Sponging off the welfare state

[El Rojo]

I just registered for job seekers allowance today. the deal seems to be you have to look for jobs to get the allowance. oh, the joy.

thing is, sooner or later ill have some shmuck that WILL want to take me on. How does one keep on the allowance without gettink a job?

[Sam_b]

At least working will give you more money than the pitiful JSA.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

I just registered for job seekers allowance today. the deal seems to be you have to look for jobs to get the allowance. oh, the joy.

thing is, sooner or later ill have some shmuck that WILL want to take me on. How does one keep on the allowance without gettink a job?

What they seem to do is try and get as many people off JSA into any job they can find them. They will probably try to put you on a part time job which will be fairly unstable. I don't know what rights you hold exactly but I am fairly sure you don't have to take any job they offer you.

[<Insert Username Here>]

Don't sponge. Take the first job that comes and work. There are many who would kill for a chance to work, not working is a slap in the faces of the impoverished proletariat.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Even if that means getting paid less than/the same as JSA rates? That would be pretty stupid. With respect I'd have to say ignore the post above, because it's bordering on workerism. Don't see working as some kind of glorious revolutionary action, only do it if it's worth it. I've been there, and Stranger Than Paradise is absolutely correct, they are going to try to give you the first thing they possibly can, pay is going to be crap, and it may well be part time, JSA is about £60 now I think, if they try to give you a job where you're making less than £80, don't take it, you'll be working an extra 10-15 hours for the sake of £20.

It is possible to blag your way through JSA interviews, I've known people to get away with it for ages, but they are getting a bit more stringent, sooner or later you are going to have to work. My advice, don't take the first job that comes to you, sooner or later you will find something reasonably bearable that also pays the bills, until then sponge away.

[Leonid Brozhnev]

I was better off on JSA than my last job. At least with JSA you don't need to pay horrific amounts of Council Tax or need to pay for Petrol/Bus everyday (unless you live in the obscure nothingness that is the countryside). You don't *need* to look for jobs. The majority of the time its easier just to say you emailed/sent CV to a few people/businesses without actually doing so. However, If you're on it long enough and under a certain age (25 possibly) they'll put you on the 'New Deal' which is one of the most tedious pointless things I have ever endured. It is possible to get through the New Deal without getting a job, but you need to be a certified braindead twatbasket in order to succeed. In the end if you keep it up, you'll most likely be put on some kind of Voluntary scheme just so you have something extra to stick on your CV.

By the way, if you've never worked before, have fun being turned down for every job you DO apply for... I never got work experience in High School or College so every job I applied for was a dead end... qualifications mean jack shit to employers when you're on the bottom rung.

[Jazzratt]

Honestly I wouldn't bother sponging. Get all the benefits you're entitled to, by all means, but eventually you're going to want/need to work and you'll have a vast yawning chasm in your CV where work should be. The bigger this gap is the harder getting work is until the whole thing becomes a great big merry go round with "fuck you" written on it in neon letters a foot high.

[Mendax]

Honestly I wouldn't bother sponging. Get all the benefits you're entitled to, by all means, but eventually you're going to want/need to work and you'll have a vast yawning chasm in your CV where work should be. The bigger this gap is the harder getting work is until the whole thing becomes a great big merry go round with "fuck you" written on it in neon letters a foot high.

Exactly this - a lot of time companies don't even bother looking at things like qualifications purely because your work history will tell them everything they want to know about you. Although if you want to stay on it you can pretty much just pretend your looking, My brother has several friends that have sponged since they finished shcool and they only bother attempting to look for jobs about once every month or so.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

On this topic, I really find the negative culture we have in this country of the unemployed absolutely disgusting. My politics teacher was mortified when I said to him what is inherently wrong with not wanting to get a job? It is this whole class collaborationist and nationalist stance that we're all in this together and that not working makes you an unproductive member of society.

