This is easily the silliest thread I’ve read on here. £60K is merely ok, £45k isn’t enough to keep in bike parts? Families being embarrassed that you’ve take low paid jobs? WTF, with family like that, who needs enemies? Quite how I manage to maintain four bikes and own a nice house in a nice but expensive city while earning a fraction of that makes me wonder what planet you lot are living on? Never been on the dole, found it much easier to just to get agency temp work. As a result I’ve got a CV padded with experience that makes it easier to get work. People’s expectations/sense of entitlement are ******* weird.

Egb has it right.
Work everytime. Dole is for when body or mind fail you not a choice you take as an able bodied person.

I’ve gone from crappy job on Friday (picker in a refrigerated warehouse) to contracting on £300 a day on Monday (designing A/C ducting for OE automotive).

I needed the money on friday to eat. And the money on monday so i could save and have a life when the contract ended.

Work, like people have said, who knows whom you’ll meet?

Someone I knew went from shop floor to steering committee at John Lewis all because she bothered to write a critique of the operations and posted it to the MD.

Got redundancy from my last job in 2011, knew nothing about signing on etc but got told I needed to in order to keep up National Insurance payments. Went in to the Job Centre and said to them that I’d just had a nice pay out and was taking a bit of time before finding a new job. The guy didn’t listen to me saying I had no interest in claiming anything (just making sure was still paying National Insurance contributions) and set me up on the Dole, had to go in every week or so with a job plan and proof that I was going to be away the next week (again!) somewhere sunny.

Did not enjoy going in and people not listening that my job search was under control. After a couple of weeks the guy suggested I should switch from my career I am experienced in to a low-paid unskilled job as they had none on their system. I had a job within a week of starting to look post holidays…

So if I had time out with something new starting on a set date I’d definitely take a job.

Work every time and network. 75% of executive jobs are created to suit the person who walks in the door, so I’ve been told anyway. Network network network, ask ask ask, write write write.

Currently in a in-between job as the wife was concerned that I planned to take a few months off to study and attempt to get some professional certificates under my belt and didnt want me to cut into my savings.
Now I have a dull job, low pay and still have to find time to study!
In Hong Kong there is no dole, especially for us who are not permanent residents yet.
A job you find uninteresting is worse than anything relating to money IMHO.

Forgot to update this.

Ended up driving full time and tutoring which led to a temporary teaching role from word of mouth.

It was better to take a rubbish job and not have sit on rear for 6 months but it can also look weird from exec to delivery on your C.V.

Still looking for hat new job though.

Perfect job? Never but it would be nice to get paid more than £30K.

People were right, it really helps you keep grounded too.

Don’t give up.

I’m curious to know why so many people assume that being out of employment means that one has to sit on one’s arse. Does nobody have any desire or imagination?

Families being embarrassed that you’ve take low paid jobs? WTF, with family

Yeah I’m calling troll on this whole thread

Next!

Since when is £40-£60k adequate?

It’s the top 5/10% in the country, and if someone who has earned that kind of money and then comes on a forum asking load paid job or dole, really should know better.

As above if no work plenty of alternatives to sitting on your arse all day

Not sure what some people are getting on the dole but the minimum isn’t great and not really a choice between working or not.

If you are living on Job Seekers Allowance + rent you could be getting 6 or 7 thousand per year.
A minimum wage job gets you closer to 12 thousand a year or £400 per month more than on the dole.

Adequate is a relative term though, we all lead different lifestyles and have different financial commitments.

Grannyjone prob earns £15k a year, he’s just learned from his mechanic to inflate everything by 300%

he’s just learned from his mechanic to inflate everything by 300%

I hope this is a troll thread. If not, OP, sorry to say, but your attitude to work and the dole is appalling.

If you can work , work. Might not be what you want/expect but don’t expect
me to be happy for you to sponge off the system because the jobs you do get offered you feel are beneath you.

Edit: just read the dates and fact you did take job. Maybe i should have read whole thread. Oops.. 😀

I know a guy who waited 4 months on the dole, refused shop work and got the 65k job he wanted.

It is however diminishing returns… 3-4 months is IMHO a reasonable amount of time if you are actually spending 8 hours a day looking for the 65k job you are qualified for…. after that simply being on the dole that long is going to diminish your chances but equally most people will then start to adapt and instead of treating finding a job as a job (and actually spending 8 hours a day doing it) are going to relax their search, not spend as long tailoring a CV etc. etc.

edenvalleyboy – Member
I hope this is a troll thread. If not, OP, sorry to say, but your attitude to work and the dole is appalling.

Hi, I took on 2 part time roles and was happy to do so even if temporary. That’s why I said I would be in shops or delivering parcels on the opening post lol.

I just wondered what other people did/thought e.g. Chat.

Going on the dole is not an option for some especially if I want to pay for car/cycling hobby but understand it’s not easy finding work with huge competition.

I delivered parcels, cleaned, shop work and tutored. I signed on for 3 days as I managed to find work.

