How can it be right that you can get so much money on benefits?!?!

See my previous responses on this matter!

Oh for goodness sake.

@baroqueandblue - thank you Lovely- and well done for expressing yourself with such coherence and passion,👍

Bully for you. If you were able to "work on" your mental health to the extent that you could luxuriate in the value of 'paying your own way', you don't know you're born. Unlike those of us who could "work on" our mental health til the cows came home, and still not be able to hold down a job and stand on our own two feet. Because some mental illness is intractable and ruins lives and futures, and robs people of the capacity to pat themselves on the back and feel smug about paying their own way.

But you do (insensitive, patronising) you 🤷‍♂️

But if you have a mortgage that will still need to be paid as benefits won’t pay it.

The old Daily Mail 'distort the facts and slag off benefit claimants' chestnut comes around again. Plus ça change....

Co-founded by that notorious philanthropist Iain Duncan Smith, former leader of the Conservative party and architect of the punitive sanctions-based regime that is Universal Credit.

Right wing enough for you? 🙄

FFS

@VikaOlson and @JustAlice - see post above 👆🏻 .

Erm, actually I have been there…
EXACT scenario- speaking from experience
and I was not badly off at all.
And had free time as no longer working three jobs to make ends meet. And oh, did I mention the free transport and gym membership, dental care(including root canal fillings Lovely- not in my wildest dreams could I afford those while working )x. AND FREE eye care.
AND lots of free time to work on my mental health and recover as I was no longer having to work THREE jobs to make ends meet. (One full time and two part time).
And yes, recover I did and took any work I could - below national minimum wage and on a zero hour contract 😭- get to get into employment again because I believe in paying my own way.
Judge me as you please but make sure you have your facts straight before you do so.
I hope, if your post refers to you, that you recover and return to full time work, if this is what you would like.
@UserFront242

I don’t have an (informed) opinion either way but people could at least reply with something constructive rather than sarcasm. How will anyone learn otherwise?

Oh come on - do yourself a favour. Stop reading the Daily Mail and pop down to CAB for a benefit check. You’ll be surprised to find that it’s all a load of hysterical bollocks !!

Career benefit claimants usually start very young.
If you wasted years getting a degree and paying mortgage you are trapped 😀

Why are you working full time then? That's on you!
Give up your job and claim benefits.

Just to illustrate % of social housing in London. In fact only 2 groups of people can now afford to live in Central London - either millionaires or benefit claimants.

FFS give it a rest, it's Christmas! 🙄

NIMBY much?

There's social housing everywhere in London, including Kensington &Chelsea and they get it for a fraction of market rent. Working people will have to pay for smth similar 25K after taxes out of the pocket.
Plus 2K in council tax, again after taxes.
Plus 2.5K for public transport.

The worst part about being on benefits when I was a young mum was the housing insecurity. Letting agents don't accept people using housing benefit. I would have to look at private ads and ended up in insecure tenancies with issues in bad areas. One of my flats was infested with bugs I couldn't get rid of, and the landlord refused to lift the carpets. It's still a dream of mine to own my own house. I never got 140k, by the way, maybe more like 1400 a month or something including rent ?

But imo, the question should be Why are so many jobs so poorly paid?**

This is true however. We have too many low paid jobs with poor prospects in the UK, especially compared to our high cost of housing.

Its not actually impossible but its clearly an extreme scenario.

In reality, unless they are in social housing (haha in central london, land of the 30 year waiting lists? Unlikely), the housing allowance won't cover the rent on a 3 bed. The childcare element of UC also likely wouldn't actually cover the nursery bill, so it would be pointless claiming it and sending the kids in for the 1 day a week each parent apparently works. Unless they have twins, a parent would have 3 children in full time childcare for a vanishingly short period from when maternity leave for baby three ended to when child 1 started at school & the bill dropped.

It does flag some absurdities though.

• that you only have to earn £846 a month for the benefit cap to be lifted (this is sod all at current minimum wage)
• that you can full time UC childcare element even if you only work a day a week
• housing allowances in central london are very generous. We shouldn't be funded people to live in the world's most expensive postcodes at state expense.

Compare your life with someone who is on benefits as they are unable to work.
No kids, just crippling mental health issues.

I bet you will change your tune then.

I’ve been on tax credits as a single mum and now I’m working a decent job and don’t get any benefits. I’m not, never have been and would never be “better off on benefits”.

Hmm, from what ai have seen if the lifestyle of people on benefits they have far more spending power- and better quality of life then I do working full time.
It’s not just the everyday luxuries like cans of pop (if they’re not luxuries for you, Reader, then Bravo) but they have free time and wherewithal financially for regular weekends away with their kids.
also, don’t know if this still applies but their kids can get free/ subsidised places on school trips so they don’t meet out due to being deprived and raised on benefits