Ake


"encouragement of immigration as a method of wage control"

Where is the evidence of this?



"As far as I can see the point I made above about mad govt policy is the same as is being made by th BNP members on this thread."


And the thing it has in common with their points is that it remains unsupported by any evidence.


Fairplay


"they looked and sounded like intelligent professionals who would be an asset to any party."


Are there any examples of this? so far the only examples provided here demonstrate the opposite.



Minimum wage is currently £5.70 an hour, set to go up to £5.80 in october.

40 hours a week and you earn £232 a week = 12,064 per year.

Add working tax credit and child tax credit ...


for a family with one working parent and one stay at home parent of two children with the above income this works out at

£5014.73


working and child tax credit calculator


Total income = £12,064 + £5014.73 = £17,078.73


If your earned income is less than £15,000 per annum you can also apply for asistance from housing benefit.


When I was on income support in London, I received around 17,500 a year in total icluding every type of benefit available including tax credit, child benefit, council tax benefit, housing benefit etc.

Thats in London.


A working family in London receiving the minimum wage could expect their housing allowance to bump their income up to around 20,000 a year.

Then there's child benefit etc which you receive regardless of your income.


The point is that you get more if you work and receive minimum wage than you do if you are on benefits.


A two parent family would not qualify for income support as only one is considered necessary to care for children - unless the working parent has already contributed significanty to their national insurance.- ie unless they have already been working for years.



Myth No. 2 - you get more for signing on than you do for working on minimum wage.

Ake - have you ever worked for the minimum wage? Have you ever survived solely on benefits?