This is something that really really winds me up.

I personally think that the kind of immigrant who comes to this country to find a job, work hard, live cheap and send money home to their family should be an inspiration to anyone complaining about the job market in this country. What could possibly be more admirable than giving up everything to work like a slave to benefit the future of your family? They have many disadvantages compared to a native worker, so if they can do the job there's no reason an equally qualified and hard-working Brit couldn't.

People who complain about them because "they work harder than I want to" are symptomatic of the spoiled fat-arse lazy good-for-nothing racist mummy's boys this country breeds in spades. The same scum who saw the power of the unions as an opportunity to get money for nothing, and effectively destroyed this country's industry.

For a British person today, even taking on a low paid job does not make you worse off than being on benefits. That did used to be true, but the various reforms involving family tax credits and the like have made it much fairer. Their are incredibly stupid caveats concerning the working week cut-offs and training etc. but on the whole, if you work to earn a few bob you will be better off. The immigrants don't get this advantage, so they have even less incentive to take crap jobs than a Brit does!

In most countries, people really do have to fight to earn a living. All I can say is, it's just as well China and India aren't in the EU because with their work ethic we'd all be outdone.

It's true. I'm sure we all like to buy British grown fruit and veg, but if we had to pay the prices necessary to get an Englishman to actually pick the stuff out of the ground, your carrot would cost about £5 and would probably still be dripping with urine.

Only if you have a family. These credits are only applicable to married people or single parents.

That's only true for the family credits. Anyone can work for under 16 hours a week without losing benefits, and that was a very important reform.

If you're a single young man then your benefits are so low that a full time minimum wage job will easily exceed them regardless. It's only families that get huge benefits.

Your family has to pay for you until 25. If you are unemployed after leaving school, you don't get unemployment benefit, you have never contributed...

If you lose your job, your parents bank accounts will be raided first, before the state will dish out money. There are exceptions, but, for example, if you don't have a job and can't afford your rent, either your parents have to subsidise your rent, or you have to move back home. You will get umemployment benefit, but you won't get housing subsidies etc.

When my girlfriend split up with her first husband, she went straight out and got a job, because her mother wasn't well off and she felt ashamed that the equivalent of the DHSS might go to her mother for money...

That said, if you are made unemployed, you do get something like 60% of salary for the first year, then you drop back on Hartz IV, which is essentially means tested. If you have a house, with a mortgage, for example, you must sell the house and use the capital gained to pay your rent, before you will get housing benefit...