spanish workers going to the uk for work

I  cannot understand what you are saying.  Unemployment is in the region of £67 per week, pension payments are higher than this depending on contributions.  If you haven't made sufficient payments Pension Credit will kick in to help.  Foregin people coming to the UK cannot put in a claim for a pension.  I have stated before most of the property being sold in central London is being bought by foreigners, ie Russian, Chinese, Brazilians etc.  In fact a block of flats i manage in Surrey are 50% owned by working Chinese owners.  I am not sure where you get the idea that foreigners are abusing our system.  IMHO i believe most of the "abusers" are brits who have abused our system for a very long time.  We have third generations who have never worked and claim on our system. 

I am so tired of people blaming foreigners for our problems.  We have to look closer to home if we need to assign blame.  We can't have it both ways ie on the one hand some say we can't find work because foreigners are taking all the jobs, and on the other hand people say it's the foreigners abusing our system.  Which is it?

Some people will always want to blame someone else no matter what.  These people are irresponsible in the main for one reason or another and refuse to take ownership of their lives.

I am on a pension in the UK and have no complaints.  I have worked hard all my life and saved a little and I have to say,  have a wonderful lifestyle due to some judicious decisions in the past.  These decisions haven't made me rich, but comfortable.  I have everything i want and certainly more than i need to live comfortably.  I am very fortunate and my glass is certainly half full. 

SORRY i think i somehow posted on wrong thread!

Go foxilady.

I agree with you far more scroungers are home grown than every come to the UK for a benefits life style. Most seem to be North of london.

David

Yes, David I agree with you but did'nt want to sound racist lol

Foxilady - its OK I'm from Oz so racist is OK - maggots are everywhere.

David

hahahahahahaha nice one David and true they are

Dear All,

"I am so tired of people blaming foreigners for our problems. We have to look closer to home if we need to assign blame. We can't have it both ways ie on the one hand some say we can't find work because foreigners are taking all the jobs, and on the other hand people say it's the foreigners abusing our system. Which is it?"

Many workers from this locality used to travel up to London for building work, they no longer do this as before, as their jobs have been taken by Poles at £5 per hour  who live in London . They suggest that it is not possible to live and work in London on that wage, so very substantial support of some kind must be being claimed.

I also find the suggestion that the majority are less able to understand and best the system than the minority mentioned rather strange. Is our troublesome cleric claimant supposed to have super intelligence???????

or is our system super soft?

do you blame the single mother for her benefit claims, even though she has a regular "boyfriend" who is allowed to "stay over" and provide comfort and even new "claimants" without affecting her benefit?????

Any foreigner not used to such a system would find it hard to beieve but would soon adopt it with enthusiasm I think.

Regards

Norman

This message was last edited by normansands on 11/06/2012.

I again make my statement that a vast majority people using the taxpayer to fund their way of life are Britiish Nationals.

My fried would like to know where he can get the £5/hr Polish builder. He has some work on his house in St Johns Wood and can't get any where near that rate?

David

D_B_S

the £5 an hour Polish builder is only the "grunt" he will be working for the boss, who may or may not be Polish  who is charging the customer shed loads for the whole job, these "grunts" dont live in London but in places like Bedfordshire, where they rent 2 bed houses for £600 per month, then 6/8 men move in sharing the all the costs . I know this as my sister inlaw had the uffortunate  delight in having her property used like this , ( of course only 2 men said they would be living there !)  they drive down to London every day where you can see them waiting at roundabouts etc  looking for work ,with a trowel , drill or saw in their hand to show what skill they can offer , they get paid £50 per day approx  I know this as my husband is a builder, we could use these men , BUT  they are mostly  unskilled and dont do a good job, a bit like all the Brit "builders" who  took the Easy Jet  in flight  2 1/2 hr training course when moving to Spain !!...........I think you friend in St Johns Wood would be better off  getting  a reputable long standing building company to do his  his work ...............pay peanuts get monkeys

Firstbus and Stagecoach and probably many of the other bus companies operating in the UK sponsored large numbers of Poles to come over to the UK to train to drive buses, jobs that generally speaking were considered beneath contempt for the normal population who for whatever reason found themselves made redundant...

The vast majority of these imported workers had little working knowledge of English, less still knowldge of the areas in which they found working and little comprehension of the UK currency. They were universally disliked by the bus using public.

I was made redundant after 15 years with the same highly respected aerospace company at the age of 62. Aircraft maintenance had been my entire life since joining the RAF at age 23. I couldn't get JSA because I had private pensions which took me just over the £8K cut off point, but I still had a mortgage and council tax to pay. Pray tell how is one supposed to live?

After many age-ist rejections to my job applicationsI was forced into looking outside my own speciality... the options were limited to say the least... meet and greet at B&Q or shelf stacking at Tesco for the state minimum wage. I saw an ad on the back of a bus advertising driver training vacancies leading to a 'new career paying £8 p/hr... facing ever mounting problems this was for me the only option. I did the training and the company turned me loose on the roads, serving the public....

Unlike Spain, bus and train crews in the UK are almost universally hated... the targets for robberies, assaults and general piss-taking. Buses and trains are attacked damaged, graffiti-ed. Little wonder then that after less tha six months I couldnt take the insults any more. Then came the sting in the tail... the initial training program was bonded and in the event of an early departure from the job, a portion of the bond had to be repaid... in my case £600.

The fact is that those who moan about foreigners coming to the UK and taking our jobs are so wrong; they are in fact taking those jobs that no self respecting Brit would consider unless in really dire staraits. The same argument was levelled at the Jamaicans, Indians and Pakistanis who entered the UK in the sixties and seventies.

