Friend earns as much as me on benefits

Definitely, the chance of it working are less than 1%.
I don't believe this story though no disabilities and rent can't be too high if she lives in Scotland there's no way she gets 2k a month. Its just rage bait.
I'll back away though I've already pissed off a Scot for saying the rent isn't that high there

Its a Mumsnet myth that anyone is better off unemployed I was unemployed throughout Covid and am definitely a lot better off now I have a job and it's only minimum wage

Op will still need to work if dc are over 3 years old

@woodenbatandball am guessing your working ft and on a decent wage then?

Doesn't it depend on how much rent is?

I work private sector on govt contract, don’t get fancy pension and still don’t get £2000 and they are reducing my hours, either that or I will be made redundant.

Pretty sure it's £16,000 not £6000

How is it ok that lower-paid, hard-working people see their tax money go towards supporting people who could, but don't want to work?

And then, those hard-working people have to put up with shit, underfunded public services because so much of the tax take is going towards those people who don't want to work.

There are plenty of jobs out there. There are plenty of people who could work, but prefer not to. And the state says, 'ah, well, no worries, we'll give you roughly the same amount anyway, so take it easy'.

Any clinic offering ivf to a 48 year old in your “friend’s” circumstances needs to be investigated.

😂😂🙌

On benefits and having IVF at 48yrs old?

Of course this is completely genuine and I’m my grandad’s aunty. 🤣🤣

Your friend isn’t ’earning’ anything - she is sponging from the tax payer. In the long term this will lead to an old age an abject poverty and depression. A life wasted so to speak.

Working for minimum wage when a single parent to young children is often very stressful and hard work. Telling people they have it good because they wake up with purpose, meet colleagues, set an example etc is cold comfort when you are working your backside off, tired and have very little financial reward. I don’t know if the story of benefits is accurate or not but I am sympathetic to the op’s situation.

And how have a family of multiple generations of those living off the welfare state built and paid into the system? 🤔

Regardless of whether the OP is accurate or not..... the fact remains that there needs to be a far greater differential between income through working and benefit handouts.

If you're working full time in the most menial of jobs and don't have significantly more in your pocket than if you didn't work, where's the incentive? Why drag yourself out of bed, be away from your children, have the expense of a commute and maybe not even have pleasant colleagues, then come home and have to fit all the other bits of life - cooking, housework - if you're not going to be significantly better off than someone who can get up when they want, have control over how they spend their day and not have an employer demanding expectations and deadlines?

That is the fundamental issue. It's not benefit bashing. It doesn't mean stripping benefits down to nothing. It means making work, from the most menial basic jobs upwards a much better deal.

Natives? 🤔 The dog whistle is strong with this one.

Not sure the country needs a 'native' population of benefit recipients as against working folk, so perhaps that isn't the criteria you should be lauding.

I know what you mean...two people I know got 6 bedroom houses for them and their children...they both waited years but I am looking for a place and I know that, in one of their cases, a house of that size in that area costs upwards of 2.5m. Meanwhile many friends who work are having to look at moving away because they can't afford to stay where they grew up.

It is a lottery, I have friends in benefits who are in studios with their whole family, but the thinking is that if you wait long enough you will be given a house - when people not on benefits don't have that option.

Privilieged women would earn way more than their friends would get from benefits. I think it's the single mum working ft in a lowpaying stressful job who does feel a lack of motivation when she sees that someone has the same standard of living as her doing subsided by benefits. There have to be financial incentives to work.

Madness, OP. YANBU.

I just think it's amazing how much bullshit people are willing to believe if it fits in with their preconceived prejudices against benefits claimants. £2,000 a month. IVF at 48. Pull the other one, it's got teeny tiny little silvery
tinkle bells all over it.

Why do you say she isn't building a pension? I mean, what is there to stop anyone from using their benefit money to pay their annual NI contributions, and putting their benefit money into a SIPP?

Just tell her you’d trade the money you get in benefits for her health (to make a point)
I see benefits as compensation for health issues and disabilities you have acquired. I think they can be caused by things out of your control by environmental factors like pollution or heavy metals in food. If the government wanted you to work more or at all then they should’ve put the measures in place to ensure our physical and mental wellbeing but they didn’t, so they need to pay and if that means we don’t work a day in our lives I don’t think that’s our fault

I get 2300 from UC, 560 from DLA, 430 from PIP, 340 from carers (average deducted from UC) and 200 CMS. Then I work and get 900 wage, which means I get about 300 deducted from UC. I feel better working than not. That wage deduction I don’t see as a deduction, just that I earned the 300 odd pound the deduct.. plus I’ve got my feet through the door with a prettt decent place to work. They are training me up to progress and I can’t wait. I once mentioned how much I get to a “friend” and she more or less turned on me… don’t be that person!! Be grateful your friend is getting the relevant financial help she’s entitled to. As that’s where the problem lies… if she wasn’t given it by the government she wouldn’t claim it if that makes sense! Half the people who moan about people on benefits don’t think about shouting at the people who give it….. I don’t need to work, signed off get LCWRA on my UC. But I choose to as it makes my (bipolar 1 and lupus with kidney problems) MH a lot better!!! Just be .her friend and ignore who gets what etc

I’m just wondering what she did until she had children then. Cos she must have worked at some point

To the saying she will have to work when the kids grow up, no, she won’t, provided the IVF is successful. When the current two leave home, she will have two more to bring up and will be paid to.do so. I feel for you OP It can be hard to bear, Struggling and making ends meet but in such a way you are always above thresholds for any help and then seeing somebody having it handed to them on a plate.

Plus housing element, plus child benefit, plus Scottish child payment. It all add up