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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think unversal credit is a disaster *trigger warning*

902 replies

jnfrrss · 05/05/2018 08:31

This just popped up in my feed. Talking about someone that had an abortion as they wouldn't be able to afford the child without credits. It's not just an isolated issue, a charity says they've had a huge increase in women contacting about abortions as now they won't be able to afford to have any more children. I'm not sure what the answer is but this is very worrying

www.mirror.co.uk/money/it-wasnt-planned-very-wanted-12480380

OP posts:
LVXiii · 07/05/2018 19:22

I work with benefits claimants in my work with a disability charity. On the ground, UC is not working. I see horror stories every day. You may say I'm using extreme cases but this is day in and day out - parents feeding their children dog food in sandwiches as all they can afford, a mother unable to pay for the electricity she needed to keep her critically ill child alive upon the child leaving hospital, a disabled man leaving prison and having nowhere to go and having to sleep in a train station in his wheelchair because of delays in processing his claim - and I really find it hard to accept that we, as a society, are ok with saying "eh - that's their problem" and feeling no sense of compassion, no sense of responsibility for building a society in which this happens. It all feels horribly Dickensian and I really feel we should have moved past this.

Bowlofbabelfish · 07/05/2018 19:28

One thing I’m not sure if anyone’s mentioned yet is that the safety net benefits those of us who don’t use it.

If you’re going to be really pessimistic about it, the safety net stops a section of the populace turning to crime and serious civil disorder.

When you look at the collapse of historical societies, rising inequality is almost always a factor. Past a critical level of inequality you get serious social unrest. Basically, the poor will turn on the rich.

(And of course those people are living breathing individuals who deserve to live with a modicum of dignity, but since that argument keeps getting ignored, perhaps the more apocalyptic view above may chime with some? )

midgetgemtheunicorn · 07/05/2018 19:28

Currently pregnant with my first and was "free contraception" at the time, these things happen. I have applied for 364 jobs in the last 4 months and have had 1 unsuccessful interview, its by no means easy and U.C certainly is not helping, no one in my local jobs and benefits office can give me any advice on worst case scenario and I'm not employed in the next 5 months, what i do get barely keeps the lights on and food in the cupboard. It adds more stress to an already stressful situation.

NickNackWhackWhack · 07/05/2018 19:44

Feeding your children dog food is child abuse not poverty. Dog food doesn’t cost less than a tin of value beans.

Janetizzy30 · 07/05/2018 19:50

Do if I lose my income and go on uc, should I then place 2 of my children in care, or should I just budget so we are spread so thin we have no life whilst looking for another source of income....

Bashun · 07/05/2018 19:51

@Lifebegins...... Thank you for sharing your perspective and information on this matter. As with most social issues in wealthier Western countries there are two sides (view points) on social income. Left and right and somewhere in the middle resides the heart of the matter. We have been dealing with a similar matter in the US for decades. In America you only get unemployment if you worked at least 26 weeks. Then you only get 13 weeks of benefits and that's at one half of your salary and you pay federal and state tax upon those benefits. SMH. As an independent I feel it's best that everybody people seek work and try their best and find it inconceivable that's someone in poverty would bring a child into the world just to get the nominal benefits found on American welfare. believe me people, the benefit is not great here. To bring a child or multiple children into such poverty would be inhumane and downright unintelligent so I do not believe, at least here in the US, that people are creating children just to get an extra $170 a month. It would not would not be fiscally prudent for the government to keep out handing out benefits endlessly and expecting the working-class to pay more and more there has to be a limit somewhere doesn't there? Just wondering.

Justanotherlurker · 07/05/2018 19:54

@midgetgemtheunicorn

Whilst I do feel sorry for you, personal anecdotes are just that, anecdotes.

If we are to take the numbers involved it shows you are trying to punch well above your weight, yes you have targets but a 1 in 364 is not down to the benefit system

Justanotherlurker · 07/05/2018 20:02

You may say I'm using extreme cases but this is day in and day out

OK, I'm listening

parents feeding their children dog food in sandwiches as all they can afford,

Next breath gone to the extreme, this is flat out bulshit, if you had genuinely seen this then one tweet etc would have crippled the current government.

