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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think that 20 grand on benefits a year is loads

792 replies

MrsBucketxx · 19/07/2013 08:36

considering they dont pay any income tax.

just watching we pay your benefits program and worked out that this is over 30 grand if it was a normal tax paying salary.

why was this not mentioned.

OP posts:
JakeBullet · 19/07/2013 20:37

I wasn't disagreeing with you handcream, just pointing out that if people earned a living salary (ie one where they did not need top ups) then our benefits bill would fall.

But choices are not always made..for example, I CHOSE to have a baby. Wr could afford him and he was planned and wanted.

I DIDN'T choose that he would be autistic
I DIDN'T choose my husband walking out

If my son was not autistic I would still be in work and thankfully my job was wel paid. Not in the higher tax bracket but not far off.

So choice is all very well but sometimes life points and laughs too.

Darkesteyes · 19/07/2013 21:03

This reply has been deleted

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Darkesteyes · 19/07/2013 21:06

handcreamFri 19-Jul-13 19:18:21

A proper wage for what Jake? We all have choices, some choose to have their children very early in life with no means of support or with a errant man.

More mysogyny from handcream... what about abusive men who deliberately make their wives pregnant by raping them and interfering with their contraception so that they have child after child and its made more difficult to leave.

Darkesteyes · 19/07/2013 21:11

Why are some men pulling out womens IUDs.

jezebel.com/5978759/why-are-some-men-pulling-out-womens-iuds

PhallicGiraffe · 19/07/2013 21:23

It is loads, because I work full time, in a job that is quite a bit higher than minimum wage, and I don't get tha much.

MNHQ
OliviaIsOffTheGinMumsnet · 19/07/2013 21:29

A link to our talk guidelines for those who may need them

RonaldMcDonald · 19/07/2013 21:55

I think that if you cannot afford to have children you shouldn't.

I feel the same way about buying stuff you can't afford.

To be clear this doesn't include those who have become sick or who have disabled children or have had to become carers to ill family members. Benefits are supposed to be there to support us when life events take over.

Benefits should not fund SAH parenting.
If you want to SAH, save up whilst working and when you have saved enough try to become pregnant. Or ensure that your co parent earns enough to support your life choice

Tax credits must stop for all but the actually needy.

Pigsmummy · 19/07/2013 22:07

20k tax free! I wish!

EeTraceyluv · 19/07/2013 22:26

Yep, after tax, mortgage, bills, children. food we have about £- 50 a month and we work. We used to get tax credits and that really made working worth it as we could just about treat the kids occasionally, but they have been slashed because we earn just above whet people on out of work befits get,, and yes I resent that. But it is the government's fault, not the claimants, however, it is bloody tempting to jack it all in and get the same for doing fuck all

martini84 · 19/07/2013 22:46

So tax credits apparently shouldn't fund sahp. Surely that top up is no different to funding low paid workers with wtc. When i finished maternity leave afyer having a child i decided not to return as the cost of chilcare meant i would be working for equivalent of about £2 per hour. Yet a single parent got 80 per cent of her childcare paid. Yet dh and i as a team were putting more in. It didn't bother me as its right to support lower paid workers. However it did mean that when we had our second child i will actually be worse off working.

morethanpotatoprints · 19/07/2013 22:56

Ronald

So a low earning household shouldn't receive tax credit then, especially if this allows a sahp.
So how would that help exactly?
Do you expect a sahp to work for nothing after child care costs?
Working pt which is most jobs you'd find now of min wage, you'd be lucky to earn enough to pay tax.

Even full time on min wage you'd end up taking more out of the pot than you put in.
Is tc 70% funded childcare? its certainly more than you'd pay in tax.

Don't let that stop you bashing though Grin

IneedAsockamnesty · 19/07/2013 23:51

Tc funds up to 70% providing your childcare is below certain amounts dependant on how many kids, the % reduces as your income increases

trampled · 20/07/2013 00:55

There should be jobs for every able bodied person.

