To ask whether anyone here has ever been investigated by DWP for “living with a partner”?

But if we need and value cleaners, @Looploop, shouldn’t they earn enough to live on?

This is part of the problem. Not having reproduced means you are expected to survive on less. Funny how this is always glossed over. If NHS cleaners all went on to better jobs how many operations/ surgeries would be able to take place.

FWIW I think cleaners work hard and keeps them fit. It’s physical work and to do it hour after hour, 3/4/5 days a week

in a clutter slob but I do clean and after doing house of hoovering mopping floors etc I do think phrew and sit down.

cleaners would be going onto their next job

I can’t afford a cleanser weekly but do have one maybe 1-2 times a year as a treat and always appreciate what she does

my friend is a cleaner and works hard

I didn’t say I don’t value or respect cleaners. I said if you don’t find you have enough income and you are doing a basic job then why not try to increase your earning power? Because benefits are not meant to be an income for life. If you’re not on benefits you can decide your own rules about who you live with. It’s well off on a tangent from the OP’s post anyway.

Yes they do! I think she needs to remember that. If they all vanished one day then she would be the first to complain I bet.

Well I have the utmost respect for you, @TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater. Regardless of what @Looploop says or thinks, I think cleaners do a valuable job.

I am not complaining about low wages. Low wages used to be enough to live on. I managed it for years. No benefit top ups either. Not needed and I was not entitled anyway as I did not have children.
But not the same people in the same jobs are told to upskill when they didnt need to before. I have a neurodevelopmental disorder that has difficulties that has meant I struggle do much more than a basic job. I managed cleaning for a while. I was sacked from so many jobs as I was too slow or forget things or kept breaking things.
I can type but before I press post there are so many red lines.

When I was a cleaner it paid enough for me to live. The cost of living crisis is not my fault.

So you’re not interested in increasing your earning power in any way but you are complaining about low wages and are highly articulate. I can’t understand why you WOULDN’T want to do better? You are clearly capable of it.

I asked this on my own thread and was told it is a myth. There are no number of nights. It is about sharing finances and things like that.
Basically if your partner can prove they live elsewhere by showing bills that are registered to their own address then it should be fine.

I think there 3/4 nights will be considered living with.

Looploop comments are rather upsetting. I was a cleaner and truly not capable of doing much more than that. She has made me feel like I have failed at life. May as well just give up now.

Do you think a roomba could clean hospitals? It seems you think very little of the people doing such important work. Some people are not capable of more than jobs like that and they still deserve a wage they can live on.
None of the cleaners in hospitals I knew retrained as HCAs as it is a totally different department with different managers. Nowadays most hospital cleaners are not even employed by the NHS.

There is really no shortage of cleaners! And now you can get a robot to do the vacuuming. I am surprised by the lack of aspiration really. Isn’t it boring? I hate cleaning although should there be a massive cleaner shortage I could of course do my own.

And if all the cleaners retrain into other jobs, @Looploop, who will do the cleaning? I believe that the cleaners do an important job, and deserve not only respect, but a living wage for doing so. The same applies to many other ‘entry level’ jobs - shelf stackers, refuse collectors, porters etc etc - society would grind to a halt without them.

To ask whether anyone here has ever been investigated by DWP for “living with a partner”?

Sounds like you are about to be OP!

What promotion could a cleaner get? Almost any other job going. Cleaning is hard work - so if you have been a cleaner you have shown a lot of resilience. But it is really entry-level work. I know cleaners who have retrained to become healthcare assistants for example and the NHS is keen to offer training to do more than just clean.

Yes exactly. I have seen a few comments here where people say that people in the low paid jobs have no right to complain about struggling for money. Years ago min wage jobs were enough to live on. Now they are not and that is not the fault of the people doing them.
People say to get promotions. What promotion could a cleaner get? You only have supervisors in places that have lots of cleaners and not everyone has the people skills to manage other people.
Or retrain. Not everyone is capable of more than the more simple jobs. Who will do the low paid jobs if everyone retrained?
Or work more hours. Knacker your body out and have no life outside work.

I couldn’t agree more, @TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater! I have as much respect for someone doing the cleaning or stacking shelves as I do for a surgeon or CEO. And frankly, without the people doing the minimum wage jobs, the country would grind to a halt.

No I dont. How I write has no bearing on that. It was on another thread or it might have been this one were someone told me to go away and learn English.

@TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater do you not work now out of interest? I’m presuming you don’t for a logical reason , because you actually write really well.

When I worked I was a cleaner. There was nothing to upskill as it is a dead end job. Not everyone is capable of work that pays more and we need people in the low paid jobs. I also know someone who has been a shelf stacker for 20 years. She has learning disabilities.
why should people who are not capable of more skilled jobs be stuck in poverty?
Please dont blame people who are in low paid jobs for their poor pay. It is the cost of living that has made things more difficult.

No, it wasn’t easy, not at all easy. And don’t imagine being married is some sort of meal ticket - if anything I was his meal ticket!

Childcare isn’t something “on top” it is a basic essential. It has to be paid to make everything else possible.

Most parents have to juggle and it’s a strain. I had times when I really worried I couldn’t hold it all together and we would end up in a dire situation.

I’m saying that being on benefits shouldn’t be a permanent state but a safety net. Jobs should pay enough for people to get by. And if you can only earn a minimum wage you should consider upskilling in some way. Ask your employer (if you have one) for training and more responsibility. Ideally a low wage is not a permanent state but only entry level.

If you are not on benefits you are free to do whatever you want in terms of living arrangements if you can afford it.

@Iamfree I don’t disagree that it’s somewhat depressing — but I did feel that it needs pointing out that not all voting Reform are huge contributors and if they are voting based purely on immigrants might have a shock when it comes to many policies that may be enacted under reform affecting quite a lot that would vote that way-my ex MIL ( RIP) contributed jack shit financially for 40 years but was the first one moaning about immigrants and very much of the ‘we worked hard school’ whilst not contributing a tap of NI or tax - ( the ‘we ‘ it would appear was her husband) we ourselves lived in Copenhagen a few years ago so I’ve also seen it in reverse, high tax, high services but there is very much an expectation of ‘contributing’ - even with small kids and the system is set up to make that more’doable’ - the thing is here I think we have the worst of all worlds, ( and I’m not blaming the current gvt, it was no different under the Tory’s’ - poor services and if you factor in tax and NI together( many high tax countries don’t have NI) it’s not particularly low tax here either for most.

But you don’t get it that not everyone can earn a high enough salary to pay for ‘everything’ and like you say at one point you was married/had someone on board, not saying everything was easy as you then got divorced.

But to understand that many can not afford to pay everything then all the childcare on top.
For example in the holidays there were some charging £170 upwards a week for camp, if you work that out based on what someone could be taking home a week from work, it’s not doable.