Who really gets £500+ weekly state benefits?

[vivizone]

I find this shit so hard to believe. Reading the media, you would think this was a common figure on life on benefits.

Yesterday and today's Metro newspaper - people writing in saying they agree with the cap of £500 and why should people be sat on their arse and be rewarded by £500 per week. . Why should they earn £200 per week working and people are getting £500 a week doing nothing.

Seriously, who gets this £500 per week that is being peddled out of the media? I spent 7 months out of work after redundancy and I could not live on the pittance I received for me and my children. I do not know how people do it. I really don't. I had a decent redundancy package and that was the only way I could make it.

How many people do you know (forget the newspaper stories) that are RECEIVING £500 or more every week? I thought so.

How come if life is/was that cushy on benefits, not enough people are/were packing in their jobs to join a life of riley?

We have been had. Life on benefits is HARD and DEMORALISING. I have tried it and I can tell you you get PEANUTS.

The reason why stories run on people living in million dollar homes/getting thousands a week in benefits is because it is RARE. It is SO rare, that it gets reported on.

Yes it is room sharing. I have letters from their consultant paed, occupational therapist and health visitor to the effect that it is medically necessary for them to have their own space due to their needs.

My local authority do not accept this. Other than to give us the place in the first place, but now they won't acknowledge matters.

I'm just going to try and copy and paste a email from the a la (I sent a email to several and got pretty much the same response from most)

Insane as it seems glitter the letters you have approach it from the wrong side.

It's not about their health problems - it that their siblings health problems mean their constant care needs during the night would disturb their sleep.

The more I think about this entire thing, the moire bonkers it is becoming to me. I'm almost ready to think about doing something about it.

This country has gone fucking nuts!

Bastard iPad won't let me but it says letter from go and letter from you.

I would surgest in your letter try and include like a diary sheet covering a few nights.

Basicly if it was only recently that you got your house the same stuff you used to evidence your need then can be used again just for hb

Scrap that I just saw what evidence you used before.

New letters stating that each ones needs would create huge regular sleep disturbance not just to themselves but to anybody sharing a room with them, get different letters for each child.and write a different statement yourself for each child.

But the la will probably not deal with it until feb/ march time that's when most la's advised my imaginary claimant to send in.

Would you mind saying who your la is its very possible they may have responded to my email.

Sock I am really impressed at you, doing all of this. Really really impressed.

Rhonda that's kind of you thank you.

Most of my clients receive benefits of some kind through no fault of there own and nearly all have been either homeless or threatened with it,and not just in one area.

I amuse myself by making bizarre but useful foi requests and asking loads of different la's direct situation questions. They take about 6 weeks to reply but you normally get much more sense that way

Sock, I meant to thank you, as well. You too, Rhonda :)

Yes, please DO get worked up enough to do something! My fellow facebook campaigners and I have realised we're talking to each other really. People hide us after a few days of doom-laden protesting updates. Can't really blame them, but this is how the lunatics government are getting away with it.

And I bet garlic that all the ones who work think your telling lies

Most people do, Sock :( Claimants are only just beginning to realise how bad it is - people who help look after vulnerable relatives are, too.

From the "I'm all right Jack" side: people I still know from my well-off days have maintained their attitudes. Some of us would have been campaigning against all this, despite not being directly affected. They still support the noise I'm making now: write to MPs; sign petitions; tell other people. The majority used to tell me they never saw the homeless people we stepped over on our way to the taxi rank - and still refuse to see the facts now.

It is more fun to worry about where to get the newest cocktails than about what will happen if you stop being able to afford them. I understand that. But deliberately closing your eyes gives tacit permission to those who want to strip the last assets from this country. Try as I might, I can't make them look.

One tiny positive: my sister, who had veered all the way over to the right, has taken a good look and is veering back again. We need millions of voices, though, not some here and there.

(I probably should add, this is not party political for me. It's moral and economic.)

I have always been proud to live in a country which I thought would not let people starve. I have always felt that even if everything went haywire in my own life, we would have enough support to get through it.

I am no longer sure of either of those things.

To be honest, I'm scared, and it's been years since we were even eligible for wtc.

So I write letters then?

Sock, I'll pm you who my LA is

Yes: to MPs and Ministers, newspapers and websites. You can sign petitions on 38 Degrees. You can pester your local authority. If you're energetic enough to organise a protest, you can get support from UK Uncut.

Raising awareness won't get anything changed. But there won't be sufficient action until more people are aware!

I'm not political at all for me its the same as Rhonda pride in how we treat our most vulnerable.

I'm a bit stupid when politics are involved but would it be possible for a different gov to fix everything that is changing and reverse it?

Noragainsborough you can get that much tax credit plus maintenance. Maintenance payments are not included in the calculation. I know a lady, and I really do is not an urban myth, getting 4200 per month maintenance, plus 900 tax credits, plus 224 child benefit. I lose mine in January, my husband takes home a lot less than 4200.
Pissed off at the unfairness of it all isn't in it

Why's it unfair for her to keep her maintenance?

Child benefit and tax credits, not maintenance. Why should you get 1200 per month benefits on that level of tax free income. Sorry, not fair when people earning less than that losing child benefit

But it's maintenance not income.

If your husband left you then you would also get to have maintenance

I can understand why it seems unfair though sock.

I also understand why it's not counted - but the few exceptional circumstances like this one make it seem a bit

It is unfair and should be counted. £4,200 a month maintenance. And tax credits on top of that. This money could be better spent. And child benefit. Grossly unfair and ridiculous.

I don't begrudge the maintenance, course I don't, of course he should support his family and as she gave up work 15 years ago to have their children absolutely he should be looking after her too. But why should she get benefits whilst my family gets none. By the way, do not actually think I should be getting benefits on a 60k salary, but neither should she. She is doing nothing wrong, it is completely legal, just unfair and makes a mockery of what the benefit system meant to be for

I can understand why it looks unfair as well but for the the reasons why it isant taken into account mean it prevents more of a mockery being made of the system.

I personally wouldn't claim anything if I had that much maintenance even if I could but it is a choice not a requirement

YY, Sock, around £20,000,000,000 benefits go unclaimed each year (£20bn.)

Most commonly unclaimed: pension credits and housing benefit.

Another slight aside but I went to a conference last year where they showed unclaimed benefit aside benefit fraud, tax avoidance and bank bailouts.

Unbelievable.

Yet of course it's the benefits claimants that have brought the country to its financial knees