To be claiming some benefits.....

[CardyMow]

When DP works FT? DP earns £16K before tax. We get : £140 a week Child tax credits. £76 a week Working tax credit. £46 a week child benefit. £ 122 a week Housing benefit. We have 3 dc. I am a SAHM because no-one will emloy me due to my epilepsy, but I no longer get any disability benefits in respect of this. What I can't work out from all the hoo-ha on MN lately about benefits 'scroungers' is whether DP and I are unreasonable to claim what's available?

Soooo. Are we benefits scroungers because we get £384 a week in benefits. Or are we not benefits scroungers because DP works FT and pays tax? Where does the collective wisdom of MN stand on that?

[PortOutStarboardHome]

Loudlass is getting nearly 20k in benefts. To get that you would have to earn about 27K (is that right?).

Then add on her husbands income of 16K = 43K. How can that be fair to people that work? There is no incentive to get people to work when benefits are that high. It is the system at fault here.

[redflag]

Benefits have never been higher, because the price of things have never been higher, and we have a duty to make sure people in Britain don't starve to death!

For god sake do you want to live in a country where more people are homeless and starving to death on the streets!

I bloody don't! I want to live in a place where people are looked after and not everyone out for themselves.

Well done Tory's, As a mums netter said the other day " Pull the ladder up Dave, we are all alright"

[ccpccp]

"For god sake do you want to live in a country where more people are homeless and starving to death on the streets! "

So 20k housing benefit limit is now 'homeless and starving to death on the streets'? Ha ha!

Food has gone up in price, and so have housing costs. Wages havent gone up in line though have they? So when the earners in this country have to start going without and cant live in rich areas, then the entitled non-earners sure as shit need to tighten their belts too.

"Well done Tory's, As a mums netter said the other day " Pull the ladder up Dave, we are all alright""

Brilliant stuff. Are we going to get 4+ years more of this from the MN left? Loving it. Dont worry - you'll get used to being ignored in opposition, just as the Tories did. It gets easier :)

[HappyMummyOfOne]

Paying somebody £20k a year from tax payers money so that they can stay home is wrong. Before you had children if you could support them, bar child benefit, then labour came along and threw money at people to buy votes. This enabled people to have children without financially supporting them, live in expensive areas as somebody else was paying the rent etc.

Thankfully the Tories want to go back to the old way and believe those that work should never be worse off than those that dont. Benefits should be a last resort, either short term inbetween jobs or there for those physically disabled where they cant support themselves in any job.

I wish they would just scrap tax credits and raise the personal allowance. That way people cant choose to work the bare min hours in order to gain the most benefits and those that want to be SAHM/D's do so only if the family income and not the state can afford that. The childcare element could be re-named or free nursery places given instead.

[ccpccp]

thesecondcoming - its ccpccp. On computers you can cut and paste. Want me to post instuctions up for you?

I never to throw the first 'nasty'. It normally some muppet class warrior stooge who starts with the 'fuck the tories' kneejerk rubbish when they dont like the facts of life.

You know they need to have some kind of Godwins law for DM comments, they really do.

[ccpccp]

You talk as though they are cutting benefits completely thesecondcoming. And that its all happening overnight, rather than over a couple of years.

If mortgage rates go up then a lot of people are going to be fucked. But unfortunately thats what mortgage rates do - they go up and down. You either take this into account when making buying decisions, or you get burnt.

Benefits arent there to bail out poor financial planning, any more then they should be there to bail out poor family planning.

Of course plans dont always work, unexpected shocks happen. The benefits are still there in those cases, just a bit lower than the are today. Labour made benefits too generous.

[rodformyownback]

Thanks Loudlass for starting this thread. The voice of reason. Can't bear to read the entire thing as I know there are so many Tory voices taking over that will make me feel small.

After reading previous threads I've come away feeling like a dreadful scrounger for claiming what is available, even though DH and I are both employed!

Ccp - I don't claim HB because I own my home and pay a mortgage. DH and I bought our home last year and can only afford the mortgage due to low interest rates and falling house prices. Do you think we should have stayed in rented accommodation (in which case we would receive partial HB now) or taken the chance? Or perhaps you think we should both be sterilised for the crime of not being rich?

[ccpccp]

"cut the amount paid NOT TO THE BENEFIT CLAIMER BUT THE BUY TO LET LANDLORD"

Which is exactly what they are trying to do. Do you think all these poorly maintained houses, priced at the maximum allowed under HB rules, will get the same money from someone who isnt on benefits?

