To ask you to help me come up with a good response to this (Facebook related).

[ChunkysMum]

A family member has posted the below:

BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT £6,000
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS / REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT £29,900
The average pensioner has paid taxes and contribute d to the growth of this country for the last 40 to 60 years.
Sad isn't it?
Got the guts to copy & paste this?
I Just Did

This was posted by a close, well-loved, family member but I feel the need to post a reply as I believe the post to be uninformed and prejudice.

Any ideas?

Uh, I had this come up on my feed today too.

I was going to post the hoaxslayer link, but realised the person who posted it is probably too thick to read that amount of text, so didn't bother.

It was a photo from some EDL page, I was surprised at the person who posted it TBH.

How about "pensioners get £6000 per year? Adults who are unlucky enough to be laid off get just 3692 per year to live on, usually they have families to support and house too."

It's probably less actually, because I think you can only claim JSA for 6 months, not for a whole 12.

Those status make me very very stabby

My DH is a (legal) immigrant, here on a spouse visa, and he can't claim any benefits at all. He does however work, pay taxes and NI..

NicholasTeakozy Posted that photo, thank you!

Response to my response, from a friend in the US: there are ways for illegals to get government assistance in the US, I'm sure there are ways they can get it from the British gov!

My response to that (ripped mainly from hoaxslayer): Regardless of your views on the handling of refugees and/or immigrants, this 'copy and paste' post is a hoax, with figures plucked from the air. Spreading such misinformation will help no one and will serve only to muddy the waters of what is often a complex and contentious issue.

Family member seems to have gone quiet. Has not deleted inaccurate post yet though, and said post has been 'liked' by more family and friends of mine.

Could you ask your friend to give details of all the ways that assistance is so forthcoming? Given that he/she is so 'sure'? I have know a few people who would love to know how o get this extra help - I haven't been able to point them in right direction so it would help to hear from the 'experts' in this field.

I generally comment "I don't have the guts to repost this, just the brains not to."

This is something a friend of mine put in reply to this message, i borrowed it and put it on a supposed friend of mines comments of this ridicules story. I am now blocked from her profile, i find it rather humorous that she resorted to that.

Let's break it down and see if it is true:

We are going to rebut this claim by using one old age pensioner (75 years old), and contrasting them to a family of four illegal immigrants (2 adults, 2 children), and a family of four refugees (2 adults, 2 children).

British Old Age Pensioner (75 years old)
Pension: £6 017.20 per year
Free Bus Pass: £784 saved, based upon an adult buying an annual ticket otherwise.
Winter Fuel Payment: £200 per year.
Cold Weather Payment: £25 per week for every instance where the temperature is below 0 degrees for 7 days in a row. (Averaged at £50-£100 depending on region)
Free TV Licence (£145.50 per annum saved)
Christmas Bonus: £10 per annum. (A wee Christmas present from the government)
Housing Help: Pensioners can receive varying discounts on their housing bills depending on their economic situation. (Almost impossible to determine how much is saved as each case is individual.)
Free Prescriptions: Save £7.30 for every time a pensioner has to get your prescription. (This saves pensioners an average of £94.90 if they have a regular 28 day prescription.)
Pension credit, housing credit, council tax credit, discount rail service etc.: Various boosts to help pensioners; as before they are quite individual, so it is difficult to determine, could be within the range of £0.00 to £947.50 per pensioner depending on economic status etc.
Community Care Grant: A grant to allow poorer pensioners to pay for things like new bed linen, new furniture etc.

Total: £7974.05 + Any extra costs reclaimed from the Community Care Grant + Any Council Housing assistance etc. Final figure is likely to be in the low-mid £9000?s.

Illegal Immigrants
Not eligible for social security. Section 115 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
Might be able to claim jobseekers illegally, although extremely difficult to do so.
£0.

Asylum Seekers/Refugees (Family of 4)
£72.52 per week.
Access to contributory benefits is not allowed.
Child tax credits.
Possibly jobseekers allowance. (£56.26 per week, but time limited to 6 months roughly)
£5636.4 + Access to council housing depending on savings etc.

CONCLUSION
Asylum seekers get about 1/2 of what pensioners do.
Illegal immigrants don't get a single penny.

This viral message should have been flushed down the toilet, because it is 100% crap.

I would have posted what Misfit said (love it!!)

I am gonna post Erims post

Am I related to you OP? I am having the same experience with my family members today! Replied to one and his post seems to have been deleted. Replied to another and waiting to see if it has any effect.

Does posting on this thread mean i will be able to find it easily when I need it?

I'm so waiting for someone to post it again on my Facebook so I can use erim's reply.

This is a genuine question... it is not a challenge to any of the posts above.

Being that illegal immigrants get so little in the UK, why do they travel vast distances to get here?

Because its better than persecution!

TeacupTempest Of course.

What I meant was, why the UK specifically? Take immigrants from Somalia and Afghanistan for example. There are many countries between there and here.

What's the attraction of the UK?

I myself felt compelled to reply to this that showed up on my facebook. I linked to the hoax slayer article in the hope they have the intelligence to realise I was discreetly pointing out their ignorance.

Do i know you? Someone just put that o mine. I deleted them! should of said something but they were just someone i went to primary school

I've just been arguing with someone over the same thing. Well I say arguing. It's a bit like debating with a goldfish. So far her quick witted come backs have been 'I am entitled to my opinion' and 'i am not a racist'. So tempted to just post a 'but....' after that last one but she probably wouldn't get it.

Which is why I don't facebook anymore

One of my family members put this very post up this morning. I ignored it. I've pissed off too many family members with my support for equal marriage and can't face any more fighting.

But it strikes me that so everyone on this thread knows these posts are BS. How great would it be if everyone who thought so, said so?

But someone else go first. I'm too tired for boxing gloves.

because they have relatives here where they can stay, if you look at somalian war, relatives were dispersed, families split up. they want to be with their families again.

Also there is same preconception outside of uk that is in uk, of the streets being paved with gold.

Reply with this!!!

So sad! Please put this on your status if you know someone or are related to someone who suffers from stupidity. We all need to understand that stupidity is real and should be taken seriously. You could be sitting next to a sufferer right now. There is still no known cure for stupidity & sympathy does not help. But we can raise awareness. 87.365% won?t re-post this because they don?t know how to copy & paste.

Gah, one of the many reasons I don't Facebook. I know I have family and people I used to know who are bigots, but I'd prefer not to have that in my face. It gets me that so many folks feel entitled to post up claptrap, either not knowing or more likely not caring that it will be demeaning and hurtful for some of their "friends." In broadcasting their bigotry, they create dilemmas for folks who don't agree - challenge and risk getting flamed or try and ignore while feeling conflicted and knowing your silence will be probably be taken as agreement with the bigotry.

The older I get, the more I think it's not worth sweating these people, whether friends or family and cutting them off or at least "easing them out" of your life is the best way to retain your own sense of balance, integrity and happiness.

I simply always post the Hoaxslayer or Snopes link without any further comment. In one case recently, it did lead to the post being removed, thank goodness. But fuckwits are widespread, and unfortunately it's often the same ones who post all manner of stupid hoaxes without bothering to check their veracity.