to be pissed off that they seem to have lots more disposable cash than me?

[JRmumma]

Just to be clear, in not 'benefits bashing' but a friend of mine who chose not to return to work after DC3 as she worked out that tax credits and housing benefit would make her family 'no worse off', seems to have lots more money than me.

To explain my situation, i have 1DC and am on mat leave at present. When i go back to work, we will have less money than we do at the moment after work travel costs and childcare is paid for. I have to go back full time to enable us to survive even though i didn't want to, but accept that children are expensive and needs must. We are also having to seriously cut back on the few luxuries that we currently have (memberships/subscriptions).

Ive just discovered that my friend has just booked her second holiday for this year. Without saying where it is for fear of outing myself, its a v expensive holiday for her and hubby. The other holiday is a European all inclusive jobby for the whole family. All 3 DC also had expensive electronics for Xmas.

This really fucks me off. Where am i going wrong? If they have enough money for exotic holidays and all the latest mod cons, why are they receiving tax credits and housing benefit? And why oh why will the only holiday i get this year be a £9.50 sun holiday if both me and DH work full time and claim nothing?

6 days into the New Year. Less than a fucking week before another Benefit bashing thread.

Unless you know every single detail of their financial situation and have seen it, in black and white for yourselves..Back the fuck off and concentrate on your own life instead of looking at what others seem to have.

Turkey, 7 nights, all inclusive, £170 per person

Creamy, again, there is a formula which allows for each child, plus the couple/lone parent. Once the family income is higher than that allowance, every £1 in income (after deductions) reduces the benefit by 65p.

So someone living in London could earn a lot more before their HB stopped than someone living in a very undesirable northern town where rents are very low. Of course, the rent would be higher too.

Actually, I can't afford it at the moment.

Gotta fund baby's lip tie and tongue tie surgery that the NHS won't pay for UNTIL his teeth have compacted and/or his current speech delay falls 2 years behind.

Have been saving for several months for that. No doubt were I on benefits people would be telling me it was a luxury I ought not to be able to afford.

Actually prof plum you are wrong if you remember the original tv adverts " tax credits it's money with your name on it" featured holidays. Tax credits were never intended to be a benefit as such that's just
Tory spin.

They manage their finances their way and you manage yours your way. If they are living beyond their means I'm sure it will come back to bite them at some point.

And then you can start a thread being all smug instead of being all envious and suspicious.

Yes that's what I thought. I remember when they were launched and I read 9 out 10 families would get them and they were £10 a week or more. There were lots of overpayments, or was that another benefit?

Families can still claim child benefit regardless of whether one parent is a higher earner.

The non- or low- earning parent can have it paid to them, as it protects state pension rights. But the higher earning parent has to declare it in their tax return, and they sort of pay it back via tax. So there is no fiddle going on where a woman with a high earning husband still claims CB.

Interesting thread.

Lots of overpayments because people's circumstances change and then the system has to catch up. They also narrowed the disregards lately.

soontobesix

If I remember correctly in 1995 around our first ever payment it was Family Credit with your name on it.
You are correct it wasn't considered as a benefit at all. In fact this Gov changed the goal posts to consider Tax credits as welfare.
People who received benefit were unemployed as I remember.
There may have been other benefits but this was the only one I was aware of.

I know people who ive known for years who bullshit about how much things cost them when really theyve been given it or got it heavily reduced.

If her OH is on minimum wage then with two kids they will have just shy of 400 a week from wages, ctc, etc and cb (hb varies but i know we would only have got five pounds a week hb on that wage with two kids as o put it into entitled to when OH was job searching).

That's to pay rent and all bills with. If he were working minimum wage and shed claiming single parent then it wouldn't be that much more even then. Shed get hb still but miss out on etc which balances it out.

In short, i don't care what they are telling you, they are full of shit. It is not possible. Someone is either giving it them, or giving them other things which would.mean they have the money to spend on holidays etc.

And woowoo in.not sure why one person being able to save for things means benefits are too generous. On benefits for two adults and two children i could save 40 a week at present because my youngest costs next to nothing due to exclusive breastfeeding meaning his tax credits aren't really going on him.

What ive chosen to do is to buy things we need in future like a new stroller (old one was knackered). Clothes and shoes are next on the list. I will stockpile them so that hen OH starts a new job (hopefully in the next couple of weeks) we can then save a decent amount from that.

If this job falls through and OH is still out of work in four months when baby starts weaning and food bill goes up, then we have the longer term essentials already and wont need to worry about them.

I'm not sure why people should be punished for making sensible purchases with the money we do have. Maybe she chooses to put that money towards a holiday. I don't want punishing for that. (though i maintain she is getting outside help from somewhere based on the circumstances given because she will still need other things).

£3.84 is less than the price of a large coffee in Costa, isn't it?

Wouldn't mind the Turkish holiday from up thread. Hotel looks like a tower of Skittles

It's yours for £170, marmalade

That makes it £340 for Fred and Francis

Oh bloody hell! I am no1 looking at foreign holidays. ....I can't afford one but window shopping is nice. I can dream for the future.

Please OP if you do find out how your friend is doing this then let me know. I would love a holiday, couldn't afford one IN work and definitely cannot afford it out of work.

I always love window shopping holidays too.

Even if I had the money, I'm terrified of flying and spend a lot of time hyperventilating in airports

pathetic

Could hyperventilate happily for £170 though

mrsdevere I agree that looking at a friend going on holiday and being resentful is not a positive emotion. But questioning the functioning of the welfare state and how well it is targeted definitely is and often these abstract issues are best addressed by reference to a specific example in order to make it more concrete.

Starlight I am so sorry about your baby's lip tie. If less money was paid out to those who don't need it, then there would be more money in the NHS to pay for necessary surgery such as that which you child would benefit from. It is all part of the same pot. I am 100% certain that nobody would say that lip tie surgery was a luxury.

ProfPlum

Has the OP said that her friends receive welfare benefits? They might just get Tax credits like thousands of others get.

Starlight: that's disgusting that they won't pay for your babbas lip surgery until it's really too late to prevent bigger problems. How can they not fund such a thing when you hear about people having questionable cosmetic procedures on the NHS (as an example I'm thinking the woman who had her breasts enlarged and then reduced because she didn't like them big). In your position I would scrimp, save and borrow if I had to, just to make sure that my Babba got what he needed at the right time. Stories like yours make me so sad. You shouldn't have to be scrimping and saving for something so essential

Is going abroad for 2weeks 'a better quality of life'?

You can do what some people do i.e. turn your heating iff, eat plain noodles, go two weeks in spain fill your suitcase with cheap cigarettes and come back and sell them to friends and family.
Or do what a friend if mine used to do. Rent a filthy self catering apartment an eat the tesco value noodles that you brought in your suitcase.
Holiday abroad is not always a luxury holiday and imo is not a better quality of life. There are fifty more weeks in the year and personally i focus more in those 50 weeks.
I dont get the fuss . go or not go abroad. If you are willing to go compromising on cheap accomodation and good food, then come back in a freezing house etc, then go and stop moaning.

I do not want people on benefits who are suffering enough to have to fork out of my baby's lip tie.

I want people who are NOT suffering but getting more than their fair share of the pie to fund the NHS properly. There is no shortage of money, it's just in the wrong places, and continues to go there with policy after policy of this and the previous government.