If you could decide how much people get in benefits

[OneLemonOrca]

There are benefit bashing threads being posted often, with complaints that certain people on benefits can afford a better lifestyle than them when they work, and that it is being made into a life style choice?
So if you could decide, I am just wondering how much you think benefit claimants should receive in certain circumstances or what their money should or shouldn’t be able to pay for, to get a general idea of what mumsnet thinks is “right”.

I would cap rents and nationalise services. I would allow companies to make huge profits on the backs of the citizen while we can't afford to heat our houses.

Because building a special needs school every 10 miles is totally unrealistic?

Hate these sort of posts that are covertly goading.... dividing and conquering...hate it

Yes this needs looking at really.

A family of four claiming Universal Credit in the UK would be part of the global top 1%.

These propaganda pieces are complete nonsense.

Did any of these communities who showed the improvements after the introduction of a Universal Income already have a benefits system?

Or are the observed improvements to do with actually giving some income to people who would otherwise have be in devastating poverty?

We're already doing that with our benefits system.

The quote you include for the USA trial does say 'The effects were primarily found... lifted out of poverty rather than those who were already well-off'. So I don't expect we'd see those benefits.

I think there have to be incentives to work, incentives to work more, and incentives to take higher-paying jobs which are higher stress/more hours/require time spent studying/require experience built up over time. And I think that incentive is having a clear difference in lifestyle/disposable income.

Otherwise, why would anyone bother? Chilling out at home and with your kids is much more pleasant than working! (whether that's not working at all, or working fewer hours or a less stressful job). And if fewer people bother then less value is created, and pretty soon there's no money for anyone.

UBI will never happen. There'd be very people then willing to do the grunt work which currently employs millions - care work, supermarket work, abattoir work etc etc etc.

I think you should always be financially better off working. Its an absolute scandel that big business can pay such poor wages that people are forced to claim benefits to top up their income to a liveable wage. Any government that addressed this issue would get my vote.

14 years.

If UBI was ‘trialled’ in Namibia and other places and was’successful’ why did those places then not fully implement it permanently?
Becsuse it is unaffordable!
And would inevitably be inflationary, so rents /house prices would rise and the increased tax on companies would mean all prices would rise.

I know a lot people who have milked the system by being careful only to work 16 hours to maximise all the benefits. No disability-just an inclination to free load.

Yes I think so especially when there are 2 parents.

Oxfam is propaganda? We are one of the most unequal countries in the world.

Do you have a source for that? Because this source says otherwise:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/wealth-inequality-by-country

The 16 hours thing no longer exists.

I don't know about couples but it's not really for single parents, it's 30 hours on minimum wage.

Some people still have ‘16 hours’ in their heads as the qualification for 30 hours childcare. Which is actually ‘earning the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the minimum wage. So income based but if you do earn the minimum wage still sensible to think of it as 16 hours.

Well it's not really, because you can't just work 16 hours any more and claim, so it's irrelevant. You have to work 30 hours at minimum wage as a single parent.

I disagree. Plus just because the minimum wage has gone up doesn't mean you will get more. Most places will cut your hours down because they can't pay the increase.

As it stands the system is a disgrace, There are families living in poverty and that cannot be right.

On the other hand a family member has thousands of pounds in savings all from disability benefits. She lives in sheltered accommodation, heavily subsidised and has carers calling paid for by a charity. She is almost at the threshold of losing benefits so she's paid for a holiday for her family to take it down again.

It's an old article, but average incomes haven't risen that much since 2012.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/27/were-all-the-1-percent/

"To make it into the richest 1 percent globally, all you need is an income of around $34,000, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. The average family in the United States has more than three times the income of those living in poverty in America, and nearly 50 times that of the world’s poorest. Many of America’s 99 percenters, and the West’s, are really 1 percenters on a global level."

Oxfam targeting the ”1%" sounds great until you realise it includes people living on benefits in the UK.

Beeznees - what about couples as someone seemed to be suggesting that as a couple you just had to do two lots of 18 hours? which would seem rediculously low and also unfair to single parents.

I don't understand why the taxpayer is topping up low wages from companies with eye watering profits. Is there a reason that companies such as Tesco are not forced to pay higher wages? I understand why a higher living wage may be disastrous for small business but why not a living wage based on profits?

How would it be paid for ?
Cost of living in which part of the country?
Many people wouldn't work, services would grind to a halt.

"Because building a special needs school every 10 miles is totally unrealistic?"

My council chooses to transport pupils 40 miles to an expensive independent special school rather than provide in area.

@Loubelle70 that's fine. I speak to lots of others in my boat who plead poverty so I can see why you’d think that. But to me over £4K per month is a lot of money but I’ve never lived with anyone so I imagine having two incomes is similar.