UK UNEMPLOYMENT HOW ITS CHANGED FROM YEARS BACK?

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
every TV news brings stories of yet more job vacancies? Latest being the other night on the news it said the care in the community sector is over 100,000 short of workers for jobs ? Does anyone on here remember the dark days recessions of the early 1970s/80s when for every job vacanicy their was over 40 people chasing it? What really bothers me is the official UK Unemployment rate, that is people claiming it, from govt stats stood at 2.04 million( aug 2021) figures, whats going on? because thats in my book high unemployment but job vacancies over all sectors of industry is at record levels? Comments please?

unemployment used to be terrible, a bare existence at best on the dole

today it pays for fags, sky tv and a phone contract ……… all basic human rights it seems

make unemployment REALLY tough again and I suspect the labour shortage will soon be solved
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Get rid of the black economy that avoids tax by working for cash, while also putting severe restrictions if not a ban on so-called zero-hour temporary contracts.
The other way to boost employment is to get rid of taxes on employing people. Doesn't it seem ridiculous that when I employ somebody, I have to pay employers National Insurance, NEST pension contribution [basically more NI], and tax based on how much I pay the employee [PAYE] as employers tax contribution. Employees should be paid a gross sum and pay their own taxes in my opinion, whether that's deducted by the employer on their behalf or not. The bloody government take a ridiculous rate of tax if you add in the employee's spending such as VAT, rates, tax on buying and selling houses, insurance tax and lord knows what else on money they have already paid tax on as they earned it. It really is a sick joke.
They are squeezing too hard

a high income tax, corporation tax paying small busses owner pays 20% corp tax, 40% income tax 5% NI ……. Then spend his nett on items and services with 20% vat or fuel tax , road tax, alcohol tax etc ( not quite accurate but good enough for illustration on here)

what’s the actual p in the £ left ? 10 or 15 pence ? Frankly why bother ! Or why not just move your business to countries that want to encourage growth and offer far better deals
 

bluebell

Member
the black, cash economy is booming? well round here ? everytime any GOVT brings out new rules and regulations, etc, know well intended, more people join it ? A dual type society has grown up here in the UK in recent years, my area, which is the southeast near london, on one hand many areas have become very wealthy with expensive shops, businesses, shopping centres, private schools and top more and more expensive houses that soon find buyers? but, but in another world close by is another society? almost third world has rapidly expanded, were the police dont go ? And all manner of things can be bought for cash?
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Back in the early 1980's, news programs always had the unemployment figures at the end, rather like today's covid stats.
" 10,000 jobs lost today at British Steel, but a paperboy has found a part time job in Cleethorpes....."
 

Lincoln75

Member
unemployment used to be terrible, a bare existence at best on the dole

today it pays for fags, sky tv and a phone contract ……… all basic human rights it seems

make unemployment REALLY tough again and I suspect the labour shortage will soon be solved
But crime will also go through the roof, your average council estate scally is not bothered by a few months in the slammer, rural crime is on the rise, watch that go ballistic if you stop dole, dont you remember miner's rustling livestock during the strikes?
 

Ashtree

Member
Wear double underwear and get strapped in tightly folks. The promise of low tax, deregulation and free ports up and down the country, has suddenly been replaced by a high wage, high tax future. Brought to you by Boris.
The good news for Boris, is that you will still vote for him regardless, according to the poll over on another thread.
 

quattro

Member
Location
scotland
Get rid of the black economy that avoids tax by working for cash, while also putting severe restrictions if not a ban on so-called zero-hour temporary contracts.
The other way to boost employment is to get rid of taxes on employing people. Doesn't it seem ridiculous that when I employ somebody, I have to pay employers National Insurance, NEST pension contribution [basically more NI], and tax based on how much I pay the employee [PAYE] as employers tax contribution. Employees should be paid a gross sum and pay their own taxes in my opinion, whether that's deducted by the employer on their behalf or not. The bloody government take a ridiculous rate of tax if you add in the employee's spending such as VAT, rates, tax on buying and selling houses, insurance tax and lord knows what else on money they have already paid tax on as they earned it. It really is a sick joke.
People have to pay tax just to drive to and from work
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
You do realise your grandfather and many before all said similar about the youth of the day , listening to "It were tougher in my day" and "Youth of today dont realise they are born" gets tedious after hearing it a few times.
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
- Socrates (469-399BC)
 

