I’ve every sympathy for this lady. It’s high tome that benefits were targetted to those prepared to work rather than those who have no intention of doing so.

Looking at your well-written and well-punctuated letter, you’re clearly far more literate than many of those seeking work (and many of those wrriting to thwe Shropshire Star!)

Come on Shropshire employers, help your business by giving Mrs Stokes a job!

Good luck in finding work – writing to the paper will hopefully get you noticed.

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I sympathise with Mrs Stokes but as a working single Mum, who is entitled to nothing more than family allowance/basic tax credit for my child, I have had to find out of term childcare for my son for many years and it is certainly a lot easier now than it has ever been. There are super schemes run at local sports centres which cost about £10 a day. Unfortunately if you are serious about working (and I have to be) then you have to drop your children off at these schemes whilst you go out to earn a living.

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sympathy?, clearly she is not trying hard enough .
I cant believe this woman hasnt found any type of work during school hours for the last 3 years ?????she could easily have worked term time and jacked it in during the hollidays and looked again for work there are plenty of pt and temp jobs out there , to me its just a letter off a whinger who is assumeing what every one else is getting and she is not. sure get the lay abouts back to work, but she clearly is more interested in the layabouts benefits than she is about getting work there is loads out there for all types of people go look for it do not whinge about it .

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andrew finch-stop puuting her down,at least she has the guts to write a letter seeking employment.You’re the whinger.

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I’m a very happy house husband on no benefit whatsoever. I have given up searching for work in a society where jobs are mickey mouse and hard to find and where workers rights are non-existent !!!

I do my voluntary stints and work hard around the house. So I work !!

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if im a whinger for moaning about some one who claims to have been looking for work for 3 years and hasnt found any kind of work whats so ever then i am a whinger , but i state again she has not been trying hard enough oooooh wrote a letter to the paper hopeing some one will take pity and offer her a job on her terms get in to the real world if you want work there is plenty out there just get off your backside and go and look for it do not wait for it to look for you .knock on doors dont write wishy washy empty letters to the press convincing yourself you are looking for work

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Good old Andrew Finch – always looking for the last word-Yawn!

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andrew finch-you are now calling the writer idle.Harsh words,people need encouragement not name calling.I still believe she was brave to write to this paper seeking employment.Obviously she requires work that fits in with her domestic situation,is that too much to ask for?Good luck Mrs A Stokes in seeking work and do write another letter when you are successful and ignore all the negative views that have been posted.

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as a single mum who works full time because i want to be a good role model for my son i was shocked to hear mrs stokes say she woule like to work from 10am,ha so would i but i have little choice,i get up at 6am, get my son up at 6.45 leave the house walk a mile to breakfast club which starts at 7.45.drop him off there to get to work at 8.15. im not sure if they have breakfast clubs in mrs stokes area.but its worth all the hastle of not being able to work until 10am.and to be honest there are some good child minders around who only charge £2.50 a hour. just a thought.
anything is possible if you put your mind to it and not be too negative

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You can question all you like Kate – the more proper jobs like manufacturing and skills based companies move abroad and leave industrial deserts within the UK -Micky Mouse jobs remain on mass. That is what is happening my side of the Midlands – the Black Country !!!

I may also add that where Mickey Mouse jobs exist – there is often a weakened support for workers rights. Or so I observe from various documentaries on TV and radio and talking to friends and neighbours.

Prey tell me where are workers rights better than ever ? Perhaps just about in Public Service industries.

In my local super-store the other day I heard two sales assistants moaning that they only get one half an hour break when working an 8 hour shift.

I rest my case m’lord !!!!!

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Kate,

Whilst it is possible that theoretically, workers rights are rising, it’s worth pointing out that many of the EU-driven efforts to protect workers are watered down when implemented in this country, and there are increasing numbers of employers, especially in low-paid work areas, who are prepared to take the risk of breaking laws such as the working time regulations, because they know that in these days of weakened trade unions, they’ll get away with it.

If you want some idea of how badly some employers treat their employees, watch the documentary ‘The High Cost of Low Price’ about US giant Walmart.

