"Economic inactivity" in the north

[Eamonnca1]

I'm just curious. There was a report out today that says the unemployment figures in the north are a bit skewed because there's an uncounted number of people who don't work but want to. They can't because they have good reasons, like caring for a family member. The others though, I wonder sometimes. I know several people who don't work, I give them the benefit of the doubt because there are health issues in the family. But I know of at least one other who doesn't work because they feel like it's beneath them and they'll be better off on benefits plus the money their partner earns to prop them up.

I just wonder how widespread the phenomenon is.

[seafoid]

When the UK deindustrialised in the 1980s it was decided to put those who lost their jobs on welfare. This is a problem of being part of the UK.
Other countries retrained workers.
UK productivity is atrocious.

[Franko]

The first person to say 'basket case' in this thread gets an automatic 5 day ban for plagiarism.  (and stupidity)

[Tony Baloney]

I'd say practically everyone in the North knows someone who chooses not to work. It's endemic in some areas. Despite the much publicised hardships associated with Universal Credit, there is a tipping point, especially if you involve a number of children, at which people decide it's not worth their while working when they get practically everything paid for them. That mindset is multi-generational in some families.

[NAG1]

I'd say practically everyone in the North knows someone who chooses not to work. It's endemic in some areas. Despite the much publicised hardships associated with Universal Credit, there is a tipping point, especially if you involve a number of children, at which people decide it's not worth their while working when they get practically everything paid for them. That mindset is multi-generational in some families.

Exactly the issue and this gets handed down the generations as TB says.
There is absolutely no incentive to go out and get a job of any description when you see the level of benefit that some of these people are taking home. I know of people who are 'earning' a salary and would be worse off if they went out to work.

How can this be a thing at this stage?

Don't be getting me wrong, the welfare system is there as a catch net for people who have all kinds of issues. It should not be a way of life which it has turned in to here for some people on it.

[Armagh18]

I'd say practically everyone in the North knows someone who chooses not to work. It's endemic in some areas. Despite the much publicised hardships associated with Universal Credit, there is a tipping point, especially if you involve a number of children, at which people decide it's not worth their while working when they get practically everything paid for them. That mindset is multi-generational in some families.

People who are fit to work and chose not to should get zero benefits.

[BennyHarp]

When the UK deindustrialised in the 1980s it was decided to put those who lost their jobs on welfare. This is a problem of being part of the UK.
Other countries retrained workers.
UK productivity is atrocious.

It also meant productivity became harder to measure as the economy shifted towards being more service based though.

[JoG2]

I'd say practically everyone in the North knows someone who chooses not to work. It's endemic in some areas. Despite the much publicised hardships associated with Universal Credit, there is a tipping point, especially if you involve a number of children, at which people decide it's not worth their while working when they get practically everything paid for them. That mindset is multi-generational in some families.

People who are fit to work and chose not to should get zero benefits.

Nobody works the system like Derry City folk. There's a row of social housing on a ring road around the town. Luxury towing caravans, Audi jeeps , Mercedes, BMWs etc, even a fecking campervan! No flies on those hoors

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

I'd say practically everyone in the North knows someone who chooses not to work. It's endemic in some areas. Despite the much publicised hardships associated with Universal Credit, there is a tipping point, especially if you involve a number of children, at which people decide it's not worth their while working when they get practically everything paid for them. That mindset is multi-generational in some families.

People who are fit to work and chose not to should get zero benefits.

Nobody works the system like Derry City folk. There's a row of social housing on a ring road around the town. Luxury towing caravans, Audi jeeps , Mercedes, BMWs etc, even a fecking campervan! No flies on those hoors

Seriously troubled estate. Riddled with people thrown out of Belfast and Ballymena. The cars etc talk of the town.  A lot of travellers in there now supposedly not travellers anymore. They own a lot of the caravans but undoubtedly others up to no good

As far as economics goes, it's getting more and more skewed towards east of province every year. Derry city is predicted to go into population decline over next 20 years as a result . In Republic to he govt plan to grow Cork to 335k over same period .

[Silver hill]

There's a whole myriad of issues at play here. Agree that it is endemic in some areas like Derry city and strabane, going back to the 50s and 60s when there genuinely was no work of any kind available, especially for Nationalists. That is generational and benefits become a crutch that is difficult to escape from. Unfortunately, unlike the Nordic countries, there is a severe lack of collective civic pride and individuals have no issue in playing the system with false claims as they perceive it as taking from the government which is no harm really. That is the mentality.
They see you and I as the fools for not doing and playing the system. A lad I know was telling me recently about working with an electrician from Derry. They've just had their 5th kid and he refuses to allow his partner to name him as the father on the birth certificate as it will affect the benefits that she claims. DLA is known as the Derry Living Allowance but it's not confined to the city. I know in my own town of a retired headmaster, who's wife was a doctor and he was scooting about in a car with a DLA disc for years.
Some people will cheat the system where they see flaws and chinks. That's just the way of it. They se their parents/uncles/aunts and they follow.
As I said about, they laugh at the rest of us for trying to earn a living the honest way.
On a more general point, there's a generation of pampered kids coming through now who have no interest in any form of physical work. Just think how much complaining there is if you ask your own kids to week, dig, mow lawn or complete chores around the house. Completely my own fault by the way but there are completely wrapped in cotton wool by parents now - don't walk anywhere, lifted and laid - get pocket money automatically.
Wouldn't look at picking spuds, summer job in a meat factory, anything that involved manual work. They are a dying breed; the Irish man working outside on a site or farm, 8 hours a day. Bottom line is, in Ireland, North and South, if you want to work, there are literally hundreds of opportunities out there at the minute. The issue, too easy not to.

[johnnycool]

It's easy to have cheap shots at people at the lower end of the social scale in terms of a drain on our taxation and that is true.

In another breath sweet FA is being done and very little talk in the mainstream media about how the elite cream off government contracts to the tune of millions at a time under various guises and somehow that's more palatable.

Sure we see it here with Owen Paterson "advising" Randox...

The rules are written by the rich for the rich.

[BennyCake]

So everyone who isn't seen to be working is a lazy hallion? To be honest, you've no idea of a lot of people's circumstances. It's not your business or mine, as to why they work or not.

[BennyCake]

It's easy to have cheap shots at people at the lower end of the social scale in terms of a drain on our taxation and that is true.

In another breath sweet FA is being done and very little talk in the mainstream media about how the elite cream off government contracts to the tune of millions at a time under various guises and somehow that's more palatable.

Sure we see it here with Owen Paterson "advising" Randox...

The rules are written by the rich for the rich.

+1

[Armagh18]

It's easy to have cheap shots at people at the lower end of the social scale in terms of a drain on our taxation and that is true.

In another breath sweet FA is being done and very little talk in the mainstream media about how the elite cream off government contracts to the tune of millions at a time under various guises and somehow that's more palatable.

Sure we see it here with Owen Paterson "advising" Randox...

The rules are written by the rich for the rich.

Agreed.

[Armagh18]

So everyone who isn't seen to be working is a lazy hallion? To be honest, you've no idea of a lot of people's circumstances. It's not your business or mine, as to why they work or not.

Obviously theres plenty of people that genuinely can't work for one reason or another, but people shouldn't be allowed to live off benefits and do nothing. I'd sooner give the benefits to someone working a shite job for shite money to help them out.