Benefit Bashing

[Kendodd]

A mum I know and her DP with two children live in a two bed (nice) HA house. Neither of them work and have not worked for as long as I've known them (two years) I don't know about before then. She has told me they are trying for another baby, not to get a bigger house or anything, just because they want four children eventally. I would love four children but can't have that many because for one we just can't afford four.

AIBU to feel a bit pissed off that they can have more children and I can't or am I just a jealous benefit basher.

ps They are both nice and don't have a flatscreen TV.

"because of prices inflated by benefit scroungers...."

OMG...you actually believe that don't you?

and for the umpteenth time...there is no evidence that the family in question are actually on benefits!

am i benefit scrounger in your opinion giraffes? (and lets face it, only your opinion counts)

or that they aren't looking for work crispy.

Crispy I think we all need a

Poor Giraffe, she has an issue with saying sorry, perhaps life is not so rosy and to add to all that she might have finally realised that tax payers have been part funding her maternity pay. I bet she wants to drop her baby and get straight back to her "work", rather than being an unproductive mumsnetter.

It always amazes me how some people see some 'benefits' as okay and others that are for 'Lazy Feckers'.

This thread might have started off talking about the scenario in the OP but it diverged into discussion generally.

I can't see why there needs to be a pointless 'tag team' effort by those who are obviously so badly affected by any opinions that differ from it's their own.

What is so difficult to understand, really? The country is in recession, times are tough for pretty much everybody and it does seem to be the case that those many of those people actually working are finding it impossible to consider having another child (even with the benefits that every family is entitled to), whilst those who are not working in any job have no compunction in having child after child that they can't financially support.

It's selfish and irresponsible and wholly unsustainable, there isn't the money available to cover it. Some who are on benefits will never work in their lives, thinking that they can do as they like and they are entitled to have their very lives funded by the Government. I guess those people don't have sleepless nights worrying about making ends meet... whilst people who are working towards their own futures have plenty of anguished 'choices' to take.

The jokes and back-slapping on this thread say much about the people who post them. It's not funny, it's sickening. There's nothing amusing about not attempting to earn a living whilst intentionally making yourself a bigger drain on a system that was never set up for that purpose.

Really... get a grip!

Very well said.... Now wait for them to come and rip you to shreds.

one of the best ways to obtain and maintain power for a small ultra rich minority is to divide and rule as julius cesar taught. when you suckers gonna wake up and see this war on "benefit scroungers" has been created by those above so they can carry on shafting us all?

some of the hate driven opinions on here make me sick and i can quite easily SMELL the beginnings of another holocaust of the poor.

why don't we just kill them all? i reckon certain posters on here would be willing to do the dirty job themselves. now gonna go puke.

lyingwitch, I'm on benefits and no way on earth would i HAVE another child. Absolutely unthinkable because to be frank life is hard enough. So for you to say that those who work hard think carefully about whether or not to bring another child into the world, and those on benefits do it without a thought - it's just another stupid generalisation.

"There's nothing amusing about not attempting to earn a living whilst intentionally making yourself a bigger drain on a system that was never set up for that purpose."

why are you talking to here? none of the contributors to this thread have said they are unwilling to work.

once again, someone who wrongly believes that benefits = lazy and unwilling. it really is such an ignorant attitude. take the easy option and beleive what the DM tell you or actually take a bit of responsibility for your own opinions and base them on fact.

I am on benefits and am neither lazy or unwilling to work, nor am i creating umpteen new lives to eb supported by the state, nor do i sit on my arse all day doing fuck all. FACT.

who

HeartShapedValiumSandwich... It's not ALL people on benefits, I've never said that and I don't believe that to be true either.

BooyFuckingHoo... Do you actually read what somebody posts or just gloss over the bits that don't fit into your mindset?

The bit you've quoted from me where I refer to 'you', was a universal 'you', I was going to say 'oneself' but thought better of it.

This:

People who don't work AND claim non-universal benefits that working people can't have AND add new children to their families.

is what I'm referring to.

that holocaust is imminent anyway now this govt of millionaires with a few libdems thrown in as the fall guys has cut 18billion in benefits to the neediest in society. that's WOMEN, CHILDREN and the disabled.

"The jokes and back-slapping on this thread say much about the people who post them. It's not funny, it's sickening. There's nothing amusing about not attempting to earn a living whilst intentionally making yourself a bigger drain on a system that was never set up for that purpose."

you refer to the jokes on this thread in that paragraph, you then go on to say that it isn't funny to not try and earn and becoming a bigger drain on teh system.

therefore implying that you think it is people on this thread who are intentionally draining the system with no intention of working.

Oh its so tiresome this thread! And attacks have just got more and more vicious based on the OP's opinion of people she has only known for two years. I find it sad that people watch the JK show and base all their opinions on what they see on there. I am an accountant and the money we loose through tax evasion is so much higher than benefits. It maybe immoral but its totally legal. I am very happy for my taxes to pay for all the benefits in the world. When are we going to start attacking the real scroungers who take take take and in bigger quantities than any so called benefit scroungers ever would in their lifetime?
Bigger picture people, stop sweating the small stuff.

I have read alot of these benefit threads and not chipped in so I'm not sure why this one has pissed me off the most (apologies if thread has moved on).

