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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask why you go to work

481 replies

IamthepermedowlofVeronica · 10/04/2016 22:10

Try to be brief but thorough....
Due back from 1 years maternity at the beginning of June. Hate job, don't want to go back. Have had offer of temporary ad hoc work between June and start of summer hols.
Wondered how much job seekers is whilst I apply and interview over summer hols. Did the online calculator tangy: If I work current hours and pay childcare I would earn £6 less than if I signed on job seekers.
So why should I go to work (no career, just a money earning job) and how does signing on work? Has anyone found it detrimental to confidence etc?
Hopefully I'll get another cash earning job in September or,something when ds will be 15 months

OP posts:
BoboChic · 11/04/2016 09:57

Most people choose to work or not work, as the case may be, because the equation of their lives is better with the choice they make.

pearlylum · 11/04/2016 09:59

I found being a SAHM a liberating time and transformed me as a person.

AndNowItsSeven · 11/04/2016 10:00

ITS WILL BE INCOME SUPPORT NOT JSA sorry but needed to shout as its been said multiple times.

grapejuicerocks · 11/04/2016 10:01

I loved being a sahm for many years. I do part time now to afford a few more luxuries and to pay back dh for supporting me for so many years. Now he can have a few more luxuries too. I'd really rather not be working though but think "I ought to"

Original poster
IamthepermedowlofVeronica · 11/04/2016 10:03

It did say job seekers on the calculator I did. And I will be looking for work? There has been no mention of income support on the benefit calculator so I'm going on that

OP posts:
witsender · 11/04/2016 10:05

I go to work (part time) because I enjoy it and the pennies come in handy. It isn't my trained career, I work for a charity.

HarlotBronte · 11/04/2016 10:09

It won't be income support because OP won't be entitled to that with a working partner. This has also been said multiple times. It will be contributions based JSA or nothing.

PerspicaciaTick · 11/04/2016 10:21

My initial reaction to the OP was to say that I work for the money. On reflection, I have been doing all sorts of voluntary roles since becoming a SAHM so there must be an element of wanting to meet people, stretch myself, learn new things etc. It is just that I am bored of being skint and really, really like earning some money for myself.

NameChange30 · 11/04/2016 10:26

Yes, Harlot is right. OP, you won't be able to get means-tested benefits such as Income Support or income-based JSA. You will only be able to get contributory JSA for a maximum of 6 months.

Look into tax credits though. Depending on your DH's income, as a family you might be able to get child tax credits and/or working tax credits.

I still think it would be wise to go to CAB and as them to do a "better off" benefits calculation, as I said in my first post.

I also think you should consider other jobs you might enjoy more as well as part time work, which would be a good compromise between having to bring some money in and spending time with your children.

aliceinwanderland · 11/04/2016 11:01

Agree with Another Emma - it will be contributory JSA for up to 6 months - assuming you have 2 years credit built up.

I cannot emphasise enough though what a pain in the arse it is - even to get the contributory JSA - which is basically the "credit" you have already built up from working.

You should allow at least 6 weeks to get the money from the first claim. you'll need to go do biweekly interviews at the job centre at a fixed time which cannot be changed for almost any reason (I know someone who got sanctioned for not going to one when he was attending a job interview which he had told them about) - and you'll need to show evidence of applying for a ridiculous number of jobs per week - about 21 I think. any slip up and you will get a sanction. it will take a couple of days per week I reckon to keep on top of that - and you will be juggling this with a child.

pointythings · 11/04/2016 12:11

I work for the money - neither DH nor myself are high earners - , for the personal satisfaction because I do enjoy my job, and also for financial independence. It's a risk being out of the workplace for a long period of time. I have two friends whose 'D'Hs have buggered off with a younger, sexier, child-free version of their wives - both were not working, both were left high and dry financially. It took them years to get back on their feet. I am not taking that chance.

AndNowItsSeven · 11/04/2016 12:16

Yes I was talking about single mothers being entitled to income support not the op.

