Friend on benefits and holidays

[Happybunny1994]

Not really a friend but someone I know is on benefits. She got one child with her partner and works part time. On a recent night out she mentioned holidays said that she was planning on going to Mexico this year and maybe spain. she then was moaning that her benefits have been cut and will struggle to pay her rent. She’s been on holiday 3 times last year all paid for buy herself to far flung expensive places. I was slightly drunk and mentioned that if she was able to go on holiday and pay her rent previously maybe she could not go on holiday and use that money to pay her rent. She got all defensive saying that she dosnt use the benefits to pay for her holidays. That she uses her wages to pay for them and did I think she shouldn’t be entitled to holidays. She also buys a lot of nice clothes all the time expensive nights out. I know I shouldn’t of said anything but I spent years not being able to afford a holiday while on minimum wage so maybe a little resentful

I know how you feel. Had a similar situation with someone I know mixing up thier priority’s. It just pisses you off when they moan about it all the time right? Sometimes there is no reasoning with some people and some times it’s best to keep schum. But defo not being unreasonable.

I'm on benefits. I never thought I'd have to say that as, until I became unwell, I fully expected to continue working (healthcare professional) until I was 65 ish. I have a small pension topped up with tax credits. I wear my outdoor clothes indoors during the day so that I can put the heating on when ds comes in from school and I go to bed soon after him so that I can switch it off again. We can't afford a night away never mind foreign holidays. We are luckier than many as we have a roof over our heads, enough to eat and friends with older boys who pass things down for ds. I don't see how anyone on benefits can afford any extras.

Where is OP?

Yes jass. Wish it was that not a benefit bashing thread.
Everyone knows someone who received benefits and has amazing holidays. They know do much about their finances too.
Funnily enough the only person I know on benefits is a single person on JSA.
She only goes on holiday if the family subside her.

Regardless of whether they're on benefits or not, if someone was planning a trip to Mexico while complaining about not being able to pay rent, you'd ask what that's all about, wouldn't you?

If their response was anything other than "huh, good point, guess I should cancel/postpone my holiday" then I would just tell them to stfu.

Yet another benefits bollocks thread.

My son gets DLA (soon to be PIP as he turns 16 soon) and he can walk miles. So I bet people would see him walking miles and think he doesn't need disability benefits.

But he can't go out for these long walks alone. He needs me with him at all times. I can't leave him at home alone. He has autism and learning disabilities.

He probably could run a bloody marathon - but he'd need someone to accompany him (that wouldn't be me!) It doesn't mean he's any less disabled, he's just not physically disabled.

I'm a single parent now so on benefits and we're going on 2 cheap caravan holidays this year. The rent will be paid though, no worries.

Now for the people to tell me we shouldn't be able to, and don't deserve it :-

YADNBU, if this person is struggling to pay bills then she certainly should not be able to afford lavish holidays. Bills should obviously be coming first, I have absolutely no sympathy for people who moan about struggling to pay bills but can afford holidays and other nice things.

@Springiscoming123 he is in a low paid manual job, and she earns very little from MLM.

He does not rent out his property, just keeps it as a safety net.

Not sure there's any fraud, just seems wrong. She's generally a nice person, but comes from a monied family and has no idea of people who actually struggle.

*We all make choices, lots just make ones they can't afford and expect others to pick up the costs.

I'd imagine the holiday abroad is not rare at all on benefits, a lot of people play the system to net the maximum benefit payout for the least effort,*

Oooh - come round and eat my porridge Goldilocks - yes, it might be a dish best served cold for the likes of ye with no brain cells.

Unless there is huge amount of fraud involved there is no way the op can be right. I deal with benefit claimants and most are not managing at all .

Universal credit is a blight visited on poor people who have no resources to call on .Most of the people I deal with have weeks of very little money to live on even when things are going well. Throw in a missed appointment and the threat of eviction looms large . Add in a month with 2 wages paid in the same month and its up shit creek with no paddles.

I hate having to tell people in dire straits that there is nothing I can offer in the way of help. No loans .No advances. Nothing. Go to the council is the only hope I have to tell them They tell me they have tried that and been turned away. Try the food bank? No . they have been 3 times and been told not to come back.
They have paid child care fees and sent in the required invoices but they have been lost in the post - again. No reimbursment for the fees already paid. Sorry, but thats the way the system works.

So no op I dont believe you.

People who post goady threads and let it get to 100+ posts without bothering to come back should be banned for being a GF.
I was a single mum working and getting WTC. I budgeted meticulously, saved money where I could as hols were (and still are, Long since been off benefits) took DC to Caribbean one year as found a very cheap deal and saved like mad. It can be done. Also had two other holidays that year as my parents paid to take us away. I'm sure some people probably thought I was playing the system. Different people have different priorities and being on benefits doesn't mean you're not allowed anything nice, ever.
Fully expect someone to come along and tell me how if I could afford to save money for holidays, I should have cancelled my tax credit claim so 'someone who needed the money could have had it' because everyone knows that's how welfare funding works!!

Sorry meant to put holidays were and still are important to us as a family.

We all make choices, lots just make ones they can't afford and expect others to pick up the costs
Yeah, I choose to shit myself 15 times a day, often in public. Any idea how humiliating that is. I choose too, to use drugs otherwise used for chemo to get some sort of control over the colitis and arthritis and various other autoimmune disorders. And before you come back and start spouting bollocks about not meaning the genuine disabled, think. Think about your blanket generalisation and remember that every time you or someone likes you comes out with the above bollocks, we genuine disabled people suffer the backlash. That's what you and your ilk have done to us. You've become so convinced that half the world is taking your money, on the fiddle that those who genuinely need it are going without. Well done!

allthegood.

lol, I like Gin, allthegood!
However, I live a bloody long way from you!