Benefits vs minimum wage

Hey folks,

Found myself tapping away once again on my work lunch break. Really need to make this a more regular occurrence but hey ho…

So at work, a colleague/friend and myself have started tuning into LBC and (I must be getting old) I'm really enjoying the discussions. For those of you that don't know it's a radio station that doesn't play music *SHOCK* *HORROR* rather, is comprised of discussions and debates, primarily based on current events. Slightly right winged views but there you have it. 

Anyway they discussed the topic of minimum wage vs benefits and it gave me some food for thought for this blog post. So, with the benefits cap being enforced gradually around London and minimum wage going up a teeny tiny notch to £6.31 an hour, the debate begins…

Now if you are incapable of work, I’m 101% with you claiming your benefits. That is what they are for, helping those in need, a safety net when things aren't going right. In fact, I think if you are genuinely not able to provide for yourself or if you are disabled, in most cases (excluding those in which people are scamming the system and raking in unimaginable quantities of monies), I think in many cases, you don't get enough money and help. I love that I live in a country that assists those who need it, supplements any financial shortcomings so that everyone has access to the essentials. That, in theory, no one should be deprived of food and shelter. Having said that, it doesn't come without it's flaws.  

I’ve spoken to people in this position before and many, many times they are better off claiming benefits than surviving on working full time at minimum wage – THIS is what’s wrong with the system. The fact that making an honest living (after taking into account NI contributions, income tax, rent, bills and expenses – which are covered, at least to some degree when unemployed) is leaving you with less in your pockets than having it all given to you.  Blatantly, this is a problem. What is the incentive to work in this context?!

Of course it's easier to sit at home and await the fortnightly payments then trot of to the post office/bank, but where is the sense of achievement, the satisfaction, the CONSCIOUSNESS in that?

At this stage, it’s a question of morals… That’s one of the things I’m glad I was raised with, my dad really struggled with his health but worked hard every day to put food on the table. He wanted to provide for his family and I remember how on edge and desperate he was when he got made redundant and was between jobs, he’d just walk around the house, restlessly from one room to the next, looking for something to do with himself. He just hated not working. He didn’t earn very much and we didn’t have very much in terms of materialistic possessions but we had enough. Looking back (he’s now of retirement age), it makes me proud.

Then you have the benefits vulture. Ha, that’s a typo that I’m not eve going to bother correcting! Because thinking about it, that’s how many of those people are – granted that they may be in the minority. They take, take and take some more, then dream of new creative ways to claim and take EVEN more.  It’s just scavenging. I don’t understand how those who are perfectly fit to work would prefer to sit idle at home and not have it play on their conscious, especially if and when they have families to provide for... As if that’s not enough, they often want more than their basic entitlement too, and come up with reasons why they need more. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.  

It's simple really isn't it, you work hard, you get rewarded financially. You're able to work but choose not to, then why should you be making more than those who do?! In fact, if you can work and choose not to, why should you get ANYTHING?

Perhaps I’m a bit old fashioned, actually, I’ll openly say I’m an old soul, a granny in the making and the likes; but, I really think men ought to work.  (I’m all for women working too) but men who have chosen to be unemployed, particularly, when they have families are emasculate in my eyes. Working gives you a purpose and a sense of achievement, and men should long to provide… And I whole-heartedly believe that idle minds are the devil’s workshop. When you’re not working, you really do have too much time on your hands, and more often than not you’ll end up doing things you shouldn’t be. It's funny that even when most of these people have all that time on their hands, they rarely spend it doing the things that matter, things like spending time raising children... 

And then, you have those who are reaping in the rewards of “not working,” gaining their Job Seekers Allowance and Housing Benefits and Child Benefits… BUT are working on the side… Jobs that pay cash in hand, tutoring, driving a minicab, plumbers, working in many small retail shops with employers who are wishy washy with their taxation can often mean they are able to get away with it… It’s disgusting. How can you take, take, take and take some more without any inkling of guilt?!

