Damage done to the UK ALREADY following the elction

Still refuse to see the point, this is not about being a SAHM- or not- but about your pontificating and judging others.

Give me 'verbiage' anyday, rather than nonsense drivel.

Exactly! It's nothing to do with your being a SAHM JenniferEccles. It's to so with your hypocrisy and ignorance of other people's lives, about which you seem oblivious.

clicked on all your links GagaJo, but google couldn't find any of them!

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

CraftyGranny, it's because I copied and pasted from someone else. Also because I'm s**t with technology.

Someone a few pages back very kindly added the complete, working links.

Sorry!

Nope, Janpt, I'm with growstuff. JE is very judgemental about others that she feels are 'undeserving', 'scroungers' or just who haven't contributed what she deems as enough to society. All the while having had quite an easy ride herself.

NOT that I begrudge anyone whatever life they've chosen BUT it's hypocritical to have sat on easy street yourself and then to accuse others less fortunate of scrounging from the state.

No growstuff, I have never offered anyone the sort of advice you seem to think I have, either on here or anywhere else. I do think people should cut their coat according to their cloth and only have that which they can afford including children. Like Jennifer E, I wanted to be with my children when they were small and beyond! For that we as a couple were prepared to go without a lot of things that would have been available had I worked, second hand everything, our choice! To accuse anyone of being privileged for being a SAHM when you haven't a clue as to their circumstances is just ridiculous and judgemental.

Well said Jabberwok !! I too was a SAHM. If we couldn't afford something we managed without it unlike many benefit claimants who seem to think it's their right to have everything they want. Why do they always appear to have all the latest technology including massive T.V. sets? They often need to ask for help in dealing with the debts they have built up. Saving up for things appears to be beyond their understanding.

Perhaps time to go back to the OP - which goes far beyond the topic of the last couple of pages of stereotypes and generalisations.

Oh you saints! It's not about being SAHM. Most people my age did it for a bit when their kids were small. It's about realising that for some people life is very difficult and those people are not the benefit scroungers you seem to think but the low paid workers who staff the care homes, serve the coffee and generally maintain the basis of the society you live in, but don't earn enough to live on and rely on UC to live. So that when things go wrong they are forced to use food banks. Be bloody grateful you could afford to stay at home because the likelyhood is you wouldn't now. You can't save when you are on a zero hours contract and you don't know from one week to the next what you will earn.

For goodness sake, how many times does it have to be said?

I and a few others aren’t talking about people in work who might not earn very much but those perfectly able to work but who instead chose a benefits lifestyle.

As regards the much maligned zero hours contracts, they do work well for some people who want part time work with flexible hours.

Obviously they wouldn’t be suitable employment for a lot of people needing full time work, but no one is forcing them to take a zero hours job if it was unsuitable.

How insensitive can you continue to be : ''no one is forcing them to take a zero hours job if it was unsuitable.'' - unbelievable

Oh JE you really don't know much about the real world do you. I will be kind and assume you read the DM or just watch programmes on TV which demonise poor people. So I'll try to tell you what really happens. You cannot "choose a benefits lifestyle" you have to actively seek work, sometimes dispite the fact that you are unwell or disabled. If you don't actively seek work you will be sanctioned and your benefit will stop. If you refuse to accept a job (even a zero hours contract job) you will be sanctioned and your benefit will stop. That's what happens to people. Should you be held up for whatever reason on your way to an appointment to do with your benefit you may be sanctioned if they choose to.
I advise you to watch the film "I, Daniel Blake" to find out what realy happens to people on benefit.

And the latest Ken Loach film ''Sorry we missed you'' - harrowing about the reality of such contracts and other low paid work.

Saw a list of things needed to be done when travelling to EU countries with pets after Brexit. Think a lot of people will be caught out by it. Also hearing of long queues at passport control even before we have officially left.

But when the leave voters are standing in these queues they will blame the EU, just as they have been programmed to do.

Labaik Is this relevant to the discussion ?

CraftyGranny If you scroll down a bit, I corrected all the links in the OP.

I expect a lot of parents - both women and men - would like to have much more time with their children. It can't be much fun getting up at the crack of dawn, rushing to feed, wash and dress your child, rushing off to nursery - and then having to rush back after work to avoid being late and incurring late pick up costs. Then the evenings are spent cooking, helping older children with homework and putting them to bed, etc, etc, and weekends are spent shopping and trying to fit in all the chores that a SAHM would have had time to do during the week. Do you really think that people doing relatively mundane and not particularly fulfilling jobs do this for the fun of it? Housing costs nowadays are through the roof and most couples need two incomes to cope with the financial pressures.

Many of us have been stay at home mums for a couple of years or so - that was in the days when you could eat properly, heat your home and just about cover basic needs on one salary. Those days are gone. I returned to work when my daughter was around two and a half because, although we could afford to pay rent and other basic costs, we wanted to buy our own home and couldn't do so on just my husband's salary.

If a person had never gone out to work after the birth of his/her children but was still able to afford to buy two properties (even if one was tenanted a significant amount of money would be needed for a deposit, legal costs, stamp duty, etc, etc), then that couple could obviously afford for one to stay at home. Some people just don't have that choice - they might like to but they don't.

The Office of National Statistics has just released the data about the number of people in the UK who have never worked. The Resolution Foundation has analysed the data and produced a report.

www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2020/01/Never-ever.pdf

3.4 million 16-64 year olds have never worked. Of those the majority (63%) are students, 13% are full-time carers or homemakers and 12% are sick or disabled.

Only 2% are 24-64 year old and unemployed. That is 68,000 people. The data doesn’t give details of the reason for unemployment – some might be in prison, some might be so stinking rich that they don’t have to work, etc etc. Not all the 68,000 are claiming unemployment benefit.

68,000 is 0.164% of the total working age population, so “choosing” a lifestyle on full-time unemployment benefits obviously appeals to very few - with good reason.

Growstuff thank you for posting that information. Perhaps it will make some of the above re-thing their ideas about those on benefits

Maybe the ONS and Resolution Foundation will produce data to show whether there's a link between receipt of benefits and size of smart TV .

Only 2% are 24-64 year old and unemployed. That is 68,000 people.

The Conservatives are doing magnificently with employment then

Oopsminty Sorry but I think that the 2% growstuff is referring have never been employed. But I think you know that and it's just a chance to big up the Tories.

Sorry but I think that the 2% growstuff is referring have never been employed. But I think you know that and it's just a chance to big up the Tories.

Sorry Dinahmo. I'm not bigging up the Tories at all.

I was just amazed at the 68,000 figure

And with good reason

news.sky.com/story/nearly-3-5-million-uk-working-age-people-have-never-had-a-job-report-says-11900778