Raging with my brexiter boomer PILs who have "never taken a penny in benefits"

[Rosepetalgeranium]

How can you have never taken a penny in benefits when you had 5 children born and educated in the UK, claimed family allowance, regularly use the "free" bus pass, have been claiming a state pension for almost two decades, she's being treated for many years for diabetes as she eats too much shit, and he has had his cataracts done and both knees replaced, mil only ever did part time work for a bit of money and fil took early retirement on a good pension.

I'm pretty sure they took more out of the system than they ever paid in, not that there's anything wrong with that. But I can't stand that they go on about others taking out of the system when they thought being born in the right generation have almost certainly taken out far far more than they ever paid in and still have ongoing medial conditions that is all paid for by the NHS.

Is anyone elses pil like this?

In fairness the state pension is based on NI contributions so unlike other benefits (apart from contribution based JSA) you do have to put something in. However, it's cheeky to conveniently ignore the costs of education and health care!

You sound extremely bitter.
Calm down it’s New Year’s Eve.

Oh, & the NHS is paid for by people like your in-laws, you know, people who have paid tax all their lives.
Or do you think the NHS is funded by unicorns?

If they claimed family allowance now known as child benefit then yes they claimed benefits so they’ve told a lie on that account.

Nhs/pensions/schooling are by the by as they’re funded by national insurance contributions so they’ve gone some way to funding the things they’ve had done or receive.

My dsdad is a brexiteer and I’ve learnt to let it just wash over me and say well Dad we shall agree to disagree and change the subject.

I'm not bitter, I'm being rational. The amount of tax they paid wouldn't have covered what they have taken out so far.

Nothing wrong with that. But they are saying they have never taken anything in benefits and can't stand how the country is full or workshy people on benefits.

But you get ni credits for being a mother and full time education? She at most worked for a couple of years in her life for pin money. Of course she met the criteria, but didn't pay in through tax.

I don’t think you sound bitter at all . I think you sound fed up with their ignorant nonsense. I have similar parents and every logical point made is met with a self righteous “well I paid my taxes so I earned the right to...blah blah blah”

Oh just f*ck off!

But they are saying they have never taken anything in benefits and can't stand how the country is full of workshy people on benefits

Daily Fail readers, are they?

YANBU. The lack of rational thought is frustrating.

That generation didn't fully fund health, education, social care, defence etc though, did they? That's why there's been an accumulating massive black hole of national debt and deficit over the decades.

And taxpayers and workers who are economically active now are funding pensions and health care.

So it could be argued that it's unsurprising that the younger generation(s) feel bitter. They've been shafted - and on top of that are told lies.

Yes. My MIL never worked. FIL quite poor and always have top ups (like tax credits). But they feel they haven’t beacause the money isn’t unemployment benefit.

Yeah, leave aside mortgage interest tax relief, trickle up economics. My ex fil boomer looked down his nose at me, he and mil saved up for a year and bought their first house outright. He thought I was a waster for having a mortgage. Never a lender or borrower be.

YANBU at all
My sympathies. My IL's are the same and so is my stepmother. Having easy lives has done them no good, they are just nasty and thick. Fortunately my ILs are no contact with us. It's much nicer.

You have my sympathy OP. They are deluded.

I’m always surprised at how many Mumsnetters have in laws like this. Why marry someone when you hate their parents & all they stand for?

I remember the spiteful delight of my father when the tax credit cap on more than two children came in, honestly I hadn’t seen him smile so broadly in years. The smile became a verbal slagging off of all those “arseholes” that claim tax credits at all but soon dried up when I told him that I was in fact one of those “arseholes”. The smile went and I didn’t see it again for five years (not a joke) with hindsight perhaps I shouldn’t have informed him, maybe he’d have been cheerful for longer.

Mine are actually my parents surferjet so very little choice I am afraid.

Fair enough

Oh don't get me started about boomers who say "we never got any tax credits".

Yes you fucking did! They were included in your tax codes. But they conveniently overlook all that!

surferjet because children can and do grow up to be different than their parents sometimes, you know

paid taxes all their lives? what when they were 4 years old? how about 12? ridiculous phrase.
Some may have worked less but paid more tax due to a higher paid job.

I don't hate my in laws, but I do limit my interaction with them as they're bloody ignorant (and quite openly racist).

My own parents aren't much better. Mum can't understand why the GP surgery is closing down because the NHS has apparently got loads of money. And why she's having to wait for treatment due to no staff, and in the next breath making some comment about doctors that speak and smell funny (Muslims). Veiled Islamophobia is common in their conversations.

Just keep them away from the kids. They're a bad influence.

My boomer parents often boast about how they only paid 10 grand for their first house. Well bully for you, you can even get a decent car for that these days.

'Ooooh in my day you could leave a job in the morning and get another in the afternoon' is another favourite.

All the while moaning about 'youngesters' living above their means.

I feel bad even writing that. Horrible how acceptable racism and xenophobia has become.

But they are correct that they didn’t claim benefits?

They presumably paid tax all their lives too? That’s how the system works. They aren’t saying they never took anything out of the system. Not sure why you’d be so annoyed with them stating facts.

The vast majority of people take out more than they put in. But it's all relative. Someone who has actually worked, paid plenty of tax/NIC may not have put in as much as they take out, but they'll have contributed more than the workshy and benefit fraudsters. So to some extent, your PIL's have a point.

I'm still recovering from the shock of hearing my brother come out with that bollocks where Brexiteers claim that there is nothing to worry about because the Millennium Bug. How someone with two postgraduate degrees can be as hard of thinking as that completely baffles me. I'm quite sad about it, he's not normally a dickhead, but now there's this big elephant in the room where we can't talk about a massive issue that is inevitably going to impact on all our lives.