To think life shouldn’t be easier for those on benefits than those who work?

[Alwaysoverdrawn]

obviously not including the disabled, elderly etc in this

I am so fed up of being poor so I looked into doing an access course to increase my earning potential. My sister is doing one and is currently on benefits, she gets it for free with her childcare paid.

Having spoken to them, we earn too much to be considered for help. Having looked into mine and my sisters finances I think this is frankly bloody ridiculous. We are worse off than her ffs.

We make around £2,500 NET p/m, £1000 rent, £900 childcare -2 adults, 2 kids. So £600 ‘disposable’ pm with a lot of debts to pay.

She gets £670pm plus her full rent paid and a council tax reduction for her and one child.

AIBU to think life shouldn’t be ‘easier’ for those on benefits than those who work?

DP hasn’t been to the dentist despite needing to for years as he can’t afford treatment, I’m really down today. Seriously considering moving out so that I can claim benefits and get out of this horrible rut.

@CiderBrains

You could try but it's unlikely they will lend you 40 grand or more for a car. Mine was 17 and I had have not a bad credit rating and they didn't want to give me the full amount.

Your sister needs to increase her earning power because when her child is 18 all her money will decrease drastically and she will have to support herself.

Get a divorce and become a stay at home. Then you too can live a cushy life on benefits.

I'm not working and we get tc, when I was working we got tc.
When I was working we got more than now I'm not, which is how it should be.

I get 200pw Child tax credit
150 pw ESA
50 pw cb

So 400 pw. 1600 per month.

I pay zero rent and £11 a month council tax.

I don't drive or go out because of my illness so I am comfortable.

Btw I don’t grudge benefits for people who genuinely need them either.
It just irks me when I’m trudging out to work on dark, rainy mornings and coming home exhausted on dark, rainy evenings, that I know someone (plus quite a few others) who can go back to their beds if they want!
I know someone else who manages to go to Egypt on holiday and gets given a lovely newish car! Her DGD used to come out with us quite often, at my invitation and I was very happy to have her, and she’d say things like, when she grew up, she planned to go on the dole so she could stay at home all day!
My DC were appalled at this!
I begrudge it when people can go out to work and support themselves but choose not to.
My weekends are spent recovering from the working week and catching up with the housework etc. Monday rolls around again very, very quickly.
(I also live with chronic pain from 3 separate conditions so I’m very sympathetic to people who cannot work for health reasons.)

AamdC

I can assure you that I’m not making it up. She went for two weeks one year and told me that it was too hot for them.
Maybe during term time, you can get a better deal. As I said, I am unable to do that.

I have a question for those of you who can’t read are berating me, if you could answer without ‘people on benefits have such a hard time’ or similar.
Do you think that a family with two working parents should struggle more than a family that has never worked? Do you think that more focus needs to go onto the working poor? Do you think it’s fair that those on benefits are entitled to free things that those who work, yet are still visiting food banks, can not afford to pay for or should they get them too?
I have never once suggested those on benefits live a luxurious life, I know they struggle. I know a lot of people don’t want to be on them, I know it’s not something to aspire too, that is not and never has been my point. The above questions have been my point. I didn’t want to argue and get into this but you’re all trying to make out I’ve said something that I haven’t.

I think life for people on benefits is definitely easier than working a full time job. I have family members who are on still on benefits because they would be considerably worse off if they went back to work. SO there is literall no incentive to try.

I even knew somebody who was recieving carer's allowance yet was also a carer for somebody else Surely if you're so ill you require a carer you can't then care for somebody else?

I'm single, work just under 40 hours a week and bring home £1000 a month or £275 a week. I'm entitled to no benefits or help.

Yet every morning without fail my house is the only one lit up and when I get in from work the scrouts will be outside in full force around the communal benches smoking cigaretes, taking drugs, drinking booze, playing on their new expensive Iphones or going back inside to watch the telly on their brand new expensive 50' TVs (you can see them through the windows).

Too ill to work or look for a job but well enough to sit around partying all day. Makes my blood boil. Every time I see them I think. "I'm paying for you to live the life of Riley."

Of course, I'm sure there are people who genuinly do need benefits and who do indeed struggle, but I can't see them where I live.

I'm a working single mum who also claims tax credits. Which box do I fit in? I am out the house by 8am every morning, do a days work etc. I also get free dental and prescriptions!

I do get what you're saying OP, however the couple of times I've been on benefits were awful and I don't know how single people manage at all. Having said that, my neighbour was her dad's carer for years until he died and then she went on to basic benefit and is always skint and asks me for tea bags, food for the dog or money for the meter. She has been offered 3 jobs in the last 6 months, all above minimum wage. The first one in an opticians she gave up as it was too much standing on her feet. The second in a shop was too many hours, the latest in a hotel was too tiring. She wants an artistic job but her only work experience is in retail which she's fed up of. I've given her some good leads with an agency who are great, but she 'hasn't got round' to contacting them yet. There are some people who do seem get stuck in a benefits trap even when it keeps them in poverty.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/14/hidden-workforce-saves-billions-more-state-support-hardworking-britain

What I don't get on these threads is the people in genuine need of benefits, whom nobody begrudges, who slate the op.
Why not slate the many people who exploit benefits and give you a bad name?