Yes, it’s a documentary about US workers, but their hire and fire economy is where we’re headed. And of course, Walmart now own ASDA!

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Peter, A reminder here! Walmart’s shareholders include the pension funds of professional unions – especially public service unions such as teachers. It is these faceless financial corporations representing some of the highest paid ‘professionals’ here in North America that help destroy workers’ rights and working conditions.
Professional public service unions have become so powerful that goverments must kowtow to their never ending demands.

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My father was a small businessman Tony, so you get my sympathy – no need to explain. I still feel there are too many Mickey Mouse jobs in society and that has nothing to do with wages and salaries. It has more to do with skills and job saticfaction in my eyes.

Read my e-mail above again !!!

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tony there are im sure many who enjoy shop/retail work and many in the higher paid jobs earn far more than some one who has been to uni etc etc , but many jobs in britain are the ie low paid jobs with poor working conditions and yes like me if you hate the job the money they pay you get out and sort it out and earn what you want improve yourself etc which i did , but if some one enjoys working in mcdonalds or the like or takes a low paid job to feed the family and stay of benefits then these people should be applauded and encouraged and yes there working conditions should be monitored by the guv incase of abuse

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Its seems I have upset a few working single parents out there
i actually was not bad mouthing single working parents, i was actually saying about mr camerons idea to get single parents to work, there are no school hour jobs at the moment never mind finding them for the single parents too!it seems the wrong idea was felt by many,
And just to clarify things i do work and have done since having the children, when i was at home with the kids all day i got and evening job cleaning loos!!! i am still there and do 5 days a week for £85 and £20 goes towards travel so thanks to the person that said stop moaning and get a job!
after my 2 children starting full time school i don’t see them or my husband until the weekend and thats 1 day altogether as he works saturdays too!
yes to the lady that said i should get child tax credits but if they didn’t cock them up for the last couple of years i wouldn’t have pay the overpayment back for the next year or so!
i don’t get any time with the kids to even help with their homework as i collect them from school come in cook tea then hubby gets in drops me at work then comes back reheats tea then washes up and collects me again from work its like that 5 days a week, saturday is bill paying day so we get a sunday together as a family,
was it really too much to ask for more time as a family and work at the same time?
Our school has no after school clubs my father died at 44 and mum was too young to claim widdows pension so she has to work full time,so as you can see we have no close family to help with childcare.

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It seems i have upset a few working single parents!
I was actually bad mouthing the Conservative party not single parents, Why say they are planning to get single parents to work school hours when there are not school hour jobs available when i’ve been searching for a while! they are few and far between,
Ive had loads of interviews and have been told i was suitable but as soon as i say I have kids and am unable to work weekends thats it i hear no more!
i’ve stooped lower than low just because the hours are suitable, for some reason everyone is assumiong i don’t and never have worked, well just to clarify that i do work and have done so since having the kids.
As a trained butcher, fishmonger, sales advisor and trained 1st aider and as someone that recieved the good citizen of the year award by malinsgate police station have lowered myself to doing the lowest ever, scrubbing loos!
i do this 5 days a week just because the hours are suitable so i think that answered some of the replies and that i can’t be bothered to find anything, it is just now both children are at school full time i only see them at the weekend, after losing my dad and my husbands dad at early 40s our mothers have to work full time after being told they are too young to claim widdows pension so know we don’t have close family to help with childcare!
there are no after schools club at thier school so that doesn’t apply
Yes i am trying

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Mrs Stokes,
I do not think that your fellow collegues across the country would appreciate being referred to as the lowest of the low because they do a job you dont like. The lowest of the low are criminal, theifs, murderers etc not hard working cleaners.

