Benefit bashing

[LovelyBath77]

To think MN can be a bit benefit bashing at times. Even if people are rightfully claiming / ill / poor etc.

Recently, I have seen someone having a hard time although ill and having a baby and considering claiming tax credits. I also have had a hard time although illness (both me and DP) and low wage means claiming some tax credits.

I can understand the rage for those fraudulently claiming benefits or the like but why for those legitimately claiming? or AIBU?

Yes yes yes. I reluctantly claimed when ds was 1-3 . DH lost his job and then suffered temporary ill health. He managed to work part time in a min wage job and I ramped up my hours in an also low paid job. Before dd several years previous, I had a better job with better money but it went.

I find these threads depressing

Because people working shouldn't need to claim - employers need shaming into paying a living wage - not subsidising workers wages.

It's pitiful that a family can't survive on one wage and childcare is extortionate pushing working families into poverty

That's true but in the meantime until ages reach a point we do need things like tax credits. It is just the way it is. Why all the rage?

I don't think anyone ever begrudged help for those in need however, be it the MSM who highlights a case, or even a poster on MN who knows someone, there are a tiny minority who do fiddle and welfare a lifestyle choice. These are the people who the mainstream get annoyed with, not those in need.

I actually think the opposite. The vast majority of MNs always seem to be advising OPs what they can claim. Even when posters admit they can work they are just too lazy to most MNs seem to defend there right to live off the rest of us and insult anyone who disagrees.

I watched a program recently and the woman claimed 'the government pay' not even realising it's actually 'the people' who contribute - they've never actually wondered where the money comes from!

It's people treating a life on benefits as a lifestyle choice rather than a safety net of last resort that's the problem

The poster you're talking about doesn't want to work now that she's having a baby. The illness is a convenient add-on (if she's ill, why is it not impacting her work currently?). I don't support, under any circumstances, people choosing not to work and then expecting the taxpayer to foot the bill.

I think some people on mumsnet bend over backwards to defend those who are claiming fraudulently and can't or won't see how wrong that is however we claim now dh works but I gave up work to be ds2 carer he is severely autistic and has learning disabilities and are claiming to.male life easier to.wveryone

Make life easier *

Well, we I explained I was claiming PIP / ESA and we had some tax credits, and DH wanted off all benefits and was working round the clock to do so, making himself more ill as he was an autoimmune disease, and I thought it was Ok in our case to claim some tax credits, I was told I was being unreasonable. It's not like we don't need them we got such a hard time. Whereas if we had split up and were claiming HG we'd be claiming more than double our small amount. It is just odd, I think, and very sort of moralistic and judgemental. Well that's how it came across.

I didn't get that impression. I know the thread. She said she wanted to take a break til the baby was 3. I don't blame her. She had a long commute and would struggle to get a new job now she'll be starting to show

The people who should be ashamed are employers who pay people so poorly that require tax credits to top up their wages. Successive governments of both parties who have allowed this to happen. Benefit fraud and people playing the system is a problem however big companies and the super rich avoiding taxes is a much bigger problem IMO.

If your claiming what you are entitled to then who cares what random on the internet think?

Yes i was going to say that and how many of us shop with said large corporations without thinking yet are quick to judge those seeking a little support so they can pay their bills

In a society where I see jobs for adults advertised at £7-8ph I find benefit bashing laughable. Less people on benefits isnt going to add more money to my pocket. I don't believe its benefits payments that are a huge drain on UK finances either. I cant stand working class snobs who love a scapegoat and to feel better about themselves by looking down on others, judging when they're not even in full possession of facts re another's circumstances.

Probably those who do benefit bash are on a hell of a lot more money than those seeking to claim.

But you never know when you might be down on your luck and have the world and his wife judging you for it

Work hard and good things will come to you

Bullshit.

My best friend was abused as a child. Then again as a teenager. And yet again in the military. And finally by her husband. She has a degree, was working hard as a nursing sister, and had a massive breakdown in her 40s. She divorced the abusive twatting husband 15 years ago, and he left her with piles of debt. One bankruptcy later, just how was she to survive without any assistance?

God knows she tried, and was literally starving herself to pay her rent and wouldn't take a penny from me. Thank God she finally got PIP while she's undergoing treatment for PTSD from decades of sexual abuse.

Judgmental twats are the reason she didn't feel worthy of claiming before. It's such a fucked up situation.

The illness is a convenient add-on (if she's ill, why is it not impacting her work currently?).

Just to offer a different perspective, someone might be just about coping with full time work despite health problems before children because they are able to rest outside working hours and have time to stagger tasks that might be tiring such as shopping, housework and cooking. Having a child to care for as well as working full time might mean that their opportunities to rest are very limited and this could make their illness worse to the point where full time work becomes impossible.

I don't know the circumstances of the person who started the thread you're talking about, but it's certainly possible for someone who is ill and is coping with work at one time in their life to be unable to cope with it if their circumstances change.

Agree with x2boys (which incidentally I always read as Ex Two Boys even though I know it is times two boys!)

People on here will make every excuse under the sun for benefit fraudsters.

I think it was said on the other thread and this is true for a lot of illnesses it can actually be easier sitting at a desk at work rather than dealing with a tiny crying baby and a toddler though so don't assume work is harder if you are ill than being at home with children!

I think there's a massive empathy drought going on in our society at the moment, largely driven by the media and politicians who want to draw attention away from themselves and onto the most vulnerable people in society, blaming them for austerity measures.

I also think that you only need to read a few threads on here to see that a significant minority of people simply have no idea what it is like to be on the breadline, posters genuinely trying to be helpful by saying "just get a nanny/cleaner/learn to drive!" as a solution to problems when the OP has clearly stated that they are struggling for money.

The problem is people work really hard for there money only to see it go on someone else's children and sometimes on other people's phone, telly, branded food, branded clothes etc..

I'm not meaning one thread in particular, however I do recognise with people struggling with chronic illness and young children and would have thought there would have been more empathy on MN.

Some comments such as you can carry a child so can't be that ill, and the one above, are pretty bad really. Especially form people who have no experience of trying to bring up children with chronic illness.

But yes anything about cuts to PIP would bring outrage!

I can't help feeling it is the idea that some people are taking an 'easy option'. but it's really not. Most people with chronic illness would give anything to be able to be normal and I don't think people can really understand until they have been through it.