‘Litter picking is my way of earning benefits’

23 comments

1. [deleted]

2. Don’t be surprised if his benefits are cut because ” he is not looking for work when he is doing unpaid work”

3. Call me stupid but why don’t we just pay people like this guy for cleaning up our streets? They’re receiving government money through benefits anyway, so where’s the remuneration for their work?

   Litter picking isn’t that easy, especially when you’re dealing with nooks and crannies, bushes, trees etc.

4. What would be nice is if people who get unemployment had some sort of mandatory minimum work.

   Public beautification, litter picking, neighbourhood watch even.

   Of course this wouldn’t apply to like disabled people, oldies and younguns. but if you’re unemployed and not contributing imo you should be forced to work to earn your unemployment in some way. Maybe ten hours a week of working. It could be particularly helpful for the agriculture industry. And it would get moochers, not that all people on unemployment are moochers, most of them are not obviously, but there are a lotta people in this country who game the system.

   Thoughts?

5. It’s very hard for the sick an disabled to find viable work for the sick and disabled are right down the bottom of the pile, yet the government is hell bent on forcing the sick and disabled back into work, for many of us to expect we are going to see an explosion in the number of homeless and potentially something else very few have seen on Britain’s streets, for no, work is not a cure for some forms of illness.

6. Instead of paying people benefits to do nothing, maybe they should be conditional on doing some volunteering e.g. litter picking or local conservation projects such as tree planting. It seems crazy to have such a massive welfare bill (Universal Credit is £60 billion) and yet society gets absolutely nothing in return – maybe there should be more of an expectation that recipients contribute via some modest volunteering requirements each week, let’s say 10-15 hours a week (which would also weed out people who are doing undeclared cash in hand work while receiving welfare).

7. This is like the guy who starts working somewhere, skips his breaks and stays late for free, and gets the rest of his colleges worse conditions because his willingness to be a slave becomes expected of others.

8. Good man. I appreciate someone who can pick themselves up and try to improve their lives. Even more so when they’re providing a public service.

9. In Hungary, able-bodied and able-minded people on welfare are sent out in a high vis jacket filling potholes, trimming greenery and picking litter.

   All of these are services that the councils are really struggling to maintain here in the UK.

10. I do not believe that any of this is unintentional anymore, although the level of uninformed stupidity I have heard about, makes me think it is an unholy mix.

11. Sad thing is a LOT of people volunteer because they’re on welfare and want to give something back to society, but aren’t able to hold down a full time due to physical or mental health issues, myself included.

    But we tend to all get demonised as scrounging, cheating lazy feckless scum.

12. Benefits shouldn’t be “earned”, they should just be given if needed.

    The headline makes this sound dystopian

13. Intentionally damaging these folks prospects for employment then getting them to do labour on the cheap and folks are supporting it?

14. Very “dystopian late-stage capitalism horror repackaged as heartwarming story”

15. I will happily spend my time looking for work (and do).

    I will not, however, work a job for £300 a month. That’s slave labour.

    Last time I was out of work they wanted me to go to Poundland full time. I refused and said it’s slavery. They told me I was “earning my benefit”, and I said if they want me to work, they better put my “benefit” up to minimum wage, or I won’t do it.

    They literally cannot sanction you for refusing, because slavery is not legal in this country.

    Benefits are not an earning. They are literally described as ‘unearned income’ and are an ENTITLEMENT for those who NEED them.

    If that guy can be placed on the street to clean, they can PAY him to stand in the street and clean. Slave labour. And we just fucking tolerate it.

16. So by right then , sending someone out who has back problems and give them a pair of gloves, a metal claw and get walking…… Some of the comments on this is just outrageous

    Having been thrown into the benefits system myself through a workplace injury and having to leave my job of 17 years and reading the comments shows the average taxpayer has no remorse for those on benefits and no knowledge of circumstances of people.

    Litter picking needs to be made a broader approach for a punishment, the state of the streets in my area z it’s like wtf do I pay taxes for …..

    Shouldn’t be a volunteer job , we need better attitudes

17. I will never understand why they didn’t use alliteration when naming this activity.  Litter lifting sounds much better

18. Weird seeing Leek on reddit…

    Can tell not many of the commenters haven’t bothered to read the article, he’s too disabled to work, this is his way of paying back to the community given his previous addiction and suicide attempt. Gives him something to do, stops him going back to addiction etc

    See him regularly around, he’s a nice bloke trying to get better

19. So I used to run a small group that would do this frequently, loads of people complain but no one will do anything about it. It might encourage people to stop being so fucking lazy and take care of the planet

20. Lidl in Scotland is piloting a scheme where you get 5p back for drinks cans and bottles. I’ve seen people with huge bags of them going to the shop. This should be rolled out nationwide. Thinking back to when times were hardest for me going out and picking up ten bits of litter would have made my life a hell of a lot easier and the streets near my flat so much cleaner

21. I’m sure he has a good heart but I do find the story problematic in a few areas.

    Unclear what benefits he claims but it sounds like JSA – for which he’s impacting his claim by not making himself available for work or looking for work.

    That cart seems quite expensive and he took out a loan for it? (Granted repaid by others genorisity) But I’m concerned what if it wasn’t repaid by others. Seems like a bad personal choice.

    What happens to the litter he collects? Waste normally attracts a fee for it to be legally discareded.

22. Hey, this is in the little town I live in! 

    Ed’s a top bloke, he’s got the whole town behind him for his hard work. He’s got one heck of a story as to how he became disabled, and I respect the hell out of him wanting to do something to earn his disability money, despite not really needing to. 

    It also gives him structure for his days, which I can definitely relate to. I’d be crawling up the walls if I didn’t *have* to do something regularly. 

    I always say hello to him when I see him, and I’ve thanked him a couple of times for his work. 

23. So some people are saying benefit claimants need to earn their benefits, and some other people are saying that it’s disgusting claimants should work for their benefits and that they should be entitled to them without doing anything for them. Is there any middle ground or anyway both camps can come to an agreement?

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