O/T. The Government's handling of Covid

[swaledale]

Fine with upping minimum wage but not if it has an equal or worse impact on job availability

The poor generally don't pay tax so I don't see how that's worthwhile

Totally behind increasing the increase of incentive to work but IMO that should include decreasing the incentive not to

Not sure how this would be funded though

Perhaps if one was to look closely at how Norway, Finland and to a lesser extent Sweden work - high wage high tax good services economy then there lies part of the answer.

There is a lot of hot air expelled when people talk about a disincentive to work - take a look at what living on benefits means and I think you will find very few willingly choose that for themselves! The current regime, is very tight in terms of requiring claimants to seek out work and indeed with current vacancies there is little scope to avid a job if thats what wants to d without having benefits sanctioned.

I accept that there is a minority, who claim benefits and work cash in hand on the side, but it is a minority - when overall benefit take up is actually less than budgeted and illegal tax evasion costs millions more than benefit fraud, its time perhaps to target more valid areas?

[ramAnag]

Agreeing with others, if your friend was that bothered she should have turned the job down, she's contributing to the demeaning of the role's value. Ironically, as we were talking about it recently, if there is sufficient demand for the services/expertise she is offering to supply (and if there's any leeway within public sector pay scales) she'd get a better deal anyway. If not, she's no as valuable as she/you thought she was.

Would you agree that changing the basis of reward for idleness and rooting out the (my estimate) hundreds of thousands doing that and then using the money saved to up the minimum wage by, lets say, £3 an hour, would be worth it? Genuine question

Back in the real world...salaries and career opportunities have stagnated in Education - possibly the whole of the public sector - and over the last 12 years it’s been back to the days of Thatcherism, which I worked through for twenty years before the breath of fresh air brought about in 1997 by the election of a Labour Government.
I think you’re missing my point. As I say...she’s taken a career step forward but the financial reward is risible and that is, imo, indicative of the contempt this Government has for the public sector...except of course when they have to pay hypocritical lip service because of the dependency created by a pandemic.

I never want to ‘reward idleness’, Andy...and believe me I’ve had enough (professional) encounters with aggressive, egg stained wife beater vest wearing parents to know who they are. My problem is...I struggle to define who are the most idle...the aforementioned eggy singlet wearers or the born with a silver spoon Rees-Moggs and I’m not sure (equally genuinely) who I’d trust to do your ‘rooting out’.

[Andy_Faber]

I never want to ‘reward idleness’, Andy...and believe me I’ve had enough (professional) encounters with aggressive, egg stained wife beater vest wearing parents to know who they are. My problem is...I struggle to define who are the most idle...the aforementioned eggy singlet wearers or the born with a silver spoon Rees-Moggs and I’m not sure (equally genuinely) who I’d trust to do your ‘rooting out’.

I’m not (just) talking about (May I say) scum types rA, and God bless you seriously for choosing a vocation that involves dealing with them, and I’m not (just) talking about Swales cash in hand brigade, my example is of (a minority I’ll agree but IMO a significant one nonetheless) ‘nice people’ who make unemployment a comfortable lifestyle choice. I see the hardship stories of folk using food banks and selling their furniture to survive and I genuinely can’t square that with the easy living, full-sky-package-plus-Netflix stay at homes I know, my only conclusion is that (that bit of) ‘the process is broken’.

We agree, by the way, on the moral aspect of any tax avoidance or other shady dealings by the swan sandwich munching levels of society, and if I were in charge I’d chase them (to criminal prosecution) for transgression. But I doubt any administration if any colour will grasp enough of those nettles

[Trickytreesreds]

I’m not (just) talking about (May I say) scum types rA, and God bless you seriously for choosing a vocation that involves dealing with them, and I’m not (just) talking about Swales cash in hand brigade, my example is of (a minority I’ll agree but IMO a significant one nonetheless) ‘nice people’ who make unemployment a comfortable lifestyle choice. I see the hardship stories of folk using food banks and selling their furniture to survive and I genuinely can’t square that with the easy living, full-sky-package-plus-Netflix stay at homes I know, my only conclusion is that (that bit of) ‘the process is broken’.

We agree, by the way, on the moral aspect of any tax avoidance or other shady dealings by the swan sandwich munching levels of society, and if I were in charge I’d chase them (to criminal prosecution) for transgression. But I doubt any administration if any colour will grasp enough of those nettles

To be honest RA deserves a pat on the back, with education madness coming to its peak.
At least he dodged the latest mine field. Bonkers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7XTwGTH99s

[MadAmster]

If an employer doesn't pay a PROPER wage from which an employee can afford to house, clothe and feed a family (partner and 2 kids) and also be able to afford a few "luxuries" like a holiday, a car..... that "person" is NOT an employer, they are a modern day slave driver.

[ramAnag]

To be honest RA deserves a pat on the back, with education madness coming to its peak.
At least he dodged the latest mine field. Bonkers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7XTwGTH99s

Totally off topic, but...I didn’t ‘dodge the minefield’. As far back as thirty years ago Thatcher introduced legislation to stop teachers talking about same *** relationships because it ‘promoted homo***uality’.
It didn’t of course and personally I took no notice. I’ve never ‘promoted homo***uality’...wouldn’t know how, or why you would do that, so I carried on regardless knowing that you can’t teach adolescents about *** education by pretending that same *** relationships don’t exist and shouldn’t be respected.

P.S. Weird people have been getting hot and bothered about such issues for years. Some of them even appear to be frightened of the word ‘***’.

[Geoff Parkstone]

"It didn’t of course and personally I took no notice. I’ve never ‘promoted homo***uality’...wouldn’t know how"

Just bend over rA, the rest will come naturally!

[Andy_Faber]

If an employer doesn't pay a PROPER wage from which an employee can afford to house, clothe and feed a family (partner and 2 kids) and also be able to afford a few "luxuries" like a holiday, a car..... that "person" is NOT an employer, they are a modern day slave driver.

thats naivete on an rA level

[ramAnag]

thats naivite on an rA level

If you’re going to make slightly snide comments like that it may be worth pointing out that at least both MA and I can spell ‘naivety’, ...and I haven’t a clue what your previous post is meant to mean.

[Andy_Faber]

If you’re going to make slightly snide comments like that it may be worth pointing out that at least both MA and I can spell ‘naivety’, ...and I haven’t a clue what your previous post is meant to mean.

Not a maths teacher, not an economics teacher and now not an English teacher. What did you teach rA?