AIBU to be angry about the benefits system

I you havent needed it, thankyou for not claiming. It leaves it in the pot for those who need it. And we really do need it.

I appreciate this but so many people claim benefits and also don’t work.

I was brought up by my family to work, had a paper round age 11 and worked in a cafe at weekends from 15. From there I’ve never not worked apart from maternity leave however I was still employed.

I know acquaintances who ‘play’ the system, but generally don’t work although they could as have school aged children and no disabilities x

Because I am entitled to claim should I automatically claim?

We haven’t struggled but that’s due to budgeting, planning and saving.

We are looking to put a claim in now, as with increased nursery costs and other bills increasing we are now struggling if are to many Ian the same lifestyle so I guess without it now we would find it hard to stay in the green. Although our claim hasn’t yet been improved. It is complicated to set up, and my DH has to attend an appointment at the Job Centre to prove identity etc.

It appears that from the comments on this thread I am silly to not have tried to claim, I thought there would be more comments from people being shocked at the thought we could with our joint income being £4000.

Just did the calculator again on entitled to again and it’s more than I thought
total a month we are entitled to is £1,140 not
including the 85% childcare we can claim back)
£460 universal credit a month
£500 a month towards our mortgage loan
£42.55 (child benefit we already get this)

You do know that any help towards your mortgage has to be paid back when your house is sold / you die

I you havent needed it, thankyou for not claiming. It leaves it in the pot for those who need it. And we really do need it.

I'm angry that tax payers is funding benefits for anyone who can work.

I think everyone who can work should work ie if you claim benefits you should earn them, every single penny - it's only fair when workers are scrimping by in this tory created financial mess.

Ref at £4k pcm you should be able to claim benefits is another question - I def support child care subsidy if you work, if you don't work, then you should be made to work for it if you can work.

We should only be funding benefits for those on short term unemployment whilst they look for a job and those whose health is incompatible with work. Everyone else can work just like I have since I was 16yo in and around all of my studying inc both bachelor and masters degrees.

I appreciate this but so many people claim benefits and also don’t work.

I was brought up by my family to work, had a paper round age 11 and worked in a cafe at weekends from 15. From there I’ve never not worked apart from maternity leave however I was still employed.

I know acquaintances who ‘play’ the system, but generally don’t work although they could as have school aged children and no disabilities x

Because I am entitled to claim should I automatically claim?

We haven’t struggled but that’s due to budgeting, planning and saving.

We are looking to put a claim in now, as with increased nursery costs and other bills increasing we are now struggling if are to many Ian the same lifestyle so I guess without it now we would find it hard to stay in the green. Although our claim hasn’t yet been improved. It is complicated to set up, and my DH has to attend an appointment at the Job Centre to prove identity etc.

It appears that from the comments on this thread I am silly to not have tried to claim, I thought there would be more comments from people being shocked at the thought we could with our joint income being £4000.

Just did the calculator again on entitled to again and it’s more than I thought
total a month we are entitled to is £1,140 not
including the 85% childcare we can claim back)
£460 universal credit a month
£500 a month towards our mortgage loan
£42.55 (child benefit we already get this)

This is part of the reason why the benefits system is so broken. No one on that kind of income should need any benefits but, because tax credits destroyed the necessity to live on a normal wage, people expect so much more - landlords, service providers, retailers and manufacturers etc.

It's a little galling to read replies saying it's easy to find out about benefits and support. Everyone is different and what's perfectly straightforward, even obvious to some can easily be a completely different story for someone else. And the actual application processes can be so savage and destructive to the applicant that many are scared off entirely for years, needing a real sea-change in attitudes to help them consider it again.
There have been better times. When child tax credits first came in, it changed my family's life. I worked full-time but tax credits meant we could things like birthday parties. Before that we'd only just been scraping by.
Twentyish years later I still work full-time and I've tended to put off claiming benefits, tax credits etc just because since A Certain Party came into government I've had experiences where they'd suddenly announce that they'd overpaid me, leaving me paying money back for months and years. At least one of these was sort of my own fault, and I wanted to avoid making another such punishing mistake, but it happened a couple of other times when I'd done everything perfectly. However for the past few years it just wouldn't have been possible to look after my youngest without universal credit, and I'm so glad I applied. We still need to use foodbanks, and it's not like I'm even on minimum wage. But even now I'm too scared to even look into the disability benefits I once received. What happened to disability benefits, in the name of giving politicians a vast imaginary army of thieving benefits-cheats to blame things on at the same time as letting incredibly wealthy individuals and corporation dodge taxes worth incalculably more than anything ever lost to benefits-cheats, was a profound disgrace. Ugly and deliberate. I'd need therapy before I could ever go through the disability benefits system again.
There must be a simpler way of doing all this, but the fact that even this government has been forced to recognise that one really can work full-time and still not have enough to live on, well, I think that's as close as we'll get to an admission that the system is broken. Perhaps it suits them to have people depend on these extra crumbs they make us jump through hoops for.

tl;dr: If what people are entitled to seems stupidly obvious to you, make yourself useful and help them find it. You may say that's not your job but if it's that simple it won't take much effort. Share links on your social media. We need one another. We need you.

Only read half the thread but not sure why everyone is so exercised about 4K a month. As of 9 days ago that’s practically minimum wage for 2 people.

I have recently discovered by using a free, independent benefits calculator called entitledto that had I applied for Universal Credit over 2 years ago, me and my family would be over £16,000 better off.

I had assumed that benefits were for either single-parent families or people unable to work due to disability.

The majority of our savings would have been from claiming 85% back in childcare costs. We also would have had a payout of over £200 each month in addition.

For context, we bring in just shy off £4,000 a month. I thought this was a very reasonable income and we would be entitled to nil.

I feel angry that we did not know about this. A friend of mine who I met through our children attending the same nursery told me she claims 85% back in childcare costs during a conversation in which I complained of my childcare going up £150.

I did further research and 19 billion pounds apparently goes unclaimed every year.

I’ve never claimed benefits in all my life and worked hard to get on the property ladder.

should I be angry that we didn’t claim, or take it in my stride.

I wonder how many other families who could have claimed but haven’t.