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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be shocked, but not surprised at the latest twist in the Universal Credit wheeze

93 replies

echt · 21/12/2015 19:07

So those who will be worse off under the new system, can just roll up their sleeves and get on with it:

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/21/universal-credit-benefit-cuts-work-allowance

OP posts:

BeckerLleytonNever · 22/12/2015 19:58

I would never, ever vote to cut welfare payments for the needy e.g. the sick, the disabled, and the people who genuinely can't find work and urgently need help. I do find it ridiculous though that people plan their lives around what handouts they can claim.

^^This.

Im severley physically disabled and on top of that Im a fulltime carer fro a severely disabled person. Before becoming disabled and having a disabled child I was in fulltime work paying tax and NI and everything.

Ill be a FT carer for the rest of my day/DCs days, Ill NEVER get a apension, and theres lazy workshy feckers out there who deliberately do what the post I highlighted above.says.

AutumnLeavesArePretty · 22/12/2015 20:16

Lol at absent parents and out of control children. Do you mean working parents with children in childcare? Presumably you home educate then and don't abandon your children to school.

What a load of rubbish. A child of a working parent will have a role model, will have a work ethic and statistically will do better in education than a child raised on benefits hence the need for pupil premium in schools.

Even full time workers doing 40 hours a week get 128 hours to have a life. If they want more, then they find work that pays enough to allow them to do that rather than expect others to provide it.

starry0ne · 22/12/2015 21:05

I am working 37 hours a week LP...I have previously worked up to 70 including sleep ins....

I can't do any of that now... I could work more when Ds is grown but for now he needs me...

The jobs market does not support low wage earners to do more..Zero hours contracts...Benefits take weeks to get reinstated...same with changes to WTC... They want flexible hours.. doesn't work for chldcare...

I really hate the I do it so everyone else can.. no ones situation is the same..Some people can co parent..Some have family support some have none..

expatinscotland · 22/12/2015 21:08

'Why does everybody assume that those claiming top up benefits work the bare minimum?'

Because it's much easier to get thickos and sheeple to buy claptrap that this expensive, ineffective UC is needed because there are so many 'workshy skivers'. UC has already cost a fucking bomb and its system has serious faults and breakdowns.

ChristmasBeary · 22/12/2015 21:32

Divide and conquer.

Rather than addressing why people can work 37 hours a week and still need top-ups in order to afford essentials like food and heat, the government would rather paint these people as lazy scroungers.

Klaptout · 22/12/2015 21:44

I'm a lazy feckless scrounger, widowed parent no family and my children have ASD, I can't get carers allowance as I get widowed parents allowance, I claim no housing Benefit or council tax, I used to work full time in a good job, paid tax for many year. I'm worried how these cuts will affect us.

TartanBirdFeeder · 22/12/2015 21:48

Crazy. My employer has cut my hours by 7 hours a week over the last six months, I am lucky that they can't cut it more than this or they would because they are short of money (I work for a government funded charity). They can't offer me any more hours so I'll be losing the cash.

Atenco · 22/12/2015 21:52

Do you mean working parents with children in childcare?

I am not particularly referring to working parents with children in childcare, everyone does what they can and they find best suits their particular needs.

But if I had had to work fulltime when my dd was growing up I don't think I would have been a good-enough parent.

And I so much agree with this > anyway what the fuck is this obsession with having everyone work constantly?? why cant we have any semblance of a life?

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 22/12/2015 21:52

I do 17 hours a week and I cant find the childcare for the school run. School clubs dont run in the hours I work as I have to be a work at 8 and dont get home until 5/6 o clock. Oh and it took 2 years to get those 17 hours. So unless I can get more hours in school time, its not going to happen.

Arrowminta · 22/12/2015 22:15

Atenco, I worked full time when my DD was growing up and I was a good parent.

The truth is that if find a few hours more work a week means the difference between sink or swim a good parent would swim, surely?

