To not get the "I have loads of kids so I can claim benefits and have an easy life"idea

[Lancashiregal10]

Taking to my neighbour today who has five kids. Her and her husband claim benefits.
We live in a part council estate/ part privately owned
Today and many times in the past she has took great delight in telling me that they had five kids to claim all the benefits. She admits they would only have had one if they had to work.
Before I had DS 10 months early I just used to shrug and think "each to their own". I know this sort of talk would annoy a lot of people but I was of the opinion that I would not swap places with her for the world and my husband and I get a lot out of our careers.
So anyway talking to her today I realised something.
Taking care of a baby is hard work (never mind five under eight)
This lady is always running round after her kids and always looks completely knackard as does her hubby. They never seem to have any time to relax, the nights trying to get their kids to sleep are awful as they all have to share bedrooms and when one kids wakes it sets the others off.
I want to shake her and say "you do realise working is actually easier then having all these kids" (four if which you did not really want) though I course I have no doubt in my mind she loves them to bits.
I just don't get the thinking of some people!
Can I also say this is not a benefit bashing thread and I am highly in favour of the Welfare state for those who need it. I guess I just don't understand how some people think a house full of kids is easier then going to work. And that you would have kids for that reason.
Also is the amount you get really so fabulous that you would do this?

[MexicanSpringtime]

There is a lot of strange emphasis on the virtue of working. I grew up in the sixties and they used to tell us in school that we would be working a sixteen hour week, because of all the labor-saving devices being invented: eg. computers, heavy construction machinery and robots in factories.

I always wondered why that never happened and then a few years ago, heard on the BBC that the idea of shortening working hours was rejected in the late sixties because the powers that be felt that the working class would become troublesome with too much free time on their hands.

People's taxes are going to the bank bail-out while their anger is directed against the weakest in society.

[unrealhousewife]

Mexican indeed, it's not the working classes with too much time on their hands that caused trouble it's the privileged classes with too much money in their hands.

My 15 years out of the workplace have been a relatively small part of my 60 year working life.

[Smilesandpiles]

Here is a far more important question.

[Fideliney]

Fid in the UK it is compared to other less developed countries where there is no state.

My initial refutation was of the idea that benefits wer 'lucrative'.

Lucrative is a ludicrous word to use in relation to the UK benefits system.

This is ridiculous type of thread on which to try to debate the issue anyway.

[Fideliney]

were^

[Fideliney]

I'm awfully glad you're not one of my students.

Ha exactly the thought I had last night Dawn

[oxfordcomma75]

Well I have 4 close friends. We have 4 children between us. So that is 5 couples ie 10 people having 4 dc.
Not enough to replace so yes we do need some larger families.

[oxfordcomma75]

I have 3 dc and it is hard work. I sahm and dh works long hours. I would imagine though that with 2 people at home having 5 would be no harder.

[Fideliney]

There is a lot of strange emphasis on the virtue of working

Indeed Mexican. It sometimes seems as though those in PT NMW (or near NMW) work are the snarliest frothiest contributors to these 'debates'.

Strange times.

[Ferntree]

Sorry - being a bit dim. What does PT NWK stand for?

[Smilesandpiles]

PT = part time

NMW = national minimum wage

[dawndonnaagain]

It sometimes seems as though those in PT NMW (or near NMW) work are the snarliest frothiest contributors to these 'debates'.

That'll be the success of the government's insidious little narrative, then!

[Fideliney]

Part-time, National minimum wage

I'm saying that it suits the political and business elite very well if everyone in the bottom quarter of the income scale are fighting amongst themselves.

[Fideliney]

(which is why I object to threads like these)

[Fideliney]

Exactly Dawn

[unrealhousewife]

Actually, how about we bring in a new minimum child policy. All families with estates over one million or income over 10 K should have at least five children?

That would be an excellent way to spread wealth, as inheritances get thinned out over the years.

[Fideliney]

I'm not saying it is necessarily a falsehood sarinka but I'm not prepared to blithely accept it at face value either.

In your dole-bludging example, surely people only boasted about it to people likely to be broadly sympathetic, or at least likely to keep schtuum, or for shock value? And presumably this wasn't against a backdrop equivalent to the current UK mood of 'scrounger-bashing'?

[ICanHearYou]

You are quite right on one respects Sarinka, that being that it is PRIVILEGE that allows these people the ability to ignore that people from all walks of life claim or don't claim benefits. Nothing more, nothing less.

Fact is much like everything else in life, people will radiate to the easiest looking option, even if it doesn't actually equate to that in the long run or cause the best result in the end.

[Fideliney]

Yes sarinka. I spent one summer of my youth up a tree trying to prevent a road from being being built. Most of my compatriots devoted 2 or 3 years to the cause, often dole-funded, I don't remember more than minor grumbling about it. There did used to be a feeling of greater plurality generally, I think. Maybe thinks were even more relaxed in the antipodes?

I wonder when the shift came? Some time after the millenium?

(And yes the KM buttocks thread was me )

[Fideliney]

things^

[DefiantRage]

I sometimes do wonder why I bother. I'm broody as hell, have less disposable income as my friends, and work 60 hour weeks. Maybe my friend's who are abusing the system have got the right end of it all..

[PrincessBabyCat]

Today and many times in the past she has took great delight in telling me that they had five kids to claim all the benefits. She admits they would only have had one if they had to work.

She's lying either to you, or to herself to make herself feel better. Maybe it's how she gets through the fact she had 5 kids, or the fact that maybe her husband is forcing her to have kids.