(Massively) worse off in work

I did a better off calculation today which showed that my client who is a disabled single parent would be £60 per worse off if they worked 16hrs a week for £10 per hour on UC than on their current out of work benefits.  Even now UC continues to amaze me with how badly thought through it is.

The old system threw up plenty of situations where people are / were worse off in work too but they really may have managed to make things worse. All governments bang on about how they will make work pay but none ever do quite manage it, despite it not really being that hard. I wonder if the reality is that they don’t really believe that the financial incentive of more money works for people at the bottom of the heap and that only the threat of destitution by sanctions is really effective?

I think the government believes exactly that - that people at the bottom of the heap are lazy and demotivated and so need prodding and punishing - hence the sanctions regime. It also fits in neatly with government intention to reduce the benefits bill, and as we have seen, they will do it by foul means if fair doesn’t work.
Those claimants without many options can be made to apply for the jobs with poor pay and working conditions, or bogus self-employment - which suits the aims of big business. Even graduates are being forced to apply for jobs well below their ability level.
We really are in a race to the bottom. Yet still there are many people who don’t believe it.