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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

In thinking that there is nothing wrong with claiming benefits?

39 replies

Mumofaflump · 22/03/2011 15:37

Please READ this whole post before jumping on me.

If a woman has worked, and paid her NI, why shouldn't she take benefits? She is only taking back what she has paid in after all.

I am currently on maternity leave. I have worked full time for 9 years now and fully intend to go back to work when I am ready. I claim child benefit and as SMP is barely a third of my usual salary I am claiming housing benefit as well.

I am very tired of being made to feel like a layabout and a scrounger for doing this.

Am I being unreasonable?

Please note - I am not condoning any sort of benefit fraud, I am merely annoyed at the stigma surrounding people who take benefits - even when they are fully entitled to them.

OP posts:
Crawling · 22/03/2011 15:39

good luck op!

scurryfunge · 22/03/2011 15:41

You are on maternity leave....I don't see the problem.

wonkeydonkies · 22/03/2011 15:41

its not the ones who are entitled

its the ones who think they are entitled and move heaven and earth to make sure they get "wot they are due"

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 22/03/2011 15:41

Mmm, if we all "took back what we have paid in" the country would be even more fucked up than it is now!

lubeybooby · 22/03/2011 15:42

YANBU

You have worked and paid NI

You are not treating benfits as a lifestyle choice

Nothing wrong with that surely? it's just a back up when you need it (ie now!)

worraliberty · 22/03/2011 15:44

It really is the lifestyle choice claimants and the fraudsters that wind most people up.

I disagree with the 'taking back what you put in' attitude in general though as we pay NI for many reasons..not just so people can claim benefits.

Original poster
Mumofaflump · 22/03/2011 15:46

Lubeybooby - that's how I see it, but according to several RL aquaintances (I hesitate to call them friends), and many MNetters I am completely in the wrong.

I work for a pensions company (yes, I know, I am the devil incarnate) and we have many clients who pay into an annuity, are entitled to take the money after a certain period of time and just...don't. If you pay your NI and don't accept what you are entitled too you are being just as silly IMO.

OP posts:
londonone · 22/03/2011 15:47

If you have worked for 9 years and you are having children you probably haven't paid enough in to cover what you are/will be taking out, unless of course you paid a particularly high level of tax.

ENormaSnob · 22/03/2011 15:51

Imagine if we all took what we paid in.

Or if claimants had to pay in before claiming.

Original poster
Mumofaflump · 22/03/2011 15:52

No, I may not have paid enough in yet, but I suspect I will do over the course of my working life.

Apologies, I may have worded my OP badly, I did not mean I should get ALL benefits because I have paid in, I meant I should not feel bad about claiming for the help I need.

OP posts:
GelflinGirl · 22/03/2011 15:52

YANBU................ i think all the judgy pants need to go and enjoy the fact that they dont need to claim and concentrate on there own lives!

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 22/03/2011 15:55

Of course YANBU claiming for the help you need.....but yes agreed, badly worded OP and I still disagree with taking out what you put in. As someone else has pointed out, NI is paid for many different reasons so god help us if we all want it back.

Birdsgottafly · 22/03/2011 15:55

Not everyone can earn enough to be totally self sufficent and if only those that could were the only ones to have children then our economy would have collapsed and we would have lost all of the wars that we have ever fought (the working class were, afterall, 'cannon fodder').

Also those whose businesses (nearly all) relied on cheap labour or consumers would have gone bankrupt.

Britain, like other European countries has created an economy that has to collect tax and pay welfare benefits for the country to function as it does.

There should be no stigma in claiming benefits especially in the areas where the is little stable employment. If anyone is happy to see others go hungry and homeless there are plenty of places they could live around the world to satisfy them.

animula · 22/03/2011 15:55

YANBU.

You are on maternity leave.

The haters are having too much of a good time at the moment, i.m.o.

Give them NONE of your headspace.

FabbyChic · 22/03/2011 15:57

I worked full time from the age of 16 until I was 40, then I became too sick to work, I am still too sick to work. I only claim that to which I am entitled I still got to eat.

I had a year off with my first child and five weeks with the second before returning to work.

Birdsgottafly · 22/03/2011 15:59

This is going to be contraversal but if im sure most people can say that the past generations of their family has 'paid in' one way or another. I mean that universally not just British citizens. That what was best about the post war years, everyone was credited with making a contribution.

carminaburana · 22/03/2011 16:00

If you're entitled to it claim it - what's the problem here? - there isn't one, so yanbu.

londonone · 22/03/2011 16:02

birdsgottafly - we actually don't have any great need for people to have children they can't afford. Immigration could deal with any work requirements we could have. Children ar very expensive particularly if their parents aren't putting into the pot. Most people in the country get more from the state than they give. Those receiving monetary benefits are receiving the most and contributing the least, economically speaking.

Original poster
Mumofaflump · 22/03/2011 16:15

Hmmm, ok, this isn't that bad so far...

Thank you all for your opinions.

OP posts:
Original poster
Mumofaflump · 22/03/2011 16:16

obviously.

OP posts:
carminaburana · 22/03/2011 16:19

op; this thread is about as controversial as Vera Lynn - you are claiming benefits you are entitled to, there really isn't anything more to say.

Chill out.

Birdsgottafly · 22/03/2011 16:19

londone- we don't anymore but one time we did rely on the 'lower classes' breeding. Why are wages set at a level that people cannot afford to have children, without a top up. The very rich in this country has built its wealth and that of the country as a whole, on the backs of others, thats how capitalism works. So now anyone who cannot earn a certain amount over minimum wage should not have children? So we are just worker drones are we? Or do you think that people would wake up and realise that wages are set and the whole system created and just not stand for it. As i said there are enough places around the world run on exploitation, i for one, as any decent person should, not want Britain to become one of them. Even more contraversal, but here goes, you then do agree with people from other countries having children that cannot sustain them, because that is why economic immigration happens.

tethersend · 22/03/2011 16:21

It's all those with a sense of entitlement going around claiming benefits they are entitled to who get on my nerves.

The entitled bastards.

Birdsgottafly · 22/03/2011 16:21

(Runs off shouting Viva La Revolution) Grin

BellBookandCandle · 22/03/2011 16:23

Thing is, it's not a right - you are only entitled if you meet the conditions for receiving it. For example, contribution -based JSA is paid for people who wanjt to wprk and can usually start work immediately. If you have childrens you can restrict youravailability, but still need to be available for a minimum of 16 hours.

You pay NI as a contingency towards unemployemnts, sickness, old age wtc, however, like all insurance schemes (clues in the namke National Insurance) there areconditions attached to the pay out.

Nothing at all wrong with claiming benefits you are entitled to and meet the conditions for receipt. Lots worng with claiming benefits you are not entitled to or don't/won't meet the conditions for - but that's a whole different arguement