[Jacobinist]

Fuck that. Go ahead and sponge off the state. The Banks on Wall St. had no problem asking for a bailout. The generals and miilitary industrial complex dont mind sponging off of stupid imperialist wars. Big agricultural firms dont mind receiving 'sponge' funds to leave fertile land fallow. The heatlh care industry didn't mind forcing its sponge reform bill to sponge off of every American citizen.

So why should you?

Take your funds, you can get 2 yrs unemployment. Enjoy it.

Oh, and to answer your question, its a big bureaucracy, if you were to simply look up businesses in the phone book and use them as places where you applied for a job, they'll never know.

[Blackscare]

Personally, as a proletarian I have no interest in lazing about and "sponging" off of the work of others. I simply don't want it done to me by the rich in turn. Of course, I support automation, but we simply aren't there yet in many industries.

I'm a hard worker and I'm all about putting in my days work so long as it is constructive. I don't know what you consider yourself, but so long as you're making requests like this I really hope you're not calling yourself working-class of any sort.

Society doesn't need freeloaders in the form of the bourgousie, or people sucking up tax dollars without the intention of contributing when they are able. I'm all for helpful social programs (I suppose, in the context of bourgousie governments it's the best that can be done until the hour of revolution), but you're just dead weight on society as a whole. Were this a socialist world and you were trying to do the same thing, you'd be even more of a freeloader for doing something like this.



Edit:

If you're only option is some fast-food job or something else with minimal positive effect on society, then I suppose you may as well not work.

[danyboy27]

i came from an improvished family, And i value Hard work, I personally find disgusting that you want to live on welfare, it will kill you man, dont fucking to this.

Once you will get used to receive your money from the state, You will become nothing more than a slave, a mere puppet that the governement will play with by constantly modifying your living standard.

Be Proud, be a worker.

[The Grey Blur]

The two posters above me are mad. The north american dream?

What is so great about working a dead-end job? He isn't 'sponging' off anyone, it's capitalism that creates this ridiculous jobs market where our only options are stacking shelves or flipping burgers, maybe something behind a desk if you have a degree. So no, don't be proud to be a worker, don't be ashamed to rely on the welfare state that years of proletarian struggle was necessary to create...

[danyboy27]

The two posters above me are mad. The north american dream?

What is so great about working a dead-end job? He isn't 'sponging' off anyone, it's capitalism that creates this ridiculous jobs market where our only options are stacking shelves or flipping burgers, maybe something behind a desk if you have a degree. So no, don't be proud to be a worker, don't be ashamed to rely on the welfare state that years of proletarian struggle was necessary to create...

i didnt know being proud of working, doing something useful, was mad.

I did many jobs, some that i really didnt liked, but i was ALWAYS proud of working, if there is something that helped me to understand class and leftism, its work.

[Nolan]

It's inevitable that the Miseans see this thread.

[Jacobinist]

Who says you cant sponge (be it welfare, unemployment, food stamps) and useful? On the contrary, you'd have a TON OF FREE TIME to work in a constructive way in your community.

I dont see how "hard work" and working a wage slave 9-5 job is valued so highly. This is exactly the lifestyle I want to avoid. Sponge and go to school.

[danyboy27]

Who says you cant sponge (be it welfare, unemployment, food stamps) and useful? On the contrary, you'd have a TON OF FREE TIME to work in a constructive way in your community.

I dont see how "hard work" and working a wage slave 9-5 job is valued so highly. This is exactly the lifestyle I want to avoid. Sponge and go to school.
humm, i dunno, maybe beccause free time dont mean shit if you can barely offord food and rent. When you place yourself in a situation of survival, the help you can spread to your community is verry limited.

I know what its like to be on welfare, i was in trouble back in the day, and believe me, you DONT want to live that, being forced to take the decision if you want to keep the phone or the electricity, eating shitty food to save some buck from your welfare check so you can pay the rent.

Dont place yourself in a tricky situation, find a job, seek to improve your living standard, you will be more able to give back to the community if you are in good physical and financial condition.

[Jacobinist]

humm, i dunno, maybe beccause free time dont mean shit if you can barely offord food and rent. When you place yourself in a situation of survival, the help you can spread to your community is verry limited.

