what do you mean Mike Cockett “they are to well paid not to work”. Have you found a job, applied for it and then not hear back. And you call a cleaners job a professional job, because thats all I find in the papers, I dont see bank managers positions or a job to become a solictor. This bloke doesnt know what he talking about, he is prob sitting behind his desk tending to staff memos that request shoe polish for there top brass monkeys!

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Things won’t change either! Labour are hardly going to upset their core voters before an election by suggesting that benefits won’t be paid to claimants who are more than capable of looking for a job but won’t. And while I partly agree with Mr. J. about there being not enough jobs around, that’s no reason to be paying fit healthy people to remain on incapacity benefit which attracts enhanced payments and discourages claimants from coming off it and going to work. We do need to look after those who really try to find work and cannot get any, but in my opinion, that group DOESN’T include the big strong intimidating youths that one regularly sees outside Telford magistrates court, drinking, swearing, smoking and generally making a nuisance of themselves with tax payers money. We need to change the benefits culture: if you’re fit and capable of work, then if you don’t contribute, you don’t receive anything. If you do receive something, then it stops after a period of time. And the government needs to stop Job Centre staff from putting people on incapacity benefit just to make the unemployment figures look good and meet their targets – a common-enough problem in the West Midlands.

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Let’s picture the scene. There are 100 jobs to pick fruit. What with wages, NI, etc., let’s imagine it will cost the farmer £30,000 to employ 100 local people directly.

Let’s imagine a gang master comes along and says: “Mr Farmer, I will supply you with 100 foreign workers for £15,000, all in.”

Who does Mr Cockett thinks will get the 100 jobs?

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Peter you say the author is talking utter rubbish re: imported labour and benefits.

Although Mr Cockett did not say, I assume he is referring to EU citizens, who, you will find are entitled to the full range of UK state benefits, including child and housing benefit and jobseekers’ allowance.

Once EU nationals have been working and paying tax in Britain for 12 months, they are entitled to the same level of state support as any British citizen, including child benefit for their children living in another EU country.

EU regulations concerning freedom of movement depends, in practice, on reciprocity between Member states in the field of social security.

Hence the Community provisions:

Prohibit discrimination with regard to social security on the grounds of nationality;

Allow people to rely on periods of employment, residence and contributions paid in one EU country towards entitlement benefit in others

Allow people to take certain benefits abroad with them to another EU state

The general rule is that people claim benefits from the state in which they last worked

In March 2004 the ECJ ruled that nationals of a Member State seeking employment in another Member State fall within the scope of the TEC’s provisions on freedom of movement for workers and therefore enjoy a right to equal treatment.

This right also encompasses benefits of a financial nature, such as the UK’s jobseeker’s allowance. The ECJ therefore stated that a citizen who is seeking employment in another Member State cannot be discriminated against on grounds of nationality when claiming such an allowance.

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Peter; sorry you have just reworded my comment; the fact is that once EU nationals have been working and paying tax in Britain for 12 months, they are entitled to the same level of state support as any British citizen, including child benefit for their children living in another EU country. Job seekers allowance even if they are back home in say -Poland seeking work in Poland.

Correct me if I am wrong, but there is no correlation between what has been paid in and what is claimed, I know there used to be but I thought that link had been removed.

I am afraid you cannot add you own interpretations to the author’s words and call them rubbish, he is factually correct – we import labour which, on returning home, claim job-seekers allowance and other benefits from us.

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Ken,

They only get contributions-based jobseeker’s if they’ve contributed the relevant amount in the relevant tax year. They only get any benefit after they’ve worked for a minimum of a full year.

If they’d done that full year’s work, they might, dependent upon circumstances, qualify for the other type of Jobseeker’s (the hardship type), but only whilst resident and looking for work.

Child benefit is also payable on a reciprocal basis – if an English person were working in France, then France would pay child benefit for his kids who lived in the UK.

The point is that the rules are the same for all of us. That’s kind of the point of the EU.

The author gives the impression that somehow foreigners are being given favourable treatment – they’re not.

And the vast majority of those coming here from EU countries are here to work – with all due respects to everyone genuinely seeking work, I wish I could say the same of all of the homegrown unemployed.

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HERE HERE ,If the brit was prepared to work there wouldnt be any jobs for eu residents to take up.
Just becouse you have a good education on the dole is on the dole you should be prepared to do any job to keep you in the work field . EASIER TO GET WORK WHEN YOU ARE IN WORK

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shame on the conservatives who created this mess under maggies deregulations, we need the state to step in and sort this again, lets get more nationalised industries going again, i know they had flaws but they never went bust like the clowns in the private sector

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shame on people who slag of british workers, most folk work hard in this country and we should be proud of our nation not slagging of people some of whom are on benefits through sickness

you or someone you love could be there one day, that’s the point of a safety net for welfare and im proud of britans welfare state

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And the welfare state is not there to be abused by the idle. And that includes some brits as oh yes they live and we live in GB.There are some long time sick fakers/and long time idle out there and they are brits and scrounging of the brit public.Genuine claiments need not worry.
I also believe many who are complaning about these lot do not think all are dregs just to be honest a large section .
STOP all benefits of any one on the dole for 3 years if they have no excuse as to why they cant work . Regular health checks on the long term sick.
Other things could help ie retraining that has to have a point ie training in a skill , give people mopeds to get to work, help them pass there test and get them pay for it when they get a job.
I do not believe the benefits cash wise are excesive but people adapt and can live on the cash and shop at neto/iceland for cheap foods if they have too.

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We have another fantasist in John Aymes, just in case he doesn’t realise it we have had this Labourite bunch in for 11 years now. Maggie, bless her heart, the best we have ever had would sort this mess out in a flash, Labour have had “yonks” to sort out any alleged Tory mess, Labour haven’t done so according to John Aymes so the obvious moral of the story is, Labour like the present situation and they are responsible for this god almighty mess.
They will wriggle, wriggle and wriggle will these Labourites until eventually a ruddy great …..hawk will come along and either gobble them all up or cart them off to never, never land from where they should never have left.

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