Give them a job and they will work

I think it's a very unhealthy way of life to be peeking over at other people and sulking that they have it better/easier/nicer than you do, and finding ways to justify why they shouldn't. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're not, concentrate on your own life and how to make your life better/easier/nicer

scrouts will be outside in full force around the communal benches smoking cigaretes, taking drugs, drinking booze, playing on their new expensive Iphones or going back inside to watch the telly on their brand new expensive 50' TVs (you can see them through the windows).

"I'm paying for you to live the life of Riley."

Yea. Smoking, drug addiction and alcoholism. That’s living the dream!

I’d much rather go to work and earn my living than be an alcoholic sitting on a bench all day playing on a phone.

@AlwaysOverdrawn then you could have just made a thread asking whether people think that the working poor should get help. Yes, they should imo. Benefit claimants don't need to come into the subject at all.

@Jamieson90 well, the life of Riley to me would be sitting on a private yacht drinking champagne in the south of France. Not sitting in my house every day watching daytime telly. That sounds dreadful and soul destroying to me. But I guess we're all different.

I slate my next door neighbours; aka the cast of shameless. 3 bed council house, Mum and dad are 50 with one 22 year old so living at home. He is 22 going on 16. Mum "claims" to have a disability but her active lifestyle contradicts what she told me. Dad is a self confessed thief. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree regarding their kids (one who lives there and two who don't but have their own council places.) They have all the time in the world and always fucking home while the rest of us are working. They have parties and are loud, obnoxious and horrible. But heyho, that's "their right" to enjoy their lives and "not neglect " their home whilst we all work.

@BitchQueen90 without the comparison, it wouldn’t have made much sense as my point was I don’t get the help as I’m not on benefits. Plus I would’ve got hundreds of comments of ‘you’re on great money, you have no right to moan’ the point includes benefit claimants, as I’m saying they get help that the working poor don’t as everyone refuses to acknowledge the existence of it, but jumps to the defence of unemployed poor people.
I didn’t realise that everyone would take it as an attack. I was expecting an intelligent discussion around how the working poor are forgotten as opposed to the non working poor, not hundreds of comments about ‘how many goats do they have you benefit basher’ Or whatever.
I’ll try NetHuns next time

Yeah, I've often dreamed of giving up work to become an addict. They always look so happy and healthy, don't they?

Lucky bastards.

Im fully reliant on benefits. My life is anything buy easy.

I probably receive around 2k a month (including cms and my daughter's dla) but for that "luxury" i have a daughter with sen, a younger toddler who has spent more or less the first two years of his life poorly thanks to his fucking tonsils and crap chest.

I am also studying for my degree and a very very lone parent.

So yeah money wise we are stable but that is purely due to the extras my daughter sen triggers. Without it we would be sinking fast.

I was expecting an intelligent discussion around how the working poor are forgotten as opposed to the non working poor

The thing is OP, what people are trying to get across, is that the two don’t need to be compared. A thread about the working poor would have led to better discussion because you are absolutley right, it’s awful that working people still struggle so much. That’s nothing to do with people on benefits. Benefits is not a life that the majority of people aspire to, despite all the flat screen tv, 3 holidays a year comments.

You can get a loan to cover the access course fees and it's written off if you go into a degree. You can also go part time at work and apply to the college for help with travel and childcare. It would be tight for a year but so worth it. I did an access last year and just starting my degree.

Or you could focus on paying off your debts for a year or so. Put every extra penny into it. We did it for two years and the extra money we have now we're not paying x amount on interest seriously helps.

Be proud of your sister, she's bettering herself and setting a brilliant example to her kids. You could do it too, there's support available. Like I said it would be tight, but just think of your future and your kids x

People on benefits will not be having it so easy once they are on Universal credit. They are being forced to do 35+ hours a week jobs searching a week ( if no caring responsibilities). Lone parents are no longer able to just work 16 hours a week until their youngest leaves education, lone parents have to job search once their youngest child is 3. and the number of hours they are expected to work jumps a lot more steeply. Add to this that there is no extra money for a third child and families are hit by the benefit cap, then it is going to get a lot worse for families on benefits. Yes there are some raking it in at the moment but things are changing. We all know the odd person seemingly living the life of riley mainly on benefits (I know one lone parent who works just 16 hours and is honestly always out boozing/ mini breaks/ booze cruises etc ) but they are in the minority.