AIBU about people moaning about UC!

[Lemoncurdkid]

NC for this and sure I’ll get the backlash. I’m also aware there have been other threads. I’m hoping that people will help me see the other POV.

I’m not a stranger to claiming benefits but have never claimed UC.

I seem to see so many articles on how UC have ruined my life. This article annoyed me...

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/money/8014429/universal-credit-campaign-poverty-nicola-mclean-mum/amp/

This lady was claiming over £1600 a month in UC. That’s how much I earn monthly on a full time wage and I earn £26k a year. I don’t pay a pension either otherwise it would be £100 less.

I’m comparing my life to others on UC and there doesn’t seem to be reason to complain. Maybe that’s my issue, not to compare!

Along with UC there are many other benefits you can claim for which most don’t speak about. For example, free childcare, free travel, free dentist etc.
I know a lot of people who work 16 hours or who are unemployed, they may struggle but they are not in debt and they seem to live a much happier life than mine. Once again I’m comparing, but I’m struggling, living off credit cards after our bills are paid.

I guess my complaint isn’t that they are entitled to UC, but why complain about it? Shouldn’t we be grateful that we have this option in the UK. Rather than declaring poverty. A person on UC (depending on their circumstances) can actually ‘earn’ more money than a person working full time?

themachinestops....

in your example, between 26th Jan and 26th March, your person had 2 incomes - their last wage and an advance. I'll admit there's then a bit of delay before the next payment (of a week).
if a person took up work on the 26th of Jan, they'd only receive 2 wages by 26th march. And like your example, they'd still have to find the rent from those incomes, and clear any residual debts, etc, etc.
The difference is hardly profound in terms of money delivery.

Put another way, if the first payment is nulled due to income already received, this can be mitigated by claiming future entitlement in advance and repaying over time.

Whether the US payment is sufficint in quantity is a whole other matter.

dam.. the advance IS NOT an income though .. as it is deducted heavily from future UC payments - it is a loan which has to be paid back in full by the claimant.

So again we return to the fact the person has only a last wage from work to last from 25th Jan - 5th April xx

How many of you bashing UC claimants on here are paying your childminders and cleaners enough so they dont have to claim UC.

Because im sure you wouldnt be hypocrites.

*dam.. the advance IS NOT an income though .. as it is deducted heavily from future UC payments - it is a loan which has to be paid back in full by the claimant.

So again we return to the fact the person has only a last wage from work to last from 25th Jan - 5th April xx*

Though at the other end of the scale, when they get a job there will be a month where they get UC in full and the wage

Can we please check ops maths

1, 80% of £1000 is £800 not £993
2, £1500 per month is £16000 per year not £14000
3, £26000 +£16000 is £42000 not £40000

Also with 3 children you forget to mention your £2500 in child benefit and you are entitled to childcare vouchers.

So in total you have £44500 per annum income min ie £3700 per month but she's better off on £1600 per month

£1500 per month is £16000 per year not £14000

£1500 per month is £18000 pa if being done on a calendar basis.

"Those clothes look brand new to me."

Um, are you really complaining that they aren't sobbing with gratitude for their benefits while clothed in rags?

So all this shows is how important it is to have the recommended 3-6 months of essential expenses in savings for if you get made redundant and have to claim UC.

Arran thanks your right my mistake but even worse for ops sums then

Sorry, this was pages ago, bit I couldn't see that anyone had picked up on it.

Any other country would not offer what the UK do.

Do you really believe this??? Most other European countries have a far higher level of social security than the UK, including subsidised childcare for all. The UK has just been the subject of a scathing report by the UN on its levels of poverty, largely down to the appalling UC and PIP systems.

We are somewhat better than the US, but that isn't saying much as the levels of poverty there are a disgrace. The government since 2010 has been moving closer to the US model though.

or a disabled person saying they should be entitled because they can't get out of the house who will later post how they got hard done by having to share the cost of a restaurant meal when they only had a starter.

Feel free to comb through my posts @swingofthings, I am very sick and disabled, have been too ill to leave my home for years. Perhaps when I share how much my care costs have gone up and the money I will lose when I transfer to UC (though that will have transitional cover) is easier to dismiss in your mind if you decide that those of us sharing our stories aren’t really that ill and disabled, or in other cases find themselves with no money for long periods after being made unemployed.

Any system will have a few swinging the lead. Happens with HMRC too. However, it is a fact that austerity has reduced payments for many including the sick and disabled and the system is causing many to go into arrears and be without income for weeks. However, people like you just tell yourself many of us weren’t really in dire straits.

If you have some savings, are IT literate, literate, have access to a landline, can understand the benefit process well enough to spot mistakes and be educated and confident enough to prepare for a tribunal, are already set up in clothing and household items, have no debt it's possible to live on benefits.

The above are too many IFS for the majority of people who fall on hard times.

a disabled person saying they should be entitled because they can't get out of the house who will later post how they got hard done by having to share the cost of a restaurant meal when they only had a starter.

Someone I know has clinical depression, earlier I saw them smiling. Should I report them for benefit fraud?

FIL is diabetic but had a slice of cheesecake when he was here on Sunday. Obviously he's taking the piss with his so-called "diabetes" and I should report him too.

