to loathe this sense of entitlement we hear/read/see everyday

[scuzy]

the idea of some taxes is to pay into a pool for those in genuine need of some kind of benefits. but i am sick to death of people who feel that just because they paid tax for a certain amount of years they can now claim benefits just because they say "its their money". these people are making fraudulent claims but its justified to them because they have paid into the pot so to speak and now its their turn to give up working and relax.

if i hear "i am entitled to ..." one more time i'll smack someone!

we have become a nation of "entitlers".

even my own family ask why do i work x amount of hours when i coudl claim this that and the other. "you are entitled to you know"! er .... no i'm not.

I'm sorry why is it "their" money? Even the ones that defrauded it? Am I reading you right?

What about the lazy feckers who couldn't be arsed to take a job when they were available? So my tax money is well spent on them is it?

Well I disagree you won't be surprised to hear. And I'll continue to vote against it until it stops happening.

Mrs DeVere: Yes, I disagree with a lot of other spending and also high and low level corruption, it's all a big disgusting pit of an unbelievable lack of respect for public funds.

I've said that elsewhere. On this thread, about entitlement, I'm saying what I'm saying now.

We are never going to have a perfect benefit system. It is always going to be exploited by a small minority unless we make benefits so difficult to claim that we end up with vast numbers of people who need and deserve them missing out. I know which I'd prefer. Far better to have a few piss-takers than a lot of starving poor people IMO.

As someone above mentioned, the amount of benefits going unclaimed dwarfs the amount being claimed fraudulently, and the whole lot is eclipsed by both legal tax avoidance (immoral) and tax evasion (illegal). Did you know that the whole £6 billion savings just slashed from the benefits bill could have been avoided if HMRC had gone after the amount of tax owed by Vodafone? Osborne decided to write it off instead.

I am a single mother with a full-time job. My XP pays no maintenance. After paying childcare and my mortgage (which is less than what I could expect to pay if I was renting the smallest house for my needs), I am left with about £100 less than if I was a single mother on benefits. Do I feel bitter about it or think that single mothers on benefits have it easy? No! It's bloody hard for ALL of us. My life is not going to improve by making anyone else's harder.

The difference is that I have my own home (or will have in another 20 years), I don't have to suffer people thinking I'm feckless, scrounging, or otherwise scum, and I have a future that should get better. When you're on benefits even a future can seem denied you. It's not just about money.

Even for the small number who are playing the system for all it's worth, would anyone else really want to exchange places with them? If the best your life can hope for is to get away with fraudulently claiming as much benefits as you can shouldn't we be asking how we have created a society that lets people grow up with such low aspirations? Could it be anything to do with the fact that the gap between rich and poor is widening? The fact that breaking out of the 'poor' group now seems to many to be as unrealistic as being able to suddenly teleport? The fact that if you've spent your whole life hearing your parents referred to as benefit scum and yourself referred to as a feral child that maybe, just maybe, you don't feel that 'polite society' wants you let alone have confidence in your ability to fit in. And would you even want to try?

Only 2% of single mothers are unmarried teenagers BTW. The stereotypical image of single mothers is completely and utterly wrong. The majority are mid-30s, divorced and working. Like me. But the stereotype makes a more convenient scapegoat of course. As does the idea that DLA is so easy to claim that loads of people are claiming it fraudulently.

How is that patronising?!

I am saying to stop taking it to heart when it nothing to do with you as a genuine claimant

We are all hated by sections of society for some reason- some people hate me because I beleive in God for instance. Because they say people who beleive in God cause wars, cover up child abuse.

But I do not take it to heart as that is nothing to do with me. Yes some religious people are bad, but I am not.

However, If I started excusing child abuse I would be lumping myself in with this too and associating myself with bad things. Do you get my meaning?

I'm not a claimant

"I'm sorry why is it "their" money? Even the ones that defrauded it? Am I reading you right?"

Let's go back to the subject of the OP- people who claim benefits when they are not entitled to because they feel they are entitled to due to the money they put in through paying tax.

You are saying it's not their money

You are saying you don't want your money to go to them.

I am simply asking how it manages to be yours but not theirs when you have both paid tax into the system for x amount of years.

If they have no claim to it, why should you?

Absobleedinlootly

Sunshine

Very well put.

But you used to be? . DH had to sign up too for a bit back when the recession started I still think of highly as him as ever. I dont think anyone looked down their nose at all tbh- maybe I was naive?

But you see I am not patronsing you and sorry if it appeared that way- I am saying some people who are claimants are doing bad things- not all of them. I do need see why those minority should be offered any excuses.

Why are there so many hundreds of threads about such an minority?

Even on threads about the majority ie. those struggling, people feel the need to jump in and bang on about this minority.

Its like an obsession.

Erm, thats what the thread was about in the first place! It was other claimaints that jumped to the defence of fraud (hence marking themselves as homogenous)

No I'm not. I think people who've paid in are entitled to claim, of course I do. With knobs on, actually.

People are just reading what they want to read. It happens a lot here. It's all about you, even when it isn't.

I would feel annoyed too if I knew people like that!

Being entitled to benefits is nothing to do with how much taxes you've paid, so I don't know why people make that connection. Many people are entitled to benefits even if they have never worked and paid tax, for example, young people with disabilities/mental illness. The system has to work like this.

It's a bit similar to employees taking days off sick when they feel fine, just because they haven't used up their year's quota (I've worked somewhere like that!).

I am always shocked at this kind of attitude, but I try to feel sorry for them rather than judge as they obviously don't get much out of work apart from the money. I do feel like many British people lack a sense of pride in working that is seen in many countries (I have lived in a few countries), and it's really sad. I try not to dwell on it TBH as it makes me ashamed to be British.

Coco, you've assumed some people are claimants when they are not.

You can never make benefit eligibility linked to whether or not you've paid in.

If you did, children with parents who'd never worked could starve or become homeless. Some might say tough the parents deserve it, but do the children? And even if you think it will work as a deterrent in the future, what about the children that exist in the here and now?

What about disabled children who grow up to become disabled adults? They will never have worked either.

Benefit eligibility should be primarily about whether or not you need it, not whether or not you've paid enough in to deserve it or whether you're of strong enough moral fibre to be worthy of it.

Being entitled to benefits is nothing to do with how much taxes you've paid

You can never make benefit eligibility linked to whether or not you've paid in.

Can I just point out there is such a thing as a contribution-based benefit. So you are both wrong.

As you were.

You can never make benefit eligibility linked to whether or not you've paid in. is an opinion I've made. I'm not citing it as a fact.

It would seem, however, that the 'system' agrees with me, since most benefits are not contributions based.

I can't stand people who'd rather live off other people than work. I actually can't stand them.

"Coco, you've assumed some people are claimants when they are not."

Tethers are you atcually reading this thread?! Lots of them made silly comments about their benefit money

Getting bored now as I dislike having to answer things already in black and white written on the thread.

Blue, the OP is specifically referring to people who feel that they are entitled to claim due to the fact that they have paid tax; regardless of whether they are entitled to or not.

Yes, the system agrees with you in part.

Being spoon-fed by the state from the day you're born is no way to build moral fibre by the way.

You assumed usualsuspect was a claimant, Coco.

Arf at 'moral fibre'

Ok then they're fraudsters if they claim. Do you have some difficulty in understanding the difference between people who claim, people who don't, and people who claim under the law, and people who don't?

People who are not entitled to claim under the law are defrauding me as a taxpayer if they do so. I deplore this.

Lack of "moral fibre" was given as a reason by sunshine for why people should receive benefits.