Benefits should be paid weekly...?

[Baron von Lotsov]

(:



The best thing - and what people actually tend to do - is wrap up very warm in multi layers of clothes, draft-exclude as much as possible and then sparingly use the heating to keep themselves from freezing.



Your eccentricity notwithstanding, those other solutions are only temporary or just a tad unlikely.

I spend my days thinking of ways to bypass protectionist firms charging extortion. The trouble is that in an old house the insulation is bad. Victorian hoses did not have cavity walls, and to double glaze the windows would be prohibitively expensive.



Pragmatism is the answer. Draw up a  list of things to save/generate money, estimate their hassle to return ratio and do the easiest ones first, known in business as the low-hanging fruit. The other point about being eccentric is it is a learning experience. Once you have figured out the perfect design for your green recycling burner you can build it, get it running and feel a good positive sense of achievement, and it would be something to show your friends for a laugh. This is the British entrepreneurial spirit:try it and see. Some ideas work and some do not, but for those that work they can be copied to help others. If they don't work you learn why they don't. Sometimes though with a bit of fiddling you then find the answer.

[Borg Refinery]

Well not everyone has every opportunity on their doorstep, but with a bit of intelligence they can find ways and means of acquiring money and things they need without too much trouble. Creative solutions are the best, i.e. the things the little shits did not think to try and stop them from doing.



Of course they will try and make everything illegal, but even so you still have to survive, no matter what any other person is telling you. That comes first.



I had another idea for fuel which you can do in the city. With a bit of engineering skill you could make yourself a recycling machine. What you do is fill it with paper people wish to be recycled and you recycle it into heat. Each week kindly people each leave a box full of it. That's quite a few joules of heat in one of those boxes! X the number of houses.

(:



The best thing - and what people actually tend to do - is wrap up very warm in multi layers of clothes, draft-exclude as much as possible and then sparingly use the heating to keep themselves from freezing.



Your eccentricity notwithstanding, those other solutions are only temporary or just a tad unlikely.

[Baron von Lotsov]

Apart from you assuming everyone has a fireplace, which they don't.

That would need being near such a park, and you seem to be unaware that depending on which park it is, it is illegal to remove wood.

Well not everyone has every opportunity on their doorstep, but with a bit of intelligence they can find ways and means of acquiring money and things they need without too much trouble. Creative solutions are the best, i.e. the things the little shits did not think to try and stop them from doing.



Of course they will try and make everything illegal, but even so you still have to survive, no matter what any other person is telling you. That comes first.



I had another idea for fuel which you can do in the city. With a bit of engineering skill you could make yourself a recycling machine. What you do is fill it with paper people wish to be recycled and you recycle it into heat. Each week kindly people each leave a box full of it. That's quite a few joules of heat in one of those boxes! X the number of houses.

[papasmurf]

It requires effort, which they don't have.



For example, sick of paying heating bills. Go and collect some wood in a National Trust park and chop it up and burn it on an open fire in the winter or get a wood burner.

Apart from you assuming everyone has a fireplace, which they don't.

That would need being near such a park, and you seem to be unaware that depending on which park it is, it is illegal to remove wood.

[Baron von Lotsov]

That requires money which they don't have.

It requires effort, which they don't have.



For example, sick of paying heating bills. Go and collect some wood in a National Trust park and chop it up and burn it on an open fire in the winter or get a wood burner.



Save money on telephone bills. Two rings to a person with "free" calls, and they phone you back. Shop at Aldi rather than Morrisons (approx 25% cheaper). Walk instead of using the bus.



There are tons of things you can do. Each might take you a bit longer, but you've got all day.



I knew someone once who was down and out, and so he walked into a five star hotel dressed to look the part and said to a chap leaving, is this your last day. He said it was and so he said, can i have your pass then. The bloke probably thought he worked for the hotel, so for the next three months he had breakfast, lunch and dinner there and made use of the swimming pool and so on. Personally i would not do such a  thing, but he had no other way to survive. He had been stuffed previously.



Actually even though the above hotel one is technically illegal, when we lived in Manchester we knew this casino which offered free meals so that you would be enticed to gamble there. We just went in for the meal!

[Streetwalker]

Taxpayer picking up what slack?

Maybe you missed it Nick but who do you think pays for  those employed on minimum or low wage who need benefits to pay their way ?

[papasmurf]

I said change your circumstances.

That requires money which they don't have.