Lincoln75

Member
Wear double underwear and get strapped in tightly folks. The promise of low tax, deregulation and free ports up and down the country, has suddenly been replaced by a high wage, high tax future. Brought to you by Boris.
The good news for Boris, is that you will still vote for him regardless, according to the poll over on another thread.
I believe Boris is doing okay under the circumstances and will vote for him next time , the UK would now be on a par with Somalia had Corbyn got in, no one else is worth mentioning.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Isn't universal credit a state subsidy given to people earning low wages in some of our biggest companies....like supermarkets fast food outlets etc.
Keeps them with a cheap subsidised workforce so they can make mega profits...or am I wrong?
I think that is working families tax credit, subsidises the likes of Amazon to employ people at an unliveable wage, to increase their profits (which they don't pay much tax on), while destroying the small companies that do pay tax, I think we can thank Gordan Brown for a lot of this.
 

2wheels

Member
Location
aberdeenshire
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
- Socrates (469-399BC)
And Look what happened to the Greek and Roman empires.
 
They are squeezing too hard

a high income tax, corporation tax paying small busses owner pays 20% corp tax, 40% income tax 5% NI ……. Then spend his nett on items and services with 20% vat or fuel tax , road tax, alcohol tax etc ( not quite accurate but good enough for illustration on here)

what’s the actual p in the £ left ? 10 or 15 pence ? Frankly why bother ! Or why not just move your business to countries that want to encourage growth and offer far better deals

You've beaten that drum a million times. You complain about tax and are yet to recognise that trickle down economics doesn't work.

You complain about the taxes businesses have to pay and yet persist in employing people and running a business. As you said yourself, why bother?

Businesses don't vote. They have no rights. Society is comprised of individuals and the government has pandered to business, particularly big business, for far too long. Bring in the Nordic model and you will have better quality of life for all.
 

bluebell

Member
big businesse was alright up to very recently? just like the premiership football clubs, eg, man united, west ham, etc were owned by local bussiness men, so were the department stores large factories in most towns? Now in a generation all thats changed most if not all the premier ship football clubs are owned by foreign money ? the retail outlets that now sell most of the consumer goods, are the likes of amazon that are based in any country that they can get legal massive tax breaks, with no local connection to the areas they suck the money out of?
 

Lincoln75

Member
I think that is working families tax credit, subsidises the likes of Amazon to employ people at an unliveable wage, to increase their profits (which they don't pay much tax on), while destroying the small companies that do pay tax, I think we can thank Gordan Brown for a lot of this.
Do you have workers and pay less than £15.00 PH? then your workers will usually be eligible for Universal Credit/Tax Credit which comes from tax , it`s not just the big players like Amazon et al, it`s every business including farms who pay below a living wage who are being subsidised by this system.

It`s quite hypercritical of farmers ranting on about the idle unemployed and benefits scroungers when they get more hand outs than any other business in the UK by the way of SFP , subsidies, reclaimed VAT , no rates paid on buildings , red diesel, and paying low salaries , some need to wind their necks in and think about what they are saying .
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Do you have workers and pay less than £15.00 PH? then your workers will usually be eligible for Universal Credit/Tax Credit which comes from tax , it`s not just the big players like Amazon et al, it`s every business including farms who pay below a living wage who are being subsidised by this system.

