Metal studs installed in London to deter rough sleepers

[Merging Cultures]

Let's be honest people volunteer their time for charity because they haven't got a job or anything else to occupy their time with.

I even did it when I was unemployed a few years ago.

Have to disagree. I have done a bit of volunteering and I have a very full life. I do it to help support others. It's not altruistic, as you know, it is also rewarding and makes you feel good.

[Merging Cultures]

Just look at some of the salaries they pay. The trussel trust, who own the food bank franchise, are paying 'directors' £60k per year plus expenses and bonuses and no doubt several other perks. These directors are also alledgedly engaged in various other activities, they're probably attending a couple of meetings a month for that £60k. Not a bad hourly rate by anyone's standards.

As someone who has worked for two of the largest charities in the world, Save the Children and The Salvation Army, amongst smaller ones, I'm very qualified to talk on this.

The amount of oversight that grants receive (largely due to moaning hits like you lot!) means you've got to have extremely well qualified people running the programmes. Unless you have a Masters you don't get looked at for technical positions. And why shouldn't we be paid a competitive salary?

I now work quasi for profit.

[Webbo]

I never mentioned any political party.I was just referring to the fact that someone that has nothing knows what it is like to have nothing. Do you agree?

 

£6 million public money is being spent on a royals flat reburshiment. 6 Mill that could save a children's' ward from closing. For anyone that loses a child because of the closure i would say that was a tad unfair.

But Maggie T taught us to think of number one and I am from an older generation so we will never agree on what is a fair society.

So glad you're not bringing a political party into it.

 

The idea that no politicians know what it's like to live a normal life and all come from mansions is patently idiotic and to pretend they do doesn't further your argument.

[Rincewind]

Going away Tuesday so you will be rid of me for a few days.

[Steven]

Going away Tuesday so you will be rid of me for a few days.

Nooooooooooooooooo. Enjoy your break.

[Webbo]

Going away Tuesday so you will be rid of me for a few days.

Don't be such a prima donna. If you want to discuss things you've got to put up with people disagreeing with you.

[Rincewind]

Just hitting a brick wall all the time.

 

Did anyone see the news on the BBC about the 50,000 people that turned up in London to protest about austerity?

[MooseBreath]

Just hitting a brick wall all the time.

Did anyone see the news on the BBC about the 50,000 people that turned up in London to protest about austerity?

50k people didn't turn up for that. It was a nice day, something was happening, people just stuck around. Nobody serious supports the people's assembly. They're about as economically literate as your average toddler. That's probably why the media didn't report on it very much, because to be seen to take it seriously would be embarrassing.

[Rincewind]

50k people didn't turn up for that. It was a nice day, something was happening, people just stuck around. Nobody serious supports the people's assembly. They're about as economically literate as your average toddler. That's probably why the media didn't report on it very much, because to be seen to take it seriously would be embarrassing.

  Have you heard the story The Empowers New Clothes?

[Jimothy]

50k people didn't turn up for that. It was a nice day, something was happening, people just stuck around. Nobody serious supports the people's assembly. They're about as economically literate as your average toddler. That's probably why the media didn't report on it very much, because to be seen to take it seriously would be embarrassing.

Dressing up your opinion as fact again I see.

[Rincewind]

He'll probably say the photos a fake and the video of somebody being cut off when phoning the BBC to complain does not exist. Or the thousands of groups representing the church NHS health organisations and charities were only there on a day trip or the froreign media that reported on it had a slow news day.I can think of hundreds of reasons to deny that that it took place.

Some people still refuse to believe the Holocaust took place.

[MooseBreath]

Dressing up your opinion as fact again I see.

Not at all. I think most people in possession of basic level comprehension would assume a post like that is opinion without the need for that to be stated.

[MooseBreath]

He'll probably say the photos a fake and the video of somebody being cut off when phoning the BBC to complain does not exist. Or the thousands of groups representing the church NHS health organisations and charities were only there on a day trip or the froreign media that reported on it had a slow news day.I can think of hundreds of reasons to deny that that it took place.

Some people still refuse to believe the Holocaust took place.

In my opinion I'm not denying a protest took place. In my opinion what I'm saying is that in my opinion the main thrust of the demonstration lacked sufficient credibility for it to be taken seriously by anybody whose views, in my opinion, are to be respected.

[Rincewind]

[Rincewind]

Yes shoot the scroungers.

 

 

More than 90 per cent of new housing benefit claims over the past two years have been made by employed people, as squeezed workers seek help with their living costs.

A report published today by research group The Building and Social Housing Foundation found that 93 per cent of new housing benefit claims made between January 2010 and December 2011 were made by households containing at least one employed adult.

The report, entitled The growth of in-work housing benefit claimants, analyses Department for Work and Pensions data and comes in the wake of the passing of the government’s Welfare Reform Act earlier this month.

The act was designed to shave £2.25 billion a year off the £22.4 billion housing benefit bill by 2014/15. It also aims to send out a message that people will be better off in work than on benefits.

