"Benefits are a lifestyle choice for so many these days"

[Bellerina2]

I'm on the bus and two women behind me are having a long conversation about perceived benefit cheats and one of them just said the above phrase. WIBU to hit her over the head with a rolled up copy of the Guardian??

But seriously, it's so depressing that people think this. Well done to the government and likes of the Sun and Daily Mail for convincing people that those on benefits are leading some sort of charmed life

and if I refused to do it there are plenty of other desperate buggers out there who would take it in an instant.

I feel this post.. I tried goin bk to work in october and its caused me so much problems with my housing benefits im beem evicted jn 3 weeks with no place to go.. county wants people of benefits but this is what happens :( ive even emailed james cameron ranting its not fair everyone tellin me to go back on benefits ill b better off but dont want too :( wNt to work grrr x

ssd

Apologies, if i have upset you.
You sound a lovely nice person.
I don't think some people appreciate how hard it is if you don't earn much.
My own 2 dc are trying to find as much work as they can atm.
Eldest made redundant and applied for everything and ended up with a much better job, bought a house with a big deposit he has saved from being 16. He's hardly spent anything on himself for 7 years.
Ds2 works in a Call centre and is looking at moving up a bit.
Both min wage until recently.
It's hard, you need 2 or 3 jobs to be able to save if you are young or if you have dc and bills to pay.

I honestly sometimes think I live on another planet from mumsnet because I can categorically say that yes, for some people it is a lifestyle choice. I'm not particularly arsed if people do it because it's a shit life to choose for yourself but I know a good few people who are quite open about the fact!

morethan, it wasnt you, it was SGB saying anyone who refuses to do a shit job is doing a good thing, like they have really strong morals or something and I just thought what a load of fuckin bollocks, bet she earns a shitload or is married to a dentist or something.

I saw a client today who's been ill for a long time. He's voluntarily abandoned ESA and applied for JSA and started to look for work. Due to the inefficiency of the changeover he's received no benefits since the middle of last month.

Many of my clients have been sanctioned for all sorts of spurious reasons - one for "not trying hard enough" - no explanation of why - one for missing a signing on appointment for attending a job interview set up by the job centre.

I'm astonished that people really believe others enjoy being on benefits.

And don't get me started on the sanction threatened for a client who has been told to apply for six jobs a day and write down the evidence. He can't read or write. He was referred to a literacy course in a large class where he was given worksheets and told to get on with them. I'm trying to find him a small group literacy course -there's hardly anything available.

He wants to learn to read and wants to work. He doesn't enjoy being on benefits.

Grays

Of course there are pockets for want of a better word, everywhere.
It is not as bad as previous generations, is it?
Yet we hear about it all the time and it is disproportionate to the problem itself.
I'm going to stop posting on these threads as they remind me of Julie Walters in Educating Rita "All trying to sing a better song"
Anyway, an early night for me.

Night all.

I only know about my own generation morethan so honestly couldn't say, and I'm sure that you're right about the pockets but that's why it annoys me when people come on here screaming that these people can't possibly exist and that everyone who says they do are liars or benefit bashers

ssd You're great. Your post made my day. This is a different planet where people only work for fun. I mean... I earn well, but there are a million other things I would like to do, if I didn't have to work...

To solve the problems ilovesooty refers to though, you need a case by case approach that probably will also reveal those who simply choose not to work.

Candid's unpleasant attitude of superiority was proved again by her little 'shame on you, I pay for your DC' rant of bile, I think SSD. Thankfully she got the wrong people and just showed herself up as a prat.

I think this thread has run its course and I've more than spoken my piece, but this is ridiculous Arsenic.

No one had anything remotely like "I pay for your children!" to say even after some particularly presumptuous comments. What a lot of people have said is that taxpayers subsidize the choices other people make, ones that they wouldn't make for themselves because they are programmed to not dip into means-tested benefits if there is any other option available.

What I've learned on this thread is that there will be recipients of means-tested benefits who will never understand that they are in fact subsidies.

And, SSD's post illustrates exactly why we should be fighting not for better benefits, but higher wages.

No one had anything remotely like "I pay for your children!" to say even after some particularly presumptuous comments.

She said pay for their healthcare, in point of fact. With a lot of histrionic 'shame on you' thrown in.

And yes SSD and everyone in low paid work deserves a much better deal (both pay and conditions wise), but people who are carers or unemployed don't deserve to be starved either.

I'd hate to be in either position now, it's all so thankless.

It is a tribute to the success of this government that 'I do a shitter job than you because I'm morally upstanding' has become the badge of pride to anyone. That isn't to criticize the low paid in any way. The only beneficiaries of this race to the bottom are the business owners and the current gov't.

The first job I supported myself on (or tried to) paid just under £2ph, just over 20 years ago. Considering NMW was introduced just over 15 years ago, it is so, so disappointing that we are still so far from NMW being at living wage level.

Right.
And none of you see how these kind of comments damage the mental health of those who have no choice?
How actually you're just making some people's lives that bit shitter?

That's what I got annoyed with Candid for, Bishop.

But hey. People's right to hold opinions is King here.
After all there's nobody real being affected by those opinions, oh no it's just 'words on a screen".

And by the way I've scrubbed toilets, been in carer positions where I've provided personal care to strangers and been paid for it. I've also worked as a PA in a very highly paid (and taxed) role.

I've been a homeowner, private renter.

Only now I find myself due to circumstances beyond my control in a HA property, utterly reliant on benefits for the foreseeable future. The money we depend on is being eroded and withdrawn due to these 'opinions'. Oh you might not mean people like me but that's not stopping policy getting worse and worse for disabled people and their carers.

Because the opinion is so very distorted.

The figure of people purely on unemployment benefit - that is not disability, carer or in work benefits or pensions is NINE PER CENT. I'm damn sure that not every single one of those is long term either.

Yet nobody here can see that they could be in my position too easily. Do you really think that as recently as 13 years ago when I was living in my own home paying a fair whack of tax that I EVER thought I'd be here? Of course not. I'm a worker.

I still do work, by the way. But as that work is caring for my own children it has zero value.

What I've learned on this thread is that there will be recipients of means-tested benefits who will never understand that they are in fact subsidies.

Yes Goodbye subsidies to under-paying employers.

Without sounding harsh we as a country make lazy people too uncomfortable - there's too many lazy or crafty people on the fiddle. I got made redundant afew tears back and wasn't entilted to a penny as my ex earnt too much - I'd like to point out I gave worked since I was 16!! I was 26 at the time but lots of people seem to get shed loads of handouts and fir hardworking people it's extremely frustrating!!!!

Bollocks!

Sorry posted before I finished
I meant to say that those who find themselves in this situation due to situations beyond their control are a totally different kettle of fish to people who have simply chosen thus as a lifestyle choice.

Of course it's bollocks. Where's the evidence that lazy and crafty people on the fiddle are any more than a minority?

Arsenic

They are NOT starving. Don't be so dramatic - that's an insult to those who are really starving in the Third World.

I haven't seen pictures of UK mothers and babies on welfare that would make Bob Geldof churn out yet another Christmas song.

Oh ok. So this all party enquiry is a work of fiction then?

One of the best ways many of those not very well off and on benefits can feel happier is eating 2 meals a day of only healthy foods. If more people did intermittent fasting they would feel so much better. It is much less food not more food people need.