SmarterThanTheAverageBear16 · 11/04/2016 12:26

Most of the replies on here are absolutely disgusting! She has a baby ffs! It's not about not wanting to work it's about not wanting to leave her baby in childcare! What the hell is wrong with that

Nothing wrong with that. As long as you aren't trying to get paid (in benefits) for choosing to stay at home with your baby.

whois · 11/04/2016 12:27

I work because I like having money to use to live on, and I think it is morally wrong to relay on other people when you are fit and able to work.

whois · 11/04/2016 12:29

Also, what on earth would I do every day if I didn't work? Without working, I would have exceedingly minimal income, so I wouldn't have money to do fun or enriching things with my time.

Now, if I won a decent chunk on the lottery (say, enough to provide me with a nice house in London and approx 50k after tax income, p.a. then I wouldn't work. Because then I would have plenty of money to travel and for my hobbies.

pearlylum · 11/04/2016 12:31

"I work because I like having money to use to live on, and I think it is morally wrong to relay on other people when you are fit and able to work."

So morally wrong for my OH to support us while I stay at home to look after our children?

Jw35 · 11/04/2016 12:46

Nothing wrong with that. As long as you aren't trying to get paid (in benefits) for choosing to stay at home with your baby.

That's exactly what I'm doing! Hmm

SmarterThanTheAverageBear16 · 11/04/2016 12:50

Yes. I know. And there is an awful lot wrong with that.

Benefits are a very good thing: to support those who cannot support themselves. Not to support people who don't want to support themselves. Not to pay for you to choose to be a SAHM at everyone elses expense.
It's cheating the system.

thisismeusernameything · 11/04/2016 13:00

Stop shaming people who claim, I hope you never fall on hard times and have to rely on the system

You really don't get it do you. People are being horrible to you because of your attitude. You are going to intentionally give up a perfectly good job. Like it or not, it is a job. Don't like it? Tough. Find another and then give up the job you hate. Don't rely on others to pick up the slack of your lost earnings. Yes you may find another job straight away, then again you may not and could be sat on JSA for 1, 2 12 months.

It is because of attitudes like yours that there is less help for people that really need to rely on the system and that these people are stigmatised.

You haven't fallen on hard times. How dare you put yourself in the same catagory as those people.

Sunshowercap · 11/04/2016 13:03

Benefits are a very good thing: to support those who cannot support themselves. Not to support people who don't want to support themselves. Not to pay for you to choose to be a SAHM at everyone elses expense.
It's cheating the system.

This. If you can't afford children without state help (ie from the rest of us) why do you have them?

Obs2016 · 11/04/2016 13:06

Depends if you can afford not to. Do you have a choice? Some people don't have a choice, they have to work.
Others choose to.
I choose to work part time. I could work full time, I guess, but I choose not to. I've never worked out if financially we could afford to live off dh's wages, because I never wanted to. I like working part time.

Jw35 · 11/04/2016 13:11

I'm not going to justify my choice to have children. I'm going to leave the thread here. I don't agree with your views Biscuit

cannotlogin · 11/04/2016 13:11

some of us are suited to full time motherhood and some to careers

You do realise that even working mothers are full time mothers, don't you? I don't stop being a mum just 'cos I am without my children in tow. Confused

whois · 11/04/2016 13:13

So morally wrong for my OH to support us while I stay at home to look after our children?

No because he has presumably agreed? And you make a contribution to the household by looking after the children and doing domestic tasks?

Where as someone quitting work to scratch a life on benefits because it's easier when they are able to work, I think is wrong.

I also thinks it's very short sighted because being reliant on benefits is a hard way to live. Better to be in the workforce of you can.

SmarterThanTheAverageBear16 · 11/04/2016 13:17

I'm not going to justify my choice to have children. I'm going to leave the thread here. I don't agree with your view

It's not about the choice to have children. It's about the choice to not support your own children, or not even try to. Of course you don't agree with it, those cheating the system don't like to see themselves in that way.