OP This time last year we could have been the family you describe. Two children and neither of us worked. No doubt people made assumptions about us on the basis of this and the fact that at face value my DH looks healthy and able bodied. He isn't. A neurological condition means that he could fit at any given moment should he laugh, become anxious or sometimes for no reason at all.
We decided to have 2 children because we wanted two children and made our focus bringing up our children to be the best human beings we could. Yes the state was "paying for them" but we were bringing them up in a way that they will give back when their time comes. We lived week to week no luxuries ( and our TV was 15 years old and 3rd hand since your TV seems to be so fucking important to alot of you)
2 years ago DH started on a miracle medication that has given him his life back. Within months he was looking for a job. Any job. It took 2 years and alot of rejection and disappointment but he now works full time. After 10 years out of work this has been a difficult process.Particularly since he has a degree for a career he can no longer work in.
Are we better off financially? NO
It's hard now as it ever was except now my DH is exhausted, never sees the kids. Yes he is proud of himself,I am proud of him but part of me wishes he was back at home with us.

Do you know I'm not sure of my point anymore except to say stop fucking judging what you haven't the faintest idea about.
Stop judging what you don't know because you have to LIVE shit like this to realise nothing is how it looks from the outside. Take your noses out of the Daily Mail, climb down from your moral high ground and Get A Fucking Clue.

Yes no one has said they are unwilling to work at all.

FYI I find it offensive that posters like Giraffe who can enjoy being on extended maternity leave, which is part funded by the tax payer, coming on here telling other posters to get a fucking job.

Now KenDodd with her 3 kids was envious because her phantom friend also supposedly had 3 children and wanted to have another child. Now KenDodd has vanished off this thread. She has been rumbled by Crispy. Yet we are still going to get posters on here saying how sickening it all is.

Now the phantom family don't exist and I don't recall any posters on here say that they are lazy and unwilling to work. So what are some of you on about ? Some media fed frenzy? Even when posters on benefits post and say " No I am not going to have anymore children" that does not stop it.

Orwell is right.

makes you wonder, friends does it not whether some of these posts are for real. MN reaches alot of mummies/daddies and then some.

'extended maternity leave'

My baby is only just 4 months old... What's extended about that?

George please don;t down the whol holocaust road: its a crap tine for vulnrerable people but scaring and getting OT helps nobody. There are plenty like me (2 autistic diagnoses, one dyspraxia and a toddler who is regressing) on here who don;t need to read that shit.

Foof so glad that he found the med for him- how wopnderful!

' I guess those people don't have sleepless nights worrying about making ends meet

a LOT OF PEOPLE WHO WILL NEVER WORK AGAIN DO HAVE THOSE SLEEPLESS NIGHT BECUASE THEY WON'T WORK THROUGH AGE, OR DISABILITY, OR CARER STATUS. Sorry to shout, wasn't intentional Actually (ds3 and caps lock) but decided to elave it in.

Would I say someone with a disability should enver have a child? no, actually. Do i think everyone who can work should at least try? of course, absolutely.

We had the older boys before tax credits, we coudl ahve probably claimed HB and what was then family credit but didn;t have a clue it existed for working people (we were very badly paid, same company same shitty wage scale). It was hard times, and we ended up losing the lot when DH became ill for six months. DH works PT as well as studies FT and I am trying to get a little income going as well as caring, but nowadays 9follwoinga redudnancy and caring) I am far more miserable becuase I hate the dependency, really loathe it. ended up having a mini breakdown at ds1's psych appointment a few months ago and getting very ill for a bit becuause I had come to think of myself as nothing but a drain on society and of no use at all.

In relaity that class of benefit choosers is amll. yes it exists but it is a proportion of the total. It's a shrinking proportion too what with redundancies left right and centre now. The place we live is dying, porbably already been give lst rites. We'd badly like to move but after 7 years fighting for teh right schools and statements for the boys daren't. People when they lose their work here know full well they are unlikely to get anything at least for a long while and you can watch them get knocked down a little a week until they give up. But did they choose that dependency? nope. they just ahd all self beleif taken from them.
Which is why things like future jobs and schemes to get people ionto work matter becuase often all you need to do is let people believe they stand a chance and indeed deserve one after all. There'll still be a proportion of claimants but they ar etheives stealing from the system and I reckon would simply resort to crime if they didn;t get their IS anyway. Different crime. Benefit fraud is crime.

Lying witch - so you think people on benefits don't have sleepness nights worrying about how to make ends meet? You haven't got a clue. I've explained my circumstances on another thread and refuse to have to justifty myself again, but anyone that thinks living on benefits is a picnic, come and have my life. It is a constant struggle and I beleive it's only a tiny minority that would choose it as a lifestyle.
I also don't understand how people on JSA would get away with not working. You have to apply for at least 3 jobs a week, or have some sort of proof that you are looking for work, otherwise your benefits stop, and my local job centre is very strict on this.

TSC so true (I do have a degree thogh it cannot teach you to think- only assess if you can or not).

It's bloody obvious that the media is trying to paint claimants as the last great evil with absolutely no differnetitation between groups. Divide and conquer, strip the tax loopholes and bugger off to a tax haven.

I neither read the Daily Mail nor watch Jeremy Kyle. I'm not talking about the scenario in the OP either and I'm pretty sure that I'm not talking about the posters on this thread.... that is unless someone pops up to say that they don't work/won't work, are fully funded from the Government, and are actively looking for more money from the Government to pay for them having more children.

Giraffe is on maternity leave so why is that an issue? She was working. You can only get maternity leave if you DO work, no?

It's not about a Big Brother state but it is about the quality of society and the people who make it up. It's a really sad indictment that there ARE people who have so little pride that they don't want to work and won't make any effort to do that. There are people who feel that way and I hope those are the ones the Government is targeting. Unfortunately, like fishing with a net, there will be others caught up in it - if there must be somebody to blame, blame the abusers of the system. I'm making no apology for the way I feel about that, I genuinely feel aggrieved that we have a working poor who are struggling so much financially when there are people who don't contribute and never have.

I'm sick and tired of seeing the country that I loved becoming a laughing stock.