[katy]

Last month saw a fall in the number of people claiming unemployment benefit. The total number of claimants has now fallen below 4 million. What they don’t state is much of this “fall” in claimants is not because they have found work but, they are no longer entitled to claim benefit so are not counted. Spaniards say the true unemployment figure is closer to 5 million and accuse the media of being a tool for the Government.

[rt21]

What intrigues me is how people manage to survive after their unemployment benefit is withdrawn ?

Can they claim any other benefits ? How do they pay for their housing, food and heating ?

Richard

[Anonymous]

Support from family & black economy, where properties are rented by them not paying the rent, knowing by the time they go to Courts it will take ages & at that point they will pay up something to avoid eviction & it goes on.

[katy]

There are Church charities where you have to queue. They give things such as bread, rice, long-life milk 🙁

[Anonymous]

I don’t believe these comments. Doesn’t anyone remember the Thatcher years when the centre of London was filled with people sleeping in doorways? I’ve never seen that in Spain. Of course Spanish churches help the poor, any civilised country does, it seems to me that in the UK the poor go out robbing the rich, a trend started by Robin Hood, and it’s coming back with Osborne’s cuts.

There won’t be any police on the streets and the poor will help themselves, like they’ve always done.

[katy]

Stop posting drivel and concentrate on SPAIN. Thatcher is a lifetime ago for most people and this is a spanish property forum. FFS read and watch the spanish news there has been enough photos of people stood in lines for food handouts, you could also read the spanish forums which tell it as it is. By your comments I suppose you would be quite happy to be robbed by a few unemployed who do not get benefits 😆

[rt21]

It sounds a harsh life if you are unemployed and without benefit. Particularly if you have no family support.

It’s a good job there are charities and individuals willing to help those in need.

Richard

[Anonymous]

@katy wrote:

Stop posting drivel and concentrate on SPAIN.

Agree, the thread is “Spanish Statistics”, never quite sure why posters have to immediately to delve back into UK history to try and justify the figures. ❓

[Anonymous]

Hey, I love a sensible discussion. The expats who have returned to the UK and keep posting are invaluable. They post about Spanish problems from the supposed safety of the UK, but I would like to again point out that the crime rate in the UK is way above the one in Spain.

FFS, when you go to sleep and wake up to Robin Hood’s shadow against your bedroom window, you might think of your safe time in Spain. And when you park in Waitrose’s car park and are suddenly confronted by baddies who want to hurt you, Spain might not be such a bad place after all.

I suppose we can all post negatives about our respective countries for ever more, but what is the point?

If I could tale my Spanish home back to the UK, along with the weather and my Spanish friends, I would go home tomorrow.

[katy]

I post about spanish news, if it is negative, tough. I have felt reasonably safe in both countries. If you live in Spain it matters not how bad the crime rate is in the UK. If the crime stats of the costas were to be broken down as to how many foreign victims, it would not make good reading.

I really don’t see how your posts have any relation to employment stats 😕

[Anonymous]

@Rocker wrote:

Hey, I love a sensible discussion. The expats who have returned to the UK and keep posting are invaluable. They post about Spanish problems from the supposed safety of the UK, but I would like to again point out that the crime rate in the UK is way above the one in Spain.

FFS, when you go to sleep and wake up to Robin Hood’s shadow against your bedroom window, you might think of your safe time in Spain. And when you park in Waitrose’s car park and are suddenly confronted by baddies who want to hurt you, Spain might not be such a bad place after all.

I suppose we can all post negatives about our respective countries for ever more, but what is the point?

If I could tale my Spanish home back to the UK, along with the weather and my Spanish friends, I would go home tomorrow.

if i could take my house to spain it might not get broken into as much but then again if i put metal bars on my windows in england that might help too

[Chris M]

In Autumn 2007 Northern Rock caused the first run on a British Bank for over 200 years.

In Autumn 2008 Lehman Brothers were allowed by the Federal Reserve to slide under the waves that had been crashing around for a full twelve months/

Triggering the MOTHER OF ALL ECONOMIC CRASHES, statistically it wasn’t that long ago even in dog years, there were times on this forum over that past 20 months we wondered if the whole world economy was going to even survive the night, as people were talking and asking where to put their money and it would be safe, we couldn’t trust any single bank!

These unemployment stats are probably true in both official and unofficial, the pain is just horrific and the suffering very much now being felt by the poor and those losing their jobs through no fault of of their own, the situation is just tragic, and it is going to get worse, certainly for those worse off.

But it was inevitable no? That a high price – eventually after the stimulus, the printing of money, the under the carpet shovelling, the blind eye turning for a year or so by national banks, that a high price would be paid.

The miracle really is that we all still have money in our pockets and are not pushing wheelbarrows about full of notes to buy a loaf of bread, or that we are not plunged into the massive US style depression of the 30’s but… double dip and if they haven’t actually covered all their bases, then who is to say it couldn’t still happen, I don’t for a moment think it will, but how close we all came to such a level of disaster, and now, let’s give to charity more than ever, because your gift and they are needed more than ever.

Then… now you really going to like this…. let’s look for and applaud any signs of economic growth and recovery, especially in Spanish property statistics when people start buying property again in and around the Costa del Sol, because it means less people unemployed, it is resurgence and belief, it is hope for the future and those coming from all over Northern Europe and elsewhere are coming again because it is the place they surely can go to, to get away from the statistics and realities of life in their own backyards. Then just one corner of Spain is sorted, phew – easy hey!

We all in the gutter… rollover, I know its not nice bit wet and very dirty right now, but look up at them statistics… i mean stars!

[Anonymous]

It’s hard to concentrate when the temperatures reach 38 degrees and the sun’s not even shining. My dogs and the neighbours cats are edgy so a storm must be due. Even El Tiempo.es is showing raindrops for once.

My daughter worked for Lehmans and was given half-an hour to clear her desk. She sent me an email the next day, from Dubai, but that didn’t last either. She went to RBS next and got another tap on the shoulder. She’s a statistic now.

I remember asking her advice on which was the safest bank, and she just laughed. I suggested Coutts, and she laughed even harder. I’m now banking with the biggest bank in Europe, albeit after they took over my safe bank in the UK.

It didn’t surprise me that it’s a Spanish bank.

[Author]

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