Fed up of my cousins comments about benefits and UC

I’m a single parent and don’t claim any benefits. I have a full time, well paying job. I hate this notion that single parents are always poor. Why can’t you work full time?

@PixiePuffBall “ if you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all” ~ Thumper (Bambi)

So if you're not in a position to do anything about it then I dont know what advice you need.

@boldbear apparently not income insurance but I did have some sick pay. Basic stat. I'm not the founder of the company and I'm classed as a contractor l have life insurance through my husband's employment.

I don’t have a university education or any qualifications beyond good GCSEs and bad A-levels. I got my high paid job by working my way up the ladder, applying for opportunities that I saw and learning anything and everything I could from free sources or by asking people at work to let me sit in and watch them. I started as a telemarketing operator calling 300 people a night to ask if they wanted a catalogue. Then I applied for supervisor > Team leader > Team manager > Specialist department manager > call centre manager…… and I’ll just keep going until I can’t go anymore. Currently in a Snr Director role and looking at progression to Exec/c-suite within the next 2 years. It’s not immediate but you can vastly improve your finances within a 3-5 years period without needing to qualify in anything or know anyone influential.

Fucking hell, the OP isn't "choosing" to work part time tho is she?! She's already explained her situation, unbelievable amount of judgement on here and nobody actually giving her advice!

RE your cousin, I think you need to point out to her you also get UC when she brings it up and gently remind her she doesn't know everyone's background story. The world is not black and white...

Did you not have insurance?

editing as that sounded callous. It’s just I pay a lot for income insurance in case of illness and I’m always worried I’m just wasting my money,

It's so interesting that you bemoan incentives to avoid paying at one end of the scale (inheritance tax dodging) but not the other – in this case, chilling out at home on UC half the week while your child is at school and everyone else is out at work

"Choosing" to work part-time is subjective though as, for many, it's not a choice and is instead down to various barriers.

Also, Universal Credit has a minimum income floor. Unless you have good reason, you must earn this minimum or you'll be expected to take steps to increase your hours/wage (and will face sanctions if you don't).

You are working hard, you work 3 to 4 days a week, and when you are not in paid work you are parenting. Tons of people get benefits of some type, no need for you to share any information with anyone.

Lots of people get extremely high salaries so pay more tax, but many are working no harder than people on lower paid jobs, life's not fair. I don't have a problem paying tax. I do have an issue with fathers not fulfilling their responsibilities, and tax dodgers, especially rich people and big businesses finding tax loopholes to avoid contributing to society.

Ignore the haters.

I'd just shrug and say 'well, I'm glad that we live in a country where there's a safety net for people when they need it.' and change the subject.

Possibly to how unfair it is the way the mega rich dodge their taxes on a regular basis on a grand scale.

It's so true everyone wants a top job but let me be frank they wouldn't want the hours. I've worked from 5 am to 9/10 pm every day for 34:years. I'm a CEO.
I had family child care and a husband who worked very early but could do pick up. You never know when bad news strikes. I was diagnosed with a life limiting illness in January and I've not been in paid employment for over a year. I
had no idea what I could claim although
I had paid six figures in tax each year. I was actually lied to and it has ment we now have to move home. Benefits are there as a safety net. I will be paying a huge amount of tax when my shares are sold shortly but in the mean time I need a little bit of help and I never judge anyone else who needs that.
Fwiw my trainee medic DD has been doing a cleaning job as it was the only thing offered.
OP is no doubt trying her best.

Theres Nothing like benefits and taxes to divide people. Of course there are those that exploit the system at both ends. Often people on benefits feel that high earners should pay even more and high earners think that those on benefits should do more to get themselves out of the situation.
My experience is often those that need the benefits the most aren’t actually getting them because the system is too complicated for them. Then there are the ones who know the system inside out to get the most out of it.
we are in a fortunate position where my husband and I have had good jobs and my husband especially has taken financial risks to invest in businesses he’s worked in and put a huge amount of hours in and now reaps the rewards. It is galling to see the amount of tax he pays and hear people shouting for high earners to pay more. This literally popped up on my husbands phone as I was typing this post and it’s food for thought that we pay the highest tax out of all these countries.

Crikey, some right gits on this thread! 😂

DP and I are each net contributors yet not as riled up about the welfare system as your cousin, OP. Is she also pissed off about, say, massive corporate tax avoidance, private equity loading up the care home sector with debt, and high net worth families dodging inheritance tax? She sounds a right laugh!!

OP you'll get very little support here because most people on here live very charmed lives and will never be unlucky enough to have to claim UC. If UC is so great, quit your job and go and claim it. Live the so-called easy life you think people on benefits have.

There is nothing wrong with having a young child and working part time. If OP was full time, they'd be using funded hours. Also, this is meant to be a feminist website, yet time and time again I see people judging mothers who work full time and send their baby to nursery, but also judging mothers for not doing so and dropping work hours. If your feminism isn't for single, struggling working mothers, who is it for?? Working full time as a single mum to a young child would be very difficult.

The welfare state exists to support people like this, who, right now, struggle to work full time. Also fuck off with 'get a better paying job'. It's hard for bloody graduates to get jobs right now. You can't just roll out of school with no GCSEs anymore and get a job with a gold plated pension at the end of it.

Also, OP shouldn't have to 'get a better paying job'. A radical point of view on here apparently, but every single person who is working full time should be on a liveable wage where you have some spare to save and for pleasure

I did say those that don’t attempt to work 😳

You could have chose not to though. But you didn't.

National Insurance. That is a contribution towards her pension. Effectively that is a form of long term saving.

It is remarkable how many people think this, but it is not true. It is not a contribution to a pension. Paying NI gives you an entitlement to a pension but it is not savings into a pension pot. NI money goes into the general tax bucket. Today's pensioners are paid from today's taxes

Im not a boomer but I don’t think boomers had as good as is often implied! Yes things like housing was cheaper but pay was much lower so it is all academic really! I think one of the biggest differences with boomers looking at my parents, apart from buying a house they would by something like a new car unless they could buy it outright whereas now people pile onto credit cards and loans to buy things!

I worked full time from when my child was five months old. Didn't want to but I had to.

OP works though…

I can guarantee I have, others may not have. I had to cut my hours because I became a single parent, I didn't ask for that and had no control over it. There's no childcare for shift work, I'd earn less working full time at minimum wage than part time on my decent wage.
Part time is misleading too, my Part time is 24hrs a week, anything under 37.5 is considered Part time

OP is working

If she were claiming alot of childcare due to working more her entitlement would go up not down

OP is working though. She works part time because she is a single mum.

You are doing nothing wrong. It’s very difficult to work full time with a 5 year old and you are doing the best you can. I guess some people on here are jealous?