More than a fifth of UK adults not looking for work

[Cav]

I wonder how much of that is folks that have retired early? Technically I've got 11 years left until my retirement age but am likely to retire (again) next year so would assume that I'd then be included in those stats.

Early retirees must be some part if it - I took early retirement at 56 and had no desire to work again.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Early retirees must be some part if it

Correct. They are 12% of it.

 

[Bob McC]

Don't they then get a carer allowance? Instead of staying in work and then a carer being employed? (if they can find you one)..

Caring for someone who receives one from a raft of other benefits eg PIP, Attendance allowance for over 35 hrs a week entitle you to £76.75 a week Carers allowance.

live it up.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Caring for someone over 35 hrs a week entitle you to £76.75 a week Carers allowance.

live it up.

And in many cases it's far more than 35 hours a week. Some people require care round the clock.

 

[Bob McC]

Don’t I know.
5 hours a day is barely bathing, dressing and feeding Someone.

 

[Cav]

It is a bizarre statistic that doesn’t appear to be cross-referenced at all. It doesn’t make sense to me. For a start I thought education (further, apprenticeship etc) through to 18 was compulsory now, so why does the figure start at 16? Secondly the UK unemployment rate appears to be at 3.9% according to Google, so there is clearly a huge discrepancy between 21.8% and that.

I realise there is always a load of chicanery between government stats and reality. I lived through Thatcher’s mass unemployment and the government figures were massaged almost monthly to reduce the count, yet the reality didn’t change, the huge queues outside the dole office and job centres remained, but even so this one makes no sense.

What are they counting here? Is this maybe just another far-right culture war to demonise the disabled?

Some 16 to 18 year olds are not in education, training or work and there is nothing to compel them to participate.

The unemployment rate is the claimant count - those who are claiming JSA or whatever it is called now. The rest are not looking for work for various reasons.

 

[martin_b]

And here I am looking for work as I'm bored stupid with retirement, post grad degree ( physics) 40 odd years experience in Broadcast television and IT (its the same thing these days) primarily as an engineer then as a project manager, but because of my age (66 tomorrow) no one is interested
,

 

[hifinutt]

going back to childcare ... got a measles outbreak and nursery said if no mmr you have to be out the nursery for 3 weeks !!!! [ GP so far refused MMR due to age and i have been campaigning against this .. even been on radio 4 today programme about it ] How can folks work in these circumstances ?? crazy

 

[Tony L]

Some 16 to 18 year olds are not in education, training or work and there is nothing to compel them to participate.

“It is compulsory for young people to be in education or training until the age of 18, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay in school if it isn’t right for you.”

School leaving age: Can you leave school at 16 and what are your options? – The Education Hub

The Education Hub is a site for parents, pupils, education professionals and the media that captures all you need to know about the education system. You’ll find accessible, straightforward information on popular topics, Q&As, interviews, case studies, and more.

educationhub.blog.gov.uk

PS This clearly isn’t my area of expertise, but this looks pretty clear. It appears 16-18s can work alongside full-time education/training, but they are still stuck with putting in the same hours. The option of just leaving school entirely at 16 (as I did) no longer seems to exist.

 

[Rodrat]

there are huge shortages social work, very few want the jobs unless it is agency. We are spending enough on 8 agency workers to cover the cost of 11 directly employed. The job is sh*te, as is the support from senior managers. About to get worse as LA’s have to save loads of money. Ours has just spend nearly 3 million in consultation fees with one of the large accountancy firms to help them ‘restructure’ I asked why all the senior managers earning well over £100k couldn't manage this. No reply.

 

[Kirk]

Isn't this just the BBC promoting Government pre-election messaging? Fact-checking needed.

 

[Bob McC]

“It is compulsory for young people to be in education or training until the age of 18, but that doesn’t mean you have to stay in school if it isn’t right for you.”

School leaving age: Can you leave school at 16 and what are your options? – The Education Hub

The Education Hub is a site for parents, pupils, education professionals and the media that captures all you need to know about the education system. You’ll find accessible, straightforward information on popular topics, Q&As, interviews, case studies, and more.

educationhub.blog.gov.uk

PS This clearly isn’t my area of expertise, but this looks pretty clear. It appears 16-18s can work alongside full-time education/training, but they are still stuck with putting in the same hours. The option of just leaving school entirely at 16 (as I did) no longer seems to exist.

There are no sanctions if they do nothing from 16-18. Other than probably making themselves unemployable.

 

[Bob McC]

Isn't this just the BBC promoting Government pre-election messaging? Fact-checking needed.

Without a doubt.
dont forget Sunak’s announcement that he intends to ”squeeze” as many work related benefits as he can.


Rishi Sunak: I’ll squeeze benefits to fund more tax cuts for workers

The Times & The Sunday Times

News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times

www.thetimes.co.uk

Yet more divide and conquer.

