mum on benefits can afford to keep her dds 2 horses

[jugofwildflowers]

This is a lovely mum by the way. She has never married but been with the same partner for 25 years and they have 3 dc. He works and has another home but stays in family home often, although because she is 'single' and on benefits, she gets everything paid for and her dc have free school meals. I assumed that as the mum was on benefits, she wouldn't have much money.

They have 2 horses and she spends a lot of the time with them. We have a mortgage and after all the bills are paid we don't have enough to keep one let alone 2 horses! Comes across as sour grapes, doesn't it? Sorry but

Sorry, but even if they had relatives who paid for the horses' upkeep I can't understand why it's the taxpayer who has to fund the rent, housing benefit, school meals etc!

Errrr because you said he's unemployed?

Surely dreaming that depends on the circumstances? You expect disabled people to have no quality of life?

With a sprinkling of the ,I don't pay my taxes 'brigade

US - i do pay my taxes, but if i am entitled to lower them why not? isnt that my right?

Arf at taxpayer

This thread has moved on, and I don't really care about the woman in question, but I am still at the list that TheRealTillyMinto provided of horse expenses! 6k/year on shoes! For.A.Horse!

Whatever happened to keeping a horse or 2 in the back paddock, throwing a saddle on them and rounding up some sheep occasionally?

US is that the best argument you can come up with?

Exactly dreaming, I should be flamed for having sour grapes that I cannot afford, despite working very hard, school dinners for my dc let alone horses let alone riding lessons! Also, cannot afford to turn on heating so dc are wearing coats, gloves and woolly hats when they come home, luckily they find school v warm! We simply cannot afford heating this year.

We pay council tax, all bills and the cost of diesel now makes living in the countryside prohibitive.

I would be better off if I 'played the system' but idiot that I am I could not.

Would be so much easier not to have a moral conscience.

fraid so ,seen it all before several hundred times on mn

Mind you, I've never seen a horsey one before, thats original

Pygmy goats are the spawn of the devil , they have two sole reasons for living

1. to eat everything and i mean everything

1. to escape ,using methods only previously seen in the great escape

but they are super cute to look at !

YANBU, it can feel tremendously unfair if you think someone is not only cheating the benefit system but making a good living from it. (Why does the government never target these people? Although being a "single mum" she'll be getting plenty of guilt trips.) There are a lot of cheats out there.

I've not read the rest of the thread so going only on OP.

Havent read all of this but something is very wrong when someone living on benefits (ie paid by all the tax payers) has enough money to keep two horses.

the pygmy goats are super cute.

dawndonna - i never mentioned disabled people. for the record i think genuinely disabled are a different group altogether and should, and are, treated differently...though not people like my uncle in law who invented a bad back because he didn't want to work

my great aunt used tie her goat on the end of a long rope attached to a stake in the lawn.

OP, how do you know any of your sources of information are reliable. These are the two different scenarios that you've posted on this thread.

He works and has another home but stays in family home often, although because she is 'single' and on benefits,

It turns out the father is staying with the mother and has been offered work in a local business as he's also unemployed

If you contact the benefits office they will decide whether or not to investigate. You can't get this couple into trouble if they aren't doing anything wrong. None of us know the full circumstances, and we don't need to make that judgement. The DSS can find out, and if there is no problem, your friend will be fine.

If he's not working then they are entitled to benefits, surely .

whatever, sometimes they stop the benefits during the investigation. A false accusation can affect an innocent person.

Thank you dreaming just wanted to clarify.

Okay. I accept that Totem. So, it clearly isn't a good idea to contact the benefits office just on a whim. I think only the O.P. can make the decision really.