It’s come to a point now that we have so many people claiming benefits around the city of London that councils are no longer able to house and cater to their needs. There’s talk of moving claimants out of London to cheaper areas. Whilst I agree that in many cases where there are young children and older pensioners who aren’t as able to deal with the uprooting, I understand the dilemma that councils face. Bit more information about this story here if you’re interested. 

Anyway, bit short on time so I'm gonna end this a bit short. I know I feel strongly about the value of work - not just for financial reasons but developing yourself as a person and your skillsbase. What are your opinions on the matter? 

Hope you're enjoying the sun!

-K

Self image.

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Hey folks!

Here it is. February's blog post. And yes, I do realise that it is mid March now. This blog post has been written in snippets, on the way to and fro work, a trip to Manchester to see a dear old friend and now, at my desk during my lunch break. What with me travelling to Dubai for a time span across the end of Feb and early March it had unfortunately, taken a back seat in my ever long to-do list. Of course, this means I owe you guys an additional post soon, I’m hoping to get an extra one out before the end of the month or early next month but time will tell…

Quick update on last months post regarding my kaizen resolutions...

1) Gym - this has been going well, I've been reaching my goals. I won't lie I did miss a session after I gave blood though. I've also been trying to walk more. On holiday I hit up the gym a few times too. This week I’ve not managed due to resettling in after my holiday but rest assured this will resume as of this weekend!

2) Blog - number two, check! Ten to go! It was a big struggle trying to come up with a topic. Any suggestions and inputs are much appreciated!

3) Promotion - awaiting appraisal in the summer. Still a junior analyst for now.

Now, all that aside, this month I'm gonna be writing about personal image. How you perceive you appear to others and how we all judge others to some degree based on the way they look, externally. This was an idea that stemmed from watching THIS video that a friend sent to me. Thanks for making me think!

So firstly I think this topic is ever so slightly more relevant to female readers, which immediately made me pose the question of why this is the case. In short – I believe, there's less pressure on men, both from other men and from females. And definitely less pressure from the media as a whole. To be honest there just seems to be more acceptance in general. I mean there are BIG guys like for example, Rick Ross out there and he gets away with out too much slagging off. Yeah every so often people let slip a few fat jokes, but it's nothing compared to what the case would be with a female alternative.

Now, I don't read magazines and in general I think they're filled with mindless rubbish and gossip about celebs and wannabe celebs - quite frankly, I couldn't care less about where they've been seen, who they're dating or what they've been caught wearing. I've flicked through them at the doctors and I kinda feel like when you've read one, you've pretty much read them all...

On one page you have x celeb looking great in her bikini, on the next there's y celeb that's lost too much weight and looks unhealthy and the following page there's someone else that has *SHOCK* *HORROR* PUT ON SOME WEIGHT! And all these articles they're always so harsh, so darn critical. Oh someone was caught looking a bit pale without make up, someone else is ageing and oh my, someone else is back with him. Why do we care?! Don't we have enough going on in our own lives to think about instead of meddling in the affairs of others who don't know we even exist?!

Don’t even get me started on TV shows following celebrity lives… Caught a bit of the Kardashian’s whilst taking a jog at the gym a few weeks ago and wondered, in short, WTF. Why is this so popular, some one care to explain?

Make up is another one for females. If you don't wear it, like me most days, perhaps you should consider wearing it, a touch of foundation, a lick of eyeliner, a bit of lippy. It'll make your skin/eyes/lips look amazing. Like I can't make that decision myself. If you do wear it on a daily basis, then one day go without everyone one asks what's wrong? Or says you look ill cos they're so used to seeing you with it on. What is up with that?!

From a very young age we are shown images of women through the media and quickly have unrealistic expectations of what one “should” look like. In reality, those women are smothered in make up, often have plastic surgery and as if that wasn’t enough, there’s photoshop and the option of reshooting unflattering scenes… It’s interesting that, for me, the image of an older woman i.e. a grandmother is untainted by this, though, with what you see on TV that might not last long.

I guess the rise of social media doesn't really help - people post selective, flattering picture of themselves and are able to untag those which they don't want their friends to see... This means you're constantly only seeing the 'best' of normal people... 

