Why am I paying for these people to get benefits when they have

[Hedgehogbrown]

Only joking! If I have to see another thread from some selfish fucker moaning about other people having seemingly more than them, I'm going to rip my eyes out. Pay your fucking taxes and stop being so selfish! Or quit your job and go on benefits then if it's such the high life.

Presumably you are left-wing, and so presumably you support mass immigration and multiculturalism. But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t impose a new identity on people, sneer at their history, tear down their flag, demonise their national heroes, and then expect them to care about ‘the community’ or ‘ the nation’. We aren’t a nation anymore. As Starmer himself put it, this is now an “island of strangers.” I no longer feel English or British. I no longer feel like I live in a nation with a shared history and a shared culture. I pay my taxes because I want decent streetlights and a reliable police force, not because I care about ‘the nation’. George Orwell wrote that a nation should be like a family, with its shared memories and shared traumas. Mass immigration has destroyed all that. Small scale immigration is fine. People have always come and gone. But when it happens on a massive scale, in a very short span of time, it transforms your identity.

The left know that, of course. When Labour got elected in 1997, one of their speechwriters said that the plan was to use immigration to “rub people’s noses in diversity, and render their arguments out of date.” That has been achieved. No one was asked and no one voted for it. Fine. The left won. But don’t tell me I have any duty or responsibility to the new nation you have created or the new identity you have IMPOSED on me. I will only pay more tax because I am forced to, not because I want to or because I feel any duty to.

Yes but they only account for about 1/3 of the extra 5 million claiming. My point is that in the last 5 years there has been more and more people claiming UC / PIP / DLA etc … whatever the reasons, circumstances, etc… it’s just not sustainable. So many people witness the benefits system being abused, and when someone not claiming gets squeezed and squeezed every year, no help, no free anything, I completely understand why people get annoyed. And no it’s not fair to tar everyone with the same brush but unfortunately it’s human nature that a lot of people will and do take advantage of systems like this. I bet we all know someone claiming something who shouldn’t be.

33% of UC claimants work
(sept 25)

of that 33% it is estimated 75% work full time ( 30hrs/wk )

So of all UC claimants
25% work full time

Agree
There will have to be a serious overhaul of who can claim benefits
ie PIP and UC

It won’t be off the books with the forecast for future spends unsustainable

I agree with you as someone who is disabled and works. I'm tired of people with 'anxiety' saying they can't work when I'm physically disabled and work 35 hours a week. This nonsense has got to stop.

That’s a horrible situation to be in. It’s sad that many study, qualify and then find the job is replaced by AI

The people moaning are the ones paying your benefits. You should be kinder as you need them to keep doing it.

@platinumanddiamonds Yeah, it's been really stressful as my entire profession is just dying essentially. The few remaining roles seem to be more AI oversight than anything now, and everything is extremely competitive. I've got just over 4 years industry experience, and was in a related field before that, but not a single bite. I've ended up taking an admin role that only requires GCSEs, and quite frankly I'm grateful for the opportunity to retrain.

You really wonder if the government have considered the damage AI is doing resulting in more unemployment.

£350 a month on food…?!??? That’s a lot.

Know them all personally, do you? 😅

There's no rule that physically disabled is "more disabled" than disabled by mental illness.

If you can work 35 hours, and someone with severe anxiety has been placed in the LCWRA group, it would suggest that their disability has a greater impact on their day to day functioning. Common sense really.

They aren't doing it out of kindness, they're doing it because the government makes them.

The comment about making people work….

Jobs need to have practical adjustments for disabled people. It’s all very well asking for adjustments once you are employed, but jobs that have adjustments from the beginning. There’s someone on Twitter who looks for fully remote jobs suitable for disabled people and there’s very few.

There are no jobs. Everywhere near me is making people redundant. Maybe there are where you live, where I am in the NE it’s very bad just now. Friends son has applied for hundreds and gets nowhere.

Bollocks. 38% of benefits claimants are in work - and most of these will be part time.

The unions are left wing and they have just launched (unite ) a blistering attack on reeves saying she is not supporting struggling working people.

