There's always someone worse of than you. (thank goodness)

 

There are certain types of people who get a twisted sense of satisfaction from screaming about the unemployed, its almost as if being unemployed is a character flaw, are there people who are professional government artists? (draw the dole) yes there are, but for the most part, people on benefits are there for a short time, a stop gap between one job and another, but so many myths are spread about people on benefits, I felt it would be a good idea to have a look at the benefits system, and what it is, and more importantly, what it isn't.

First of all, unemployment is not the easy option, it looks that way from the outside, not having to get up and go to work each day, it does sound like a slice of heaven to those who hate their job, but time on your hands and no money to do anything is a sad state to be in, having to plan months in advance to do the simplest things like buy a birthday gift for your kids, or Christmas presents, kills any spontaneity in your life, but there isn't a lot of time on your hands, because if you are unemployed, you have to agree to a certain amount of hours a week job search, this can range from 30 to 40 hours a week, and failure to do so can result in getting your claim stopped, meaning no money, and another desperate couple of weeks trying to get back on track after having no money.

Benefits are not a lot of money, you might hear about single mothers on thousands of pounds a month in benefits, but it's not real terms money, cash into your hand, its made up of housing benefit, council tax benefit, cash benefits, and If you have kids child tax credits, although all of those benefits are now rolled into one benefit called universal credit, yeah, that.

41% of universal credit claimants are in some sort of paid work, that's more than 2 million people who even though they work, still don't earn enough money to live on, and of the 59% of other people on UC around 10% find work within the first 6 months of their claim, and around 21% are long term sick or in receipt of disability, throw into that mix the number of single parent families who have a child under 5 who are not required to find work, and you have a very small minority of people who are unemployed by choice.

But, if you read the right wing press, the number of people claiming state benefits is bleeding this country dry, its not the corporations who are avoiding paying tax, it's not the employers that are paying substandard wages, forcing the tax payer to pick up the bill for their greed, its not even the non dom tax dodgers and offshore banking enthusiasts, its the people who need help and have the nerve to ask for it, its the people who are in a hole and trying to get out of it, y'know, the ones with the smartphones, big TVs, expensive trainers, and legions of kids, this is for the right wing media readers fantasizing about how great they are, and how much better they are than the jobless layabouts that are bleeding the country dry, even though its hard to find a jobless layabout to confirm this.

The trope about the unemployed having smart phones is pathetic, you need a smartphone to be able to manage your universal credit log book. Its a necessity, people seem to forget that sometimes people buy big TVs while in work and then as if by some miracle, it doesn't turn into a black and white portable set once they finish their last day in a job.

The villanisation of the unemployed, is to serve one purpose only, to have someone to point at as the problem, when its the government themselves that are causing or at least allowing the problem in the first place.

Because being right wing has become a game of blame the others, unemployed, immigrants, remainers,all rapped up in a handy package that they like to call WOKE.

You see they cant admit that Brexit has had a disastrous effect on the economy, even though some of the most ardent brexiteers have lost millions in revenue because the Brexit they voted for and in some cases campaigned for, isn't the deal they got. They cant admit that it was probably not a good idea to sell of the council housing stock in the 80s, and not build any new ones, so immigrants take the fall for that one.

They are trying to start a war on woke, but the real enemy is within, capitalist greed, dressed up as fiscal conservatism, with a smattering of fascism as a side dish.

It doesn't matter how much shit you throw at minority groups, you're still the one with shit on your hands, and it's likely that the shit you're throwing is your own, when you shout so loudly to cover up your insecurity, you expose that insecurity, so keep throwing that shit, it shows us all what your most afraid of, and that is that you don't want to be treated like the minorities that you mock, because that would be terrible wouldn't it.

Photo by Ron Lach : https://www.pexels.com/photo/homeless-man-holding-cardboard-in-hands-9830110/