Are other full-time working families finding there is nothing left?

Well empathy work both ways. Most people who say things like this are just only thinking of their own situation and self interest, they are paying about £3-5k tax per , they simply don’t realise or care that they cost the state £13k per year (on average per person) and someone else is making up that £8k. The empathy stops at the people paying this, who sacrifice time with their families, endure long hours and are now saying the burden is too much …in fact the ‘empathy’ oddly turns into animosity with comments like boot lickers.

Yes I did read it. I qualify if I want to seek work. You didn’t because you won’t be seeking work.

@Differentforgirls

Have you actually read that
You are disqualified from JSA if you are not actively seeking work ie if you are disabled or too ill for work
You also need to have NI in the last 2 - 3 years.
I left my public sector job three years ago to become a full time foster carer. I left with a full NI record, therefore did not pay any extra NI
So I am excluded on both counts

Haha OK fair enough

Just surprises me how little empathy I see on here. Mumsnet is full of bootlickers for some reason

Free time is a luxury if you have money to spend or other people all off together.

Is it a luxury when you have to watch every penny are stuff circling the same local park, or watching tv all day?

You are more employable with job references and experience, if you are in the working world you at least have a chance of moving jobs or getting promoted to earn more.

Leaving your house each day, having something to talk about, having work colleagues etc etc are all benefits of working.

Many people break things down into just money.

And right now it’s difficult, wages are not increasing as fast as inflation and bills. Workers do feel depressed at the erosion of living standards. An able bodied worker cannot just stop working a reap hundreds in benefits.

It was predicted the UK wouldn’t start to see the financial fallout from Brexit until about 10 years after the referendum and here we are, lower investment into the country, EU organisations moved, businesses relocated.

It’s difficult to keep your enthusiasm up when things continually seem harder and harder. But these are the times we are living through.

And yes it’s demoralising, we are GenX with teenagers and all of our disposable income goes on them, not even fun stuff, we are overpaying the mortgage every quarter to be able to pay their uni rents when they go. Next bonus, filling ISAs and opening pensions for them, fucking pensions aged 15! That’s how much we don’t see anything improving (on the positive side we hope if they see how it increases they might be more inspired to take a pension more seriously at the start of their working lives).

It’s fucking hard and we are more worried about our children’s financial future than I thought we would be, much more. Consumerism can go to fuck we don’t have the wingspan to buy crap anymore, or pay for extra services. Bills and the teenagers that’s it, that’s all we can do.

‘ I have this thing called empathy for others’

Where exactly did I imply moral superiority?

Do you think that's the only way to be permanently knackered?

I have a disabled child. I can assure you that I am far from well rested just because I can't work.

www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&hs=9wcp&sca_esv=df25ec6ca4037ad0&hl=en-gb&sxsrf=ANbL-n4mEu2ROCS12nb-pMMIEUAzpcQNOA%3A1775033176982&q=job+seekers+allowance+contribution+based&oq=job+seekers+allowance+co&aqs=heirloom-srp.2.0l5

True, but when you see posters saying things that imply moral superiority it’s usually someone paying £3k a year tax and receiving a whole measure of benefits.

@Differentforgirls

Everyone is not entitled to JSA

The clue is in the name. You have to be looking for work. If you are not, then you are excluded

Ridiculous comment. Mortgage/rent are usually people’s biggest outgoing. If someone paid my mortgage, I could easy work part time and still have money leftover.

I have a good pension. Everyone who has worked is entitled to 6 months JSA no matter your income or savings. Speak to a benefits advisor.

@OneShyQuail it’s not an outdated figure, it’s last years figure!

And with subsidised childcare why can’t people work more? There was a PP on this thread saying she ‘gets away’ with working one day a week because with her partner working also they are just over the AET threshold to claim without being hassled. How is that fair when two full time working parents are having more and more tax taken to pay for this.

True, it’s inflation but the problem is that tax bands haven’t moved with inflation. The 100k cliff edge would be £140k if it had.

Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they are virtue signalling 🙄

Virtue signalling posters around tax are often not net tax payers.

On another note to what everyone else has said.

Why are they giving huge grants for councils to offer green bin collections at this time when normal people are struggling so much?

Its very nice that we’re trying to be better with our waste but why spend the money now, I don’t understand their priorities?

Why should a family day out not cost £100, what do you think it should cost? 10yrs ago, it cost almost £100 to take my DH and two kids to the zoo, and today its around perhaps £10 more? And that is for a nationally rated zoo that does a lot of conservation work. Granted, food and housing costs are a lot. But other things have not changed a great deal. I looked at the cost of flights from a holiday we took 10yrs ago and they were only £100 cheaper than what I have booked this year (and 1 of my dc is now classed as an adult).

I'm a working person, why would you think I'm saying I'm the victim? I have this thing called empathy for others

Are we living under the same Government? Have taxes not just gone up 36 billion from business owners and working people and benefits budget been massively increased? You are not the victim here, the people grafting are.

Why would I have shame or feel
inadequate?

That is an outdated figure. More than that are working on UC.
The whole point of UC topping up a wage is that people usually CANT work fulltime, as just one example a single parent who has no support and is solely responsible for the children.

Point being, they could be working in a school as a support worker and dinner lady, but those wages are very low. The are trapped, as to come off UC theyd need a much higher paid job which they cannot access.

I see this all the time in my line of work

You think the argument is poor people want to take their kids at the zoo so need half your wages? My lord

it’s across the board with working people as well, at scale this leads to theme parks, zoos closing etc and then further job losses. It’s a vicious cycle. The argument is ‘oh my heart bleeds you can’t take your kids to the zoo whilst there’s people at food banks, give me half your wages’ but it actually increases the number of people needing food banks.