And that’s why she can’t win - even here on mumsnet as a snapshot, you have on the one hand total fantasists who seem to think money grows on trees and people should be propped up ad infinitum and on the other hand people moaning that they can’t get by because on £140k they are struggling to pay for their London or Home Counties mortgage plus childcare and can no longer stuff away £20k a year as cash in ISAS.The problem being a centrist/centre left ( and I am) is that those on the right and further left shout louder and have more representation within media, printed and digital - I’m not sure what unite expect her to do - problem is Unite have a lot ( not all) of members who do indeed do that ‘bit of part time’ and with not that skilled jobs that command a premium - what’s their suggestions that doesn’t bankrupt the country , allow for balance and fairness across the board and are easy and quick to ‘bring in’ for an instant hit - I suspect they have none - many things that can help like more social housing, better transport , childcare situation take both cash and quite long planning timelines. Unite seem to think there is an endless supply of cash and available, informed and qualified people to do stuff - and that all private businesses are totally walloped and can stick everyone on £50k salaries - many do ok but profits are tighter, margins lower in some cases due to economy, some due to Brexit ( our situation) I don’t always think the guys and women at the top of the unions have a clue on commercial reality as many have always been public service only

Not really. For some it's just lack of good treatment, including proper treatment for trauma. For others it's just a way to dodge work and anything unpleasant by hiding at home until its time to go on holiday . Believe me, I've worked with some of them. There's always an excuse to avoid what they don't like doing. Eventually they go off sick then end up on benefits other people are funding for them.

Britain is becoming a nation of weak, whining, entitled people who are all take and no give. I don't recognise our country anymore. It makes me sad and worried for the future.

And just so you know, the evidence bar for mental illness is stupidly low. People can say whatever rubbish they want, it's completely subjective. 'Oh yes I need help getting dressed because I'm so depressed I can't get out of bed.' I need help too because I'm physically disabled. I still get out of bed and work! Yet my condition is visible on scans and obvious in my movement etc. Anxiety is just self-reported words and there is no physical evidence other than transient episodes. These are usually very treatable with therapy and medication even in severe cases.

If we required several psychiatric unit admissions for mental health claimants you would quickly notice a decrease in claims for many reasons! Not least because mental health is badly funded. Take the benefits away from people and use them to fund mental health services. Everyone is a winner then.

Ironically as a physically disabled person my determination to continue working is used as evidence against me, rather than recognising my personal resilience and determination. Our system actually rewards the weak and idle, people with no personal pride. I know so many truly disabled people who are desperately holding on to work and contributing to society. Britain is broken. We reward the wrong people.

Ah another poster who thinks mental health professionals are thick and just believe whatever they get told 🙄

I agree OP. It's all these threads on people "struggling" on 100k and one the other day which was along the lines of how they would be struggling with tax increases as their private school fees were already making things tight for them....

Cry me a fucking river. I'll save my sympathies for those that genuinely need them.

@Jabtastic I completely agree. If the government changed benefits such as PIP where it’s not money paid monthly, and instead it’s paid directly to the private therapy/treatment or it’s paid directly to the company supplying the aids they need, etc, then there is no way there would be as many people claiming. I know of so many people claiming when they shouldn’t be, such as an ex husband of a friend who is working cash in hand doing a physical job but claiming UC & PIP (claiming severe back pain) And I previously worked in welfare and seeing the abuse of the system, the money some claimants were coming out with monthly, tax free…well my eyes were well and truly opened. There are also the people stuck in the cycle of benefits such as where they may be working some hours but would be worse off financially if they worked full time. The gov need to increase the tax threshold and make people who work better off than they are now. They need to stop incentivising benefits and the extra freebies / perks benefits open you up to. They need to stop burdening companies with the increase in NI / raising min wage and instead let the worker keep more of their money and stop taxing people so much. People receiving certain benefits also get a Xmas bonus each year of £10 …. Which costs us a ridiculous amount extra each year! Do minimum wage workers get anything to “help with the festive period?” Nope.

@ILoveHotChocolates. There are many people who cannot work because they do not have the capacity, perhaps learning disability, sometimes physical, sometimes because they are neurodivergent, and often a combination. Because of both my job and family members I’m very aware that if you have additional needs that employers really struggle to accommodate them or more to the point justify employing you over someone without “issues”. My volunteers at work nearly all have learning disabilities and you have to manage them constantly, if there’s a week when non can make it I get through the project better than when they are “working” with me, no way would anyone pay them. I don’t want to sound mean because they are lovely people but they will be on uc for life

I was talking about this in the context of PIP or UC claims for mental health. I probably should have made that clearer.

I think maybe more should be done to understand why we are such a sick nation. It's ludicrous that so many are claiming because they are ill or disabled or suffering with their mental health. How does our percentage of people sick and unable to work compare with other developed nations?