I can't afford the trappings of a working class lifestyle

[defeatedslug]

I can't afford xboxes or nintendos for the kids. We don't have a plasma telly of any size. We don't have cable or satellite TV. The kids don't have bikes. We don't have whizzy mobile phones. We don't go on overseas holidays, not even a week on a package holiday, and can barely do youth hostels in the UK. The kids don't have the latest, greatest, trendiest clothes. Their stash under the Christmas tree is pretty conservative. The kids wear hand-me-down clothes including stuff from NCT sales and freecycle. We don't eat out more than a handful of times a year, and maybe have a takeaway every 4 months. We have two very run down and battered cars. We don't smoke. DH drinks maybe 3 or 4 beers a week.

I dress the kids neatly, get them proper fitted shoes, smart school uniform, take them to the library and museums, feed them properly, make sure they're healthy. We both work, and pay a mortgage, and nursery fees. I'm not trying to start a daily-mail-a-thon benefits bashing thread, and I know there will be people that immediately start criticising, but it seems something isn't right that you can be hard-working and be materially less well off than people who don't work - there's not going to be much of an incentive to come off the benefits, is there?

I have namechanged but am regular btw (cod, rivers of sweetcorn, nice ham etc)

[nulliusxinxverbax]

No point asking OP anything, they have asked controversial question and then fucked off forgot to come back to hear the answer.

Seems very common at the moment.

[Mumcentreplus]

[noddyholder]

God sometimes I forget how old I am but most of my friends had jobs,flats not rooms etc etc maybe 25yrs then!

[MotherSnacker]

Able bodied people should work? What if they have severe and chronic mental illness? Or does that not exist.

[dementedma]

at mrchips. you want to "gauge"?? Who died and made you God?
FYI,11 years ago i had my own business, started with no capital investment, just a wing and prayer and burning desire to better myself. 5 years ago, despite working every hour God sent, it went tits up. i avoided being declared bankrupt by the skin of my teeth but inherited a mountain of debt and Inland Revenue hassle. On the brink of being homeless, I called in a debt management agency who quite literally saved my life. i wasn't entitled to benefits as I had been self-employed (ie actually WORKING - go figure!). I had to agree a 6 year repayment plan, with every aspect of my finances controlled - one year to go, yippee!
My credit rating is shot to shit, I have a managed bank account - no cheque book, no credit cards - and operate on a cash only basis. Any surplus money - cue hollow laugh - goes on debt repayment.Tthis debt is bank charges, food, clothes and surviving. Not living the high life, not fancy cars and fancy holidays - just living. Unfortunately, many things like grants for school uniform etc only look at what is coming in, which on paper is fine, but they won't take into account debt repayment as an outgoing. I have been poor - seriously poor. I remember, in the days when I had a cheque book - writing a cheque for a tin of formula (oh, God,should have been bf huh?) knowing it was going to bounce.
This morning, seriously, this very morning I was served a writ on my doorstep for the first time in my life for arrears of council tax dating back to 2003!!! You see, because I have worked, i don't get that paid for me.
Does that help set the scene a little Mrchips?

[MooMooFarm]

Not in the mood for a bunfight - but just wanted to say you could start by getting your DC second hand bikes from a car boot sale or a second hand shop - they probably wouldn't cost you any more than about £10. And stop being so blardy dramatic

[nulliusxinxverbax]

I work 36 hours a day and my children still have to eat gravel.....ha ha ha

[goodbyemrschips]

Shit happens.


I just hear a lot of people moaning about what they cannot afford and I think well I can and I earn nothing compared to you.

You cant not pay your council tax and expect to get away with it.

I pay mine and I expect you to pay yours.

[MotherSnacker]

I know Niqabi.

And it's the ignorance of people like the OP who allow it to happen.

[Doobydoo]

OP you are the working class[part of]...you work to live/pay for things etc therefore you are working class.Find the title of your post offensive.However,agree with some of your post.

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

Despite being a member of the feckless working classes I do not have any debts apart from our mortgage.

I thank God for that daily. Because if we had, had so much as a credit card when our life got smashed to bits 7 years ago, we wouldnt have our house now.