The man across the road only has one leg but he can drive a car. Cheeky. Fucker. Swinging the lead and trying to garner sympathy for being "disabled", I'll kick his crutches out from under him next time I see him as he clearly doesn't need them considering he can drive.

Not only do you know nothing about life as a carer, you apparently also know nothing about living with a disability.

To put it bluntly - you're talking shite, hen.

Agree Ewitsman. In the example Swing gave the person might have got out because they for once got a lift. However, Swing and others like them prefer to jump to the hasty conclusion that the disabled person was obviously lying that they couldn’t get out. This notion that people are exaggerating their disabities or sickness just to get benefits is growing. It’s very unpleasant.

I don't think we should be UC bashing. It's a safety net for all of us. And who knows at what point in our lives we might need it.
And yes, it think this whole benefits reform has taken away the safety from the net. Having to wait over 4 weeks for your first payment is cruel and does not reflect the work place. (most employment will pay every 4weeks or you can ask for 2 weakly payments for the first 8 weeks when you start at my place). Sanction people if they are late or miss an appointment is not ok either. A lot of people can have simple problems like transport or have 2 equally important appointments within a few hours. Sometimes you just can't help it.

And so it goes on...
What I do agree with is to make people more involved in the process of finding a job, especially if you are a fit and healthy adult. And I also believe that benefits should be capped at minimum wage... after all, it's deemed you are able to survive on that! ()

I might take issue with @Dippy in saying that most other European countries offer comparable benefits and better childcare. Only in northern Europe: Spain/Portugal/France set NMW lower than the UK, and Italy doesn't have a minimum at all. I don't know about all the others.

I work in social housing, which UC is having a massive impact on our food banks, crisis funds (gas and electric top ups) not to mention all the UC admin, also rents not being paid etc...

I also see how the system gets abused by the work shy/entitled tenants... shout, kicck up a fuss etc... however also see the other side where legitimate claimants are hugely struggling and haven't got the services they require due to service cuts, however make do with what they have and try and make the best of their situation.

Seeing it a lot more now as family UC has only just recently been implemented in our region, and its quite harrowing in some cases.

I also believe that benefits should be capped at minimum wage... after all, it's deemed you are able to survive on that!

To some extent, I wonder if the availability of subsidies to employers in the form of benefits is what is keeping the Minimum Wage artificially low.

@arranbubonicplague
Exactly what I said at 10.23 this morning!

@lemoncurdkid, one of the biggest issues with UC, apart from the wait time, is that if, due to pay dates, I were to get paid on the 1st of January and then received my February pay on 31 January, that is taken as me earning double that month so I would get no UC in February. Incidentaly, I am on the old system so not directly affected yet, but that error alone makes it not fit for purpose and people are absolutely right to complain. If you normally get £500 in UC, how do you fund that month when your pay is the same, but your benefits are zero. Food is what gets hit, which is why food Bank use has gone up.

There's a famous quote that says the true measure of any nation is in how it treats it's most vulnerable members.

UC leaves me over £5000 a year worse off than my current benefits. I'm dreading it. I already get most of my money taken off me to pay for my carers and I'm just going to lose that support now as there is no way I can reduce my bills lower.

Vulnerable people have higher costs and are also the ones loosing the most money.

YANBU I have always been astounded at the ungratefulness of people getting financial help. People have started to see it as something they are entitled to rather than something positive the government does to help out the less fortunate. I think we should scrap it for a while and it might make some people realise how good they had it, because I really think some people have forgotten.

I think we should scrap it for a while and it might make some people realise how good they had it, because I really think some people have forgotten.

Yeah lets just kill off all the disabled people and single mothers unable to work. That'll show 'em

I never chose to spend my life on benefits, when I got pregnant with DS, both myself & my then husband worked full time, we had an annual income of £35k ( this was 2004) we weren't rich but had enough money for a reasonable standard of living. When I was 7 months pregnant I came home from work to find out my husband was at the hospital, he had lost his eyesight on the way to work, he was later diagnosed with MS. He had to give up work as his job was too dangerous for him to do, if he made a mistake he could have killed one of the other workers, plus he was too ill & by then confined to a wheelchair as his legs had stopped working. I returned to work after my maternity leave but could only go back part time as I needed to care for my son & husband, our income dropped to less than half of what it used to be, even with my husband claiming disability benefits. 6 years later my marriage ended, by then I was disabled myself, I had managed to work for the first couple of years of being ill but my employer got rid of me due to the amount of time I was off sick. I was now a single parent on benefits. Since I have been on benefits I have had to attend at least one medical assessment a year, some of which I have lost points for things like, being able to scratch my ear, push my specs back in place, touch my hair, being able to wipe my own bum. I have had to describe in detail some of the awful embarrassing things that have happened to me to a stranger, sat in tears in an assessment because I told the assessor I needed the toilet & they said that they wouldn't be long, only to be sat there wet through an hour later because they wouldn't interrupt the assessment for me to use the toilet & told me that if I left of my own accord to go that they would treat this as non attendance & I would lose my benefits. I am on benefits through no fault of my own & would not wish this on my worst enemy, in the near future I will have to move over to universal credit & am already having sleepless nights over what will happen to me then.