#42

Seen that happen to many people. The big companies really are awful to work for. Sorry to hear that about your dad.

#43

Out of sight, out of mind! Right on bro! Let’s fucking push them out to the margins even further, whatever it takes to make your commute more pleasant!

#44

Yeah, which is pretty much what everyone said! Nice one.

:+1:

1 Like
#46

Hi mate, welcome to the boards - always a delight to have a brand new user to chat with - and thank you for a fantastic first contribution

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#47

I was in Victoria the other day, not cardboard city but very much tent city, awful to see.

As for betting shops they are where everyone seems to watch the football nowadays, one in Harlesden I went into was rammo at 10am on a Tuesday, every terminal had people slinging money into it before walking off shouting at pigeons.

#48

So what’s actually happening, what’s different? Anecdotally, I have noticed a huge increase in homelessness over the last three or four years, I live in a small market town where a few years ago there would be maybe one or two people at most in the high street selling the big issue, now it is like there is someone sleeping in every single shop doorway, and it doesn’t seem to be different in other towns and cities I have been to. What’s going on?

#49

I suspect that a lot of it is down to the UK Government’s changes to the welfare system. Someone mentioned in another thread I think how long it takes for the payments to come through once someone has applied for Universal Credit. Many people, even those who’ve been in work, don’t actually have any reserves of money to fall back on if something goes wrong, so if they then have to wait weeks for support it’s too late.

Read something a while back which made the valid point that the problem with a lot of welfare reforms is that the background of the people behind them, both in terms of the politicians and the Civil Service, is likely to be such that they’ve never experienced being financially precarious. As such, even if well meaning, their ideas tend not to take account of the reality of the the lives of the people who they affect and therefore don’t work very well in practice.

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#50

Also the cuts in NHS and social care mean more people with mental health problems are out fending for themselves.

#51

it’s definitely always been a thing but not to the degree that HYG seems to be implying.

Regularly used to see guys get on and yell out their spiel and then move down the train.

It must be getting tough now because contactless is making change rarer and rarer.

For a while after the warms in former Yugoslavia there would be women with little signs wandering around claiming they were refugees and needing cash. the signs were all identical hand-drawn things and I remember that feeding into the stuff we were told that they were all being run by some criminal gang. (Of course, it would make just as much sense that someone wrote the one sign out to help them and they all copied it.)

#52

Was talking to a friend yesterday who is trying to move house. Month’s rent, month and a half deposit plus admin fees means £3000 up front. So what happens to people who need to move suddenly eg break up with an abusive partner or say if you lose your job. If you don’t have supportive parents/partner or quite a lot of savings you could very easily find yourself homeless or in a huge amount of debt trying to find this money. Seems completely bonkers the things the government focus on / spend money on instead of sorting out such a fundamental thing.

#53

Yeah, exactly this. The whole idea of the welfare system is that it’s supposed to be a safety net when things go wrong; for a lot of people (leaving aside those who can’t work long term due to health problems) in practice that means they need some instant cash to tide them over in the short term until they can find a new job and/or somewhere else to live. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be designed for that.

It’s actually a false economy as it’s probably more expensive in the longer term to rehabilitate people who have been on the streets, may have (quite understandably) developed drink or drug problems during that time, etc, etc.

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#54

Everything you’ve said here is my opinion/ experience too. I take an interest in the industry because I worked in the shops for ten years but I’m so, so glad to be out.

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#55

How long you been out? I worked for 12 years. Been out nearly 4 years. Betfred are a shambles of a company.

#56

I was with Coral on and off between 2001 and 2012. It was a great zero hour/ responsibility job when I was a student but I did not enjoy stepping up to management or the changes to the industry over the years.

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#57

I suspect this would be better understood and tolerated if it was still called social security rather than welfare.

3 Likes