United Kingdom
General community for news/discussion in the UK.
Less serious posts should go in [email protected] or [email protected]
More serious politics should go in [email protected].
Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.
Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.
Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.
If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.
Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.
Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.
view the rest of the comments
I'm sorry to hear that - and I don't doubt they exist, but i don't think it's in the numbers that sometimes get portrayed, more in "statistically irrelevant" sort of numbers - though it will depend vastly on where you live in the country. I'm sure it's a visible problem in some specific areas or communities.
However, I also think people (and the job centre) should be picky about the work people are applying for, at least for a while. This was also formerly part of the system, where they pretty much gave you a year of looking for relevant work, before enforcing other options.
When someone better qualified (like when a large employer in an area suddenly closes) is forced to do an entry level job, especially through one of those "supporting you back to work" scams, where you work 40 hours in exchange for your dole & landlord benefit (i.e. working for ~£3 an hour) - you're blocking all the entry level work from people who can currently only apply to it.
Personally, I'd rather let the handful of gleeful scroungers skip joyously down the road with their £70 in hand and do nothing, than punish millions of genuinely struggling people "just in case".
Unless anything magical has happened in the last few years, I still live in one of the "worst" inner city places to be in the UK for income, employment, crime and reputation etc (i.e. you can still buy a 3 bed terrace on my street for less than £100k) - but, yes, I'm probably only ten minutes walk away from a "nice bit", and the "worst bit" is over a mile away, in a direction I generally don't need to go in - but it's definitely no leafy village :)
Regardless, I do know what you mean - I think I just look at it more optimistically (or naively) and assume the best in everyone.
I used to do work with community groups round here (and in the "worst bit") so I was constantly meeting and working with desperate people trying their best, but being shat on by the world/benefits system - so obviously my view is skewed a bit in favour of those who'd turn up to such things - and I'm not going to meet any of those that truly don't care.
I'll accept my numbers are likely a bit off and biased, but I still feel The "scrounger" number is tiny compared to the genuinely struggling.
The difference between my time on the dole (~18 years ago) and my partner's time on the dole (~7 years ago) is astonishing. I was respected and supported to set up my own business. She wanted to do the same but was treated like a criminal.