Soaring heating costs, what's your plan.

OnwardandUpward Some people would probably be glad to welcome back slave labour and would still victim blame and victim shame even when someone works so hard in bad conditions that they have no quality of life.

Nobody said that.

Conversely, if a person can find better paid work or do longer hours or a second job/ weekend job, rather than claiming benefits why in the world is that considered an inappropriate thing to vocalise?

Some people would probably be glad to welcome back slave labour and would still victim blame and victim shame even when someone works so hard in bad conditions that they have no quality of life. It's judgemental and self righteous when believe people are lazy just because they themselves look down their nose. Often those comments come from people of a certain political persuasion.

Not on GN ( but in real life) I even heard someone who thought they were superior suggest that someone they considered to be below them must live in a Dirty house because they didn't own their home. I was disgusted. This type of predjudice needs exposing. It's incredibly damaging. Assumptions like these are very wrong and can be bullying.

Fortunately not every privileged person thinks this way (or at least they have the manners and emotional intelligence not to say these things) It's a shame that some people do not understand that sometimes people do their best despite limiting conditions or that sometimes bad things happen to good people.

Re: keeping warm. I have not yet started to wear shoes that need socks yet as I prefer bare feet. I don't feel cold without heating but will look into the heated gilets for my older relatives who do feel the cold, thanks for the suggestions.

Biker gran I have a heated blanket /poncho thing that I wear in the car after cycling. I plug it into the cigarette lither and warm my freezing hands.
One granddaughter works as a t/a in a school to a child is autistic and she finds it absolutely exhausting, she also works shifts when she can get them in Asda and is doing Open University for a degree. She is lucky she has no children and is single but still has to find a large amount for her rent each month. I am afraid GSM lives in a gilded cage and how ever much she tries to justify her struggle in life I am afraid it just doesn’t work due to the lack of compassion

The subsidising comment referred to staying at home and claiming benefits and sniggering about itFanny. Do try to put things in context.
I think you asked for it.

Some posters think we should just work every possible minute and have no home life, if that's what's needed. Reminds me of the past when people worked more than 12 hrs a day including Saturday just to survive.

Heated throws/blankets are great biker gran. I got one in the summer, its brilliant. Wool throws are good too. I have found 2 in charity shops.
Fanny and VS thank you for all you have done and do without TA's my little granddaughter would really struggle. She has special needs and l have seen first hand what a great job TA's do.
My DM had dementia and the five years that she was in a home, the care she received was exceptional. The carers were kind and gentle.
Everyone is worthy no matter what they do for a living.

Im thinking of buying a heated blanket (not electric one that you put on bed) one that you wear sort of)

FannyCornforth

Blondiescot of course you are right. I know that my experience was rather extreme.
For some reason many people assume that they know what it’s like to work in education because they once went to school.
Why do they think that there is a chronic recruitment and retention problem?
Lazy teachers, I suppose…

I understand only too well what your experience must have been like, Fanny - my daughter worked in a very similar environment before she became a learning disability nurse. I take my hat off to anyone working in education, because I don't think I could do it.

volver

Just a general comment to anyone who might be interested. I'm not referring to anyone in particular, honest.

I'd suggest not interacting with people who post on Social Media trying to get you going. It's not good for one's blood pressure. And it makes the stirrer think they are important. even if they are just sad little people who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

You know volver, that’s precisely what you do a lot of the time.

I've already done all the things the so-called experts are suggesting. Except for getting rid of my old freezer in the shed. Which I don't really want to do as it comes in handy. There's too much in it at the moment that won't fit in my kitchen freezer. I am looking at getting thicker curtains just for Winter. I also feel that it I have to take 2 or 3 years to pay off a higher energy bill they will have to wait. My poor daughter got caught out with a very high underpay and despite help from all sorts of consumer rights people she is still paying a fairly large proportion of it back even now 5 or more years later.

Blondiescot of course you are right. I know that my experience was rather extreme.
For some reason many people assume that they know what it’s like to work in education because they once went to school.
Why do they think that there is a chronic recruitment and retention problem?
Lazy teachers, I suppose…

Anyone who suggests that working in a school (any school, never mind one where the pupils have special needs or challenging behaviour) isn't extremely tiring or stressful needs a reality check.
(Not to self: volver is right - I really should stop responding to posts like this, but I just can't help it.)

GSM you have absolutely no idea of what it is like to work in an inner city school with extremely challenging behaviour.

For one year I worked one to one with an 11 year old Roma girl with extreme SEND (she was mentally aged three and a half) alongside assisting a class of 32 other children and teaching English lessons to the class every day.

The girl had to be ‘toileted’ by me, and I had to deal with her menstruation issues.
She was a big girl (bigger than me) and would physically attack other children when she wanted to play (remember, she was basically a toddler). I had to be with her all of the time

A quarter of the class were GRT with little or no English.
And I won’t go into the pupils with ASD and ADHD.
And the two lads with extremely challenging behaviour.

