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?

I have terminal cancer and have been issued with a DS1500

I get just over £1000 a month in benefits and own my house.

I don't give a shit what anybody thinks.

Rent on a 2 bed flat round here is 1100 a month, CT about 150, + food and other utilities. 2k a month would barely cover it.

But seriously Dacre you can just put details of family size, postcode etc into any one of several official online tax credits calculators to see how much anyone in any particular circumstances is entitled to.

Oh I see, advanced nosey neighbouring.

Unless you have full, accurate, information to give the calculator, the calculator won't give you an accurate answer back.

It's impossible to surmise someone else's finances.

Probably not now but in years past probably true.

I worked for a charity volunteering around 5 years ago and a lady phoned in as she got £600 a week and thought it wasn't enough.

She claimed for herself, her husband and 2 of her 5 kids had disabilities.

Your nightmare neighbours told you about their finances?
When they first moved in I was friendly towards them and because the mother never got dressed and only ever wore pyjamas I thought she was seriously ill and I used to help her out, look after her kids and things.

Then her cousin came to stay for a week and she was out every night dressed up to the nines, getting drunk. After the cousin went home she went back to wearing pyjamas.

I said to her "won't it be great when you are properly better and well again and you can go out all the time".

She said "better from what, I'm not ill".

I said "oh my mistake"

She said "I wear pyjamas because they are comfortable not because I am ill".

Any way long story short after that I wasn't going to waste my weekends looking after her feral brats while she watched TV, so I tried to cool down NOT finish my "friendship" with her.

Anyway she thought that this was unreasonable of me and that is when they decided to try and make my life a misery.

I have terminal cancer and have been issued with a DS1500. I get just over £1000 a month in benefits and own my house.
I am sorry to hear that you have received this news and I would like you to know that I don't think anybody is referring to people in situations like yours when talking about benefits.

Your dh is right.

My mum and dad refuse to work!! They can both only do min wage jobs due to them both having basic schooling, no qualifications and both of them not willing to go to college etc.

They get the same on benefits (including housing and council tax benefit) than they would if they were both working full time in a minimum wage job.

My mum only worked before she had children and hasnt worked for the last 34 years or so. I always felt she should aim higher and not settle for a min wage job etc but shes happy living on minimum money, counting the pennies and shopping in charity shops, carboots and in aldi etc.

My sister and I are nothing like this and both have a great work ethic and cant stand being skint etc

feral brats

Nice.

Define benefit.

Very few payments that are all classed as benefits are solely for those out of work except, ESa, JSA and IS.

HB, CTB, CTC, WTC, CB, DLA/PIP, carers, can all be paid to those in work to make up the shortfall in wages and cost of living.

The issue IMO isn't the benefits system but that we live in a country where there is such a descrepancy between earnings and costs.

£2000 a month is a high wage in most places.

practy - In a lot of areas, it is a comfortable wage - it's certainly not a high one in most. Hence, it would certainly not be paid out as housing + council benefit in areas that did not render the amount necessary, unless the recipient's childcare and disability-related costs were considerable.

Is this really so hard to understand?

Do not patronise me. I am replying to another poster.
Of course disabled people needs monies to meet their costs. But in most areas of the country £2,000 a month is above the average wage.
I know very well off people often use the word comfortable to mean an above average income.

Yes OP it's true, my father gets around that amount.
He is disabled,has mental health issues as well as physical,but it right narks me that because of my mental health issues I work with dogs and seem to spend every waking moment either meeting clients, filling out quotes etc or working to earn half the money he pulls in...actually that's not so much it.
He doesn't buy gifts at birthdays etc. Expects us to go and pick him up and drop him off, work around his schedule and pay for his dinner whenever he comes over, whilst he goes on and on about bedridden he's bought.
Oh I got this new thing, that new thing. I've got this coming next week. Today he told me get got himself a 50inch 3d TV for his bedroom....it was an upgrade to the one he got not a year ago.
Doesn't seem fair somehow.

Sorry I've kind of derailed the thread but god it feels nice to have gotten it out of my system!!

But I'm assuming the household income is 2k. So for one wage it might be considered high/comfortable but it there is only one of you and kids, or 2 people on benefits and kids it's still not high. If this is for 2 adults then it's the equivalent of them earning 1k each per month, which is what 15k per annum?

Its funny that the OP lives in cloud cuckoo land. A LOT of people get £500 a week in benefits, do you not read the newspapers or watch TV? In fact didn't a TV program recently give a family the whole amount for a year to see what they did with it.

I can't edit my post above, not bed ridden, I'm sure it was supposed to say new stuff he's bought.
Also, it reads like I'm overly harsh toward him. I'm not. I travel via bus which is 2 hours, or by car which takes around an hour each way. Both situations we've turned up to see him (arranged before!) And he decides we need to go after having a cup of tea.
Also been out to dinner with him in his area, he never even offers to pay for his own...which I wouldn't let him do. But the offer would be nice.
He has a better standard of living than most people I know.

No it hasn't. A few of us are saying that wages need to be higher. That is the real solution.

feral brats. Nice
Sorry I see how without explanation that could seem harsh.

A few examples -

• Throwing stones at neighbours' cats.
• Urinating on neighbours' cars.
• Breaking neighbours' plants.
• Repeatedly kicking neighbours' fences.
• Taking glass bottles out of recycling boxes and smashing them on neighbours' garden paths.

They do not do this to any one particular neighbour but many of them, some more than others.

500 is the max any person/fanily can get (bar disability benefits I think but those wouldn't be that high anyway) and this included HB and CTB. So a huge chunk of that goes to their landlord.

So technically yes people do get that much, but really no...they may only see 100 or so of it depending where they live.

That is indeed awful, PersionCatLady. But still the parents' fault ultimately. There would be a lot less of this sort of thing if we lived in a less unequal society.

Many people get more than £100 a week to live in benefits. Even a single person with no children will get £70 a week on JSA. Yes most of benefits if you are not disabled, will be housing benefits.

I know many people on benefits who are really struggling. There are also plenty of people in work who are really struggling. Life is hard for a lot of people.

That is indeed awful, PersionCatLady
It is awful.

What upsets me though is that when I was friends with their mother and I used to sit down and play Lego with them or a board game, they would say things like "we have got this at home but we don't know what to do with it".

I mean their parents would buy them a board game and give it to them and they would just flick the pieces around because they had no idea how to play the game (understandably).

After the events that I described above and their parents turning on me over night I don't think that the kids knew what was going on.

After the mother told me that "that I was a mean bitch for not wanting to help her there and then (I was just going out) I could stay the fuck away from her kids completely and never speak to any of them again".

I don't know who she thought she was trying to make me feel guilty for doing what I wanted but I had been a mug for months and really done a lot for her.

Anyway the kids saw me when I came home and said something about when could I come and help them finish their Lego models.

I said to the kids "sorry I won't be coming to see you any more" and as the mother came out the youngest boy starting crying and asking why.

To which the mother replied "cos she's a fucking bitch and she hates you and if you ever speak to her again I will fucking kill you, you little shit".

Anyway so from then on I obviously tried to avoid seeing them or them seeing me to avoid any upset but gradually they started with the behaviour I have mentioned above.

The saddest thing of all is that these kids, who I think genuinely enjoyed being treated like kids (by me) instead of being ignored (by their parents) have now completely turned into nightmares.

Obviously it is not their fault but what hope have they got their role models are so lacking in decency???

Even a single person with no children will get £70 a week on JSA
They will also receive LHA, which in my area is another £120 a week for a single person.