 

[alanbeeb]

i have 4 open vacancies ATM and struggle to get the right candidates - invariably we do get a decent shortlist of 5 or 6 to interview, but when we appoint we always have to wait a significant period for a visa - typically about 9 months, but for one recent arrival that was over a year.

What is the reason for candidates that need a visa?

I have been involved in a lot of recruitment for IT engineers..... I get deluged with CVs from people who are educated and trained in India, and almost none from people in the UK. Not sure why this is.

 

[wulbert]

Don't they then get a carer allowance? Instead of staying in work and then a carer being employed? (if they can find you one)..

My Dad got a carer's allowance in the last 2 years of his life, to pay for care at home. He had 16 different people on his "team", one of which would turn up "sometime between 7am and 10am" to get him out of bed and again "sometime between 8pm and 10pm" to put him to bed. It was total chaos, never knew who would be coming and when, and my mum (aged 85yrs) had to explain to all the new starts where everything was. They kept leaving the gate open and letting the dog out (dog is now well-known at the local cop-shop) She was sitting, waiting anxiously for up to two hours before each one turned up. It was easier, kinder and more peaceful to do it herself.

Some people decide that their loved one deserves better care and give up work to do it themselves.

 

[Tony L]

There are no sanctions if they do nothing from 16-18. Other than probably making themselves unemployable.

Strange use of the word ‘compulsory’ in my government website quote!

Good to know if true though as it would enable those looking for self-employment/work etc to get straight out there without a load of hassle. A lot of under-18s in the arts etc. I’m fundamentally anti-authoritarian so instinctively side with those who choose to forge their own path.

 

[Bob McC]

My Dad got a carer's allowance in the last 2 years of his life, to pay for care at home. He had 16 different people on his "team", one of which would turn up "sometime between 7am and 10am" to get him out of bed and again "sometime between 8pm and 10pm" to put him to bed. It was total chaos, never knew who would be coming and when, and my mum (aged 85yrs) had to explain to all the new starts where everything was. They kept leaving the gate open and letting the dog out (dog is now well-known at the local cop-shop) She was sitting, waiting anxiously for up to two hours before each one turned up. It was easier, kinder and more peaceful to do it herself.

Some people decide that their loved one deserves better care and give up work to do it themselves.

I think you are conflating two things here.
The carers allowance is an allowance for the loved one’s who give up work to care for people.

You are referring the ludicrous care package that people can get. I have similar experience to yours in dealing with them.

 

[Bob McC]

Strange use of the word ‘compulsory’ in my government website quote!

Good to know if true though as it would enable those looking for self-employment/work etc to get straight out there without a load of hassle. A lot of under-18s in the arts etc. I’m fundamentally anti-authoritarian so instinctively side with those who choose to forge their own path.

They would only be allowed to work part time whatever they do In such circumstances.Their parents might be pissed off at child benefit stopping at 16 as well with a mouth to feed not contributing.

 

[ks.234]

My Dad got a carer's allowance in the last 2 years of his life, to pay for care at home. He had 16 different people on his "team", one of which would turn up "sometime between 7am and 10am" to get him out of bed and again "sometime between 8pm and 10pm" to put him to bed. It was total chaos, never knew who would be coming and when, and my mum (aged 85yrs) had to explain to all the new starts where everything was. They kept leaving the gate open and letting the dog out (dog is now well-known at the local cop-shop) She was sitting, waiting anxiously for up to two hours before each one turned up. It was easier, kinder and more peaceful to do it herself.

Some people decide that their loved one deserves better care and give up work to do it themselves.

Care is another scandal produced by privatisation and spending cuts.

 

[wulbert]

Could have fooled me. In over 6 months of searching and applying for jobs that I'm eminently capable of doing, and that my CV proves (to anyone that knows what they're actually talking about at least), I've had just one give me an interview. Getting close to the point where I'm thinking of just giving up, putting my flat up for rent and emigrating and living on a farm in the countryside somewhere.

That said, the number of roles that I've seen re-advertised multiple times just leads me to believe that the people doing the recruiting have no bloody idea what they're doing. If you get 200 applicants for a job there is simply no way that one of them isn't going to be good enough, so either the people sifting the applications haven't the first clue what they're doing, or they simply not even looking at all the applications, or they've got ridiculously high expectations that'll never be fulfilled by any real human being.

Being a professional, you perhaps get interviewed by the actual company that has the vacancy. However at lower level jobs recruitment seems to be mostly done by agencies. My son has walked into dozens of workplaces asking if they have any vacancies to be told "it's all done on the web-site mate, we don't do any hiring here. You need to apply on-line" They won't even take a CV off him or show any interest. This is a young man with great school results, an HND in Business Management, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, tall, good-looking, clean driver's licence, friendly, fit, healthy, hard working and honest as the day is long. They won't even take time to talk to him. It's bizarre.