Options
Hear it from a Grimsby small business owner: Scrap all benefits.
![[Deleted User]](https://wf.vanillicon.com/v2/f78c5d87f1e70cd8b35f638b46b1ac50.svg)
[Deleted User]
Posts: 4,845 Forum Member
✭✭✭
Grimsby’s East Marsh has the sixth highest proportion of out-of-work benefits claimants in the country. So is the problem a lack of jobs or a culture of worklessness created by an overly generous welfare system?
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
EVERY day Simon Goodwin gets up at quarter to five to start work at his fish filleting business in Riby Street. As an employer since 1999, Mr Goodwin says he has witnessed the corrosive effect that the welfare state has had on the work ethic of the population.
"We have people coming for jobs and then when they get here, they say they can't work those hours because it will interfere with their benefits. The benefits system is offering them more to stay on the dole."
The 47-year-old says there has been a marked change in the attitude of potential employees over the past 15 years.
"Young people have just become lazier and they don't want to know physical hardship. "The benefits system has meant they don't have to do anything. It has created a culture that doesn't want to work and that wasn't the case 20 years ago. It's frightening. My lads work a lot of hours and pay a lot of tax and these people come here and they don't want work.
"I would do away with the benefits system completely, apart from really needy cases. We have gone soft. "The government needs to change the rules.
Mr Goodwin's strong views are borne out of what he perceives as the injustice of a system which rewards the idle and punishes the grafters.
"I pay a lot in taxes and I see people walking around with a can of beer in their hand with no intention of doing a day's graft. I get up at quarter to five every morning, and don't get home until six or seven at night. They seem to enjoy life a lot more than I do."
Read more: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Feature-Benefits-needs-changing-says-employer/story-19191589-detail/story.html#ixzz2WCm3d3B9
Does Mr Goodwin echo the sentiments of the vast majority in this country?
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
EVERY day Simon Goodwin gets up at quarter to five to start work at his fish filleting business in Riby Street. As an employer since 1999, Mr Goodwin says he has witnessed the corrosive effect that the welfare state has had on the work ethic of the population.
"We have people coming for jobs and then when they get here, they say they can't work those hours because it will interfere with their benefits. The benefits system is offering them more to stay on the dole."
The 47-year-old says there has been a marked change in the attitude of potential employees over the past 15 years.
"Young people have just become lazier and they don't want to know physical hardship. "The benefits system has meant they don't have to do anything. It has created a culture that doesn't want to work and that wasn't the case 20 years ago. It's frightening. My lads work a lot of hours and pay a lot of tax and these people come here and they don't want work.
"I would do away with the benefits system completely, apart from really needy cases. We have gone soft. "The government needs to change the rules.
Mr Goodwin's strong views are borne out of what he perceives as the injustice of a system which rewards the idle and punishes the grafters.
"I pay a lot in taxes and I see people walking around with a can of beer in their hand with no intention of doing a day's graft. I get up at quarter to five every morning, and don't get home until six or seven at night. They seem to enjoy life a lot more than I do."
Read more: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Feature-Benefits-needs-changing-says-employer/story-19191589-detail/story.html#ixzz2WCm3d3B9
Does Mr Goodwin echo the sentiments of the vast majority in this country?
0
Comments
Strangely that information is not mentioned in the article.
he has to pay at least minimum wage, by law. on a 40 hour week thats about 14 grand a year.
i can understand his frustrations but the problem is, he will be lambasted for airing his views. he is after entitled to his opinion, just like we are on this forum.
Not offering them enough to get off benefits completely then? maybe thats the problem.
Ever thought that even if the wages are poor, the employee is showing commitment and learning a skill they may go on to something better?
Too many want to Earth, but aren't prepared to graft for it...
Yeah suppose if they want to get up at 5am to fillet fish for national minimum wage.
Tis true. Work ethic seems to be non existant in a sector if britush society. Few who would get on their bike and look for work these days.
Does that not depend on the age of the person, as MW is based on a persons age
I can believe that bit.
I've sat in my kitchen listening to my flatmate (who manages a nightclub) on the phone trying to get extra bar staff when they were running short.
He rang one guy, who, having checked, turned down the work as he would lose more in benefits than what the extra shift was worth, which was 7.50 an hour.
Can you call that being 'idle'? I'm not so sure - to me, it seems like a perfectly rational economic decision, and it's the system that is at fault.
Regards,
Cypher
Bike? When I 'twere a lad I used to dream about going to work on t'bike.
I 'ad to trudge 20 miles in't rain, sleet and snow to work for a Grimsby fish filleter(?) who paid next to nothin' and moaned about his fellow citizens.
How times 'ave changed.
Oh,'ang on, looks like they 'aven't!!!
Yeah, it seems odd that people would turn up for a job which presumably advertised the hours and then say they can't do those hours because of their benefits. There's something fishy about this story.
I know lets go the Tory way and work for NOTHING that "lovely, God bless him Mr Goodwin" I hope in many many years will be buried in Westminster Abby by the state for service to looking after his workers
His point seems to be he wants people to work for so low wages that require the state to support his employees.
I'm guessing though, he doesnt consider working tax credits that top up the wages he pays as a benefit he is in receipt of whilst hes ranting.
I do.
Considering benefits have been around for decades and Mr Goodwin is commenting on his own experience since the late 90's I would say his opinion is questionable in the extreme.
Isn't this really his point?
Not under a Tory Goverment. But one good thing is the Tory's have not won an election since 1992. Could not even win in 2010:D
The Voters don't trust them. That is a fact.
Indeed if you pay people an hourly rate they can't sustain themselves on then they will regretably conclude they are better off on benefits. Its been calculated that raising the minimum wage by £1 an hour would in fact save the Government some £3 billion a year.
So who are the biggest scroungers? At what point do employers take responsibility for paying wages their employees can actually live on?
Of course such thoughts never enter the mind of your average anti-welfare bigot.:rolleyes:
I say lets get rid of taxpayers money supporting MP's. There wage too. Lloyd George, Winston Churchill + were payed nothing until the early part of the 20c. I have told my MP, he should have NO money off the tax payer, to travel to work, to have his meal because I don't get those.
I said who do you think you are? ME? He replied saying if you don't pay you will get monkeys and Rich people. I told him I have a monkey now YOU and you are costing me money