To think she's probably not in a minority with her views?

[LauraMoon]

Foolishly talked politics after many proseccos with my True Blue sister.

Now, she wouldn't air these views in public but she knows she can say it to me because I know and love her for the cunt she is.

She thinks that the only reason food bank usage has rocketed is because poor people are lazy and just want free food.

That poor people need to learn to manage their money better and not smoke, drink or have sky telly.

That everyone can afford to buy a house if they really want to, but people waste money.

That anyone can get a decent job if they really put their minds to it.

Unemployment benefits are unnecessary because people should just have insurance.

(My 'favourite') that natural selection would breed out poor and stupid people and that by having a welfare system we are fucking with the natural order of things...

The background to this is that she left school with zero GCSEs and has then worked her way up from an office junior to finance director for an international (massive, household name) company. She bought a house in her early twenties with a loan from our parents and has always been well off. She says this is because she has a good work ethic, and doesn't see anyway that it could all go wrong for her.

Conversely, I am on ESA and have never really had a career, I've been a LP on benefits and lived in a HA house. I'm married now and dh earns £££ and we own our home, but I know how tenuous that all is in reality. She left her dh a few years ago and has her dc 50/50 and doesn't understand why other lone parents would struggle.

Anyway, I feel like I've had an insight into how some other people think and I'm pretty sure her views aren't even all that uncommon.

Does anyone here want to admit to thinking like this? Or maybe you know someone who does?

It's all a bit depressing really.

Yes, people I'm still in touch with, apart from my mother who has screwed the system for years.

I'm not saying every claimant is screwing the system and I'm not saying that everyone who does get benefits, doesn't deserve them.

What I'm saying is that I've personally watched people screw a system that I've paid into for twenty (and my hubs for thirty) years yet when we hit a troubled patch of unemployment, we are told "sorry, nothing in the pot for you, yes we know you have two kids at school and one of you only works part time, so here's 76 quid to play with."

I know what it's like to live on a budget where enough food to make a meal for four people once, had to be stretched to make a meal for four people over three days. I have gone without so my kids could eat, I have gone to bed every night for six month with a rumbly tummy, sold dvd's for bread/milk money, sold jewellery handed down two generations to put shoes on my children's feet, and held onto my house by the skin of my teeth. So forgive me if I look at some people out there collecting their dole/housing benefit/dla/carers allowance/free school dinners/discounted community tax/tax credits/etc and think, "bloody hell, luv. Get a job."

Incidentally, a gym aquaintance of mine who is a single mother, told me she's refusing to start working at a term time job because it's only ten hours to start with and she gets more in benefits at the moment.

somebody please tell me what the abbreviation ESA is .

ESA is employment support allowance. It's what you get if you are long term ill or disabled and unable to work.

I get contribution based and I'm in the support group which means I'm not expected to look for work.

Incidentally, a gym aquaintance of mine who is a single mother, told me she's refusing to start working at a term time job because it's only ten hours to start with and she gets more in benefits at the moment

She'll get sanctioned pronto then.

"sorry, nothing in the pot for you, yes we know you have two kids at school and one of you only works part time, so here's 76 quid to play with."

This is wrong..unless the one working part time was bringing in astronomical wages? You should have got child tax credit for the children, child benefit for the children..and depending on the hours PT person worked possibly working tax credit ontop!

Couldn't get working tax credit, because at the table me I didn't work enough hours. We got £10 a week child tax credits as hubs had had a good job (no where near astronomically good) the previous year and that's what the child tax credits award was based on.

I had very little overtime too, but every time I got a payslip, hubs had to take it down to the job centre where they would calculate how much there were going to take OFF that week's dole money. We were lucky in the fact that as well as the mortgage, we only had one debt, a loan (no car payments at that time, no credit cards, no catalogues) and the bank holding the loan were very helpful. The mortgage company were not helpful at all, and refused any assistance until I physically stopped paying. Then they helped by reducing our payments for four month. Hubs got lucky and found a job, and we kept our house by the skin of our teeth. But it took us two to three years to recover.

Also, if I remember rightly (I may get this bit slightly wrong) when it first happened, hubs got basic dole based on NI contributions from the previous two years. After a year, he found a job but it only lasted around six month, when he had to go back on the dole, he didn't have two full previous years' employment so he had to go on income based job seekers allowance. Only then, were we able to get free school meals for the children and reduced council tax. But those were not offered, it took us months of form filling and asking just to get them.