No, this is the bit that puzzles me:
May Ward died of multiple injuries after falling out of a sling her carers - from China and Bulgaria - were using to hoist her out of bed at Meppershall Care Home in Bedfordshire in August 2010.
Shasha Wei and Rumyana Ivanova, who have now left the country, had not been trained to use the new type of sling introduced to the home three months before, Hatfield Coroner's Court was told.It's this - if we question why we have such unemployment in this country yet we can import workers from the EU and China - China! - we will be told that this is a consequence of the low wages offered by the companies that run these homes, and that no-one here will get out of bed for that as it's not cost-effective and they cannot live on it. Hence the move from 'minimum wage' to the new demand for a 'living wage'.
But I'm puzzled. These two care workers will have had the same living costs as our home grown unemployed, won't they? The same food costs, the same rents, the same travel costs.
So...how is it viable for them and not the unemployed in the UK? What am I missing?
A Twitter conversation with Bella Gerens on this issue suggested there may be 'hidden' benefits available for certain types of work, but surely only to the EU national?
Some people will tell you "the welfare system" and others will shout IMMIGRATION! SHUT THE BORDERS!
ReplyDeleteI think the reason that they can do this is because many temporary migrant workers live several to a house, 6 or 7 single working guys (even if their wages are crap) in an ordinary semi will have lower individual overheads than a family with a single or even double wage earner in the same size house,plus throw in childcare cost for the native family and such jobs simply dont pay enough.
ReplyDeleteSo...how is it viable for them and not the unemployed in the UK? What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteBecause chances are our home grown unemployed will be comfortably on benefits whereas the new arrivals probably aren't... and hence must work or starve.
The system is screwed... and yet we're getting this idiotic nonsense around these parts.
My 3 Point Plan: Don't vote Labour. Cut spending. Cut taxes. Within a few years employers will (and could afford to) pay higher wages to get their work done while knowing the State won't be making up the shortfall through benefits/credits etc. And the wage monkey will get to keep more of what they earn too by not having to fund the above benefits/credits.
Look it's really easy. Scrap thousands of initiatives and schemes, save billions... and replace the lot with three simple words; "work or starve". The villagers from Bulgaria and China understand that, why can't we?
There is a substantial staff turnover in care homes so there is always an opportunity to get a job. The fact that there are many carers who have come from abroad and got jobs here should not be surprising if they apply in large numbers for the available jobs. They will well represented in the work force for purely statistical reasons, given it is not possible to discriminate in favour of British workers, even if sufficient British people were applying to do those same jobs too.
ReplyDeleteDoes it take a PhD to use a sling?
ReplyDeleteImagine what it's going to be like when the 'temporary limitation' on immigration from Eastern Europe ends on 31 December this year. There are 29 million Bulgarians and Romanians, 6 million of them are anticipated to come to the UK en masse. And there's nothing we can do to stop or even slow down the influx.
ReplyDeleteIt is going to be a REAL game-changer!
Generally the "immigrants", do not pay Council tax as the don't register to vote. They don't pay the utility bills, it takes about 6 months for the gas/elec/water to realise they ain't been paid and then start proceedings. If anyone knocks at the door, it's sorry no understand, person renting house not here! After 12 months they then decamp to another rental agency, just got a job, need accomm etc and the merry go round starts again!
ReplyDeleteWages are going down....lower unemployment would mean higher staff are wages....so there's always going to be a substantial level of unemployment.
ReplyDeleteMany of the care home staff are agency workers, and the wage they receive is not high, but the agency receives a considerable amount (my agency work paid me 10 quid an hour, the agency received 17 quid each hour)....you work out why they pay a premium price for labour....hint: national insurance, admin costs, crb costs (38 quid a throw)...ppe costs, training costs.
And no, the worker cannot arrange their own crb...largely because care work is an enhanced check, and elements of that check are confidential and not divulged to the worker...
Interesting how the unemployed lead feckless, high spending lives....when I was unemployed I got 60 quid a week...housing benefit was paid to the landlord, ditto council tax....now I note it is 71 quid a week....They're really going to lord it on that...and of they're ill they get to pay £7.65 for a prescription....unless they're over 60...
>Some people will tell you "the welfare system" and others will shout IMMIGRATION! SHUT THE BORDERS!<
ReplyDeleteOf course, they could both be on to something...
and that no-one here will get out of bed for that
ReplyDeleteA happy methaphor in this context!
I've worked full time in a nursing home in the past and, if you're prepared to put in the hours, you can make a more than acceptable living. I was on a tad more than minimum wage as a senior care assistant, and I took home between £900 and £1100 a month, and that was 11 years ago. Yes, I had to do a few overtime shifts a month to achieve that, but on a mixed shift pattern of lates and earlies that never felt difficult, when over the course of a month you got good chunks of days off, including one weekend a month. Yes, it is a difficult job and the work does justify higher pay, but if the funding isn't available for that it comes down to 'what are you prepared to do to have a job?' Lots of our indigenous unemployed population are not prepared to do it, and yet the queues of immigrant workers run around the block at every nursing home. True, some people will not have the right attitude for the job, and the training can be a mixed bag depending on the home's management, but attitudes can change and training isn't difficult to do properly on the job. The problem is that sitting at home smoking pot is an infinately more attractive proposition than 'wiping arses' but, when there is so little dignity in that lifestyle, why would you be interested in allowing others to live with dignity?
ReplyDelete"Interesting how the unemployed lead feckless, high spending lives....when I was unemployed I got 60 quid a week...housing benefit was paid to the landlord, ditto council tax....now I note it is 71 quid a week....They're really going to lord it on that...and of they're ill they get to pay £7.65 for a prescription....unless they're over 60..." Anon 08:09
ReplyDeleteThe magic world is 'Children'. Yes you are right, a single able bodied unemployed person gets jack sh*t really from the benefit system. But put a kid or 3 (or more) into the equation, and suddenly the benefits system looks considerably more generous. To the extent people have post tax incomes they could never dream of achieving under their own efforts. And many don't bother. Or work a few hours a week (16 is the magic number to stay under I believe), and let the benefits system take up the slack.
The other alternative is the disability route - get yourself signed off as unfit for work for whatever reason (I believe the most numerous (by a large margin) reason for claiming disability benefits is depression) and then you can live relatively well for no effort.
"Some people will tell you "the welfare system" and others will shout IMMIGRATION! SHUT THE BORDERS!"
ReplyDeleteThe two do seem to provide an opportunity for a Perfect Storm, don't they?
"I think the reason that they can do this is because many temporary migrant workers live several to a house..."
That takes care of the rent maybe, but the rest?
"The system is screwed... and yet we're getting this idiotic nonsense around these parts. "
Oh, good god!
"Does it take a PhD to use a sling?"
ReplyDeleteTo modern H&S satisfaction, clearly!
"A happy methaphor in this context!"
Whoops! ;)
"The problem is that sitting at home smoking pot is an infinately more attractive proposition than 'wiping arses' but, when there is so little dignity in that lifestyle, why would you be interested in allowing others to live with dignity?"
A salient - and sad - point.
XX JuliaM said...
ReplyDeleteThat takes care of the rent maybe, but the rest? XX
The "rest" was covered in the same post.
You think for one second, they pay council tax? Electric? Gas? T.V licence?