I know what its like to be on welfare, i was in trouble back in the day, and believe me, you DONT want to live that, being forced to take the decision if you want to keep the phone or the electricity, eating shitty food to save some buck from your welfare check so you can pay the rent.

Dont place yourself in a tricky situation, find a job, seek to improve your living standard, you will be more able to give back to the community if you are in good physical and financial condition.

Fair enough. Just remember that the US has outsourced virtually all manufacturing/industrial jobs and is becoming more and more a service economy with low wage jobs. Apply for benefits now that you are distressed. Go to school. Get financial aid, if you are badly in need, you will get hooked up with cash. Continue going to school. Finda a slave job. Cotinue going to school and getting FAFSA. Graduate, and leave your days of slave labor and financial shackles behind.

But do get yourself assistance right now that you are in need. Remember, many of these policies were enacted by market friendly liberals, I hardly doubt that they are the uber-enemy. They simply try to do the impossible, and that is amend capitalism.

[danyboy27]

Fair enough. Just remember that the US has outsourced virtually all manufacturing/industrial jobs and is becoming more and more a service economy with low wage jobs. Apply for benefits now that you are distressed. Go to school. Get financial aid, if you are badly in need, you will get hooked up with cash. Continue going to school. Finda a slave job. Cotinue going to school and getting FAFSA. Graduate, and leave your days of slave labor and financial shackles behind.

But do get yourself assistance right now that you are in need. Remember, many of these policies were enacted by market friendly liberals, I hardly doubt that they are the uber-enemy. They simply try to do the impossible, and that is amend capitalism.

i dont live in the us, Unployement rate in my provice is around 4% if i am not mistaken.

[Jacobinist]

i dont live in the us, Unployement rate in my provice is around 4% if i am not mistaken.

Really, that low? Well in the US, it is reported to be about 10%. But that figure does not count everyone with out a job who wants a job. In reality the US unemployment is probably closer to 20% than most would like to believe.

[danyboy27]

Really, that low? Well in the US, it is reported to be about 10%. But that figure does not count everyone with out a job who wants a job. In reality the US unemployment is probably closer to 20% than most would like to believe.

Anyway, look like its something we will never agree on.

You seem to affectionnate the welfare system, i hate it.

[Jacobinist]

Anyway, look like its something we will never agree on.

You seem to affectionnate the welfare system, i hate it.

Im affectionate towards it because it helped me get raised and get an education. Don't get me wrong, I know these are simply band-aids on a gaping hemmorhaging wound caused by capitalism, but what else are you gonna do? Let people starve? Go uneducated? Get sick and die with no care what so ever?

You seem to be against it to the point of illogical dogma. In the US at least, there are no viable left wing alternatives to state help.

And besides, did the Wall St banks act shy about asking for a trillion dollar bailout? No, why should the guy who fell on rought times do so?

[El Rojo]

to the two or three people who answered my question, cheers.

to the work / don't work debate, this isn't my grand plan for the rest of my life. I am going to Venezula in 3 weeks, so i thought i'd sign on so i could spend money in the mean time. There is a woodland occupation near where i live

http://defendhuntingtonlane.wordpress.com/

and they badly need more nails, this way i can buy some without having to go without food during my gap year travels.


viz the whole work / don't work question, my two pence is thus: working for the sake of it is buying into the ideas of the ruling class. most jobs don't really fill a useful social function, doing them just keeps the wheels turning.

on the flip side, dropping out entirely just for the sake of it aint great. i guess it depends on yr circumstances. just serve the revolution as well as possible!

[Bitter Ashes]

My opinion:

Join a militant union (I'll shamelessly plug the Wobblies ;)) and go to the interviews. Be VERY open about your union membership and ask questions about the workplace. There's a double bonus to this. If you get offered the job despite your union membership, then you can organise away, to get workers in control like it should be. If they turn you away, then you can claim union discrimination and take them to court to get a tidy little payoff.