AIBU to be miffed about Chester Zoo?

I’m on board with this. I would also suggest making companies pay proper wages so benefits aren’t needed as a top up. Wages should be enough for people to have a decent life with a bit of joy in it.

It doesn't. It is what you earn that is important.

Which aspect of UC is calculated based on your job type? I thought it was purely income based? I agree that the type of job you do shouldn't affect your entitlement to support.

Or addressing the rising costs of food, housing and energy.

I don't understand why your solutions are all based on redistributing the meagre resources of the poorest and most disadvantaged? Why not increasing the minimum wage or redistributing some of the wealth from those with abundant resources?

I wouldn’t get it anyway but having a mortgage and ‘living beyond your means’ because of a cost of living crisis should be seen as just as ‘deserving’ as someone who is struggling because they didn’t choose a decent partner. And why should some low income jobs be topped up and not others?

So cutting it from people who are already struggling? A single person on standard UC gets £400pm. What is there to cut from them?

@DysmalRadius I think it probably needs a review. If we don’t have the money to add more to the benefits bill, I would look at sharing it out amongst more people. The cost of living crisis is drawing more people into financial difficulties.

I’m sure you would give anything for your child to be well. I get that completely.
But that does not mean that other people aren’t struggling in different ways. Having no money and knowing you will receive no help is incredibly stressful too.

Sorry, this was to @BustopherPonsonbyJones

UC is not given because the cost of everything is going up.
It is given to single parents, people who are too sick/disabled to work, people who are between jobs and are looking for work, and people on low incomes (who have kids.... single childless people get told to get a better job).
If you are not in any of those groups, you wont get UC. You will have to increase your income in other ways, be that getting a better job or working more hours, or moving somewhere cheaper.
Having a big mortgage and living beyond your means is not 'in need'.

Reconsider who they define as ‘in need’ to include a wider group.

That would require charities, funders, grant awards and the likes to reconsider their parameters.

Not the zoo. They don't set these parameters - they just allow the scheme to run because it has benefits for them.

How do you suggest a zoo - who tbh are likely to know so little about benefits they won't even be able to tell between people on ESA who are entitled to the scheme (IR) and people who technically aren't (CB) - work out the parameters of a wider group? Where do they draw the line? And where does that line go without another chat like this one insisting they should be having a wider group still?

My child is disabled. I don't feel particularly lucky.

I'd much rather have a healthy child and not need to claim UC. Maybe some people should be more thankful for what they do have, such as healthy children.

I'd give anything for that.

Honestly, I am also happy there is a system to support those in need. But it isn’t catching all those who ARE in need right now. Those people have also cut back and looked at their budgets. They aren’t spending money left, right and centre. They don’t have any left over and they know there won’t be any help from anyone or anything else,

Me either.

Currently, no one on UC is eligible for free school meals unless their income is below £7,400 a year. This will change from next September to be fair but it does seem to be assumed that everyone on UC with school aged children are eligible for free school meals when that has never been the case until September 2026.

I am grateful that there is a welfare system that means I have a roof over my head and I can pay my bills and eat. But I am finding it hard but don't get more money because the cost of everything is going up. I just have to cut back on things and budget better.

Yes, the people who receive help are lucky, aren’t they?

So you don’t value the help you get from universal credit? I don’t think it is lucrative but it would be valued by many who don’t receive it and are finding it hard to make ends meet.

and the people who would just miss out? They would claim it's unfair too.

If there's a cut off, there will always be people who just miss out and always people who claim it's unfair. That isn't going to solve anything.

So you think the income threshold to receive UC should be higher?

If the government did this, the other groups and charities would follow.

Do you resent the fact that more people need help?

Quite right. I did enjoy the maths and the commitment to working it out though.

Great. I’m glad it works out better for the zoo then.

However, as I keep stating, it really isn’t about the tickets to the zoo. It’s about attitudes to those who are struggling financially and receive no help as the focus is always on the same group of people.

and how would they do that?

They are a zoo, not the government.

What is stopping you giving up work and going on UC yourself if you think it is so lucrative.
I am on UC and I don't even recognise half the help you are on about.