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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think I would be better off on benefits

320 replies

parno · 15/07/2012 21:04

I know I am going to get flamed and I promise I am not a Daily Mail reader, just really cross and a trifle pissed off......however.......

I have just read letter from DD's school advising that this coming school year they will be setting a budget for school trips - £30 pr yr. Parents whose kids are on free school meals do not have to contribute a bean, plus get packed lunches provided when off on trips. It got me thinking. I work full time and earn just over £20k. Get a little bit of maintenance for 2 DC plus a bit of CTC to put towards childcare. However I went on line and filled in the Direct Gov benefits caluculator (not much on tv until Wallander comes on).

It told me very proudly that I would be entitled to over £415 approx per week or £1800 approx pcmonth. That doesn't take into account Council Tax Benefit, free schol meals, money towards uniforms either. I take home about £1300 pcm but have to pay rent and CT out of that. I would effectively be about

I just don't understand why I have spent the last 13 yrs working F/T in order to amke ends meet, missing out spending time with my DC and generally meeting my arse on the way back round every single day.

Have I got this wrong? Is my maths really roobash? Am I turning into Katie Hopkins? Please shout at me and stop me being so right wing.

OP posts:

Serendipity30 · 15/07/2012 21:58

matter of fact OP, yes please go ahead and claim benefits and let the rest of us us know how you get on.

SoleSource · 15/07/2012 21:59

I'm not treating this as a competition but I swear to you I had a deckchair for three years.

Glitterknickaz · 15/07/2012 21:59

Ooh the cap's gone up a bit

watermargin · 15/07/2012 22:00

working full time isn't easy either, and it pisses me off when people who have never bothered to do it spout crap as well.

so there we are :)

LRDtheFeministDragon · 15/07/2012 22:00

accuracy - you're not quoting the full post and I think you've misunderstood it.

It's not the value that would upset me (just like with a thief). It's wrong to steal. Fraud is wrong. I don't feel envious of thieves or cheats, no matter how much they steal. I think there is something wrong when people do. Frankly, I don't buy the idea it's resentment not envy, when people are commenting not on the action but on the amount.

KatherineKavanagh · 15/07/2012 22:00

Why have you included maintenance?

Glitterknickaz · 15/07/2012 22:00

Fancy my chances of finding work after seven years out of the workplace (apart from a stint on checkouts at Tesco when the boys were babies, before they got too hard to manage by one person)

LRDtheFeministDragon · 15/07/2012 22:01

Who's never worked full time, watermargin?

Accuracyrequired · 15/07/2012 22:02

"I hope you resent the odd lazyarsed police officer who can't be bothered to investigate a 'domestic', the odd crap teacher, the nasty nurse."

not really relevant

there are many people in the public sector who don't pull their weight, I work in th epublic sector and I work below a lot of people who don't pull their weight

what I think of them, and I'm sure you can imagine what I think of them, has nothing to do with this thread at all

if that's a veiled way of accusing me of hypocrisy it's not really happening here

KatherineKavanagh · 15/07/2012 22:02

And for those who mentioned you don't get free bus passes on benefits

SoleSource · 15/07/2012 22:03

I had a good well paid job 1995 - 1998 before DS. worked from the age of thirteen to twenty four. I had a job since then but due to DS illneeses I had to leave. I was then made redundant last year.

I know what hardship is as I worked for a pittance for years before 1995. I lived where others were on benefits and they did seem to have more than I did. I can see both sides TBH. but the true circumstances of their life was unknown to me. It did make me think, why bother? at times...

Accuracyrequired · 15/07/2012 22:03

"I don't buy the idea it's resentment not envy"

why, when you find it so hard to imagine people would want that lifestyle

it should come more naturally to you to see it as resentment rather than envy if it's so hard to imagine why people would do that

Serendipity30 · 15/07/2012 22:03

watermargin i am not saying hardship is restricted to people on benefits of course not, but some of the inaccuracy's spouted on MN makes my blood boil.There should be incentives for people to work, I have no problem with a benefit cap either. But when people like the OP tar everyone with the same brush it really annoys me. Not everyone on benefits is the same, each circumstance is different.

