P&O ferries

[James Curry]

Cappy the recent job I took was to keep me active and give the wife a break from me moaning Anyone who can not read or write today is down to either they could not be arsed or their parents failed to send them to school.

Concerning a 32 hour week that would all depend on what your job was. They are increasing the age to 67 before you can claim you state pension. Ian Duncan Smith suggested it was increased to 75. So if is it a case of work to you drop.

It has been proven that those who are lucky to work a shorter working week are more often than not more productive and have less sick days than those who work longer hours.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

They increased the age in Aus where you could get the pension, the excuse, people were living longer , the real reason, they hoped that people would die before they; the Govt had to pay them.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

In Ireland prior to joining EU pension age was 70 I was informed.
Thye had to drop it to 65 to conform.

But increasing the age of the pension, not retirement, is going up across the globe as people live longer.

But as Capy said, we are all, or should be, responsible for our own destiny.

Here in Oz we have a severe shortage of workers, yet we still have almost 500,000 on the bloody dole.
If you are fit there is no excuse for not working. Why should those of us who have paid taxes all our lives see the money go to dole bludgers?

I have no problem with genuine cases, sickness, disability given special care, but for the rest, work or starve.

[James Curry]

There must be some lazy buggers in Australia John over 500,000.
2019 UK stood at 3.8% unemployed. Australia had 5.3% unemployed.
Both countries are still recovering from covid, UK 4.6% Australia 4.1% as of July 2022.

A lot of those classed as unemployed by reason of age discrimination, which is illegal. Also a lot are just lazy bar-stards.

Some people can leave the work place at aged 55 (Police) Firemen at 57 as long as they have 20 years service in. Teachers can retire from aged 55 a train driver can retire from 60/65. A British seafarer can retire at 62. Now here in lies a problem none of those mentioned can collect their state pension. So unless they have the number of required National insurance contributions they will not have earned the full rate state pension. Only way round it is to sign on the dole and be registered as available for employment.
So are they considered as bums & stiff's?

Recently Firemen were being dismissed because they could no longer pass the medical. Not a bad way to dump people and cheat them out of the pension fund because they failed to meet the required standard of fittness and therefore were in breach of contract.
This was one of the reasons a couple of years ago we had Firemen going on strike.

[Keith Tindell]

I do think that if you are fit and able to work, and on the dole, that the money should be paid along with some sort of community work. This could take many forms, helping in hospitals, shopping for the elderly, mowing, litter picking etc. Whyshould the dole money just dished out without some sort of commitment? , I can hear the howls of the people claiming demeaning, insulting etc, but it’s this money for nothing that attracts a huge amount of illegal immigrants.Why is it wrong to expect some sort of return for our taxes ?, not just dolled out willy Nelly. I accept there are always those that cannot work for different reasons, but there are many quite capable of doing some meaningful task.

[Tony Taylor]

I do think that if you are fit and able to work, and on the dole, that the money should be paid along with some sort of community work. This could take many forms, helping in hospitals, shopping for the elderly, mowing, litter picking etc. Whyshould the dole money just dished out without some sort of commitment? , I can hear the howls of the people claiming demeaning, insulting etc, but it’s this money for nothing that attracts a huge amount of illegal immigrants.Why is it wrong to expect some sort of return for our taxes ?, not just dolled out willy Nelly. I accept there are always those that cannot work for different reasons, but there are many quite capable of doing some meaningful task.

That was suggested years ago but was met with huge objections from the unions. The courts can sentence people to do unpaid work but its not really any sort of graft, it's just like an inconvenience at worst, that's if they bother to turn up,

[Keith Tindell]

Why the unions should object to community work, which is not being done by anyone else beats me, but it’s an area that really needs looking at. I recall many years ago, we had a sudden snow storm here on the Island, and the social service called us up. In the Fire Service to help with meals on wheels for the elderly, their vehicles could not get through in some areas, so one man in a Land Rover was sent to help. He found some people in dire need of help, eg one old lady he delivered to he found the door could not be fully closed, so allowed cold to enter the house. The driver. Was a bit shocked, and as soon as he could get to the house a few days later , he returned and repaired the door. That type of work would be ideal for my suggestion.

[Tony Taylor]

Why the unions should object to community work, which is not being done by anyone else beats me, but it’s an area that really needs looking at. I recall many years ago, we had a sudden snow storm here on the Island, and the social service called us up. In the Fire Service to help with meals on wheels for the elderly, their vehicles could not get through in some areas, so one man in a Land Rover was sent to help. He found some people in dire need of help, eg one old lady he delivered to he found the door could not be fully closed, so allowed cold to enter the house. The driver. Was a bit shocked, and as soon as he could get to the house a few days later , he returned and repaired the door. That type of work would be ideal for my suggestion.

The unions claimed it would jeopardise peoples jobs

[James Curry]

Tony think you need to post a link to back that statement up (The unions claimed it would jeopardise peoples jobs) If they did it would have been on the grounds that someone was working for nothing and in full time employment.
I have a part time job delivering NHS prescriptions. I do a 12 hour week get mininum wage. I don't think the Unite union have a problem with me stopping myself from being bored.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

One of our problems here is that the previous Govt got private Companies that people on the dole had to report to, they had to go for so many job interviews otherwise their dole was terminated. My son was told to attend the one in Cooma they couldn't care less if they got a job or not as the Govt paid them anyway. He got all his jobs himself no problems, now working for age care, a govt job he got himself.

Des