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.

Also my situation is my husband gets paid for 24 hours work, however he works much more hours then that for free, as he says he wants to help build up the business to a point where it can afford to pay him full time so he doesnt have to claim benefits.

I cant believe he is the only one like this.

I have serious health issues but have been able to work sporadically becasue I am freelance but I am entitled to benefits just don't claim atm However I do know people from the hospital who do and they are all really struggling and def do not get anything like this amount

Sock, I don't receive tax credits myself, but I am aware that when universal credit comes in, people claiming tax credits will be affected. I have friends where either one or both work and receive tax credits. I don't think they are aware at all to be honest. There will also be the issue of the number of hours worked to be 'eligible' that I don't think they are aware of either. I consider myself to be quite politically aware and I like to know what is going on politically, but I know many people who don't and it will be a real shock for them when this comes in. I sometimes try to enlighten them, but I don't like to freak them out either to be honest. People have enough to worry about as it is.

i thought those on wtc will be exempt from £500 limit?

SockreturningpixieMon 26-Nov-12 19:56:36

Do those of you who are employed but also receive tax credits realise that when uc comes in you become the feckless benefit claimants instantly just because you are on a low wage

Yep i think i saw a link to a Universal Credit document (it might have been on this thread) that states exactly this. Part time workers will become the new benefit scum.
A close friend works part time in a supermarket. She claims DLA and gets tax credits. I take it this will effect her too.

'i thought those on wtc will be exempt from £500 limit? '

Nope.

the childcare element, and the taper/ disregard thing?

so if you earn you are allowed to earn a certain amount before you get less benefits?

ihategeorgeosbourne I agree with you that being a tenant can be difficult sometimes, but being a landlord can be difficult too. Each can be screwed over by the other, each is dependent on the other.

I'm not trying to say that all landlords are wonderful, but I am trying to balance the view that all tenants are victims. Plenty of people are good landlords, plenty of people are happy, good tenants.

I looked it up and it does seem that people working enough hours to qualify for wtc will not be subject to the £500 cap.

We are on both sides of the fencing, renting out the family home that we spent 9 years saving a deposit for because it's the wrong time to sell - should we just throw that all away so somebody else can have a bargain ? Because at the price we paid for it in 2007 it was still affordable to a family so anyone could have bought it, luckily for us we did. So now we find ourselves as "scum" trying to protect our investment. I just wonder if shareholders, people with tax free Isa's are held in such low esteem.
We are all just trying to have something to show for our time on this planet. Our tenants could save the difference between what our house would cost them to buy with an interest only mortgage vs what they pay in rent and would have their own deposit soon enough. It's a choice we all can make, some do, some don't.

We also rent our current house here in Australia, 9 weeks ago I informed the agents that the step to the garden was broken and in Sunday I tripped down it and hurt my back. I have no legal recourse it would seem without getting kicked out of the house. So in uk it would seem you have better protection than in many other places.

Right to clarify

When the cap comes into force those receiving wtc will be exempt,

But when uc comes in those same people will be subject to all the same rules as unemployed people you can be working 30 hours a week but if you don't earn more than nmw you will be subject to sanctions enforced job centre meetings interviews groups and workfare

Thanks Sock. I got the benefit cap and the UC confused but that is basically what i thought. Its bloody ridiculous.

ok i get it now too, i was getting confused, so what does all that tapering disregard thing mean? how will UC mean that it is better to work part time then not work?

Sock are you saying that there will be no wtc only universal credit? It is quite confusing. From what I read it seemed as if people working over a certain number of hours would be exempt from the cap

Vivienne universal credit (uc) and the cap are two different things

With just the cap anybody receiving wtc will be exempt from the cap but as soon as uc comes in the cap will still exist at the same time as low earners who require top ups being exempt from the £500 cap but not being exempt from being treated as tho they are unemployed and claiming unemployment benefits.

Basically every benefit apart from a few but including ctc wtc will become uc so you will be treated just like a Jsa claimant until you earn the equivalent of nmw x 35 if you are part of a couple and still qualify for top ups then both of you will be expected to earn nmw x 35 that's both of you not between you.

Thanks sock. I did read a while ago that UC was to replace nearly all benefits. But I hadn't thought of the wtc. Then tonight I looked up a gov site and it said wtc not being affected. But that must mean until universal credit comes in. I'm beginning to think they don't really know what they're doing and it will all go haywire.

Ive seen comments on Twitter saying that their software is simply unequipped to handle it and when implemented the whole system will crash.

Working tax credits will defo be replaced by uc, its just a matter of when.

Uc due to be started in 2013 but completly changed over a few years after its being staggered and will affect different claimants at different times

Everyone is intended to be uc by 2017 so by then the current benefits won't exist.

That won't stop them doing it.

They also intend for most claimants to deal with uc claims and lots of requirements online as well- can not see that working well

They've tested the new system on a batch of 400 claimants. The wrong payments were made, to the wrong people at the wrong times, the data did not join up and operators couldn't access any means of manually correcting the errors.

The online universal jobsearch (which is supposed to be compulsory) will track your actions and, again, is worse than the old JCP system at the moment. The government hired MonsterJobs to set it up. It seems slightly unlikely that Monster will have built the government a better site than its own, to compete with its own!

The genius of these people is ... non-existent.

By the way, claimants - the DWP is sending out letters saying you must sign up to the online jobsearch bollocks agreement. It's against data protection laws, so you don't have to sign it. If you do, the thing will start monitoring whether you're spending your allocated hours using it to look for work. As the software is glitchy and the site has few jobs, it will paint an incorrect picture and expose you to sanctions. So it's best to refuse.

When I became ill my wages were reduced to ssp which was about £85 pw
The rent I could have been paid at maximum would have been £102pw
(for a 3 bed house) The cheapest 3 beds are £500+
CTC for 3 children would have been £165 pw
£352
Doesn't sound like so much for an adult and 3 children

i agree with toughasoldboots comment about LL having more power in so much as most tenants have no choice about being tenants- they need homes. but most LL do have a choice about whether they are a LL or not. if they decide not to be a LL anymore, they may sell at a loss but they have their own roof over their head. a tenant cannot just decide not to be a tenant and is therefore is stuck in their situation.

Well with respect you have no idea about each individual landlords circumstances, what sacrifices they have made to be in the position of owning the house and like all capitalist markets it's supply and demand. The alternative is that we all live in grey tower blocks and nobody can ever have anything nicer than anyone else, oh except the rich and the politicians always will. There will be no point in working hard, no point in education, no point in striving to better your position but everyone has somewhere to live.
I wouldn't vote for that scenario personally.