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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Benefit bashing

341 replies

LovelyBath77 · 29/07/2017 20:50

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?

OP posts:
HelenaDove · 01/08/2017 14:41

Looks like he has now got his MP involved Juice. But thankyou I will keep an eye on it and let him know.

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 01/08/2017 15:31

he has now got his MP involved

Good! I hope he can get it sorted

Mittens1969 · 01/08/2017 16:07

Yes, that really is bad. It's cases like this one that give the DWP a very bad name. It's not like you can say no to jury service, because 'I have to be available for work.' Hopefully it will be sorted now. This is where mumsnet is at its best.

fuckingroundabout · 01/08/2017 21:04

So I was just about to apply for a job. Im on income support but stuck in the figures into entitled to. I would be £40 a week worse off working and get the pleasure of my children being in childcare 8-6 5 days a week!

thats why people dont return to work until the kids are older

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 02/08/2017 08:20

Well as long as you feel a deep sense of shame fuckingroundabout and are aware that you aren't stepping up to the plate to provide for your kids, then you'll have half-pleased that dickhead posters on here who you don't know and your life will be complete Wink

MissAlabamaWhitman · 02/08/2017 08:33

Grin Cherry

user1490465531 · 02/08/2017 08:44

Rainbows and unicorns any benifit related thread you seem to jump on and critisize.
Have you ever considered a job with the DWP.?
You seem to have a real interest in what benifits people get and you could sneer all day long at benifit claimants.
I think it would be your ideal job role.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 02/08/2017 09:16

Pensioners make up the vast majority of benefit claimants. I'm guessing people think they should be ashamed too?

fuckingroundabout · 02/08/2017 09:20

I dont think Id manage to return to work for a while yet anyway. my 2 year old in one week soon has 4 seperate hospital appointments, in another month she has 7. By the time I use annual leave for them all i dont have enough left to cover the childminders annual leave. If I take them unpaid I lose too much money. As a very lone parent with no practical support it is so so difficult when you still have two under three that there is very little choice about it for me :(

Alittlepotofrosie · 02/08/2017 10:16

Roundabout but how will your dc ever grow up with a work ethic if you don't put them I childcare full time and work for a loss?! They're doomed i tell you, doomed!

Hillingdon · 02/08/2017 10:37

Its all wrong that people have the choice to work or not work (disibilities excluded) because the system pays them more to stay at home whilst the rest of us support those choices!

Euripidesralph · 02/08/2017 11:00

I tend to agree people make snap judgments I've gone from being a senior manager with a well paid job and reliant on noone in the space of a week to being about to claim benefits because I've had to leave my job through no fault of my own (and can't define because it's very outing)

I hate it but I am a single mum and have two DC, I've never claimed and have never asked anything for help but I'm entirely conscious that how I was viewed yesterday is totally opposite to how I'll be viewed today

Ultimately I have a thick skin and will be back earning ASAP....I've spent decades paying in and now I'm in trouble I refuse to feel guilty for asking for help

It's a kneejerk reaction and I admit many years ago I had the arrogance of youth to believe it would never happen to me but it's not that simple

I'm healthy and capable and absolutely will be back at work the second I can....but there's a belief that it's easy to get any job it's not

I've already in one day looked at any immediate job.....I've come out of the care industry and so I can't go back in as a carer because no care company with a brain will risk it ...no way

Retail I've already rung and two at least made it clear I'm too overqualified so won't shortlist me because they don't think I'll stay

My marriage brokedown and I have no other support so yes until I find a job I'm reliant on government support

It doesn't define me and ultimately it wasn't my fault I ended up here but god knows there will be plenty who will judge anyway

MiraiDevant · 02/08/2017 11:45

Euripidesralph _ so sorry to hear about what has happened to you. I hope that you get back on your feet soon.

The Benefit Bashing is not aimed at you though. The welfare state is there precisely because we need a safety net. The "bashing" is aimed at a system that means unless you are very well paid you lose out if you choose to work. If you do work you are supporting a large number of people who have chosen to be supported, (many on the thread).

Pensioners are completely different as they have paid into a pension pot in order to be able to take it back out again when they have worked all they can.

(Any idiot can see that if you put into the Christmas Club from January to December so that you can have Turkey on 25th Dec it is not the same as those who never put in but eat turkey all year)

MiraiDevant · 02/08/2017 11:46

DJBaggySmalls _ agree we have got to that stage. A citizen's wage would be good.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 02/08/2017 12:02

I agree with Mirai that it's the system that should be "bashed" rather than individuals.

However I disagree re pensioners. Not all of them will have worked, especially the women who were housewives, not all pensioners are benevolent war heroes who've paid into the system their whole lives. And some are rich as hell and don't need pension credits, winter fuel allowances and free bus passes (all of which the rest of us subsidise) yet no one ever seems to bash them. It's a horrible double standard, and dare I saw it I think there's a lot of sexism at the heart of it as people are usually talking about single mothers.