Get over yourself! Both of my parents worked two job throughout my early childhood in the 80′s and 90′s to pay the mortgage and feed us. To my knowledge my mother never paid for childcare as she did a number of night and daytime jobs to fit around looking after us, they both came home from work and went back out in the evenings and weekends. I had a happy childhood with lots of memories of my father helping me with my homework and family days out on a Sunday. At one point my mother worked night shifts as a carer, came home, dressed and feed myself and my sisters, took us to school/ nursery, slept for a few hours, got up did the housework, picked us back up, feed us, got us ready for bed, spent time with us and my father and then went back out to work while my father put us to bed. As for saturday being bill paying day! how ridiculous! it takes you all day to pay your bills! really, I dont think so! I dont have children as myself and my husband are waiting for him to be fully qualified in a new trade, that he changed too and is currently doing four years training for on very poor wages to enable him to earn a higher wage to allow me to look after our children for a year, after which I intend to work part time and my children will go into childcare, there are after school clubs, child minders etc that mean any woman can do a parttime job working normal daytime hours so many days a week. The opinion that jobs, houses, family time, quality of life etc should be handed to us all on a plate makes me so mad. You only get out of life what you put into it!

During the four years my husband will be training, of which is has already done two, my husband and I only have time to spend together on a sunday, we will probably only do the same when we have children, but we accept that this is the life we lead to pay the bills.

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I understand that you are not expecting a job to be handed to you on a plate, the point I was trying to make was that, in my opinion you are looking for a quality of life that is not possible in a young family with children where both couples have got to work.

I also object strongly and am quite offended at the suggestion that my parents had it easier than you. As I have said they worked extremely hard throughout my childhood and they spend time with us as individuals, it was a very rare occasion when I spent any length of time with both of my parents and I have no recollection of my parents spending time as a couple untill I was in my teens, there just wasnt the time or the money . As long as your children are cared for and spend time with my one of thier parents at a time then you cant go far wrong, as you said yourself I was lucky and it didnt do me any harm. Life was not easier/ slower when my parents were bringing me up, the early 90′s were a very difficult time hence the reason both my parents worked two jobs.

I think I said in my last post, I dont have any children yet I only see my husband on a Sunday and I spend the weekend doing my household chores as I start work at 8.30am and am rarely in before 8.00pm. A good work/ life balance is difficult for a lot of people to achieve with or without children. I fully expect this to continue to be the case when I have my children, I have very real expections of what life has in store for me and I accept that im not going to have everything out of life that I would like.

Your view that because I dont have children I dont understand is completely wrong, I have four close friends my the same age as myself who have more than one child and with the exception of one, they work either full or part-time and they manage the standard of quality time with thier children and partners that I am aiming for, they just have to work very hard for it and if spending time with thier children in the evenings ot saturdays means they have got to cook meals for the week or do the ironing at 1.00am thats what they do. Like my parents time to spend with thier husbands is very rare.

I would dearly love to start a family now but I accept that I need to put actions into place before I am in a position to start. I will end this by saying ive no doubt you work hard, but your no different to a large amount of women in this country and maybe you need to have more realistic expections of life or like someone else said, make the best of what you have got and re evaluate your situation and put changes into place i.e. re train and work from home.

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Thanks beck you said it in alot shorter way than I tried,
I bought up something that effects almost every woking person that has children,
We are not all fortunate enough to have unemployed relatives or parents that work opposite shifts to help with child care, i’m not even fortunate enough to have both my parents alive, and since my dad died at 44 my mother was too young to claim widdows pension, another daft rule of the governments after all if she was old enough to be a widdow you would think she could claim a widdow benefit, but i suppose they can’t really give benefits to those supposed to get them,
I think the whole benefit system should have a real good shake up, i mean if people claim unemployment benefit because they can’t find work maybe they should be made to litter pick, clean public areas and help with other things in the community to earn their benefits! that way they would be classed as working and have some experience even litter picking looks good on a cv than unemployed continiously, long term or fotrever. Maybe i should apply at the job centre for making vacancies to earn dole money!!
i sound like a right so and so but i believe you don’t get nothing for free! if people get paid to work a job people should be made to earn benefits.

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I use the saturday to pay the bills i stopped my direct debits as i once or twice had cash taken out without my authority, and it is alot harder to get it back,
by time children have had a wash and got dresssed and had their hair done it takes ages for public transport than i have to go to 3 or 4 different shops to pay them as they now are not all able to except the payments, this was the point i was making,

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