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)

Agree peachy. If the only people who went to uni were people who were able to do it without the aid of a loan hardly anyone would be able to go - and certainly no-one whose parents where on benefits.

MrsDV loved the 'oh I don't mean you' post, so true.
And also hate the sexism of bashing women on benefits in particular.

Maypole your ranting made me chuckle, and I especially liked the thought of you making a cats bum face while snaffling cocktail sausages, wotsits and other ill gotten gains paid for by 'alarm clock Britain' at the party.

As others have said, if life on benefits is such a joyous consumerist spree, why don't we all just pack our jobs in and start to enjoy the good life?

MrsDV, agree about the "oh I dont mean you" post as well. Spot on.

I am currently sitting on my nice £700 a piece sofas. They were bought 4 years ago when I was married and had a lot of money. Now they look good and get commented on - but are surrounded by furniture from freecycle and charity shops. A sign of my old life, but no reflection on my incomings now.

Shucks Peachy stoppit

We have two cars too. The fact never ceases to suprise me. I was ok without one but OH has always been a petrol head.

We have two because
When DD got sick I had to have a car to take her to the hospital for appointments and for emergencies.
We couldnt manage with one car because OH has MS and cannot walk. He and the DCs would have been trapped in the house whilst me and DD were in hospital. He would not have been able to visit us or even take the kids to school.
OH's is a mobility car mine is about 15ish years old.

I would be happy to get rid of one but I now need mine for work as its a requirement. OH cannot get to work without his.

I know this is all 'well my life is like this.....' and these threads do tend to get like that BUT people really need to look behind what they think they see.

Two cars, a house, lots of kids, a OH on disability but 'he looks ok to me, nothing wrong with him'.

They dont see why we have the cars, the fact we bought our house before it all went tits up, one of our children arrived via SS, OH has an invisable disability. Its not his fault he also happens to be big and hunky looking too .

You DO NOT know. People lie. They lie to cover up, they lie to show off. Unless you see their bank statements and have cctv set up in their homes, you do NOT know. So shut your moaning yaps.

Here Here.

Benefits aren't exactly generous are they? My dsis gets abiou £60 per week. Try paying all your bills and eating on that. Her furniture is falling apart. Her tv is really old. When her washing machine broke my mum brought her a new one. She also worked for over 20 years before being made redundant. Has worked on and off since than. She received a good redundency payment but because she had that she didn't qualify for benefits initially. (after 1st 6 months)

Well said Devere

Well, summed up, thefirstMrs!

Spot on - and also the 'I know someone who . . . ' 'I have a neighbour who . . . '

Change the fucking record already, the needle's skipping!

OP, People actually relying on benefits can only afford those things in the Daily Mail or on MN. Both places notorious for making up the facts to fit the rant.

There are criminals claiming benefit while working/stealing just as there are those claiming to be living on an MPs wage while committing fraud and selling their vote.

Real people on benefits do not have a good life and it isn't helped by people like you.

I can't be bothered to read through 9 pages but I just felt the need to say that it completely baffles me that people out there believe all this crap about "benefit scum" (or "working class" as you politely called them) all having plasma TV's blah blah blah.

OP you just sound so ridiculously bitter and very very stupid. And your comment about the middle classes being the only ones working. Did you actually read that back before you posted it? Is the cleaner on minimum wage whose husband works in Tescos also on min wage, on the tills, middle class?!

Gawd the Daily Mail have got a lot to answer for.

And just one more thing that really (but very irrationally probably) bothers me. How many people actually do have plasma TV's?! My TV is a flat screen. I'm pretty sure all TV's you buy these days are flat screen. They just don't make the big chunky ones any more. Flat screens cost the same (maybe less) than the big chunky ones used to. So most people in this country, be they on benefits or getting bankers bonuses, will have a flat screen TV. And even big ones are not that expensive these days.
Sorry about the rant, but as I said it really bothers me!

I know Icould that always makes me too. Like having a tv with a flat screen is the very height of luxury equalled only by gold taps in the downstairs loo.

