bits of my comments caused any controversy, but apologies if anyone took any offence. I think people may be under the impression that I'm sitting here in my ivory tower, representing the hard-working British taxpayer, looking down on benefit claimants. I'm not. The tax that I have paid into the system so far probably doesn't even begin to make up for everything I claimed in the 90's. This might be true for you too Alex, I don't know.
And I work for RBS, for fuck's sake, how safe do you think my job is?
I just wish people were more grateful for the help and support they get from the state, instead of just attacking it all the time. It's a wonderful thing. Just be glad that it's there.
Peace.
Aaah the dole its like getting a student loan and being at university, only your parents aren't proud of you.
If you read my previous posts you will see I am not complaining about getting money from the dole. I am complaining about the inefficieny, laziness, lack of profesionalism and wanton waste that pervades the Job Centre. This is also tied into the lack of distinction that they make between people who want a job and those who want a career. I have continually been told that work in Archaeology would be difficult to find, despite the fact I have worked in Archaeology for eight years.
And I am doing something about it. I have written a letter of complaint that I am sending this afternoon to the Job Centre, Kevin Barron MP for Rother Valley and the Rt. Hon. Jim Knight MP Department for Work and Pensions.
So I'm not just moaning on here about it.
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