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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think many mumsnetters have little or no understanding of life on a low income

554 replies

crocodilesarevicious · 24/11/2014 16:09

It's going to be hard to know how to phrase this as I don't want to cause offence.

I've been hanging around for a while. One thing I've noticed is that benefit threads become angry very quickly because so many are quite loud and fixed in their view that the UK is full of starving children reliant on value baked beans from food banks to fill their hungry tummies.

However, if someone who is on benefits or a low income is searching specific advice! they are often given quite short shrift. I've noticed this a few times - they are told, often brusquely, to retrain as something at university - usually a teacher or a nurse. These are graduate professions yet they are chucked out as something anyone can do. Not everyone can go to college or university due to financial restraints but also, some people don't have the academic ability. This is dismissed and shrugged off - if people aren't on much money then they need to find a way to make more money, even if this isn't possible.

Childminding, or starting a business is also suggested. People who rent may not be able to do this. Again, this takes a certain amount of financial and business savvy not to mention starting up costs.

Cooking is another area people seem to have little understanding of. It's so easy to cook healthy, cheap nutritious meals if your kitchen is large and a pleasure to cook in and you can whiz in the car to sainsburys or Tesco. If you have a small, grubby, dark kitchen and the local Spar or premier shop it's a bit different.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that when talking about people in general terms, Mumsnet likes to be left wing and PC. Yet when it's someone specific, irrelevant and often patronising advice is given to them and then they are flamed when they can't act on it.

My own position, while I'm a graduate and employed in a professional capacity, is perhaps between the two. I've never been reliant in benefits but was homeless for a time in my 20s and am able to see how things that look simple often aren't.

OP posts:
Dawndonnaagain · 13/01/2015 11:00

heygoldfish
There's enough benefit bashing goes on here without resurrecting old threads. Hmm

heygoldfish · 13/01/2015 11:08

I didn't think this thread was remotely benefit bashing; I thought it was excellent.

Confused

(It's not that old!)

ghostinthecanvas · 13/01/2015 11:32

This thread is one of the best I have read. Can't read it all now but will catch up later.
Just wanted to say that, as a single parent in the mid 80s, budgeting was a constant round of choices. Toothpaste or soap, cheese or jam. Everything I had was second hand. I babysat 3 kids every day for 2 months to get a secondhand twintub washing machine. I painted furniture long before it was called upcycling. Now I am back on a budget. However, the difference between toothpaste OR soap and browsing the cheaper brands of both is huge. Different worlds in fact.
I think that mn has the whole range of budgets on here and is better for it.

fromparistoberlin73 · 13/01/2015 12:19

Op
Yanbu

Will read thread but Yanbu

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