Glitterknickaz · 15/07/2012 22:04

Get this. Despite being carers of three disabled children we now need to attend a work focused interview. In the summer holidays. We had to reschedule three times. Doesn't that say something? The fact we couldn't get to the bloody interview?

LRDtheFeministDragon · 15/07/2012 22:04

Erm .... how can you 'resent' a lifestyle?! You are giving yourself away, I think. You might resent people getting money you feel they don't deserve, but it doesn't make sense to claim you 'resent' a lifestyle.

NowThenWreck · 15/07/2012 22:05

Everything Olimpia said. Its a sliding scale.

Also, it's not actually true that you would be better off on benefits.

I was on IS for 1 year as a lone parent, and when I went to the lone parent adviser about getting work, she did the calculations about how much I would be better off in work, based on a fairly low salary.
Even after travel costs, childcare and council tax were taken into account, I always came out at least £40 a week better off, which is significant.

Also, when you are in work, you may not be much better off,(but trust me you will be better off) but you are progressing. You keep working and get a promotion, you get more experience and apply for better jobs.
On benefits you are stuck.

SoleSource · 15/07/2012 22:05

i did actually know two families who owned cars and they were on benefits. They worked aswell as claim. None of the adults could read or write. I helped them read letters sent by the council etc.I did feel mad that they were driving about and we couldn't afford it. It does go on but most claimants are genuine.

Serendipity30 · 15/07/2012 22:06

watermargin and how do you know who has and who hasn't who are you to judge someone on their current circumstances.So you work and have a job great, but God forbid you ever lose your job and have to go on the dole so that people can look at you like your some scrounging scum even though they dont know your personal circumstances.

Accuracyrequired · 15/07/2012 22:06

Yes amid all this I always feel cross on behalf of carers. I think they get the worst deal of all. Nobody looks after them and there is a lot of distrust (although I think a lot of distrust began because of people being fraudulent and giving a bad name). But I feel carers on the whole are very badly done by.

hairytale · 15/07/2012 22:06

Yabu. You can work so you do.

ProPerformer · 15/07/2012 22:07

As a part time worker having to pay for my son to go to nursery I genuinely would be better off on benifits as have about £15-20 a week take home pay once nursery is paid for!!!

I work cos I want to work and hubby, luckily, has a relatively well paid job but..... Don't get me wrong I don't begrudge genuine people the money, but there should be some system of 'proof of looking for work' or after x ammount of time (talking at least a couple of years here) get signed up as a litter picker or volunteer charity shop work or summin for a couple of days a week! Should stop some of the wasters! (well would be worth a try!)

Disability benefit is a whole other matter though and quite deserved!

Awaiting the flames but just IMHO! Don't begrudge genuine people who are genuinely looking but unable to find work / mums who take time off work while their kids are young etc. the money!

watermargin · 15/07/2012 22:08

I'm not judging anyone, I'm saying that if I left my job, I'd be no better off.

It's not great working, I have to get up early, drive through busy traffic, have a very demanding role where I literally barely get to sit down, come home, pick up the DD and then cook, clean and so on.

so yes I am a bit resentful, sorry but i am.

NowThenWreck · 15/07/2012 22:08

The thing is, it has been pretty carefully worked out, even before the cuts, to ensure that you are NOT better off on full benefits.
For example, housing benefit is worked out on 65% of your take home income, so, as your salary increase, your BH is reduced, but not pound for pound iyswim.

NowThenWreck · 15/07/2012 22:08

BH=HB!

Original poster

parno · 15/07/2012 22:08

I posted what the figures came back as. I am most certainly not benefit bashing. Benefits are there for those who need them, a position I have fortunately not been in for the past 20 years except for a 6 mth period after having been made redundant. IMO they should be reverted back to being called Social Security benefits as that is what they are.
I have no intention of packing my job in as I love it, I was just having a little think about things.

I agree £20k is a reasonable wage. Though tragically I have to resort to buying Boden clothing that is 2 seasons old from their sale site and can only shop in Waitrose at 5.59 pm when the out of date items are stickered up.

OP posts:

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