New UC rules to force both partners to work ??

[Citrusmuffin]

I can’t find anything online about this but have heard it’s being changed as previously there had to be a certain number of hours worked but this could be by just one partner but now it’s being changed to make both work even though the total household hours don’t change??

This seems very unfair and taking away choice for some families in difficult circumstances. I just can’t find the official guidance is anyone able to link to it ? Thanks

Goodness, that almost sounds like a threat. Pay to keep you as otherwise you might accidently run over someone's family member. If you have an actual disability that is actually a barrier, then fine. Otherwise get a job that doesn't involve driving.

Care homes need to taken OUT of the Job Centres remit altogether. I would not want an elderly relative of mine being cared for by someone who resented being there.

If care work was treated like a job of worth instead of as the default setting last choice maybe wages and working conditions would improve.

Sorry, my typo. Of course I could pay for the twins to be in nursery 7-6, affording it is a different matter. I meant getting my 7 yo to school, as they're currently all I school together rather than private nursery for the twins. No childcare to do school wrap around, my friends been looking for ages. She works lunchtimes but would love to go full time but no one wants her 7 yo for an hour in the morning and a couple after school. Her partner giving up a decent job with prospects but irregular hours to work shifts at Tesco / Amazon and earn less is a ridiculous idea.

I'm looking for term time, altho they're only been 9-3 since after Easter and Uni is too full on atm to contemplate it so it would have to be September and I need to either earn so little it doesn't affect my Carers or so much that it covers my carers and what we'd lose in tax credits plus what DH will lose in unpaid leave attending DS's medical appts as schools are not flexible.

Perhaps there is a perfect world where everyone can work full time and earn enough to not need any benefits and were just too thick and lazy to see it. Perhaps we should up PIP and DLA and assoc benefits and scrap everything else. That'd teach them!

I honestly don't know how we afford it now to be honest but then I work as a benefits advisor so I think my perspective is probably scewed but in my job I come across so many older people claiming disability benefits for years on end usually at £100 a week or more, a lot of younger people late fifties/ early sixties burnt out physically or mentally from years of working or post covid and many others who are long term ill, there is so much mental illness around it's scary. then there are so many ( usually women) in their late fifties/ early sixties trying to care for elderly parents ( sometimes both) with little support from anyone, social services etc. Then there seems to be so many people in their fifties and early sixties coming through the organization I work for who are trying to claim PIP for things like long covid, joint problems, mental health problems, long term anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia etc. There doesn't seem to be a lot of help for a lot of these long term conditions, the NHS is on it's knees. But all these people need financial support and it's not insignificant amounts often for years and years on end. I honestly think it's a ticking timebomb but like I said my view could be scewed by my work and the eye watering amount of referrals for people needing help that we have everyday in my job.

It is helping pay for fewer families as there is more money in the pot, we choose to have children we should only be doing so if we can support them, I have worked 2 jobs to support my kids, my son is autistic I regularly do the no/little sleep and then work the next day. As a parent you suck it up safe in the knowledge that you are giving your children the life lesson that nothing is free and you work for what you want. Benefits are fantastic in this country, many countries don’t have a benefit system, people need to stop whinging and appreciate that they get any help at all.

@Jonei its not a threat Im child free by choice and have absolutely no skin in this game whatsoever so none of this would apply to me. Its common fucking sense not to get behind the wheel if you are very tired. It has the same affect as intoxication.

Disability aside, people need to take responsibility for themselves. Find a job and do it properly. Or find yourself out of work with no safety net because of deliberately putting yourself out of work.

@SleepingStandingUp yes its pure ideology

Yeah that's right. So find a job that doesn't involve driving.

Someone has to do the job you voted leave you got what you wanted now fill up the 1000's of vacancies that are now available because people have gone home or they can't enter the country.

@Jonei the elderly should not be put at risk by someone who does not want to be there. The care home residents who have sold their own home to pay for a place in a care home should then be put at risk? No care home resident should be used to fit ideology wherever their funding has come from.

The attitude was 'They are taking our jobs, I know let's vote them out'. Now there is jobs they don't want them, unbelievable!

@Humanbiology I voted Remain. Im half Italian

In my day ( wow! Never thought I’d use that phrase ) we didn’t have a choice about our kids being in nursery till late.
There was no UC to top up a family income.

I've long thought that it can't go on. I was brought up in a large town where being on benefits was just what the vast majority did. Fiddling the system and dodging tax was normalised.

The system creates an underclass that have kids just after leaving school, who then carry on the cycle of entitlement.

Well perhaps you'd have been happy to abort twins to try for a singleton but it seemed a but off when we'd tried so hard to get pregnant and had already nearly lost our eldest.

My point is making two parents work part time or in less well paid work vs one full time in better paid isn't necessarily increasing household income, so you'll still be paying for their benefits. In fact if their income is less, they'll be entitled to more.

And at no point have a said benefits aren't good, or that people shouldn't do what they can. I do think there's a lack of information and support on how to get back into work and not end up more skint.

But I don't think sleeping 2 hours a night for years on end is necessarily doing my best by the kids. But we're all doing what we think is.

I worked as a youth worker in one of those areas where people never really leave, unemployment is generations deep, aspirations are babies, care work or health and beauty for the ambitious, and had to listen to a teen recite the crap her Dad spouted about how all those foreigners had come over and taken all "our" jobs. I bet I know the answer as to whether he's found a job yet 🙄

Then get a job somewhere else. It shouldn't be a choice of doing a job really badly in order to go back on benefits. Do the job well, or go without.

😂 So now around 2 hours sleep, and fitting around a few kids and a DH who works, you now also need a full time job that's walking distance cos the hours you're looking at, it ain't gonna be buses.

Thankfully we have a 24 Spar and Maccies. Unfortunately they want FLEXIBILITY and ideally kids so they can pay less.

Someone has to do the job you voted leave you got what you wanted now fill up the 1000's of vacancies that are now available because people have gone home or they can't enter the country

Totally this. And even if not, if people need money, and they can work, then they should. Benefits shouldn't be an option for a lifestyle choice.

You do what you can. Take whatever work you can get. Rather than relying on others to fund a lifestyle choice. Yes.

What's the 2 hours sleep per night thing? And why is it relevant? Most parents of young children have disrupted sleep for a period of time, it goes with the territory.
It has no bearing on whether you should abandon work to stay home on benefits, or no mother would be capable of working at all.

@ReadersD1gest is your attention span that short? RTFT

It's funny that, "get them foreign workers out!" But also, "I don't want to work too much because of X"

Who gets to be the lucky taxpayer then who funds their lifestyle?

Excuse me? I was responding to @SleepingStandingUp's post?