The DWP said in November 2010 that its reforms would ‘reintroduce the culture of work in households where it may have been absent for generations’. But BSHF’s report shows that the vast majority of new claimants are already in work.

The number of housing benefit claimants in Great Britain increased by 300,000 to 4.95 million between January 2010 and December 2011.

Of those 300,000, 93 per cent (279,000) were households where at least one adult was employed. Since November 2008, the proportion of housing benefit claimants in work has increased from 10 per cent to 17 per cent, while the overall number of in-work claimants has doubled from 430,000 to 865,000.

‘This increase appears to be a departure from historic trends where the number of housing benefit claimants was closely associated with levels of employment,’ the report said.

Wage reductions and higher rents have been mooted by BSHF as possible reasons for the increase.

The report calls for the DWP to commission a study into the impact of the increase and warns that the government will miss its benefit savings target if the trend continues.

A DWP spokesperson denied the trend could lead to the coalition missing its savings targets. He said: ‘The DWP forecast assumptions do include the recent growth of in-work claimants.’

Chancellor George Osborne said in his Budget speech last week that further welfare savings of £10 billion were required by 2016 to prevent departmental budget cuts.

[Strokes]

Yes shoot the scroungers.

More than 90 per cent of new housing benefit claims over the past two years have been made by employed people, as squeezed workers seek help with their living costs.

A report published today by research group The Building and Social Housing Foundation found that 93 per cent of new housing benefit claims made between January 2010 and December 2011 were made by households containing at least one employed adult.

The report, entitled The growth of in-work housing benefit claimants, analyses Department for Work and Pensions data and comes in the wake of the passing of the government’s Welfare Reform Act earlier this month.

The act was designed to shave £2.25 billion a year off the £22.4 billion housing benefit bill by 2014/15. It also aims to send out a message that people will be better off in work than on benefits.

The DWP said in November 2010 that its reforms would ‘reintroduce the culture of work in households where it may have been absent for generations’. But BSHF’s report shows that the vast majority of new claimants are already in work.

The number of housing benefit claimants in Great Britain increased by 300,000 to 4.95 million between January 2010 and December 2011.

Of those 300,000, 93 per cent (279,000) were households where at least one adult was employed. Since November 2008, the proportion of housing benefit claimants in work has increased from 10 per cent to 17 per cent, while the overall number of in-work claimants has doubled from 430,000 to 865,000.

‘This increase appears to be a departure from historic trends where the number of housing benefit claimants was closely associated with levels of employment,’ the report said.

Wage reductions and higher rents have been mooted by BSHF as possible reasons for the increase.

The report calls for the DWP to commission a study into the impact of the increase and warns that the government will miss its benefit savings target if the trend continues.

A DWP spokesperson denied the trend could lead to the coalition missing its savings targets. He said: ‘The DWP forecast assumptions do include the recent growth of in-work claimants.’

Chancellor George Osborne said in his Budget speech last week that further welfare savings of £10 billion were required by 2016 to prevent departmental budget cuts.

2010-11 in the middle of the recession, its to be expected.

[Rincewind]

It has not changed

[Strokes]

It has not changed

I'm not sure what your point is, new applicants are not really an issue to me. Its the long term welfare dependants that worry me, they seem to be deliberately excluded from this article.

[Nick]

I have a problem with some 'charities' who operate a business model rather than a welfare model when it comes to growth.

 

Too many charities grow for the benefits of their directors rather than those they serve gaining bigger contracts with service provision which does not correlate - which is similar to private companies taking over public services with a 'for profit agenda'

 

For me, the only time a Charity or Social Enterprise should grow is when it's to deliver services to an identified need and the growth of such charities may need to be regulated so a charity is distinctly identifiable in its operations.

[Nick]

Let's be honest people volunteer their time for charity because they haven't got a job or anything else to occupy their time with.

I even did it when I was unemployed a few years ago.

 

Disagree with that Matt.

 

I have been involved with many organisations who utilise volunteers and they come from a really diverse range of backgrounds and circumstances.

[Jimothy]

Disagree with that Matt.

I have been involved with many organisations who utilise volunteers and they come from a really diverse range of backgrounds and circumstances.

It's the moosebreath principal. "I believe this and this is how I would behave, therefore that is how everyone else would behave in the same situation. I have no real knowledge of the subject, but I still try and speak with authority about it."

[Webbo]

It's the moosebreath principal. "I believe this and this is how I would behave, therefore that is how everyone else would behave in the same situation. I have no real knowledge of the subject, but I still try and speak with authority about it."

You've just summed up 99% of the people on here.

[Jimothy]

You've just summed up 99% of the people on here.

Well no, most people give an opinion based on what they'd do, they don't generalise and try and make out we'd all do the same.

[Guest MattP]

It's the moosebreath principal. "I believe this and this is how I would behave, therefore that is how everyone else would behave in the same situation. I have no real knowledge of the subject, but I still try and speak with authority about it."

Well at least some of us know we do it eh....

[Jimothy]

Well at least some of us know we do it eh....

Tell me where I have then? Like I say we'll all offer opinion based on our experience, but some of you like to label everyone based one your own standards.