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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think being on benefits might be better than working

504 replies

Feedup · 11/02/2025 23:09

Is there anyway being on benefits is better than working? So much of day is spent worrying about work, working and dealing with office politics. I dislike work, and get no pleasure or satisfaction other than my pay. It’s got nothing to do with my job or team; I just dislike working.

I was thinking that being on benefits might not be as bad as people once thought. The main benefit would be not having to stress about working. With council tax, housing benefit and a hole host of other benefits, you could life a fairly decent life.

A return bus journey is £8 where I live. You have to work 30 mins just to cover your trip to and from work. You’ll work all month, live in a HMO and have nothing at the end of each month.

OP posts:
Youngheartsalittletogetherness · 11/02/2025 23:54

SnowflakeSmasher86 · 11/02/2025 23:26

Yeah instead of working you should spend 30 hours a week job searching, have to attend interviews where you’re grilled about everything you’ve done all week, jump through whatever hoops your work coach presents to you and live with the knowledge that at any point your payments could be suspended on a whim and you’ll be unable to pay rent or buy food.

Its so relaxing. And with all the spare time and money you have you’re not allowed to have a holiday, you’re not supposed to leave the country without telling them, so if by some miracle you could manage a holiday, you still have to spend 30 hours looking for work. Non. Stop. Fun.

And that's it in a nutshell, grueling grind having to justify your existence and being under constant scrutiny...yay life's a bowl of cherries.
To anyone that's never been on benefits don't believe the myth's peddled by certain sections of the media.

Lovelysummerdays · 11/02/2025 23:51

I had a conversation with a bloke doing community payback who reckoned he’d only be £40 a week better off in a full time job. It doesn’t seem like much tbh. That said I meet a lot of people through work and tbh I Dd ont think being out of work is good for people. They get bored and turn to cheap alchohol or drugs then it seems a slippery slope to addiction and Ensuing criminality or mental health issues.

Id be happy to be wrong but I don’t know anyone living a happy and fulfilling life on job seekers allowance.

Jossjt · 11/02/2025 23:51

SnowflakeSmasher86 · 11/02/2025 23:51

No it isnt.

Show quote history

Yes it is

SnowflakeSmasher86 · 11/02/2025 23:51

Jossjt · 11/02/2025 23:51

Nothing goady about it. It’s the reality of this broken and doomed country.

Show quote history

No it isnt.

Jossjt · 11/02/2025 23:51

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Nothing goady about it. It’s the reality of this broken and doomed country.

SnowflakeSmasher86 · 11/02/2025 23:50

Jossjt · 11/02/2025 23:39

And then people say that benefits are not a lifestyle choice. Thread after thread on MN proves that they are. People literally choosing to work because other mugs will pay for them to live for free.

Just because someone says they want to get benefits instead of working that doesn’t mean they’re actually entitled to claim them. Don’t be daft.

WilmaTitsDrop · 11/02/2025 23:50

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Richiewoo · 11/02/2025 23:47

Don't be so fucking stupid.

tellmesomethingtrue · 11/02/2025 23:44

Seriously? Why should the state fund your life if you are perfectly capable of working, and earning your own money? Don't be a scrounger.

Normallynumb · 11/02/2025 23:43

I'm on lifelong benefits because of a fairly serious disability
Would you like to try living with that too?
Go and get a life

theprincessthepea · 11/02/2025 23:43

You could but as PP have said I don’t know what you will be entitled to if you don’t have a disability or children.

I don’t know how people live off benefits if they are able bodied and single - or no dependents, as you will be capped.

Is there anything that you are into? Work comes in all sorts of shapes and forms.

Barkingupthewrongroof · 11/02/2025 23:43

I think sometimes threads like this make women trapped in abusive and financially abusive relationships terrified to leave if some time on benefits is the only option.
So… I know it wasn’t the point of the thread but I think there are worse existences than living on benefits, one being financial reliance on an abusive man.

Halycon · 11/02/2025 23:41

NeverDropYourMooncup · 11/02/2025 23:32

You think you're worried about work? Try never knowing if you'll get any money at the end of the month because it's been stopped for some unknown reason and you can't get in touch to fix it because you haven't got any money to make a call.

That would keep me up at night. Even if it wasn’t happening, just the idea that it could.

Halycon · 11/02/2025 23:40

God no. To be unemployed would be shit.

Yes it can be a pain to go to work, to have the constraints on your time, alarms going off in the morning, paying taxes etc but I’d do that 100 times over rather than wake up every morning with no plans, no money to do anything and faced with the same daytime TV, isolation and social stigma.

Work gives you a purpose, a reason. It gives you pride and a sense of achievement as well as an income that you know you earned. I think that’s priceless to be honest.

Plus if I had no work I’d be a fat bastard as boredom = eating.

Jossjt · 11/02/2025 23:39

And then people say that benefits are not a lifestyle choice. Thread after thread on MN proves that they are. People literally choosing to work because other mugs will pay for them to live for free.

Nsky62 · 11/02/2025 23:38

Agix · 11/02/2025 23:27

I was on sickness benefits for years. It was crap. Youre constantly stressed about your source of income being taken away because society thinks youre a scrounging loser and the government encourage it. Sickness benefits are still being threatened - seems worse than ever now. You feel helpless and scared a lot. And poor,

Working is infinitely better - unfortunately my health is making it hard again and Im terrified of losing my job.

Exactly

iwentjasonwaterfalls · 11/02/2025 23:37

YABU, but you already know that.

It's crap and lonely and boring as hell.

MaloryJones · 11/02/2025 23:36

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Iamallowedtodisagreewithyou · 11/02/2025 23:35

I'd say there's no point working unless you're in a highly paid job.

That said, it's called a "poverty trap" for a reason.

Go on benefits and you'll find it hard to improve your life you can never have more than £16k so all you can really do with your money is spend it all on "stuff" in home bargains and Sky TV packages.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 11/02/2025 23:32

You think you're worried about work? Try never knowing if you'll get any money at the end of the month because it's been stopped for some unknown reason and you can't get in touch to fix it because you haven't got any money to make a call.

Mabelflo · 11/02/2025 23:27

Depends on your situation, children etc. Impossible to say with no info.

Agix · 11/02/2025 23:27

I was on sickness benefits for years. It was crap. Youre constantly stressed about your source of income being taken away because society thinks youre a scrounging loser and the government encourage it. Sickness benefits are still being threatened - seems worse than ever now. You feel helpless and scared a lot. And poor,

Working is infinitely better - unfortunately my health is making it hard again and Im terrified of losing my job.

SnowflakeSmasher86 · 11/02/2025 23:26

Yeah instead of working you should spend 30 hours a week job searching, have to attend interviews where you’re grilled about everything you’ve done all week, jump through whatever hoops your work coach presents to you and live with the knowledge that at any point your payments could be suspended on a whim and you’ll be unable to pay rent or buy food.

Its so relaxing. And with all the spare time and money you have you’re not allowed to have a holiday, you’re not supposed to leave the country without telling them, so if by some miracle you could manage a holiday, you still have to spend 30 hours looking for work. Non. Stop. Fun.

falkandknife · 11/02/2025 23:26

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Lentilweaver · 11/02/2025 23:24

Well, go on them then.