[Baron von Lotsov]

Mate you really do not have a clue, there are no changes they can make to cover costs because of the way Universal Credit actually is designed to put them into debt.

Yes I know it is an evil system, but my point is a valid one, and unless you can accept it then it will only be worse for them. If you do get into debt they will charge you an extortionate amount of interest, probably > 10X the base-rate, and they will know that eventually they can get a country court judgment and send the bailiffs around and take their belongings as well as charge for the bailiffs. So one must understand that this is the worst possible scenario so you must change your circumstances so that you do not get into debt but actually save money. Even if you only save £5/week it will mean you can purchase cheaper and save costs on that, hence you can then save more per week. This is just maths and the law.



I said change your circumstances. I meant that in the broadest possible way. Necessity is the mother of invention as well. If you want to survive you can't rely on any particular thing, and you know complaining wont do you any good. What I'm suggesting is a hard-core pragmatic approach. I've been in the shit before, so I'm not talking from some point of view where trouble has only been the next man's problem, and no matter what the trouble is, pragmatism will get you out of it. You need strength in these situations, and believe me, if you have the guts to take the bastards on, you will eventually find a battlefield of dead bodies. They aint that tough you know. It's like the Wizard of Oz, they pretend to be tough, but you probably know yourself, it is possible to beat the bastards.

[Ciaphas]

I doubt from his ignorance and prejudice he has any such experience. He should forced to work at a food bank for  year.

I don't make to make any assumptions.

[papasmurf]

I'm curious. Do you have any substantial experience interacting with benefit claimants?

I doubt from his ignorance and prejudice he has any such experience. He should forced to work at a food bank for  year.

[Borg Refinery]

Live near Stoke Newington fire station in the London Borough of Hackney, parents still live in Dalston. We're more towards the inner city than Stamford Hill.

Based on average deprivation ranking Hackney ranks as the second most deprived Local Authority in the country. In 2010 it was ranked as first, so I guess it is getting wealthier...

Used to live near Queen Elizaveta's Walk, Lordship Park & um, whatsit... Allerton Road? Yes lived in social housing, it was rough.. but others had it a lot worse than me; some I knew were unlucky enough to live on Woodberry Down estate, once the largest in western europe, and indeed further out on the Pembury estate...etc. 'stokey' used to be very, very rough back in the old days, don't even get me started on Finsbury Park (Corbyn lives on Tollington Park...).



The stuff you're saying really doesn't accord with my experience, no offence pal but it just does not. Are you originally from Dalston then?



And I was ref'ing the royal mail depot in Stamford Hill.

[Ciaphas]

Universal credits were designed to get people back to work, and it worked. People realised it was better for them to work than wait the six weeks for benefits. If the correlation between Universal Credits coming in and unemployment falling doesn't indicate to you how many people were swinging the lead then I don't know what will.



If I had my way benefits would be linked to NI contributions, I'd also cross reference benefit claimants with SKY tv subscribers, benefits would be cut for those with SKY tv and food vouchers issued until they had no choice but cancel sky.



People talk about socialism but don't seem to understand what it means. It means taking care of those that can't look after them selves, as I've said many times before, benefits are there as a safety net not a life style choice. Look after the vulnerable not the bone idle great unwashed.

I'm curious. Do you have any substantial experience interacting with benefit claimants?

[Nick]

It did . It also allowed bosses to employ people on minimum wage and zero hour contracts knowing that the taxpayer would pick up the slack while they increased their own profit

Taxpayer picking up what slack?

[Streetwalker]

Universal credits were designed to get people back to work, and it worked.

It did . It also allowed bosses to employ people on minimum wage and zero hour contracts knowing that the taxpayer would pick up the slack while they increased their own profit

[Nick]

The problems with universal credit are legion but the government won't listen.

Universal credits were designed to get people back to work, and it worked. People realised it was better for them to work than wait the six weeks for benefits. If the correlation between Universal Credits coming in and unemployment falling doesn't indicate to you how many people were swinging the lead then I don't know what will.



If I had my way benefits would be linked to NI contributions, I'd also cross reference benefit claimants with SKY tv subscribers, benefits would be cut for those with SKY tv and food vouchers issued until they had no choice but cancel sky.



People talk about socialism but don't seem to understand what it means. It means taking care of those that can't look after them selves, as I've said many times before, benefits are there as a safety net not a life style choice. Look after the vulnerable not the bone idle great unwashed.