We all age, we all get wrinkles, ultimately, we will all die. You just have to embrace that about life… You've only got a short time. And, yes, while I agree that if you want to do stuff to yourself it’s up to you, I also think it takes a strong woman not to succumb to these societal expectations.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that it's inevitable that we all judge people based on their external appearance but let's try on a conscious level to give them the benefit of the doubt on how they choose to present themselves, give them a chance to present their character and personality before defining them into a stereotype... It's only fair.

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover and all that jazz man. & beauty is in the eye of the beholder – you know the deal.

That's all for now,

Take care

-K

New year, new me?

Hey everyone, I’m baaack!

I know what you’re all thinking… “Let’s see how long she manages this time!”  

Now I know many, many people set new years resolutions for themselves every year and don’t succeed for whatever reason, giving up after years of failed attempts to even bother – indulging in that take away on Jan 2nd, tossing aside their gym pass after the first week, cheekily buying cigarettes instead of more patches or giving up on that language class having had invested in books etc… I think a lot of people don’t think deeply enough about their intentions, wanting to achieve something takes work and far too often we shy away from effort on our parts.

Over the past few years, around this time of year, I find myself looking back on the previous year and mulling things over, recalling, reflecting, reminiscing and most importantly, evaluating.  This year I’ve been struggling to come up with something, I know I’m not perfect, far from it in fact but that’s a different story. I found myself looking back on the previous years for inspiration…

Last year I remember having two key goals and another as an after thought – so in order of importance:

1. Get a job – at the time I was interning at a charity.
2. Lose weight – I’d put on a fair amount of weight due to medical issues.
3. Possibly, maybe read more, perhaps.  – I’d been meaning to delve back into books for a long time.

Happy to say to some degree I managed them all. I’m happily employed in a graduate job – didn’t come easily but my hard work paid off. Feel as though, slowly but surely I’m working my way up the ranks there. Weight loss went really well for me in hindsight – mostly, this stemmed from watching what I ate. I won’t lie, it didn’t come without pain, bouts of having to test my self-control and multiple occasions of nearly giving up after seeing little or no progress. I’m proud to say that all in all, I managed to shed a (what I think is) rather impressive, 10kgs. I’m not done in that department, hoping to lose more this year, but that’s more of a maintenance task, which is now coming naturally to me anyway. Lastly, towards the end of the year I was very kindly gifted a kindle – you know who you are, thank you! As a consequence I find myself reading far more, especially whilst travelling back and forth from work, on average I get through a book a week which, although could be better, could be a lot worse too.

The year before I was at uni and I set myself the goal of attaining a 2:1, which considering the grades of my first two years, seemed rather bleak. After some serious struggles, sacrifices, hard work and HELLOVALOT of lot of hours in the library I somehow pulled off.

Anyway, back to the present, after thinking things over, I’ve decided that my goals for this year *drumroll please* aaaare:

• Go to the gym at least twice a week, preferably thrice weekly.
• Blog more regularly, aiming, at minimum, to make set monthly benchmark.
• Get promoted at work by the end of summer.

Let me elaborate…

With regards to gym, I’m one of those people who go frequently for a month or two then end up taking a long break of another few months before starting again. Of course, not before promising myself that I won’t let it happen again, and that I’ll be more dedicated this time round. So I’m scheduling in one gym session on Tuesdays after work and another on Saturday mornings… I figure that along with watching my food intake this will supplement the rest of my weight loss well. I’ve found that the more weight I lose the harder it is to lose it – and scientifically this makes sense. The larger you are, the more calories you need to go about your daily life, so the more you lose, the harder you have to try…

Number 2 – blogging. I think initially when I set this up it was probably a distraction from degree but the more I think about it, I definitely need some kind of regular creative outlet. I also want to write more, I used to love writing when I was younger but that passion has over the years disappeared, so, I will aim to get a blog post up towards the beginning of every month. Unlike No 1, this one you will definitely see the proof, or even lack of it, right here!

The last one is more of a professional one, which, I know is within my grasp should all things go well in the near future – I just need to make sure I’m consistently outputting a high standard of work.

So, that’s me folks. I’d love to know, about you, do you set yourself goals at this time of year? What are your new year’s resolutions?

Wish me luck!

-K