[sm0kinaces]

bloody hell, some people on here have some huge chips on their shoulders. If this benefits lifestyle is so fucking great, give up your jobs. Not like you'll be broke or anything - because everyone on benefits can afford designer stuff and new TVs and Holidays hey.

I'm a single parent with 2 under 5s. i work 16 hours a week, and get benefit top ups. I dont go abroad. My appliances are all 10 years old or more. I live on a council estate - where surprisingly I dont see a single person with a brand new car or a plasma TV or jollying off on holiday every week. I just dont get where these people all live?? Seriously? I live in a council estate, and have worked in them for the last 6 years - and have known about 2 families with new TVs etc and they were in serious debt.

[Xenia]

I think it shouldn't have said working class but non working class if the point was for some they are better off not working. it's a problem no government has solved. If you have a safety net for the non working poor then there will be some who work who are better off not working. However for some of those they might find their £13k a year full time minimum wage could double if they get promotion and even exceed £35k if they work at itor more so they might see work as a longer term investment.

We certainly need to solve the various income traps and I am not sure the universal benefit is going to do it as it still means too much of every pound you earn is removed too quickly. Most people on benefits do not have huge amounts of spare money. Housing benefit could be cut more. Some people on benefits can afford to lvie in areas those in work can't and have chidlren with more bed rooms to sleep in than those not claiming HB etc.

[defeatedslug]

So it's turned into an attack. I was assuming people with jobs are middle class, as almost everyone is these days. And no I'm not going to tell you my salary as I've read the posts that make me out as neglectful as my children don't have bikes. Yes, we could get rid of the computer and the internet connection, but in the grand scheme of things, the computer and internet connection will help them a lot more than bikes.

Difficult to know how to phrase an OP that points out that people who don't work and have never worked sometimes seem to be able to afford luxuries that people who work can't. This seems to invite abuse on MN. I actually didn't want that.

And yes, I will f off now.

[expatinscotland]

'I was assuming people with jobs are middle class, as almost everyone is these days.'

[usualsuspect]

You assume only the middle class have jobs?

Are you for real ?

hahahahahahahahaha

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

I know expat said it already but I think it bears repeating
'I was assuming people with jobs are middle class, as almost everyone is these days.'

What the actual fuck?

[NettoSuperstar]

Yep, working class, doesn't mean work, it means watch Jezza Kyle.

Ahahahahhaaa.

Jeezus crap. How ignorant are folk on here?

[dementedma]

mrsdevere . i did say this in my orignal post - "i agree with Op in principle, if not the wording of the post". Sorry if I didn't make that clear, but I am indeed talking about your "lazy-arsed fuckers", not those who work
mrchips - I'm happy for you that you have always been able to pay your council tax. The year in question, i had to decide between council tax and food. Food won.
I have never denied this debt and made several offers to repay it at a reduced rate, all of which have been refused.Wish I could have it paid for me.....damn,I can't. I'm not on benefits!
mothersnacker allow me to reword again. I do not support endless benefits for those who are able-bodied and/or able-minded and thus capable of work. For those physically and/or mentally incapable of work, I support the benefit system. Is that clear now?
it may reassure you to know that one of my jobs was in the so-called 3rd sector where I employed staff with both mental and physical problems, to help them into the jobs market.

[nulliusxinxverbax]

Ok, but you have to understand you were going to annoy people with that post.
Working class - by definition, have a job.

It depends what type of house you are in. If you cant afford this stuff because of a massive mortgage on a showy house, then thats your fault. Get a smaller house.

If you truely are short, I have sympathy for you. but you shouldnt have wrote the post in the whiney snobby style you did.

[Ninx]

"I was assuming people with jobs are middle class"

Really?

Any old jobs?

Who are the working class then, or are they now indistinguishable from the underclass? That is an interesting discussion in itself and you are right to bring it up.

Please don't fuck off OP

[wook]

It's not that difficult to know how to word a post that is complaining about benefits claimants being able to afford luxuries without making fundamental mistakes about the class system. But I guess it is hard to know how to do it without coming across as a slightly whingy benefits basher.

[ivykaty44]

so let me try to understand this class movement thing - everyone from working class has moved into middle class, leaving behind the underclass to become working class though not working. So middle class become upper middle class and upper middle just drop the middle and upper class do what - where do they go?

[Mumcentreplus]

OP you really didn't think deeply about your post did you...