Should I ask my DS and his girlfriend for money

What there maybe should be is incentives for employers to take on long term unemployed people on trial 3 months, with no penalty to employer or unemployed person if it doesn't work out.

Don't you lose benefits if you allow someone to move in and take money off them? You would where I am outside of the UK. The benefits system seems very generous.

I don't care. No work, no benefits. If you can work you will work. I am quite comfortable with work houses frankly, it's certainly better than the trajectory we are on which is pitiful.

The thing is @SingleSexSpacesInSchools that working has costs, and benefits don't cover those extra costs.
Obvious costs are transport, clothes presentable enough for work, and possibly childcare.
Saying someone on benefits has to work for them just doesn't work.

There will also be many people who can do limited work but who can't find a job that fits their profile. For example people with neurological illnesses that come and go. They may well be able to work say 15hrs a week, but would need to do the work as and when they are well enough. That doesn't fit many employers, and the individual skillsets come into play too. Fine if you have good ability at admin skills, maybe you can do bookkeeping or some such from home, but someone who could be excellent at answering customer calls has to work when the employer wants, not just random hours.

Yes - it would be like the Victorian era. Horrific.

Right. So you want people on benefits to go out and work a 35 hour week for just over three quid an hour? Would you work for that?

I was turned down for lcwra three times. I said above that the dwp can overrule a GP. Even if your fit note says depression - an assessor can say you aren't suffering from depression.

I personally wouldn't put myself through that assessment again. One assessor was extremely hostile and the other lied all the way through my report

My mental health deteriorated going through the process of trying to get disability benefits

no. there. isn't.

Productivity is through the floor, more and more people just do nothing. We cannot as a country afford ir and frankly as someone who happily pays HUGE piles of tax, I don't think I am getting my money's worth.

They should claim as a couple, otherwise they may be prosecuted for fraud.

What if you are disabled? Where do they fall into the equation. You technically aren't correct. There are people on universal credit who work. At least a million people. It was the same when people claimed working tax credits. Because employers were paying them the min wage

Also. Being law abiding has nothing to do with this. Not all people who use drugs or alcohol have criminal records

And the popping out of kids with different fathers has little relevance either. Until very recently there was a two child cap on benefits.

There are millions of people in the UK who live in poverty. That's why many people claim benefits - to exist.

No they are not easy to get for some people but incredibly easy to get for others.

I have a friend who has multiple health problems and gets a very small amount of benefit (not sure which one) so has no choice but to work. Some days she cannot get out of bed. I think she should be getting more benefits than she is.

When she went to an assessment for a benefit they turned her down because she was clean and well dressed!

Mental health problems are easy to fake. If someone says they are depressed or anxious how do you know if it is the truth.

I actually suffered from such bad anxiety and panic attacks over 25 years ago that I did not leave my house for over 2 months. I had a job though and thankfully they were sympathetic and I managed to go back to work.

If my neighbour were genuine I would have sympathy but he is not

All three of you have diagnosed anxiety?

There is enough money that we don't need to resort to creating an underclass of people providing near-slave-labour.

I can lend you my CPAG 😅

Well he has been claiming for 4 years. Not sure it takes that long to investigate. Not sure they know more about the fact that he claims he can't leave his house and yet does every day or the fact that he claims he can't work and yet works cash in hand!

He is getting benefits and getting paid cash in hand so cheating the benefits system and the tax system! He works 4 or 5 full days a week and pays no tax or national insurance so gets a pretty substantial amount of money. No wonder he can go out and eat so many nights a week!

But that's just a proposal. You've said nothing about how it would work in practice - you have to work in order to get benefits? You mean for nothing? These schemes have already existed decades ago - the dwp implement them. Not the Government

Absolutely! It’s outrageous.

Well, you come up with a better solution. We haven;t got any money.

Well, this is what I am proposing. In order to get benefits.

We've 'met' on here before and I completely agree as in the same line of work.

Thanks. I appreciate that. I hope things work out for the OP and her son.

As I said previously people on lcwra can work as long as it doesn't contradict the reason they got the benefits - maybe something the OP can look into

There are people on lcwra and Pip who do work. I think that gets forgotten about sometimes

You shouldn't have to defend your position, as I said. The OP is only having to defend hers because the fact that her son is now also settling down to a life of benefits aged 22 is a reflection of her, as his parent. It looks like learned behaviour. And as I have also said, it's not surprising people find that frustrating, when everyone is struggling right now and taxes are going up and standards of living are going down.

ETA - I am sorry you're going through a shit time btw.

I'm sorry that you can't make a claim against someone, it seems rather unfair.

No. I don't. Persons didn't cause my accident. I would rather not go into detail but criminal injuries isn't relevant to what happened

I don't agree that people should have to work for benefits. That's just a recipe for near slave labour, and it's not fair on lower paid workers who would lose their jobs because councils etc would be able to 'hire' even cheaper workers for those jobs. Also with so many young people out of work, we need to be looking at creating more employment opportunities. Actually, I think that's part of the problem - there's so little work for young people out there at the moment that a lot of them (who appear to have been totally fucked up by the pandemic as well) seem to be just giving up and resigning themselves to benefits. This IS something the government needs to tackle, particularly as AI is going to hit the jobs market badly as well very very soon.