Should jobseekers allowance be increased?

[craigmason 10]

should the basic rate of jobseekers allowance be increased from £60.50 per week if so what would you raise it to ???

personally i think it should be around £80 per week or £160 per fortnight.

[slimsid2000 10]

Yes. it should be at least 100 pound per week if not 150.

[matts10 10]

If you raise it too high, where is the incentive to get people to actually go to work?

[craigmason 10]

taken from the tuc website

 

If, as expected, unemployment rises to around 2 million today, many of the newly redundant workers will be shocked to discover the low level of benefits in the UK. A single person over 25 years old receives £60.50 per week, dropping to £47.95 for those under 25. The UK is near the bottom of the western European league table in comparative rates of unemployment benefit.

 

The gap between benefits and earnings has widened significantly over the past 30 years because jobseeker's allowance (JSA) has increased at a rate below inflation. If it had increased in line with earnings, an unemployed person would receive in excess of £110 per week.

 

Politicians and government advisers argue that higher benefits would be a disincentive to work, but a wealth of evidence suggests that the descent into poverty has been a greater cause of economic inactivity. Benefit rates must be high enough to allow people to live a healthy lifestyle for physical and mental well-being. To achieve this, our long-term aim must be to substantially improve the miserly rates paid at present.

 

The government has rightly made a priority of increasing demand to maintain employment at as high a level as possible, and recognised the importance of measures that will have a speedy impact. Unemployed people, because of their low benefits, are particularly likely to spend any increases they receive as soon as they receive them - pound for pound, raising JSA levels will do more to fight off the recession than any other fiscal stimulus.

 

This is why the TUC has called for the government to respond to the lengthening dole queues by urgently raising JSA by £15 per week. We echo that call as the first stage of bringing dignity and respect to those thrown out of work by an economic crisis not of their making.

[tanyabennett 10]

well i think people that carnt work should have the chNCE OF MORE MONEY YES

[gina2007 10]

If you cant work, you don't get JSA, cause you wouldn't be actually seeking a job. DLA/IS is different payments, as far as im aware. Correct me if im wrong..

[craigmason 10]

this tells you about jobseekers allowance

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/WorkingAgeBenefits/Dev_015272.xml.html

[scribe 10]

No definitely not, if anything it should be lowered to £45.00

[craigmason 10]

No definitely not, if anything it should be lowered to £45.00

could you live on that amount of money

:loopy:

[chem1st 10]

They should put it up, maybe they could have a £20 top up for a four hour session of litter picking. Send large groups of people out to clean areas the council can't tackle.

 

'Cleaner, greener, safer'

[Moosey 10]

They should put it up, maybe they could have a £20 top up for a four hour session of litter picking. Send large groups of people out to clean areas the council can't tackle.

 

'Cleaner, greener, safer'

 

I agree.

 

Increase it to minimum wage, on the proviso that to earn it, those claiming have to go out and do something. There are plenty of potholes that need filling, streets that need cleaning, litter that needs removing etc.

[Cyclone 10]

could you live on that amount of money

:loopy:

 

It should be enough to survive, not an alternative to living through working.