I’m so sorry to hear about your son-in law and the situation he has been placed into. I was unemployed for over 12 months, I applied for hundreds of jobs and seemed to get no where. It is very disheartening.

As for why his benefit has been taken away, it is likely due to the fact that his wife is working and therefore will be no longer entitled to benefits as she is employed. People who are able to stay on benefits for a lifetime usually live with a partner who also doesn’t work, or lives at home or possibly on disability but thats different.

As for immigrant families, let me just put you straight here. People who immigrate to this country cannot claim benefits. They have to be sponcered by a spouse who can prove they can house them and can support them without access to public funds. Asylum seekers are a totally different matter. They are those ones who get houses, money to live on from the government until they are either denighed or granted asylum and become a citizen. If they are granted asylum and become a citizen, then they are entitled to benefits/housing until they find a job.

Hope your son-in-law finds employment soon.

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speaking as one of the “idle” unemployed,I have always worked on a voluntary basis when payed employment has not been available,and as an ex employee of the dept of employment I have found that 95% of people are willing and happy to give up the dole if work is offered.
using the unemployed as a scapegoat for societies ills seems to be the easy option for those too frightened to confront the real issues ie low pay and the maintenance of a pool of unemployed to keep wages down.
our lords and masters would rather compensate the disgusting actions of the banks rather than subsidise the low paid.

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Well said Rob Harris. I too am an ex employee of the Department. For far too long has the public been duped by the media & successive governments into believing all those “on the dole” are living the high life!

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I’d love to know how people I know who have been (and still are) on benefits for 15+ years can afford better clothes, tellys, etc than me whose worked since I left school – don’t tell me it doesn’t happen I see it everyday!

It doesn’t help anyone get back into work and it some cases does promote living off benefits. The system needs a complete overhaul as it has lost sight of it’s objectives.

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There are a number of myths here about asylum seekers which need to be put to bed.

Despite the claims of a variety of tabloid rags, asylum seekers get only very low (£35 per week or less) subsistence benefits – half of which is paid in vouchers.

They are not allowed benefits such as housing benefit, nor are they entitled to Jobseekers allowance or contribution-based benefits such as disability living allowance.

Housing is only offered to those who can prove they are destitute, and this takes the form of
hostel accommodation, detention, or sometimes local authority housing. This is entirely separate from council housing (so people are not competing with asylum seekers for housing, no matter what the tabloids say), and is only available whilst asylum applications are being considered.

Whilst their applications are being considered, asylum seekers are not allowed to work. If they are granted leave to remain, they can seek work, and become entitled to a wider range of benefits. However most of these are contribution-based, so would require a period of qualifying employment before entitlement.

So asylum seekers are not given very much at all – though doubtless in many cases even subsistence benefits here are better then the situations they have fled from.

I would suggest that if people are looking for freeloaders within our society they should make a start with hedge fund managers who somehow pay less tax than their cleaners!

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Andrew,

I don’t envy them and I don’t believe all them live a good life but I do personally know some who do well out of the benefits system

And please do not shorten my name – I do not refer to you as Andy!

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You tell him Su, :)

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I’ve been lucky enough to have been in full employment since I left school (although I’ve had some awful jobs) but when I badly broke my ankle a few years ago, I found out just how hard it is for the conscientious man to survive on benefits. It seems that having proved yourself, you don’t deserve any sympathy lest you should become too comfortable on benefits (some hope!)I was so skint, I badgered my Doctor to redo my sick note and sent back my claims book with only two stubs used. It was stolen in the post and despite every stub being serial numbered they wrote the value of the book off after investigating me. You couldn’t pen perverse comedy like that.
Conversely, my friend lived next to an awful family of feral kids, whose workshy parents often came home drunk from the pub on friday and saturday nights making a nuisance of themselves in the street. How they managed on benefits was a mystery to me. Similarly, I know of a Bosnian asylum seeker who was granted asylum in the 90s and has never worked because he doesn’t feel he needs to (his own words), he runs a decent (used) car and still claims to be unable to get a job because his English is so poor. It works for him. Many other special needs young people who are in good physical health can’t get work because of their poor communication skills, but would love to, but there’s no incentive for employers to take them on when high quality EU workers snap up the jobs they could do (and receive Child Benefit for children in their home countries.) It’s not a sensible system by any means. Good luck to the lad in the letter and hope he finds work again soon.

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Contributory JSA (you have to paid the relevant amount of national insurance contributions to have entitlement) is payable for 6 months. After that it becomes JSA Income Based (it is means tested i.e. all household income is taken into account). The exception being self employed who even if they have paid their Class 2 contributions have no entitlement to JSA contributory.

Similar rules apply to Employment and Support Allowance.

Immigrants and asylum seekers have more stringent rules applied and invariably have NO entitlement to benefits. Most are suppported by sponsors(family & friends) or charities.

This is a system that was introduced by the Conservative Government and has since been amended to be even more restrictive under he labour government. There are, despite the ridiculous headlines in newspapers, few ‘winners’.

The majority i.e. over 50%of the social security budget is paid in the form of state pension. This ‘benefit’ is paid to eligible folk regardless if they have ever worked or have an income of £1,000,000.

So basically your son in law has received his JSA conrtibutory entitlement. His wife must now support him.

If you feel the system is unfair I suggest you inform your self of the actual rules that apply to benefits and then lobby your M.P. in a coherent and logical manner.

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All said and done I think if i was an employee instaead of selfemployed and lost my job i wouldnt bother to sign on. Lets face it what they give you wouldnt pay for much so you are only signing on to have NI paid.

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swellen calm down its only a posting site.

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I think we all know there are genuinely, desperate to work, people…and there are those who have absolutely no intention of going out to work; who know exactly what they are entitled to and make sure they get it. Incapasity benefit is certainly abused in my opinion – long term heroin addicts should come off the drugs and they would feel so much better instead of self-inducing their ‘incapasity’ and allow public money to be used for genuine people poorly through no fault of their own. I am very fortunate to have been able to work all my life and I hope the writers son finds a job very soon.

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