Why is there a deliberate shortage of jobs?

There should be homes for everyone.

Why are we not building houses?

The sick should be cared for.

Why are we forcing sick people to work or starve?

There is plenty food available.

Why are people hungry?

The true answers to these questions are deeply disturbing.

bob404040 · 20/07/2013 01:12

i work 45 hours a week and dont get 20k WTF

are you taking the piss

bob404040 · 20/07/2013 01:15

what also winds me up is the fact that we import about 3 millions scroungers every years that live of benefits.

it should be benefits for british people only who have had a uk passport for more than 10 years.

not the whole of europe and eastern russian states

bob404040 · 20/07/2013 01:17

if you moved to poland and had a child what would they give you fuck all.

come to britain and get 20k a year a house and spending money

ok rant over now

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 20/07/2013 01:30

What gets to me is..people have no idea of actual figures and just believe and regurgitate the shite they read in the Daily hate spreading Mail

morethanpotatoprints · 20/07/2013 01:34

Fanjo

these same people don't bother to listen though, nor check it out for themselves, like most sane people would do with a subject they know little or nothing about.
Maybe we should take the attitude of "Forgive them, they know not what they say"

EllieArroway · 20/07/2013 01:40

What gets to me is..people have no idea of actual figures and just believe and regurgitate the shite they read in the Daily hate spreading Mail

Fucking right.

Darkesteyes · 20/07/2013 01:43

Or what they read in Woman magazine who seems to have it in for single mums.

filee777 · 20/07/2013 06:40

I believe that every family should be allowed and supported to have a sahp for the first few years of their children's lives if they so choose.

Unfortunately right now it's impossible for working parents to do that so it is yet another luxury afforded to the non working class. Of course we are supposed to be all happy about it because our 'prospects' are better or whatever the fuck you lefties are going to bleat on about next but in reality it's bullshit, it's one group of people being afforded a decision denied to hard working counterparts.

Which no matter how you try to spin it and stompy around about how 'unfair' anything that changed that might be, is bollocks.

sashh · 20/07/2013 06:44

considering they dont pay any income tax.

Actually some benefits are taxable.

Runningchick123 · 20/07/2013 07:07

jakebullet. I wouldn't put somebody in your situation in the unemployed benefit category. You are a carer for a disabled child and carers work enormously hard, much harder than most in paid employment. If you were not able to care for your son then the state would have to pick up the tab for an appropriate residential placement which would cost a ridiculous amount of money. Carers should get the minimum wage for 35 hours a week (although they always work far far more hours than that) as the current £58 a week carers allowance is an insult to the work that they do and the toil that it takes in their own health.
Having a disabled child would not be anybody's choice and therefore is not a lifestyle choice. I am very aware that appropriate childcare is not available for children with autism and other learning disabilities so parents of these children have no choice but to stay home and be carers.

I do hope the govt go through with their plans to limit benefits to two children for those already claiming unemployment benefits (not those who already have more children and then become unemployed) because then I will really believe that people are not just having lots of children to get more money and navigate around the current return to work schemes.

MrsSparkles · 20/07/2013 08:03

morethan sorry about your dh. The business doesn't really pay me enough but I'm very lucky that I have a high earning DH who subsidises me. We both used to work in the city, but I left after DD as we decided it wasn't fair for us both to have such demanding careers, and went to work for my dad - I'm the 4th generation of a family business.

Back to benefits Smile, Jake your situation sounds like exactly what benefits were set up to be - a safety net for those who have fallen on difficult times while you get back on your feet.

Disability benefit drives me crazy - the man on the program who'd been on disability for 20 years - there must have been some type of job he could do? A family member holds down a job in central London, so commutes (on the tube), international travel etc - she was paralysed in an accident at 14. For a lot of people its about motivation, and rather than saying I can't do this, we should be thinking about what you can do and how to make it happen