Yes I had snobby friends and family who were embarrassed I wore a pizza boy delivery type of uniform but they’re not paying my billls and f them on their snobbery as I’m no sponger.

I also understand people signing on. I had numerous letters of rejection and finding a job can be a full time job on its own.

I was lucky it was Xmas season and found temporary part time roles roles and overtime in shops, delivery, cleaning and bar waiting work.

Always wondering what next or what will come up and saving every penny.

No troll and no I was not asking for signing on permission – I would have done so if I couldn’t find any roles.

The chat was about would people sign on if they couldn’t find a similar role to previous or would they be grateful to find any position to take on while they kept on looking no matter what.

It was interesting how customers treated you differently to each role, some polite and some treated you like you were nothing. Gave me a lot to reflect on.

After July my contract runs out so I’m already applying now.

Sure people can be creative and take time out but you don’t take time out while on the dole. Work then save for a while before you take time off.

For me, it really helped to find a better role and my current boss did see the work ethic by taking a lower paid job that some would refuse to do.

To be honest it was the down to earth nice chirpy happy people I worked with that made the worst and best jobs fun.

Anyway don’t give up to those looking or changing roles. It may help to volunteer or take lower paid role until you get something else.

Freddie doesn’t believe in you and neither do I.

See also Peter Pan, Superman et al.

In what universe is 45k not enough to buy a mountain bike and 60k is merely “ok”

Been working in an outdoor shop since being made unemployed. Awful money, but great mix of people and a great staff discount. I’m slowly buying half the shop.

Met another person through the shop and joining another business with better money in September.

Good to expand your networks. Quite often not what you know but who !

In what universe is 45k not enough to buy a mountain bike and 60k is merely “ok”

STW.

What world are all these people living in who think it is easy to get a manual job to fill in, it sure as **** isn’t the real world. Recruitment is expensive, companies do not employ over qualified people who will piss off as soon as a “real” job appears for a reason.

FuzzyWuzzy – Member
Adequate is a relative term though, we all lead different lifestyles and have different financial commitments.

No, it’s not relative.
We’re all human beings and feel the same pain and humiliation when we can’t provide for those we love.

No one ‘deserves’ more than anyone else.

FuzzyWuzzy – Member
Adequate is a relative term though, we all lead different lifestyles and have different financial commitments.

Ah yes, I forgot the hardships of those who have to afford the repayments and tyres on their Audi S4. That certainly is something they were no way responsible for the cards they’ve been dealt and they’re just trying to make the best of a bad situation

In what universe is 45k not enough to buy a mountain bike and 60k is merely “ok”

One in which you are supporting a family, have a mortgage (you’ve been paying for years) or rent and outgoings which are more than 45k less tax….

Not that long ago my job paid exactly 30k – tax… I was single and had plenty left over.
I then spent 4 months unemployed…
A year later I was supporting a family, paying a huge amount in rent that was necessary to live where the job was commutable and paying several grand a year just in train fares…. and despite earning over double what I had previously was a lot poorer and truth be known getting poorer every month…as we just broke even if nothing unexpected happened

I’m not wedded to the lifestyle… I’d love a less demanding job but between present job and dole options are limited.

Sure, but thats lifestyle choices someone has chosen. Just because you can afford a mortgage on a 500K house and two kids doesn’t mean you should jump straight in…

The fact remains 60k by definition is a much better wage than “ok”. The average wage is £26.5k and people manage it.

According to Monster, that 26K is combined earnings of a couple.

I’ve earned good, bad, good and bad again lol.

I spend very little on a car – banger-nomics…

I have friends who earn £150,000 to £14,000. Some spend loads on cars or homes to renting and spending little on food and eat pasta twice a day. It’s a choice.

Thing is looking at these groups, they both have homes and cars. One expensive home/ sports car to home and a banger.

No difference, just earn more and bigger bills but the same problems are there.

Personally I feel poor but am I? Are we dodging bullets or starvation in an African country?

We take it for granted how lucky we all are whether you earn 11K or 110K.

I want to know where these generic non career specific £60k jobs are.

If you have that sort of wage you usually have a career and will get back into it.

Sure, but thats lifestyle choices someone has chosen. Just because you can afford a mortgage on a 500K house and two kids doesn’t mean you should jump straight in…

It’s not a case of jumping straight in, at least for me a mortgage was a way around crippling rent which was the only type available where I needed to be for work.

The fact remains 60k by definition is a much better wage than “ok”. The average wage is £26.5k and people manage it.

It depends where you live/work and what non-claimable expenses the job has.

For my current job I have little option about where I live… at least between anywhere that makes a difference and I’m in the cheapest town I could find in the area of the SE where I need to be for work.

In my experience, the better paying the job the less of your expenses are covered (in general) and the more tax you paid on the gross leaving less net out of which you then need to pay these non-reimbursable expenses.

I spend a lot on work expenses I can’t claim back but without them I’d be on a redundancy list.