To think dh is winding me up when he says some people on benefits are getting £500 a week?

[angelos02]

I'm pretty sure he's talking bullocks? Otherwise why the fuck would anyone do a minimum wage job?

If you respond indignantly while repeating wrong info, it makes you look like an idiot. RTFT. OP said £500 a WEEK as has been repeated by PPS.

I quite clearly stated there are those that deserve their benefits. Of course. And quite right. But there are some that take the piss. If you think that all benefits claimants are totally legit you are bonkers. If you can't tell the difference that's your problem.

I get £554pw in benefits incl HB. It is only so high because I am severely disabled and I also have to care for a severely disabled child as a lone parent as well. So we have a lot of disability related expenses, and of course I am having to work hard as a f/t carer for DD so I have no way of increasing my income through work, as DD cannot go to childcare due to her disabilities. We have a council flat so our rent is low for our area at £118pw, but the amount would be much higher if we had to privately rent.

Needless to say, I would much rather be able to work and not have to deal with the consequences of my own and my DD's disabilities. I am qualified and educated and in another life I would be able to earn many times our current income if it weren't for the disadvantages we've had to deal with.

Of course there will always be piss takers - that can only be minimised, not eliminated altogether. There will always be cracks in any system, and those able to squeeze through them.

There is only so much a governing body can do to weed out piss takers, thus they will always exist.

But what's the alternative? The vast majority of claimants are in receipt of benefits because they are entirely necessary.

The only way to completely eliminate the possibility of a single rogue benefit claimant is to have no welfare state at all - which would condemn thousands upon millions to - at best - utter destitution.

If a given amount of tax £s keeps, for example, 20 families off the streets, is 1 solitary piss-taking beneficiary not a price worth paying, when one considers how much is creamed off for hugely less urgent things?

Agreed, and the amount of unclaimed benefits still outweighs the Tory government's estimate of the amount of fraudulently claimed benefits.

OP probably believes in survival of the fittest. and everything the DM tells her

We get more, and both work on top. Hope that helps.

The only way to completely eliminate the possibility of a single rogue benefit claimant is to have no welfare state at all - which would condemn thousands upon millions to - at best - utter destitution.

This. The whole anti benefits argument goes a bit like this:

I have 100 people.
1 of those 100 people has committed a terrible, terrible crime.
Investigating and identifying the culprit would take enormous amounts of time, effort and money.
Shooting all 100 would definitely get rid of the culprit.

So let's shoot the 100.
I'd rather not shoot the 100. Can't think why.

mum I asked how someone piss takes their way to 24k of benefits. I didn't say every claimant is genuine.

disingenious thread indeed

So fed up of benefits bashing - who would "choose" to be on benefits and get bashed daily it's horrible

Just watched a programme where a man said he would have to earn £500 a week to be better off working than on benefits

It's true I know for a fact someone that gets 740 a week NOT including housing benefit etc. They have 6 kids and get dlA for one.

People who need to draw benefits don't have it easy, no matter how much people try to make out that they do.

If they get £500 it's because they have complied with the conditions that test their entitlement to that amount. £2k is not going to go very far.

Me thinks this is yet another stealth "lets bash benefits claimants".

Yes, I know for a fact my goats sils mothers neighbours uncle gets £824 a day, all bills paid and free vouchers for meals at restaurants. And I read of similar cases in the mail all the time.

Seriously though regina I can see why you'd be annoyed, I'm always envious of anyone who is eligible for dla, it must be fantastic.

I'm 40 and retired on ill health grounds as I am literally unable to work. I get £200 a week in benefits and £100 a week pension. I'm married and my DH works, but due to having to do so much for me and DD, he only earns a minimal wage. We own our own house (but it's mortgaged), and get no benefits other than DLA and ESA. I have carers for 18 hours a week but I have to contribute £60 a week to this. If I didn't get a pension I wouldn't have to contribute to my care. Life is bloody hard.

If we were to live in a council property then I would pay minimal rent and get many more benefits. I am not willing to give up our house and live in a council property in order to get all sorts of benefits thrown at me. People really are discriminated against for owning their own property. As long as we can (no matter how tight things are), we are keeping our house - of course if there is no way that we could then we'll have to deal with that at the time.

They get DLA for one of their children? Scrounging bastards.......

