What would happen to you/your family if there were NO benefits/welfare system?

[Mamajoycewig]

As there's been a lot of talk around benefits in the news and a lot of strong opinions on it I was interested to know what would happen to most people if there were no welfare system in place?

Would your family suffer? Would you be on the streets?

Would you have still had kids knowing if you couldn't work there'd be no government backup?

Would you have made different life choices?

Personally, if all benefits were to be removed tomorrow then we'd be the same financially other than losing child benefit which we use for nappies/wipes etc.

My mum and brother would be screwed as he's disabled. Although if I'm honest I don't think she'd have had as many kids as she did without any top ups (4 kids). She's always worked but needed top ups.

Family should be responsible for child family members. Probably where we’ve gone wrong in Western society tbh

Personally no impact. We’ll likely never receive anything as over all the thresholds.

Perhaps but then when they are too unwell to work, are they supposed to beg?

I suppose they can sell tissues, that's what some elderly do in my home country. In south Korea they prostitute themselves, the 70 year old who don't have a pension.

Caring for a grandchild has a lower age limit, my grandma did it in her 70s too. Hopefully the kids would pay her for it the same way they pay for childcare in this country.

If you think of only yourself and what things are your responsibility then you can only rely on yourself and that doesn't work for most people if they have to pay for healthcare and bills with no state support in their twilight years. The pensioner's in this country are yowling cos the government took away 200 quid! How would they like a 2k medical bill?

Or a 20k medical bill.

I'd much prefer a functional welfare state, even with the odd chancer, than a system that forces intergenerational care - especially as much of the physical and emotional burden of care may fall to women.

Did you read the bit where I said that those that are in need should receive help?

The ones that are working the system should be stopped.

Wanting a fair welfare system isn’t about my lack of giving a shit.

People say this, but can never actually describe how society would be improved by higher levels of poverty.

Would you allow homeowners to have guns to defend against all the theft that will happen?

I guess the more you think about it even if your own family unit was okay it could quickly become not okay unless your wider circle were financially solvent.

If your own parents couldn't get a state pension or benefits and couldn't support themselves financially then they'd have to move in with you/siblings.
Same with any siblings/aunts/uncles etc.

Without welfare a disabled sibling/auntie that couldn't work would either have to move in with you/relative or be left to fend for themselves on the streets.

The more I think about it the more I'm realising just how huge a knock on it would have to even families doing okay.

The expectation of intergenerational care also has it's own problems, much of the responsibility falls to the women and relationships can be abusive.

If you think of only yourself and what things are your responsibility then you can only rely on yourself and that doesn't work for most people

Excellent point. Everyone on here rushes to say they’re not responsible for anything or anyone apart from themselves, then bemoan the lack of village/friends/loneliness/support network.

Nope, that's not 'where we've gone wrong'. Caring about and being responsible for are two completely different things.

No impact at all. None of my immediate family have ever claimed anything, even in times I've not been earning. I've always saved enough to have an emergency fund.

People moaning about the 'lack of a village' tend to be the ones wanting to take from the village

In countries without a welfare state, the young support the old not the other way around..

Parents tend to be more bossy/aspirational re kids careers I.e. your child is more likely to be able to support you as a doctor than as an artist.

It wouldn’t have any impact.

Women would be the worst affected (as usual).

Women are always left holding the baby. Sex work would be through the roof.
Abusive relationships women would be stuck in.

If men knew that their wives required them for double income to survive (as no top up benefit)s if they left they could do as they pleased or threaten to walk out and leave them literally destitute especially if they had small children.

Tbh my grandparents looked after both of us..we tend to hire domestic helpers to care for the elderly. This is much easier to do when you are dual income which is why almost all mothers in my home country work..

It would because all of society would be impacted eventually.

You want to know what would happen without benefits?

My grandfather was born before there was a welfare state. He was the youngest child of 6. Obviously nowadays families are smaller. His parents were married and they had enough to get by. Then his father died in a work accident. No state benefits meant his mother couldn’t afford to support all her children. The older ones who could earn money (obviously at a younger age than now) stayed with her. The younger ones, a baby and a 3 year old, were put into an orphanage run by the church where they stayed until they aged out.

If you took away benefits then a lot of single parents wouldn’t be able to work anymore. The benefits help pay for childcare so they can work. Parents who lost their jobs or were injured and couldn’t work would have to give up their children or have them taken away by SS because they wouldn’t be able to feed them.

I’m not able to have children and I have a small mortgage so I don’t consider there to be a viable safety net for me in this country as it is so have to squirrel away money of my own as best I can

And IMO there should be a safety net for you @TeresaCrowd I do agree it’s not there now, unless as a single child free woman you are able to get signed off from work and claim some kind of disability benefit

Quite a bit, mid stage Parkinson’s at 62, u yrs in, def not fit for work, 5 yrs till retirement

And?

Well I guess the NHS is benefit within a welfare system. When I got ill I certainly didn’t know how to perform an operation on myself. So I guess I would have just died at home in a lot of pain.

Yep…

so true, I remember this girl I know never bothered about any of the kids of the women in our social circle. then when she got unexpectedly pregnant to this guy she’d just met she was suddenly moaning about the lack of a village and wondering why her friends weren’t rallying around her 😬

No welfare state can mean higher female participation in workforce cos there is need for dual incomes (as long as there is no cultural push for women to stayat home and this is ebbing in many big cities in asia). If there is a welfare state, people are confident to operate on more threadbare incomes. This usually means women stop working or go part time.

My colleague is taking time off to spend time with her newborn baby. She is confident her dh can support her. I am not sure she would be so confident if she knew her dh would probably have to help pay for her elderly FIL's medical bill cos there was no nhs.