[drapred7]

This is an american perspective. In the UK, people are proud to be "on the dole" and very few support restricting it.

EDIT: Of course brits will still look for work. My point is that Ive seen brits in talk shows audiences talk about taking public assistence without thinking of themselves as "bad people" the way American conservatives would. The desire to eliminate all public assistance is absent in Europe. Don't mean to offend brits, I think you guys have the right attitude here. Take assistance if you need it and dont needlessly refuse to help others.

[DaiPlusPlus]

As a Brit, I've never heard of anyone being "proud" of being on the dole - and the actual amount people get from Jobseekers Allowance and Universal Credit are pitifully tiny - the current JSA of £75/week doesn't even cover my weekly food shopping costs, let alone my mortgage.

[angrais]

Obviously if you're on jobseekers you're meant to make the most of what you have.

£75 sounds like an extravagant weekly shop, even for a couple with a child.

[DaiPlusPlus]

I have a Red Bull addiction.

[neilwilson]

The notion that people are proud to be 'on the dole' in the UK is deeply pejorative and not at all backed up by the evidence.

For example, sequence LFM2 at the Office of National Statistics entitled "inactive - wants a job". That's 1,869,000 people at the last estimate.

The overwhelming number of people who end up short of work due to the structural failures of our current economic system want to work. And they should have the opportunity to do so.

[onion2k]

People on "the dole" here in the UK make up about 5% of benefits claims[1], and the proportion who are on it voluntarily is smaller still. It's a tiny number. Even if they are proud of it, there are significantly bigger problems that are easier and cheaper to solve than worrying about people who are voluntarily unemployed.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47623277

[drapred7]

That's my point. Thanks, I didn't know dole meant a small part of benefits. I thought it just meant any kind of welfare.

[onion2k]

I thought it just meant any kind of welfare.

It's a slang term for unemployment benefit. That's somewhat confused these days because there isn't such a thing as unemployment benefit in the UK any more. There's "jobseeker's allowance", "income support", "housing benefit", "universal credit", and a few others, all of which can be claimed by people who are currently looking for work, or in work but on a low income, or who are unable to work. It's a confusing minefield designed to put people off claiming what they're legally entitled to.