To think that a 23k benefits cap will drive some families in the SE

[Minifingers9]

... Into destitution?

I live in a pretty unappealing and comparatively cheap part of greater London but you can't get a 3 bedroom rental for under £1400 a month.
If we lost our jobs we wouldn't be able to live on 23k a year as a family of 5. Not when 15k of it was going on rent.
Why don't they have regional benefit caps?

Yes I am looking at JSA for a single adult because an employed person with a child earning NMW would also receive benefits.

So get better jobs or move out of London. Why should others subsidise you?

AH good.
I can now see where the arseholes are hanging out so I can update my list.
Just to let you know that if you think some of these people are sitting on their arses please think of those carers who care for family members over the age of 18 - they will be affected by this and they work a fuck sight more hours than the smug full time brigade.

Ilovechristmas, I can assure you that's what we get. PIP is 55 a week, ESA 220 a fortnight. We get just over 1.1k a month. Sounds loads I guess but it's a substantial drop from when dp was working. And we have the mortgage to pay plus the mortgage on my property which has been on the market for a year but isn't selling. If I can sell that I can reduce the mortgage on this place which will make life easier.

Life has a sT of throwing obstacles at you sometimes, it's not a lot of fun right now.

little & lotus

DP works full time. £10k is his business profit. He did expect the business to grow more but there is only so much demand because everyone else is broke! He employs people who would otherwise be on benefits so there is a wider benefit to his work. I want to work ft. Have had 6 interviews recently but not having luck-50 + applicants for each post.

I didn't realise until I did a quick google that the benefits cap also applies to most benefits and not just unemployment. It also applies to carers allowance, widowed parents allowance etc. I think this has been missed in the focus on those that are unemployed, as all the posts above seem to refer to those not working. It quite rightly doesn't apply to disability or personal independence allowances. But IMO to force familes where they need to care for someone full time to move away from support networks is reprehensible. So much focus seems to be on the small number who have made it a lifestyle choice instead of working and the rest seem to have been forgotten.

All the people who think £23k = destitution does that mean they think anyone working full time and earning a wage of £29k (before tax) or less is extremely poor? What amount of benefits do they think should be given to workless households? £50k, £100k, £150k? Seriously what would be a figure that would bring a family out of destitution and would it matter if that figure was many times the wage of most full time workers after tax and NI had been paid?

23k is a lot of money, rents need controlling, but even so, I really can't see how anyone can possibly complain about being given 23k for nothing.

I'm shocked at how many people honestly believe that there should be no caps on benefits. Unreal. Depressing.

And no, those who question benefit limits and talk of scroungers (I've lived in areas where a massive percentage of certain estates were made up of dole scroungers, I refuse to believe they were all unfit for work) aren't heartless or arseholes or cunts or accidentally living in some orwellian dystopia. They just have eyes open.

I am welcoming this with open arms. It needs to be lower, IMO however. £29K is still way too high. How many of these long term benefit people could even dream of earning that kind of money?

Once anybody starts flinging terms like cunts and arseholes around, it's pretty clear they're just having a froth rather than engaging in debate

I do believe they were all unfit for work in their current state. The question for all is who is going to employ these people ? In what jobs?

"Why on earth should it be the case that working people have to live within their means but those who rely on the state feel entitled to live within their wants?*

Is anyone going to answer this question? Because I'd quite like to know too.

Radically different views on the thread, aren't they? It's very interesting.

Athe, good luck with job hunting. If your husband's business only makes him £10k he needs to think about how to improve profit. Could he sack a member of staff and you work full time in the business on that staff member's salary?

TTWK that would because those relying on the state want to feed and clothe their dc and want to have a roof of their heads. All very entitled those benefit scrounges.

vitamink a working family earning 29k who would be entitled to the max 23k tax free in benefits, would receive top up benefits in addition to the 29k. So yes a family earning 29k of the size big enough to need the full 23k would be poor. ( and that's why they would receive top ups.)

Christ, what a depressing thread.

"Why should others subsidise you?"

And there we have the crux of it. It makes me want to weep that, seventy years after the inception of the welfare state, this question is being asked. Repeatedly.

Why are you only receiving £220 a fortnight ESA? That can't be a couple claim or you would receive more in the disabled minimum income guarantee.

That's to butterfly balls

If healthy people are unemployable to the point that they couldnt get or hold down a NMW job, our benefits system really shouldn't be encouraging them to have children IMO.

Butterfly balls why isn't your dh claiming carers allowance?

TTWK that would because those relying on the state want to feed and clothe their dc and want to have a roof of their heads. All very entitled those benefit scrounges.

You seem to have missed the whole point of the thread. It's not about a roof over their head, it's about the location of the roof! Working families can only live where they can afford. Why should non working families (including the disabled and the genuinely unable to work) get to live where they want, regardless of cost?

32percent. I have just spent two days in hospital with my disabled dd. In the meantime, my son looked after disabled dh and his other (disabled) sibling. However, the £30.00 per hour I had to pay for a carer whilst my son was at work came out of our benefits. In the light of this, alongside the fact that I do generally work an eighteen hour day looking after the three people with disabilities in this house, would you kindly explain what sort of 'lifestyle' you think I enjoy on benefits?
Thank you.

TTWK, they don't. As rent prices go up they will be forced to move somewhere else to have more income. Are you forgetting the £23k includes HB for rent? If they have 3 children to clothe & feed and their rent is £1500 a month for a 3 bedroom property - that leaves them with £400 for the month to spend on everything else that isn't rent - food, clothes, toiletries, essentials.

So yeah, they'll have to move so the rent goes down & they have more after it to feed themselves.

God they're so entitled.

So fucking sick of seeing people on benefits be bashed for no good reason.

I don't get why £100 for "everything else" is seen as low. We were far lower for over a decade. We managed fine