Getting people back to work

I AM NOT sure if this is the sort of thing you include or if allowed, writes Arnold Pearce.

But it is something that bothers me, that concerns the people who live in boats all along the canal [Kennet & Avon] around Bath and Bathampton, so I shall explain.

Jeremy Hunt

It has been brought about by Jeremy Hunt the Chancellor who has vowed to slash the welfare bill as he warned of an 'unsustainable rise in the cost of workless benefits' on the BBC.

I don't live in a boat, but by the side of the canal and retired and have taken to speaking to the people on boats as surprised that many obviously don't leave their boats to go to work and do not seem to be working on keyboards either.

And even more surprised to learn that many do not have a job but are on benefits, realising that they have permission from a doctor not to work! Yet these are fairly young people and seem healthy enough for me, as two I see walk their dogs together for many miles, as I have seen them miles away from their boats.

Hundreds on the canals

I believe it is these people that the chancellor wants to get back to work (always providing they have ever done any) for there must be hundreds on all the canals that there are. Jeremy Hunt told that too many people were being labelled with mental health conditions and are on benefits outside work indefinitely.

He told that the government was looking to build on its stick and carrot policies, including harsher sanctions for people who refuse to look for work and revealed that in total 9.4 million people aged between 16 and 64 years old are economically inactive—neither in work, nor looking for work—according to the Office for National Statistics, with long-term sickness the most common reason for inactivity.

There seems to be no few on the canals, if this area is anything to go by.

I read your article about people shouting at those I believe are such and who were campaigning at Paddington about licences 'to get a job'! That backs the comments.