To think being on benefits might be better than working

Thanks for the reminder. I've checked my NI record and I'm about 4 years short of the qualifying years so not too bad as I'm 49.

One thing I'm not sure about is my record shows NI credits from 1990-1991 and 1991-1992 when I would have been 15/16 and 16/17. I have no idea what these are or where they came from!

I feel the OP needs a reality check about claiming benefits at the current time.

1. you cannot make yourself willfully unemployed and claim benefits!
2. you cannot leave the country even for a day whilst claiming so forget any booked trips.
3. I am now back in work but had 4 months unemployment recently due to redundancy, I tried claiming job seekers and it wasn't worth the hassle.
4. you will get about £77 a week.
5. you will be told to job hunt 35 hours a week and document it and go in to the job centre weekly to prove it
6. Job seekers is temporary, you are only allowed it for a set number of months.
7. initially they will let you job hunt in your field of work but after a couple of months you'll be forced into other kinds of work.
8. you will be told to strip anything technical out of your CV, hide qualifications and basically use a fake C.V to pretend you are low or unskilled to aid getting into a job.
9. you will be told to hunt for jobs up to a three hour round commute away - doesn't work does especially for low paid work!
10. you may be assigned a job coach who will keep regular contact with you to get you into work.
11. apparently forcing you into training to be a security guard or door person / bouncer is popular with the job centres now.

There is no easy way to give up working on a whim and get everything paid for! You'll get a pittance that may just cover a weekly food shop and you'll be pushed to find work quickly.

The key in this world is to strive to get some way up a career ladder, my partner and I did and we have a nice home in a nice area and several holidays a year. You can't have any of that on benefits.

You might want to consider signing on so you get your NI paid, if you don’t have enough contributions come retirement you’ll have a meagre state pension

Where do you think the dhss gets the money for benefits?

This! I worked at. Jobcentre and have also been the other side of the desk! Only one was fun and that wasn’t being jobless.

You clearly don't know how tough it is to get PIP making a comment like that

Alcoholics can get PIP (non means tested and given on top of other benefits), so yeah, you can get a pretty satisfactory life. Anyone can fake alcoholism.

If you are entitled to jsa I would personally claim it. The dwp get a bad rep but most of the work coaches I've had have been fine

Paid work is not the only way to feel purpose, pride and achievement. I'm currently unemployed. I have two volunteer roles that I love. I work hard at them and feel like my efforts are contributing to real change in the world. I wish I could dedicate myself to this work, I'm hoping to get enough experience to be able to get paid work in this area. That said, I'm not on benefits. I'm living off my savings from having worked non stop for many years and I am actively looking for work because my savings will run out soon. And as for benefits, you cannot live comfortably off benefits! Anything I would be entitled to right now (job seekers, which I'm not claiming for reasons stated by others - they monitor and seek to control how you spend your time) would not even cover half of my mortgage let alone bills and food. And I don't have a huge mortgage. If you have disabilities then you'd probably get enough in benefits to make ends meet, that's it. This idea that loads of people are choosing a benefits lifestyle AND living a cushy life is nonsense whipped up by the media and politicians who want us busy judging each other and not them. And the idea that anyone that doesn't work in paid employment is lazy and feckless is also a big fat lie.

People who feel that “they are better off on benefits than working” are saying “I am very lazy and think others should have to pay for my lifestyle.

Basically trash humans.

Here come the gammons. 🤣

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.

Could you imagine if everyone who thought this (because I can assure you you’re not alone in these thoughts) just quit their job and went on benefits. Stop the lazy defeatist attitude and go find a job you might actually like

Just find another job OP. Getting and keeping benefits is a form of work itself. You don't have financial stability either and the stop starts / sanctions and being sent on courses will just do your head in in a different way.

That's fair enough but again - single people on UC get just over 393 pounds a month. You don't live the high life on that

I'm unemployed at the moment and I admit I'm enjoying waking up with no plans. I'm not bored and could quite easily do this long term. I'm reading a lot, sorting out the house, making appointments for when they suit me and not my employer. I've had to cut down massively on spending but it's been worth it to have the time off after 20 years at my last job which got worse and worse.

However, I'm not claiming benefits. I haven't signed on as I'm living off my redundancy and don't intend seriously looking for a job until after spring so don't want to be answering to the job centre. I'm sure I'd feel differently if I was signing on and reporting to the job centre.

Realistically yes you probably could survive on benefits if you have a valid reason for claiming them. The reasons stated above by you are not valid. Where’s your morals?

45p an hour better off I believe as when you earn a pound - your benefits get reduced by 55p. Some people get an in work allowance which means they get keeping a certain amount of their earnings before the taper applies, single people don't get one.

Apparently in the beginning single people were going to get keeping the first 110 pounds of their wages before the taper applied and then George Osborne changed his mind.

This post is just clickbait given the fact that if you are on UC and are fit for work you have to job search or risk a sanction.

Exactly! This is why the benefits system is on its knees. Working shouldn’t be a bloody choice. Unemployment benefit should be for people for an intermediate period between jobs if they lose their job through no fault of their own, sickness benefit should be for people who are genuinely to ill to work. I’ve never not worked, my parents always worked. My dad literally had a back breaking job and never once moaned. They worked so hard for a better life for me and now me and my husband work hard for a good life for me and my children

Thank you!

Thing is, all those things can be true, it can at the same time be true that, particularly low paid people, can be better off on benefits . Somebody upthread did a calculation that if on UC and got a low paid (so completely normal job) you'll still get UC but be 55p an hour better off. So if you work 40 hours you'll be better off by £22. For for that £22 you'll be run ragged to childcare then slog your gut out at work all day.

Where's the evidence that many many more people cheat the system? Are you aware of how difficult it is for people to get benefits like PIP and how many people who are genuinely unwell who get turned down for that benefit? Same for Lwcra. Also just to add that there are people on Pip who work - the benefit helps some people stay in work. Same with adult disability payment in Scotland.

I got lwrca at the third attempt - it's not the easiest process to go through (mine is a temporary award for various reasons which is absolutely fine). I'm a member of a Pip support group on Facebook and that group is full of hundreds of people who have been turned down and who are having to go to tribunal. Yes I'm sure there are people who get benefits that they aren't entitled to but the other side of that is that there are people who should be entitled who get nothing.

But you asked the question! There are genuine people that can't work and deserve benefits (which you may be one of) unfortunately there are many MANY more that cheat the system and choose a lazy and dishonest lifestyle letting people like you and the taxpayers down.

I love that can support myself and that I’m not reliant on a government that might pull the rug out from under me and can change the rules at any time. I’ve felt this way no matter what I’ve earned. It’s a good thing to require no government support. I don’t envy those who are less fortunate.