Euripidesralph · 02/08/2017 12:15

Thank you mirai that's kind

The trouble is whilst you and others see it that way the majority don't

I absolutely take your point but the general bashing does get personal and tends to incorporate those who are claiming

Even a week ago I thought that.....so yes and I actually agree I am somewhat shocked how much they offer me and it doesn't sit well so there is most definitely something wrong with the system that means I am genuinely only marginally better off working (although I do believe if you factor in self esteem and future earning potential you are far far better off working )

Trouble is most benefit bashing doesn't take such a balanced reasonable view

Lucysky2017 · 02/08/2017 12:21

Eruip, do keep trying and consider moving. My son has had no trouble getting jobs like postman and delivery driver despite having a degree so clearly being over qualified does not stop you getting some of those kind of jobs.
My other son 18 has just registered with deliveroo and taskrabbit.
So it seems like work is out there but it can take a bit of time to find what is there and which areas of the country have the work available. In fact we have the most jobs just about ever at present across the uk - very very low levels of employment in historic terms anyway.

Euripidesralph · 02/08/2017 16:46

Thanks I will try those most definitely I've literally just moved and tied into a lease but I'm in a decent area for work it's just my first contact hasn't been great ....it hasn't helped that some of my obvious options I happened to be in the same industry if that makes sense and for various reasons aren't an option

I did think about the postal service I would struggle a bit with childcare given times but definitely worth a shot and I'll try your suggestions

I have only been out for a couple of days so I haven't had a chance to try everything yet but I will do

As has been mentioned elsewhere I don't have an issue barely earning over childcare and living costs if needs be...the only thing I am concerned about is earning enough to actually cover the childcare costs if that makes sense

When talking to the benefits on the phone that was a sticking point....I explained I would take anything as long as I could cover rent bills and childcare and food doesn't matter if I don't get any more than that but they seemed to struggle with the idea that I genuinely have no family at all near by ....no friends who could help with childcare and my ex can't either .....I am hoping night work may help if I can get my ex to help overnight

It does make you feel like you aren't trying when you talk to them and feeds into that fear that you are just reliant and not trying to get work

HelenaDove · 02/08/2017 17:09

Juice...........it has apparently been sorted The excuse he was given was that the advisor who tried to sanction him hadnt had proper training Hmm

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 02/08/2017 18:07

That's great news! Glad it got sorted

whothefudge · 02/08/2017 23:24

I think there's a very minute minority, glorified in the media, that give others a bad name.

HelenaDove · 03/08/2017 02:02

"especially the women who were housewives,"

who were only doing what was expected of them at the time. Bit gaslighty to blame them for it now.

Lucysky2017 · 03/08/2017 07:42

(Eurip, my son was a postman for 3.5 years. They did keep hiring women he said who had to give up - but it was silly hires - unfit women over 50 who could hardly carry the postal bags and had an pre existing back condition - as we are in the SE it is very different from the NE where I am from where jobs are there very hard to get; here there are more jobs around at least now, although not back in 2006.

He did combine that with collecting my much younger twins from school for those 3.5 years and was one reason he picked Royal Mail but I was home for the morning before school so he would leave around 5.30am and be finished in time for the school collection time and refused over time and we did have a back up (me, I work from home most days) if he could not get back in time..

Deliveroo has very bad reviews. My soon to be at university teenager has his bike test today but I bet there won't be that much work or money from it although I think it's good for a teenager to get a bit of work experience like that. Also the trouble with these deliveroo, task rabbit, peopleperhour, handy apps kind of jobs and their beauty of students or people wanting flexibility is that you just choose when you want to work and may not have any for some days - fine if you live at home with parent but not fine if it means coming off and on benefits. It is one reason I'd prefer a universal low benefit to everyone over 18 whatever their income or lack of income with no removal of that beneift no matter how much casual or other work you do as then there woudl not be this huge issue of people working 16 hours a week getting tax credits who have no incentive to work full time hours or someone fully on benefits knowing if they get even a bit of income coming in it will mess up and probably delay benefits. I don't think even universal credit will address that easily.

I have done some work on peopleperhour. You can bid for work on line and some of it is from home. None of these things are likely to bring anyone in as much as a full time wage in most cases. I am not saying these new disrupter technology apps are a panacea at all but may be better than nothing. My daughter uses airbnb too and Ebay for making extra money sometimes. She just had someone in 6 nights in her property whilst we were away on summer holiday and then they asked to stay another 7 days which worked out for her, but people in rented places usually are not allowed to sub let.

LakieLady · 03/08/2017 08:23

if you go a bit further back before socialism took a hold in the UK

When was that, Lucysky? I'll be 62 in a few days, and I don't remember it.