Yes. Yes, it was tiring and stressful.

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m sure I enjoyed working more than twice as many hours as you and subsidising your lifestyle VS, and many others like you. Someone has to don’t they? Carry on working the hours and doing the little job that suit you. I won’t be sympathising whilst being warm. I’ve earned it.

I'm sure you didn't work more than twice the hours I did - I was a single parent with a full-time job (and more) and, yes, I paid 40% tax on part of my earnings.

Guess what! Life was a bitch and I'm sitting here now with three layers of clothing and I'm cold.

This post really is insufferably smug.

Just a general comment to anyone who might be interested. I'm not referring to anyone in particular, honest.

I'd suggest not interacting with people who post on Social Media trying to get you going. It's not good for one's blood pressure. And it makes the stirrer think they are important. even if they are just sad little people who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Germanshepherdsmum

Blondiescot hasn’t said what her colleague chose to do - but is it not better to earn that £20 than to say it’s not worthwhile and rely wholly on the taxpayer instead?

Really? How was she supposed to manage on that £20 a week? Unsurprisingly, she chose instead not to return to work after her maternity leave until her child was old enough to go to state nursery. Most people I know would far rather work than sit at home claiming benefits, but finding a job which fits in around your family needs isn't always as simple as some seem to think. I'm currently in that boat, and trust me, it's not easy!

I am a carer and have been for many years, I am on minimum wage but do enjoy my job Are some suggesting that I go to work in Wetherspoons for a pound an hour more? I may not get good wages but I certainly get excellent job satisfaction..

32 hours a week and huge amounts of holiday is really stressful and tiring, Fanny? I despair. It’s not full time work and my remark was in no way sexist - that’s in your mind.

The subsidising comment referred to staying at home and claiming benefits and sniggering about it Fanny. Do try to put things in context.

Here it is. I think I’ll get my dad one too.
His house is always cold, despite him being in the highest tax band
www.wowcher.co.uk/deal/shop/fashion/coats-jackets/21319328/unisex-thermal-electric-heated-gilet

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m sure I enjoyed working more than twice as many hours as you and subsidising your lifestyle VS, and many others like you. Someone has to don’t they? Carry on working the hours and doing the little job that suit you. I won’t be sympathising whilst being warm. I’ve earned it.

Calling the role of a Teaching Assistant ‘a little job’ is really rude, and also incredibly ignorant as to what the job involves and requires.

Most Teaching Assistant jobs require degrees now.
When I was a HLTA I was the most qualified person in the school, I just didn’t have QTS.

TAs are invaluable in schools for a whole raft of reasons.
It can also be really stressful and tiring, as well as being really rewarding.

I would not have considered doing another job alongside it. It just would have been impossible.

Not all TA roles are as challenging as each other, but to call it a ‘little job’ is awful. It’s sexist too - as in ‘woman’s work’.
I’ve met so many men who have gone into teaching and failed. Because women could do it, they thought that it would be a walk in the park.

Anyway. Keeping warm. ?
I’ve just been looking at heated gilets which I’ve only just learned are a thing thanks to a GNer.
The creme de la crème of heated gilets are around £150, but I’ve just bought one for DH from Wowcher for just £13!

I well understand too. Doing free work in a London law centre teaches you quite a bit.

It’s amazing how being critical of people who stay at home and claim benefits when able to work, or saying that getting a better job or working longer hours might prevent reliance on benefits translates in some minds to looking down on anyone in a minimum wage job. An interesting thought process.

volver

Oh OK. We get to ignore it if we think most people are like that or it doesn't fit our world view?

However much you try to wriggle out if it there's no argument here. You really have no idea how the other half lives.

Pardon me? I well understand how people live.

Maybe you weren't pointing to me?

volver

I think this thread has deteriorated beyond repair. I apologise for keeping on with the diversion but sometimes, needs must.

An anecdote...

Where I used to work, the cleaning was done by a contract cleaning company. The cleaners who worked for it started at 5 in the morning, and generally finished at 8 or 9 at night. They cleaned several different premises and were bussed about in a minibus. I spoke to one who had a couple of hours off during the day, which she used to look after her elderly mum. She was on the minimum wage, whatever that was at the time.

Norah, do you have any suggestions for how she could have worked more hours?

Assuming she also worked weekends, no I don't have suggestions.

More government involvement is not the answer, to me.

Blondiescot hasn’t said what her colleague chose to do - but is it not better to earn that £20 than to say it’s not worthwhile and rely wholly on the taxpayer instead?

winterwhite

Also disagree with Norah. If hours are short and pay is low the answer is surely better pay to keep pace with inflation.

The answer is to find a better job, or a second job.

If I posted what I thought about this discussion and the people stoking it, I'd get banned.