Arrowminta · 22/12/2015 22:16

'finding'

ChatShitGetBanged · 23/12/2015 11:18

'Why does everybody assume that those claiming top up benefits work the bare minimum?' Because it's much easier to get thickos and sheeple to buy claptrap that this expensive, ineffective UC is needed because there are so many 'workshy skivers'. UC has already cost a fucking bomb and its system has serious faults and breakdowns

Divide and conquer.Rather than addressing why people can work 37 hours a week and still need top-ups in order to afford essentials like food and heat, the government would rather paint these people as lazy scroungers

Expat and beary

Atenco · 23/12/2015 19:33

Arrowminta, congratulations on being a good parent, but what has that got to do with the discussion?

I openly admit I'm was a middling parent and needed to spend more time with my dd to be able to keep her on the straight and narrow. And in my experience there are more middling parents than brilliant parents like yourself on this planet. The more financial stress put on parents and the less time they get to spend with their children means that more children will fall between the cracks and end up being anti-social.

And of course parents are going to do whatever is necessary to put food on the table. In the 19th Century they sent their children down the mines to put food on the table, but I still think that instead of rather than spending taxpayer's money on bombing the shite out of the Middle East, Cameron would do well to look after the weakest members of society.

Arrowminta · 23/12/2015 21:04

Atenco, 'brilliant' was your word not mine. I am saying that it's possible to work full time and still do a good job of parenting in reply to you saying that you couldn't do it. Of course you could.

If cuts are going to be made, and I'm not saying I agree with it, but they will do it anyway, then a few hours more work a week isn't going to stop parents keeping kids on the straight and narrow. Kid's down the mine is a bit hysterical.

HelenaDove · 23/12/2015 22:12

Parents are going to be under so much pressure though that if they have to deal with something like their child being bullied at school its going to be hard not to show their irritation in front of their child because of being under so much pressure and stress.

Potatoface2 · 23/12/2015 22:37

and when the children grow up and follow their parents and claim benefits all their lives, it will be the parents who are blamed

Potatoface2 · 23/12/2015 22:40

lots of parents work full time, even familys with 2 parents....the excuses that come up about never seeing the children, never seeing your spouse, the travelling....how do you think people who have a mortgage cope....they dont get top ups for reducing their hours....they dont have the option!

Potatoface2 · 23/12/2015 22:46

tallzorah you work 17 hours a week and you have to be at work at 8 and dont get home until 5 or 6....so you work approx 2 days a week, so what happens for the other 5 days then....you need minimal childcare at the very least.....some of the stories on here about how hard it is etc just dont ring true!

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 23/12/2015 23:35

Potato, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I have to do the school run, so that limits my options as I said before I cant find a childminder. We arent open weekends. I'm a single parent so no partner to help me either.

If my hours could fit into school hours, I'd work more but unfortunately that wont happen, so my options arent great.

LuluJakey1 · 23/12/2015 23:49

But remember, this government were voted in with a significant majority across the whole of England- apart from in the North-East. Living in the North-East, I know no one who voted for the bastards but plenty did south of Middlesborough.

Why is anyone surprised by what they are doing? They said they would do all of this.

LuluJakey1 · 23/12/2015 23:52

Tali You can get extended hours care in many areas now - schools open before 8 am and until 5.30 in many places.

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 23/12/2015 23:54

They open at 8am Lulu but they are useless when it comes to after school. But I need to leave at 7:15 in the morning so its not that helpful unless I have someone to take her for me.

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 23/12/2015 23:56

Oh and I finish a 6 one day and not home until about half six and half 5 the other day. Realised my mistake in my earlier post.

LuluJakey1 · 23/12/2015 23:57

cannotlogin How long have you been teaching full-time? How many children do you have? Do you get maintenance? Teachers start on £21000 a year but within a few years are earning £31,000.

ChristmasBeary · 23/12/2015 23:57

how do you think people who have a mortgage cope

There are plenty of people receiving tops-ups who also have a mortgage. They don't all live in scummy council houses on sinkhole estates....

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