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.

[OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos]

Optimistic, the thing is that other people who aren't entitled to HB have to live in these cheaper areas if that's what they can afford, so why should it be any different for people who do get HB?

Those of us who live off our salaries don't get to change the figure we earn because some of it has to be paid in rent, sometimes people end up with less than the government says they should live on after they have paid their housing costs. That's why people get annoyed when benefits claimants seem to be exempt from these problems.

[OptimisticPessimist]

Benefit claimants aren't exempt - LHA is capped locally at 30% of properties. The areas can sometimes be quite large (mine is the whole county, so offers no variation between towns/small villages etc), so it can be really hard to find a property that's both under the cap and actually accepts benefits claimants. My bog standard terrace costs slightly more than the LHA rate and it's actually underpriced tbh.

[tjah04]

It is actually quite possible to earn a substantial wage and still be entitled to benefits.

In my area with 4 children (1 receipt of DLA), I can earn up to £600 (inclusive of tax credits) a week and still be entitled to housing benefit.

I think that is silly but shows that potentially people who do claim this will not be capped since a substantial amount of earnings will come from wages. Yet they will remove benefit claimaints.

It is great as a job incentive but the jobs have to be there first. The real worry is that this will increase the divide between rich and poor.

The benefits claimants that many are speaking about are surely a fairly small minority. I feel for the working poor mostly.

[janey68]

There are many areas of the UK (including where I was born raised and where I still have family members) where I can't afford to live- and that's with both of us working full time in reasonably well paid jobs. So I have little sympathy with the argument that it's 'unfair ' for people on benefits to not have complete choice about where they live

[Cozy9]

The benefits system is out of control. It has gone far beyond what it was originally intended to be.

[FlangelinaBallerina]

The benefits bill is large and there are indeed some families claiming rather massive amounts, primarily because of housing costs. This stems from the fact that the housing situation in this country is fucking ludicrous. The council house sell off and failure to build any more with the profits plus Stalinist planning permission laws that allow homeowners to object to new housing developments in their area have led to this.

Now, I can see why people want less to be paid out in benefits. But the problem with a 25k cap is that it isn't tackling the root of the problem. It is taking people who live in expensive housing and removing lots of their food money from them. The problem of course is the cost of the housing, and not just for benefit claimants either. We have a housing crisis.

Of course, if we really wanted to tackle DWP spending, pensions would be the place to start. They take up the biggest slice of the budget by far. JSA, tax credits and HB are quite dinky in comparison. but of course, that won't happen. Much easier to penalise the young.

[tjah04]

Cozy9 I agree it is out of control. I definately think they should make people "earn" benefits as an alternative to capping them. There are so many voluntary posts that could be done. I do not mean degrading ones like pick up dog poo (which I have heard suggested before) But things like supporting local care services by visiting elderly homes and spending time doing stuff the paid carers do not get to do. Reading in schools, meals on wheels, etc....

Instead the government seem content on capping all benefits without being able to offer alternatives and targeting single mums who lets face it are bringing up the children of our future and should be offered support.

[FantasticDay]

As I understand it, it means that people who claim benefits will lose benefits if the family goes above the £26K upper limit. Most of those affected will actually be in work and claiming Working Families Tax Credit. I know of two families with small children, in each of which one parent is working full-time and the other part-time, who have lost the top up. I didn't qualify anyway, but I would have been quite happy to continue to pay for WFTC for people who need it, for the few short years when their kids are little - in most cases they'll have paid for it in tax before having the kids, and will again when they are older and the other parent goes back to work full-time.

[FantasticDay]

Great post, Hecate!

[Ghostsgowoooh]

So you begrudge me my sons disability then kitty. Or do you envy my abusive violent relationship that nearly killed my baby. That's why I'm now on benefits. Maybe I should have stayed in that relationship, at least ex and I had jobs hey?

[threesocksmorgan]

FFS
I do so wish people would understand that DLA is not an out of work benefit, it is there to help disabled people pay for the expense of being disabled.
I do get a little bored with the jealousy.
my dd gets DLA, she has a "free" car.
she can't walk or talk and never will......still green??? what to swap?

[Bogeyface]

We have our JSA interview tomorrow after DH was made redundant with no notice on Tuesday. I will swap with any of the bashers right now :(

[KittyFane1]

Hectate : So there you go. Story of a raking it in benefit scrounger. The daily mail can kiss my arse. You are one person and one family, not all benefits claimants are in your situation and the truth is, there are many people who are lazy scroungers. Because of them, deserving people will have their benefits cut.

[Ghostsgowoooh]

And as for voluntary work to pay for my benefits, great idea! I'll leave my two year old at home on her own then shall I? Who will have her?

[KittyFane1]

Ghost read again- I begrudge people who have the same size family as me, who have the same level of mental and physical health as me and my family and are being given more (in money/ benefits) than we can earn in a full week. Yes, I begrudge them!!

[ethelb]

Yes, the rent for my largish one bed with a garden is £300 less than that pcm. Obviously I have checked that I can get a flat for less than the HB as I earn less than the HB!

[tjah04]

Ghost, read what I put about single mums getting support. As it stands that is exactly what the government will be expecting you to do if you are a single mum.

[Bogeyface]

Are you lot channeling Marie Antoinette?!

[nearlymerrychristmasbutnotyet]

Some people are entitled to that amount as they may have 2 or more children who receive DLA. I know a woman who has 3 kids who are entitled to DLA because of Disabilities and Special Needs. She has a 4th child over 18 who has Asthma so its possible she could have got dla for that child too. So it is possible to receive a lot of money in benefits for true reasons.

[shadylane]

We were on benefits when I had my first kid as dh got made redundant and I was self employed so
No maternity pay. We were renting in a trendy but not very expensive borough and they paid 1,200 in HB plus dole money. Now we have another DC and DH has better job before he still only takes home the same amount as we got on benefits. The system is designed to make landlords rich and to keep poor, uneducated people down and stuck on the outskirts if society.

[ethelb]

@optimistic just to clarify I work, my DP lost his joba few weeks ago.

I don't get a special amount of money in my salary to cover my rent. (and commuting no one ever mentions commuting but up until July it cost mroe than my rent)

[shadylane]

Better job than before, I mean

[shadylane]

Benefits are a joke. Someone in my family who is educated to a high level and is extremely able is about to move into a council house in London's swankiest borough. They have had lots of jobs nothing permanent and now because they claim to have mental health problems they are getting housed. Despite the fact he is basically work shy and has no kids or anything. Plus leads the life of Riley.

[edam]

Those of you who resent benefit recipients getting housing benefit - do you want the government to reform the housing market, to ensure there are enough affordable houses, both for rent and for sale, bringing down the benefits bill?