Basically, I will call absolute bullshit

Momo27 · 07/05/2018 20:07

Justanotherlurker- excellent post. The systems implementing UC have been a major fuck up. The principles behind UC are spot on.

HelenaDove · 07/05/2018 20:09

I think you will find that pet food has to be fit for human consumption This was brought in due to pensioners feeding pets before themselves.

SickofThomasTheTank · 07/05/2018 20:10

@LifeBeginsAtGin I am featured on that program and I can assure it is NOT rubbish! How bloody dare you?

HelenaDove · 07/05/2018 20:12

Sickof Thanks

Bowlofbabelfish · 07/05/2018 20:20

I think you will find that pet food has to be fit for human consumption This was brought in due to pensioners feeding pets before themselves

Yup. Not only that but they have human tasters for it.

Justanotherlurker · 07/05/2018 20:25

I think you will find that pet food has to be fit for human consumption This was brought in due to pensioners feeding pets before themselves.

I think you will find that even one anonymous tweet of seeing someone feeding their DC dog food over a tin of beans on toast due to UC would have blown up.

It's a bullshit anecdote, lets not pretend it isn't

Sinuhe · 07/05/2018 20:29

parents feeding their children dog food in sandwiches as all they can afford

I just fed my dog some of sardines £0.39/ tin and some rice £0.55 / 500g. (All fit for human consumption) I think a tin of dog food cost at least £0.65 plus the bread... There are very cheap meals out there if you really struggle!

Gilead · 07/05/2018 20:35

The principles behind UC are spot on.
Does that include those that deprive people on disability benefits?

LVXiii · 07/05/2018 20:39

It's a bullshit anecdote, lets not pretend it isn't

Whatever. Believe it or not. It happened to a family I have direct contact with. But I get that it's more comfortable to call it bullshit and move on.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 07/05/2018 20:48

people are living breathing individuals who deserve to live with a modicum of dignity, but since that argument keeps getting ignored ...

Strange to suggest that posters deny folk dignity when almost everyone's agreed about the importance of supporting those genuinely disadvantaged by circumstance, rather than their own free choice

And I'd hope that those for whom it has been the result of choice will one day come to understand that accepting responsibility for themselves actually brings more dignity, not less

Justanotherlurker · 07/05/2018 20:54

Whatever. Believe it or not. It happened to a family I have direct contact with. But I get that it's more comfortable to call it bullshit and move on.

No, it's not a case of me being dismissive in this imagined scenario, it is you who is making the hyperbolic scenario of feeding kids dog food over beans on toast and trying to blame the government.

You started this bullshit scenario

RoadToRivendell · 07/05/2018 20:54

But why would you feed your child a tin of dog food when, as others have pointed out, beans or sardines are cheaper?

Surely that is nonsense?

HelenaDove · 07/05/2018 20:57

Like ive said upthread there are some employers who dont like it and realize that they will be affected.

From twitter.
VC
‏ @iamavcvc
18m18 minutes ago

We run some successful businesses and you now need to suspend the roll out of #UniversalCredit immediately. We think your actions are not in the interest of the voting public. Universal Credit needs stopping you do not have power to play god or cause harm to people.

Smeaton · 07/05/2018 21:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Justanotherlurker · 07/05/2018 21:12

@HelenaDove

Who is @iamavcvc?

You seem to think posting some random is some kind of gotcha

HelenaDove · 07/05/2018 21:14

I watched it Smeaton. Was pretty gobsmacked tbh especially at some of the statistics

the politician who appeared at the end was the same one who told the Grenfell residents to e mail him while they were sat right in front of him on the Victoria Derbyshire show last year. Hmm

HelenaDove · 07/05/2018 21:16

arent we all randoms though. None of us is posting under our real name.