British Workers Wanted - Channel 4

[JNugent]

If you aren't yet of pension age, your entitlement will be at least £155 in today's prices.

[JNugent]

No-one has to lve on £120 a week (or even the new £155 a week) once past the official pension age. That has already been explained in this thread.

[Mark]

If the minimum wage is too low then how will this "encourage" people to work (especially for those here who believe that unemployment benefit is too high)?

There are over 32 million people employed in this country. Please explain how all these people can gain higher salaries.

[JNugent]

Let's check that. Will you trust that The Guardian has no interest in trying to overstate the value of the currently-awarded Retirement Pension?

QUOTE: State pension to rise by 2.5% in April 2017 Weekly payments will increase from £155.65 to £159.55 while the old state pension will rise to £122.30 from £119.30 ENDQUOTE

See? The rate being awarded for current new claims is now £159.55 a week.

The fact that you and I don't get as much as that (being on the "old" scheme) doesn't change that.

[JNugent]

It's £159.55 (since April last).

[JNugent]

Even under the "old" scheme, it's possible to get more than the basic. I currently get £126+ while my wife gets £147+. Something to do with either being "opted out" or not.

[JNugent]

What?

[Mark]

Absolutely right.

[JNugent]

Bingo.

Only to those without the power of comprehension.

[Mark]

Exactly. Striking is a last resort, especially since they have to manage with no pay for the strike period.

[Mark]

The management took up a confrontational position so it is not valid to blame one side only.

[JNugent]

Quite so. And the stuff I do is not strenuous by any means.

We are not all the same.

You have snipped the "modern instance": today, too many people insist on jealously clinging to their unemployed status and try to avoid fulfilling their jobseeking contracts, rather than seeking work.

[JNugent]

Not "forced" in the proper sense of that word.

But other choices should be limited.

[JNugent]

That's what a stop-gap is: enough to tide you over for essentials only for a limited period, not intended to be a long-term solution (that's a job, that is).

So some people say.

Are many convinced by such obvious appeals to mawkishness?

[JNugent]

Another "ah, but", eh?

Yes. Imagine it. The bath is always available, of course.

[JNugent]

This is not a university town. I know of at least two launderettes within a short bus ride (ther would never be one in a village like this).

But every house and flat has a sink and hot water.

[Mark]

[Mark]

So what do they go without during this period?

It's true.

It's nothing to do with mawkishness, call it realism.

[JNugent]

The first house I had (bought when it was four years old, for £700+ in

1977) had exactly the same facility. Just an electric fire in the open plan living room.

I didn't regard it as unacceptable. Life within the house simply differs from season to season, with the main living room in more use in the colder months. T'was ever thus until I was nearly 38 years old (when I moved into the first place with central heating).

Hmmm...

You are making me smile for reasons I don't want to go into in too much depth. Let's just say that many, many, people earnestly assure "the authorities" that their need for a car is greater than average because they have to go to work at unsocial hours when there is no public transport. This even if they work in the city centre in an office or shop. Every single one of them goes to work at unsocial hours before the buses are running. There are never any exceptions to the "unsocial hours" mantra.

But oddly, I worked for more than seven years before I learned to drive. And my mother never learned to drive and worked all her (working) life.

As some would say, go figure.

TRANSLATION: "Ah, but...".

[Mark]

I've been in this position in the past.

You said people used the kitchen sink, not the bath.