It's true I know for a fact someone that gets 740 a week NOT including housing benefit etc. They have 6 kids and get dlA for one.

A large chunk of that £740 will be money linked to having a disabled child such as DLA, Carers' Allowance, disability element of Tax Credits, and so on.

Does anyone on this thread actually think that people pop out disabled kiddies so they can rake in the cash on benefits? Or that they fiddle the DLA form so they can make a few extra quid? Have you ever filled in a DLA form for a child!? It's heartbreaking. You basically slag your child off for 48 pages, describing their worst possible day, describing all the ways in which you feel like you've failed them, and describing all the ways in which they are decidedly not normal all the while wishing to God a-fucking-bove that they were normal so that you don't have to weep your way through yet another bastarding form with yet another set of hoops to jump through.

Working is harder with a disabled child. I'm lucky. I work from home. I can pick and choose my hours and my customers based on how well they fit around us as a family. Lots of others aren't in this position. In my area there are very few with provision for children with additional needs, even non-physical needs like DS, and the ones who do charge extra - expertise costs money. Then if your child has hospital appointments or groups they have to go to or simply decides that instead of going to the childcare provider they're going to lie on the floor and headbutt the skirting board then you need time off work. How many employers are willing to hand out frequent, unplanned leave?

But no. No. We're all in it for the benefits.

And the free goats.

£500 p/w seems like a lot. Husband was newly qualified teacher when we had first child and brought home approx £1200 for a 60 hr week. So to get 2k for not working seems a lot. We didn't know tax credits existed so I was back in work when she was just 4 months old. We survived on just over 2k per month for 5 yrs or so, of which about 450 was taken up with childcare. Both working long hours. So to hear it's possible to get this amount for not working at all does grate.
Clearly disabled people and those with disabled children should be helped all the way as nobody could argue that would be unfair.
Always wondered how people not working could afford stuff we weren't able to.
Surely it can't be right for someone to earn less for working a 60 hrs week than someone doing no work outside the home??

You're so transparent, OP.

converse

That must have been tough for you.
Would you have claimed tax credits if you'd known about them, it would have made it a bit easier for you and allowed you longer at home, saved your childcare fees? Costs of working? You wouldn't have been much worse off.

The benefit cap doesn't apply to families with disabled children getting dla.

My partner works he earns about 15000 a year I get £260 a week tax credits, carers then £140 every 4 weeks for income support and my sons dla we spend on him £420 every 4 weeks.

We are lucky I feel as if really does improve our sons quality of life being able to do things for him and buy him things he needs. It also takes the stress off of me a bit as a full time carer.

I've done a calculation based on a lone parent with three children, not working, no one in the household who is disabled.

They'll be living the highlife on a grand total of:

£92 p/wk housing benefit
£23 p/wk council tax benefit
£170 p/wk child tax credit
£47 p/wk child benefit

£302 in total. Maybe my fictional single parent should be getting in touch with the DWP to demand where the other £198 is....? The Housing Benefit and Council tax Benefit don't cover the full amount of either so some will still need to be paid out of that £302. Plus all utilities and bills. Plus all the food shopping and clothing for everyone. Plus bus fares. Plus whatever else is needed - a birthday gift for the kids, school trips, emergencies like the washer breaking or needing to pay for a taxi to take a sick child to the out of hours GP.

It doesn't go far.

Completely depends on the rent in your area. Here you are allowed up to around £195pw rent for a 2 bed. So with that, child tax credits etc etc. It's really not hard to get to £500pw.

For someone in a city where the average 2 bed flat costs £1k pcm it's not a lot.

Through the other side now and both in school. So not worth getting wound up about. Away on first proper holiday since having kids - still camping BUT in France. Think I am happier to have paid our own way.
I would have loved to have been SAHM so do regret not being able to do that.
I genuinely had no idea it was possible to get so much money for not working.

Those who begrudge single parents or Carers claming benefits can sit back and enjoy the fact that once those children have grown up the majority of benefits stop. This leaves many people especially women in their 50's and now 60's, as pension age has increased with very little to live on. Many of them have been trapped in part time low paid work or have not been able to work.

Sorry I don't really have anything to say about OP and haven't got past page 2 but I'd just like to say to all PP who have replied about receiving £500 A MONTH, FFS at least read the OP before posting irrelevant information!