We had been considering a move away from the UK for ages and this was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge...

Of the Poles as bus drivers... most stayed for the first year, just long enough to clear the training bond and then went back home....

fb

Dear All,

interesting story foxbat - two things bother me....

having just come back from rural France 3 week holiday I wonder how long your Spanish bolthole will survive?

Inflation in France is I regard ridiculous and the local population now believe that the euro is now equivalent to the old franc.

small cauliflower 2.4 E, routier meal 12.5 E, shampoo 2.8 E, B&Q stuff silly prices - this is the stuff we used to buy two of to bring home from earlier holidays.

if the same comes to Spain you will have to go self-sufficient to survive.

the other is the disdain for ordinary workers especially the bus drivers who we very much rely on.

But everyone has your economic problems and the majority without your bolthole possible solution.

Obviously the humble claimant must consider the benefits of taking a job with all the work and inconvenience attached.

If he decides those benefits are too small he will not wish to take the job, but that doesn't mean he despises said job.

the situation is complex for the low paid but if the system provides housing benefit, council tax relief and tax credits for the family the actual hourly rate becomes hidden or of less importance.

Regards

Norman

Foxbats bolthole has survived a few years now Norman.  But thats because he bought a legal village property with cash rather than an offplan newbuild on a mortgage. And I agree that for many people this would not be an option.

As to future survival, thats another story which no one can predict at present, but neither can anyone with true certainty predict future prospects in the UK.

As to UK claimants having to take any job, whether difficult or not, I agree to an extent if circumstances permit. But this is the true case anyway.

If someone in the UK leaves a job without being fired or made redundant, they cannot claim benefits as they are deemed to have chosen to make themselves jobless.

Somehow I feel safer in the UK if the s**t hits the fan throughout Europe.  At least we do get unemployment and rent allowance etc if we are out of work.  Summer that's not entirely true what you said about leaving a job.  My son chose to leave his job with a company in the city, the only difference he noted between choosing to leave and getting fired was that he had to wait 6 weeks to receive any money, but they said if he was in hardship he could have an advance.  Now he gets 2/3rds of his rent paid to live in central London while he looks for another job.  Admittedly unemployment doesn't go far but he is managing with the help of his g/f.  I think we are "buffeted" better  here in the UK and that makes me feel much more secure.  Though we are toying with the idea once again of spending 5 1/2 months out of UK in winter and locking up our home for the winter, or letting it out to a friend who would like to live in a larger place with a garden, we will see.

Foxilady,

think you are right on when you say UK good place to be in a storm. Glad but sad we left Europe but couldn't deal with the uncertainty of Europe from an investment point of view. We still have properties in Oxford and London which we rent out but sold our Spanish properties as couldn't be bothered with the uncertainty of Euroland.

If your looking for some where for the Winter come to Oz you will be most welcome - the exchange rate is not too good but may soften by the winter 9in Europe.

An alternative might be Sri lanka where we have just brought a tea plantation as somewhere to escape the Oz summer (heat). Very cheap and the locals are friendly.

David

Foixilady said

Summer that's not entirely true what you said about leaving a job.  My son chose to leave his job with a company in the city, the only difference he noted between choosing to leave and getting fired was that he had to wait 6 weeks to receive any money, but they said if he was in hardship he could have an advance.

Very true.  But when I said that the person leaving their job voluntarily would not get benefits, I meant immediate benefits.  It would be very difficult to go 6 weeks without any benefits at all.  And of course any hardship payment has to be paid back from benefits later received. Hardship payments are also limited to so much and or so many times per year, so they are not the answer for anyone who persists in joining and then leaving jobs in succession.

Overall, I do agree that the UK is still the best place to weather any large storm, but I also see that it isnt the land of milk and honey that some would have us believe.

"Overall, I do agree that the UK is still the best place to weather any large storm, but I also see that it isnt the land of milk and honey that some would have us believe."

our troublesome cleric thinks it is - and he should know

as would any other national whose own country is less generous - perhaps it would help you if you tried the shoes of the "have nothings" - whoever and wherever they are currently.

Norman

OK David get the spare room ready, we're ringing Quantas now!

And we could chat about a tea plantation, as Nick reckons the amount of tea I drink we need a plantation lol.

Yes I agree it's the uncertainty of it all that's the killer, especially when you're over 50 and trying to hedge the bets in order to leave the kids something other than a debt.

We see Spain has got its bailout today, now lets see how long that lasts.  Now Italy are in line for a bailout next and who else before Greek elections on the 17th - all very worrying for Europe.

I personally am glad I live in Surrey, our PCT is excellent ie funding is never a problem.  As a cancer survivor I get free drugs and other consumables free every month, shich amount to over £300 per month!.  Where else would I get this I wonder?  Can anyone tell me? 

perhaps it would help you if you tried the shoes of the "have nothings" - whoever and wherever they are currently.

Perhaps it would help you, Norman, if you didnt judge those you dont know.

I say good luck to anyone that moves to a foreign land to better themselves be it for work, study or climate opportunities.

It not easy, I was a migrant to the UK back in the 60's, studied at a great Uni and worked in The City of London until early retirement, when I split my time between Spain and the UK.

I had the best of all worlds and the UK still provides some of the best Univercities and job opportunities along with Germany and the USA. I'm sure the many Spanish workers in Germany went for better opportunities as have the many French who live in London.

Good luck to all who try something new.

David

Just a small update on the Polish thing, apparently some UK bricklayers were retained on one particular contract to build up the corners, whilst the Poles were used for the infilling.

As has been said before this barmy EU system is by no means an equal one.

Perhaps one day it will be better.

Norman