Stuart. I'm not out to insult you. If you are out there looking for work, then fair play to you. You have to accept that this is a fast changing society, I'm deeply opposed to the cuts and regularly campaign against them at all sorts of levels. We are not going to be a nation of builders for a while, so maybe you should look to retrain and improve your prospects to make yourself more appealing to the few employers out there. Bricklaying will always have a place, but not in the way it did in the past. Construction firms in the interests of 'cost & efficiency' make buildings out of frames and modular panels, it's cheaper. That affects trades like yours. You have to re-align your skills to what little is out there, that's the reality. Oh and by the way I don't quite get why you are on £56.50 as it should be £65.45 assuming you are over 25.

i am 32 and i get £56.50 a week to live on because the courts fined me £400 and deduct £10 a week from me for assaulting a police officer at the v festival last,oh yes i am not a thug but when i am whacked on the legs with a baton by the police i have every right to defend myself from police state violence but the courts take a different view when they deal with people from the underclass like me and always believe the lying state thugs of the police who stitch up people all the time, but thats another debate for another time..

Britain had the chance to build a more equal society and to eliminate poverty with the one time gift of North Sea Oil and gas.But just as it all came onstream Thatcher took over and society became more Darwinian and competitive. The UK has one of the biggest wealth and income gaps of any society except the US.

oh martin l.i forgot to say my sympathys goes out to all you middle classes who are getting shafted by all these nasty poor working class people,my heart bleeds when i hear about your suffering,keep your chin up martin dont give up the struggle (.~.)

Yes that's a fair enough point Stuart. Although, do bear in mind that because you've been out of work for 18 months you will get around £50 PW on Working Tax Credit providing you do over 30 hrs, but I agree you would lose your Council Tax Benefit and get a very minimal amount of Housing Benefit. There is also the question of considering how being in work is better rather than worse for the morale.

I'm very opposed to those that seek to profit by a whole rash of NMW jobs, unless benefits & tax credits do something to make up the difference.

I'm against the withdrawal of any more benefits which currently act as as an incentive to those that take up work. Have a look at the retraining because you can then look at higher wages and good luck with it.

What utter crap from a "journo"

i have to respond to your vicious attack on me martin l,you are just a perfect example martin l of the nasty vile bitter middle class socalist type who hate and despise the underclasses in this country,so you live in the bastion of socalist rural east anglia heh that must be a hotbed of radical thinking,as for get of my arse and move out of hackney how i would love that and move to rural east anglia but not within a mile of you hopefully,but tick tick if you have no bloody money to move out to the sticks and you live in a council property how do you propose i achieve my dream,but then again i think i will stay in hackney and keep well away from people like you mate because you a bitter nasty example of the class divide in this country,maybe you should take some lessons of decent socalists like nick who do understand and care about the less fortunate in soceity,have a good life martin l but something tells me it will be a one of misery and nastyness to others..

as usual, buckskin hits it on the nail. if you can't afford kids, dont have them. i have three children (not eight) who are looked after very well. today is my son's 16th birthday - he bought a motorbike with money he'd saved from wheeler dealing, xmas money and egg picking!

young female cameron is very lucky - get over it. I was born in a deprived shithole estate with parents on benefits. when my friends decided at 16 they wanted to get a flat and go on the dole, I thought Fuck that for a game of soldiers!

i did have the gift of intelligence (allegedly). !!!!!!!

I had a far greater gift, hunger .......

the poor are hungry for handouts, they should channel it towards hunger for success.

We should give the scoungers contraceptive implants, thats one way of reducing poverty - not paying parents money to get pissed, smoke drugs etc at the taxpayers expense.

I got my payslip yesterday. I didnt look at my EARNINGS i looked at my taxes - fucking outrageous ffs

The same old nasty lefties! Remember, the secret of a good life is family, work and education.

"Gary please give me one instance of any civilized country where this is the case."

I wonder what you mean by a civilised country. History provides countless examples. Wherever so-called free-market capitalism strikes, it creates inequality, poverty and misery. A small elite profit at the expense of everyone else. Before Chicago-school economics hit Argentina it had a higher GDP per capita than France. It is only recovering now due to a rejection of those policies. Individual effort goes a long way but the playing field tilts ever more against the poor. This is really not difficult stuff to understand, if you want to. I see that you don't. As we've seen with the IFS study of the budget today, neither do the tories.