Of course not. And so landlords will be forced drop their prices or improve their properties. This is good for everyone.

In areas where prices dont fall, HB claimants will have to move to more realistic properties.

"DH and I bought our home last year and can only afford the mortgage due to low interest rates and falling house prices"

If you can only afford a mortgage when interest rates are low, then you shouldnt have bought the house. Why? Because you cant afford it if rates go up. And they will go up at some point.

[pastyeater]

So 20k housing benefit limit is now 'homeless and starving to death on the streets'? Ha ha

No a 20k limit isn't homeless and starving on the streets.They are going to cut HB by 10% if a jobseeker fails to find work.Considering Jobseekers allowance is only is only £64.30 per week making up the difference could lead to struggling to eat and to pay rent.I know some people think you can easily find a job within 12 months,but for some this won't be realistic.Some will have multiple barriers to employment,like I have already explained.Call me a muppet class warrior if you like but I don't think this is a 'straw man' argument.I don't deny some benefits are too high but why also cut the ones that are too low.?

Anyhow, this 'workshy turkey' is to lazy to continue clucking about christmas.
Though I don't know how you call someone workshy without knowing their employment history or current cicumstances.

Anyhow my original post still stands.OP you are not a scrounger. You are doing your best to get a job against all odds.Therefore you deserve every penny. Best of luck with the job hunting.

[TheGhostlyPirate]

But HappyMumofOne - if they cut tax credits I would be on my knees financially. I work the bare bones of 16 hours a week which allows me to meet the needs of my son who is disabled. Without the tax credits I could not do this and would end up NOT working.


The way things are have enabled me to meet my son's needs while continuing to work - it's not easy and there are times when I wish I could be a SAHM but I don't do so because I want to continue supporting myself enough to pay the rent and council tax. Tax credits are the only benefit I receive at the moment.

Is it so impossible to understand that some of us do NOT work the bare minimum just so we can live off of everybody else? Many of us have valid reasons for doing the hours we do.

[broughthimroundtotheidea]

This subject really get under my skin. £384 a week for staying at home ?!?!?! I drag my arse to work for £240, that is so unfair!! and to the people talking about how they could afford to live in their means when they were both working and earning 70k between them, I ask this .....if you could have your time again would you have saved some of that money for hard times or spent it all and then claimed benefits? We save £400 quid a month for our emergency fund just in case the worst happens, rather than fall back on "what we are entitled to".

[ccpccp]

Why wasnt your house covered thesecondcoming? Thats surely candidate for a buildings insurance claim.

If my family was hit by reduncancy or illness then we would have to rely on savings then benefits till we found our feet again. No-one is taking benefits away - simply pinning them back to more realistic and fair levels.

[broughthimroundtotheidea]

I'm not preaching "love" I asked a question to which you gave a valid answer that your savings have unfortunately been swallowed up. Which is shite and I wouldn't have been able to pay that much had the same thing happened to me.

[granted]

But if you'd lost your house, you'd be able to rent - you wouldn't be homeless.

We've never been able to afford to buy.

[TethHearseEnd]

Well I for one am sick and tired of people claiming what they're entitled to having such a sense of entitlement.

[granted]

Am astonished by amount that loudlass claims monthly - my DH is a higher-rate taxpayer so we stand to lose our only benefit - child benefit - shortly. I also work, and always have done, the second my maternity pay finished, I had no choice. I'd love not to, or to work less, but we couldn't afford for me not to work.

Yet, on the figures that lodlass has posted, our monthly take-home pay, after housing costs have been deducted, is virtually identical, £ for £, to what loudlass receives.

Yetshe doesn't work - an is viewed as 'poor' - whilst I work from home, every nght, long after kids are in bed - and are viwed as 'rich' and not in need of our child benefit.
It's all bollocks - incl loudlass claiming she can't afford a holiday on her meagre benefits. We have a holiday every year - nothing pricey, camping etc . But I guess she must have a pricey smoking and/or drinking habit if she can't afford one at all.

As I said - our incomes match hers more or less exactly - though I work damn hard to earn mine, and appreciate it's harder for her to earn hers. We also have 3 dcs.

If I can afford a holiday, so can she.

Given my taxes pay for benefits, I don't mind her claiming if that is what the state says she is 'entitled to', but I would really, really like her to stop moaning about the fact that some people view those amounts as high.

I'm so, so tired of the hours we have to work - maybe loudlass could try some old-fashioned gratitude that those like me who work every minute of the day are paying for her and the hours she gets to spend with her dcs/posting on mumsnet.