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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to think that at least one of the parents should work

293 replies

Adizzylass2014 · 08/04/2015 23:04

My 16 yr old son is friends with a family who have just moved into the close next to ours and we were invited round for coffee. My partner left as he was fuming and I stayed for the sake of my son but I was seething. They are a family of 8 and the mum is pregnant again, they were so brazen and gloated that their 4 bedroom house is paid for by housing benefit (we have the same in the next close and the rent is £800 pcm)
He has never worked and hasn't long been released from prison. The children had all the gadgets from ipad to ps4. She said she has never worked either as she loves to be pregnant and plans on having more. Now you will have seen from previous threads I don't benefit bash but this is disgusting how can this be allowed. My son has been invited by them to go fishing on their boat, i don't want him anywhere near them. my partner works damn hard to pay the rent and our band f council tax and these people not only get everything given to them but they openly gloat about it. This is what is wrong with this bloody world Angry Angry

OP posts:
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NeedsAsockamnesty · 08/04/2015 23:53

Perhaps this family with 8 kids getting all their benefits and rent paid at awe inspiring levels have not been informed about the benefit cap that has effected everybody else in the country on benefits since April 2013.

Maybe the rules are totally different for them.

I expect they are not really on benefits it's a cover for being a spy or in witness protection or something and their handler forgot to check the actual rules.

Original poster
Adizzylass2014 · 09/04/2015 00:00

if she was putting on a front then she was doing a great job because it honestly came across as gloating.
I believe that there must be an additional income and if that is the case then I hope that they are found out as like I said before I believe that the people that need it should be supported to enable them to live, not to own a boat

OP posts:
RJnomore · 09/04/2015 00:00

Has no one noticed this is actually Thr BEST STEALTH BOAST EVER?

I noticed you are paying band f council tax op - I noticed.

Salmotrutta · 09/04/2015 00:06

Maybe the boat was given to them by a relative who didn't want it any more.

Maybe they won it in a bet.

Maybe it was a swap for something they didn't want.

Maybe they built it themselves or it was a knackered old thing that they got for £5 and fixed up?

Is it a yacht? A dinghy? A rowing boat? A speed boat?

Why do I care... Confused

NeedsAsockamnesty · 09/04/2015 00:07

RJ

That band f CT. Now I happen to know that you know about CT benefit what do you reckon, spy's or witness protection?

RJnomore · 09/04/2015 00:10

Got to be witness protection surely Grin

ilovesooty · 09/04/2015 00:10

Perhaps he went to prison for drug offences and she held on to his ill gotten gains while he was inside.
Just like in the movies... Grin

Salmotrutta · 09/04/2015 00:11

Could they be undercover vice/fraud squad trying to catch dodgy types?

Salmotrutta · 09/04/2015 00:12

Oh yes!

Loot from nefarious activities!

ilovesooty · 09/04/2015 00:14

Perhaps the OP should report them then. I'm sure it would help to assuage her seething resentment.

AgaPanthers · 09/04/2015 00:15

Uh, needsasockamnesty you know there are tonnes of exemptions from the benefits cap? If any of the kids get dla: Exempt

NeedsAsockamnesty · 09/04/2015 00:16

Did they have lots of gardening equipment?

Perhaps they buried the swag. Unless it's something really boring like being the third man on the grassy knoll.

sugar21 · 09/04/2015 00:18

Is the boat a Sunseekers yacht or a fuckin dinghy. There is a benefits cap of £26,000 as PP have said. Porkie pies here somewhere. Gosh your Council Tax must be £2000 or so, that amount would also be included in their £26,000. 8 kids in a four bedroom house, report them for overcrowding. Better call social services while you're at it.
Unbelievable Hmm

MrsTerryPratchett · 09/04/2015 00:20

Boat? Prison? deffo Mafia. Cocaine running in Miami. Do they have Council Tax there?

I work in a country with a cap on money for housing, caps on all sorts of things. You know what we have? Massive numbers of very miserable street homeless people, people living with addictions and disabilities in abject poverty and beggars everywhere. Give me friendly neighbours with boats and iPhones any day.

RJnomore · 09/04/2015 00:21

The op has quite clearly said no disabilities (that she knows of, and she knows all)

Curiouser and curiouser.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 09/04/2015 00:22

I know that aga but the op clearly said she's not a benefit basher and values our system of assisting the vulnerable.

Shock horror family with disabled household members get financial assistance does not really fit with that does it

Or working family or continuously employed for over a year but now getting contribution based benefits after losing job. See where I'm heading with this?

Salmotrutta · 09/04/2015 00:23

I really need to know what this boat is like.

Maybe they are smugglers.

Original poster
Adizzylass2014 · 09/04/2015 00:26

well if they are defrauding the system I hope that they get caught. There are so many people struggling on benefits and genuinely cannot find work even though they try and then you get families like that bragging, yes they may have been trying to wind me up but they seemed very sincere, so surely if they are defrauding the system then I have every right to be annoyed and at the end of the day we are all entitled to our own opinions and I've based mine on what I have seen and heard from her. some will agree and some won't but we are all entitled to our own opinions!

OP posts:
Lweji · 09/04/2015 00:26

Loot from nefarious activities!

Of course.

It's highly possible that he does work in some form or another.

Not sure if I wouldn't prefer if he lived off benefits instead, though.

Lweji · 09/04/2015 00:27

Maybe they are smugglers.

Smuggling illegal immigrants - UKIP bingo.

ilovesooty · 09/04/2015 00:29

Presumably you get the benefits to which you are entitled? How would you feel if your neighbours were judging what you had?

Lweji · 09/04/2015 00:30

Also there's fishing in a boat

AIBU to think that at least one of the parents should work
Lweji · 09/04/2015 00:31

And fishing on a boat

AIBU to think that at least one of the parents should work
Original poster
Adizzylass2014 · 09/04/2015 00:31

I have no idea what type of boat it is, all I know is that they regularly go fishing

OP posts:
NeedsAsockamnesty · 09/04/2015 00:32

or perhaps she/ he get this. www.gov.uk/war-widow-pension/eligibility

Because that would be the only other reason for the cap not applying

(So not really tons of reasons just 4 disabled/war widow/employed/39 weeks after continious employment)

I'm going with spy given the budget cuts I'm sure the quality of the handlers has gone to the dogs

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