In my day [as a single parent] it was video recorders. My Lord how the Tories and the media would bang on about single mums (only ever mums) all had colour tellies and video recorders. So they couldnt really be poor could they? I mean my old mam managed with just a mangle for entertainment......

sadly flat screen TVs cost a lot more than the old style! My old style is a 28inch widescreen we got from Asda 8 years ago and cost £150. Fat chance of getting anything on that budget now - thank god for charity shops and freecycle when it dies!!

MrsDeVere when I was younger it was VCRs too!

We were lucky smokin we got a largish flat screen given to us by a makeover show. You can get flatscreens for under about £100 - £150 (depending if you want built in free view etc) but they are the smaller ones 19"ish. I prefer them TBH but OH likes a big screen.
He blames his dodgy eye (MS damage) but i know thats a ruse, he likes boy's toys .

To be honest I dont like flatscreens - with 2 boisterous boys under 5 it would be broken within 5minutes anyway! I am quite happy having everyone elses cast offs to live in the dark ages

I thought to be working class you had to be working?

I only know one couple who are long term claimants. He is very seriously ill and she gets carers allowance. I do not envy their lifestyle at all. They go around the two local supermarkets looking for the 'whoopsies' every day. Their child is not wearing designer clothing but is clean and to my untrained eye is wearing shoes that fit. They look bloody poor mind you! Could'nt tell you the size of tv but no holidays in the whole time they have lived here. I imagine their lives are what the majority of long term claimants lives are like. I look at them and I feel happy that I have my health and a job!

I also used to work in a jobcentre dealing with incapacity benefit and the then newly introduced esa. Everyone assumed I worked with fakers and scroungers. No I worked mainly with nice, middle class people like themselves. Shocked and worried how they were going to afford to live now their 6 months of SSP had run out after heart disease, cancer or some other hellish condition had struck.

thefirstmrs......if your husband has a mobility car is that not paid for by the tax payer and you get a new oneyears and you dont pay tax etc? every three or four

a new car every three or four news......[dont know what went wrong there

A mobility car is leased by us from the mobility scheme. We pay for it with OH's DLA. We also had to put down a hefty deposit.
You can change your car after 3 years. Many people dont though. It can get very expensive and a lot of people cannot find the deposit required.

As we both pay tax, yes it is paid for by the tax payer.

We have recently purchased a 19 inch flatscreen with built in freeview and dvd player for £120. Its bigger than the 1st tv I had when I first brought my home and money was tight.

I thought a mobility car was free.

Could you put me right on this?

Nope not free. You have to use your mobility component of your Disability Living Allowance. You have to be in receipt of the higher amount which is about £40 a week (correct me if I am wrong I tend to avoid looking at anything to do with DLA atm). So that is nearly £200 a month. Depending on the car you have to put a deposit down and pay for adaptations. This can run into thousands of pounds.

My friend has two severely disabled children who need 24 hour care. She has to use BOTH of their DLA to pay for ONE car. So she pays double what we do.

Ah so you do get the money from the tax payer you just have to choose if you spend it on a car or not.

[but you are getting the money because you are disabled]

ok answer me this then if you can

I know someone, husband and wife. The wife is disabled [dont know what with].
They or rather she has a mobility car. She catches the bus to work and he takes the car to play golf [he is retired]

that cannot be right surely?

It depends.

I use OH's car, it is our family car. I use it to do the shopping and take the kids out. OH cannot do these things.
I have my own car but if I didnt I would have to use it more often.

I dont think families should have to have two cars just because one of them is disabled. I have friends whose disabled children are at school all day, it would be inpractical for them to have two cars, one for driving the child, one for school hours.

I dont know about your 'friends'. I suppose if you set up some sort of survillence you could note down how often the car was used and for what. Without that sort of info its hard to tell if they are misusing it or not.

I fully expect to be reported for our use of the car at some point. People get very jealous about mobility cars and disabled parking spaces. OH doesnt work in the day so when my car finally goes kaput I doubt we would get another to replace it. I would use the mobilty car in the day for all the shopping, errands etc and then OH would take it to work in the evening.

In our case though, OH couldnt get on a bus even if he wanted to. Well he might be able to get on it but he couldnt stand on it or get off again.

You only have a flat screen if your original one breaks though and plenty of people keep white goods until they break which in some cases is only after 20 years of use.