Unemployment Benefits

There are many benefits to being unemployed. Desperate Housewives on in an afternoon provides a nice addition to my daily entertainment; I can make tea and coffee whenever I want; I don't have to dress in business causal; I can go shopping when the shops are reasonably empty. In short, there are many upsides to unemployment, but not enough to outdo the massive downside - the fact money is tight and days yawn before you with very little disciplined activity to occupy the long hours.

Hope is at hand, however, for those unemployed folk strapped for cash. The government is more than happy to step in with the benefits system. Call it what you want - unemployment benefits, the dole, signing on, jobseekers' allowance, or whatever, if you are unemployed, you are entitled to that money.

I do not take this money. I'm not saying this so that you can bask in my greatness or send me hatemail, I'm just merely stating the fact that I haven't signed on because I don't think it's fair for me to.

I shall explain.

I am more than capable of getting a job, I'm just a bit picky about the jobs I want. That is the real reason I've been unemployed for so long; it wouldn't have been difficult to get a retail job over Christmas, or pick up a bit of waitressing here and there, but I have instead concentrated my efforts on trying to start my career. It is at this point that I believe the government's help is not aimed at me.

The real issue with unemployment benefits these days is that they're too high. If being on the dole will earn more for you and your family then you will take that over having to work for pittance. This presents us with two solutions - raise the minimum wage or lower the amount of money jobseekers get from their allowance...

The Welfare State has spawned quite a peculiar type of person - one example of which appears on the BBC News website. It details what a man receives on jobseekers' allowance, what his wife receives on incapacity benefits, and what they receive for their children in tax credits and the like. Per week they get £582.40; per year they get £30,284.80. It's alright for some. Even with the proposed cap they would only lose £4,000.

What is most interesting about this article is the itemised budget detailing what this family spends their £582.40 on every week. Now when I was at university I got grocery shopping down to an art. I would plan my meals in advance and only buy what I needed - I averaged at best £5 a week and at worst, £10. Not too shabby. Based on this, at the most this family could spend £40 a week on groceries. But they don't. They spend £200 more than that. But it's not just groceries, because this includes 24 cans of lager, 200 cigarettes, and a large pouch of tobacco. Every little helps.

I'm glad British taxes are going to good use.

It's not my place to judge at all, but unfortunately because the government keeps on handing it out, the public keeps on taking. We have created a culture devoid of social responsibility and starved of accountability. I'm not going to blame anyone in particular for the decisions they have made, whether they be political ones that impact the nation, or personal ones, that impact only those around us, but it still stands - our society is far too give and take - the government gives and we take.

So I will continue to look for jobs without the help of jobseekers' allowance and keep my unemployment benefits as the fun things in life that you can't do when you're working, and if more people did that, we'd get out of the economic crisis a whole lot faster...