To see benefits as a safety net, not handouts?

Her situation is awful. But she is not representative of the majority of those coming across the channel from France. I don’t see how Europe, not just the UK, can continue to support so many people.

It used to be a safety net and it was shameful for anyone to go and 'beg' for welfare. To work was pride, providing for your family and it really was a case parents would do anything to make ends meet, including several jobs all hours, lodgers in an already overcrowded house.

Gradually it's become an entitlement for generations) for some and an alternative to planning ahead having kids because you can claim and don't need to look for work until child is 3, so meanwhile have another and another...

It is generally, at a young age, people from certain demographics as area and religious backgrounds. The birth rate is dropping in other demographic areas but staying the same or increasing amongst the generation cycle of benefits and cultures who prefer larger families.

She arrived in the country with 3 DC, her husband was not allowed to live with her in the same house as he had a separate asylum claim so was housed in a hotel for men type of thing. If he didn't go 'home' every night the hotel would inform the home office and it would jeopardize his accomodation and therefore claim. The baby was not planned as she told me as such, but didn't want a termination. She is extremely traumatized by everything of course, the LA are saying there's nothing they can do as they've given her emergency hotel accommodation so they have done their job. The DM and such paint such a privileged position of these asylum seekers, I literally have secondary trauma from the things I've seen.

She arrived in the country with 3 DC, her husband was not allowed to live with her in the same house as he had a separate asylum claim so was housed in a hotel for men type of thing. If he didn't go 'home' every night the hotel would inform the home office and it would jeopardize his accomodation and therefore claim. The baby was not planned as she told me as such, but didn't want a termination. She is extremely traumatized by everything of course, the LA are saying there's nothing they can do as they've given her emergency hotel accommodation so they have done their job. The DM and such paint such a privileged position of these asylum seekers, I literally have secondary trauma from the things I've seen.

I agree! neither scenario is great but I fear those are the ways we are heading.

That’s awful i feel bad for her, i wonder if she was pressurised to have that last kid or all of them.

Because it seems incredibly unwise for them to have had a string of kids in close succession while her refugee claim is being processed.

Where is the father?

btw I am genuinely curious about this case but I do agree there’s a lot of myths designed to demonise refugees!

It's a difficult problem and one I don't think has a simple,nice or easy solution.

The pro benefits crowd want a system that's simply not sustainable but equally the anti benefits crowd are naive if they think simply cutting off funds will make people suddenly get a job.

I fear that any attempts to sort the issue are going to lead to a horrible outcome no matter what either bankrupting the country or leading to levels of cruelty that history won't look fondly on.

They are forever tinkering with the benefits system but they never look at what they could do to help people.

I'm disabled and I have worked on and off since I became disabled.

The 16 hours and NMW is what they seem to be obsessed with.

At one time I could not get tax credits because I was working part time, but because I received about £20.00 per hour I wasn't eligible. Had I been on NMW I could have claimed. My weekly income was the same as if I was on NMW for 16 hours.

I did supply teaching and that made things difficult, whilst I was claiming benefits my rent was paid via housing benefit, but the day I started work that stopped, even though I would not be paid for a month. There was no slack in the system.

I know if you are working then you pay your rent, council tax, etc but a loan for a month would have made such a big difference to me. I almost lost my home due to moving from HB to work and back again.

Yes to all of this. There is a myth that people come off the boats and into a council house. I'm currently supporting a family where the woman had a very premature baby 10 days ago via C/S, she has 3 other young DC, she was granted refugee status recently and last week was given three days to leave her property. They obviously couldn't find anywhere and in her post operative state shouldn't have been moving anyway. She is now living in a car near to the hospital her baby is in as the only emergency hotel they can offer is 150 miles away. The doctors have written letters of support to say she is not medically fit to be living apart from the baby, but it has been to no avail. This sort of thing is happening constantly.

Yes to all of this. There is a myth that people come off the boats and into a council house. I'm currently supporting a family where the woman had a very premature baby 10 days ago via C/S, she has 3 other young DC, she was granted refugee status recently and last week was given three days to leave her property. They obviously couldn't find anywhere and in her post operative state shouldn't have been moving anyway. She is now living in a car near to the hospital her baby is in as the only emergency hotel they can offer is 150 miles away. The doctors have written letters of support to say she is not medically fit to be living apart from the baby, but it has been to no avail. This sort of thing is happening constantly.

Yes to all of this. There is a myth that people come off the boats and into a council house. I'm currently supporting a family where the woman had a very premature baby 10 days ago via C/S, she has 3 other young DC, she was granted refugee status recently and last week was given three days to leave her property. They obviously couldn't find anywhere and in her post operative state shouldn't have been moving anyway. She is now living in a car near to the hospital her baby is in as the only emergency hotel they can offer is 150 miles away. The doctors have written letters of support to say she is not medically fit to be living apart from the baby, but it has been to no avail. This sort of thing is happening constantly.

Whilst it does enable parents to work - it is still the state taking tax to spend on a particular group. A form of benefits that is not an essential safety net.

I don't see the problem with the childcare hours? It encourages parents or women to work.

So when people come to the UK as asylum seekers, they go through a long process, during which time they're given an allowance of £49.28 per person per week (reduced to £9.95 if they're housed somewhere food is provided, even if that food is inedible). If they're granted leave to remain they will be given 28 days notice to leave their home office accommodation. In practice, this is often much less because of the time it takes to receive the notice. They will then have to apply for Universal Credit (they won't have been allowed to work while waiting for their case to be heard) and look for private sector rented accommodation. They'll need to find a month's advance rent and deposit. Numbers of homeless migrants have shot up over recent years as the notice period for Home Office accommodation reduced.
In reality, there are no "free houses" for refugees. They have to navigate the same Kafkaesque system as other renters while struggling with language barriers, lack of familiarity with UK systems, UC expecting them to start looking for work instantly, oh and obviously all the trauma involved with being a refugee. Obviously legal aid is available (limited appointments with lawyers who don't know you and only have a short time to familiarise themselves with your case) because what would happen otherwise?

Yes this country is broken. It must be, to treat the vulnerable and destitute as it does.

BBC News - Number of homeless refugees in England soars, BBC has found - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy9y3n43192o?app-referrer=deep-link

Benefits are way beyond a safety net. We have Child benefit and childcare hours for most parents, pension for everyone.

JSA is a safety net, as was emergency housing benefit.
Unified Credit makes sense in some ways, but seems to have merged safety net stuff with top-ups and tax breaks that become permanent.

There are not enough jobs going round. I have been looking for a job for more than a month. And I usually find one within a week

more people coming in and taking jobs, less jobs to go around , wether for the local or the migrant

Benefits are propping up UK society and UK economy. They're providing a higher standard of living than is sustainable. It's a ticking time bomb and when it finally goes off the whole country will go into socio economic meltdown.

Its been planned for 40 years
Its no accident

Benefits are propping up UK society and UK economy. They're providing a higher standard of living than is sustainable. It's a ticking time bomb and when it finally goes off the whole country will go into socio economic meltdown.

@thatsgotit our eldest DGnephew is an apprentice electrician, a good opportunity IMO. I agree, Uni nowadays can be an expensive experiment with no guarantees of a career.