It`s quite hypercritical of farmers ranting on about the idle unemployed and benefits scroungers when they get more hand outs than any other business in the UK by the way of SFP , subsidies, reclaimed VAT , no rates paid on buildings , red diesel, and paying low salaries , some need to wind their necks in and think about what they are saying .
Except that despite this, many farmers do earn less than their workers and occasionally make losses which they have to cover financially. It is all to do with 'cheap food' and competing with other country's food producers which may well have higher subsidies and lower costs, including much cheaper labour.
However, the UK Government seems to have decided to shut down agriculture, or a massive proportion of it anyway over a relatively short time period.

Who is going to be able to afford £20,000 for one truckload of fertiliser next Spring? Not me. Not unless farmgate prices rise by at least 15% between now and then. I'm at the point of no longer being able to justify paying an essential worker either. He takes the net income from around 50 cows these days.
 

Bongodog

Member
Work avoidance has become a national sport, people are commencing work later and later, go back 40 years and 90% would be in employment by the summer after they turned 18, now 50% go to University at that time increasingly that is no longer just for 3 years but a 4th year for a masters tacked on the end. Quite a few then decide they have studied the wrong course and start all over again. Many of them have dgerees that lead to employment that adds nothing to the economy, an example of this is shown by @onthehoof with his photo of 9 people responding to a fallen tree plus the one taking the photo. I would guess at least half will have a degree, yet this is a job that a few years back the local rivers foreman woudl have sent a couple of staff out to deal with it.
Then you have people who view work as an option they are unwilling to take up, much preferring a mixture of disability benefit, housing allowances and a motability car thrown in.
if they scrapped motability and brought back the blue plastic three wheeler invalid cars that would soon sort out a few of them.

Its not all one sided though, quite a few employers have become exceedingly inflexible. When I started work in the early 80's my employers had a variety of flexible working hours in the factory to allow for ladies who needed to drop kids off to school and pick them up afterwards etc. It was the same for fruit picking and grading locally. Along came Eastern european labour where you could insist on inflexible 8 hour shifts and the employers didn't want the locals any more.
 

bluebell

Member
Ask yourself why so many small farmers have packed up the struggle? livestock farming has always been hard work? but the last 30 years, with had BSE, foot and mouth, TB testing, marts closing a gradual loss of all the support businesses, hobby alpaca farmers, goodlifers have grown, many had no idea either how hard livestock farming is, or the the skills required, and the shock of how little if any profit there is to be had?
 

Lincoln75

Member
Except that despite this, many farmers do earn less than their workers and occasionally make losses which they have to cover financially. It is all to do with 'cheap food' and competing with other country's food producers which may well have higher subsidies and lower costs, including much cheaper labour.
However, the UK Government seems to have decided to shut down agriculture, or a massive proportion of it anyway over a relatively short time period.

Who is going to be able to afford £20,000 for one truckload of fertiliser next Spring? Not me. Not unless farmgate prices rise by at least 15% between now and then. I'm at the point of no longer being able to justify paying an essential worker either. He takes the net income from around 50 cows these days.
Drawing less and earning less are two very different things , drawing less (the minimum you need to live on) usually see`s you assets growing which is not a bad thing.

Farming is no different than any business so far as money is concerned , if you aren't making any you have to diversify , get out or go under , no one owes you a living in any business.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Drawing less and earning less are two very different things , drawing less (the minimum you need to live on) usually see`s you assets growing which is not a bad thing.

Farming is no different than any business so far as money is concerned , if you aren't making any you have to diversify , get out or go under , no one owes you a living in any business.
Quite right. The UK population can eat cake as far as I’m concerned. As far as VAT goes, let them stop farmers reclaiming it on business expenses so we can charge VAT on our produce so that the population has to pay 20% VAT on all their basic foods. Bring it on.
 
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Hjcarter

Member
Isn't universal credit a state subsidy given to people earning low wages in some of our biggest companies....like supermarkets fast food outlets etc.
Keeps them with a cheap subsidised workforce so they can make mega profits...or am I wrong?
Lets apply "public money for public good" to that then...
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 75 43.6%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 61 35.5%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 27 15.7%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 3 1.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,284
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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