Worked 50 hour week fed up AIBU

[itsahardknocklife87]

Having just worked 50 hours this week and completed a ten hour shift today, I look on Facebook to discover that a friend who hasn't worked for years and is on benefits has had a weekend away. I like my job but I'm fed up of working so hard in a low paid job and still skint. Never see my kids or Husband and there isn't no option to stop working at least 49 hours a week. I had to do overtime this week to pay a Uber expensive garage bill (I live in a very rural area so car essential to get to work) AIBU to get upset that people who don't work on benefits and tax credits have a better quality of life?

You can't have your hair done if you are on benefits?
well, you can but the point is that if you can afford to get your hair done, you don't need benefit

again, they are not supposed to be a lifestyle choice, but a help for those who need it.

No one is telling you not to buy shampoo but expecting to finance luxuries like a visit to the hairdresser is taking the piss a bit, isn't it.
No one needs to have their nails done or their hair professionally done. That's the kind of things you should work and pay for yourself.

Otherwise it proves that you are getting more than you need, so you don't actually need the benefits at all.

Sotiredofthislife
You asked for an example of how the system can be manipulated .
So , although it is better off to be in work , it is the case in the below example , that the system can be manipulated . I know this is a fact as I was a fraud investigator .
Family set up .
Male with 5 kids . In receipt of all benefits . Added up to thousands per annum with free dental care etc , council house ,etc
Evidencing search for work .
On top of these benefits for 5 kids and wife ...
had a business doing decorating .
The business calls went to his retired father .
Who pretended to be the son .Ie he took all the calls . The son then did the cash in hand work .
So they were in receipt of money from a job and benefits for years .
It was systematic abuse .
It’s not like people at work can ask for double money like they got .
One of the reasons they were finally caught was the bragging about something like free dental care when a hard working nest neighbour couldn’t afford treatment .
I am not saying all benefit users are fraudulent . I am giving you an example of what you asked for .

Also I have to say that it is not only people on benefits that are in fuel poverty and references to the fact that can’t put the heating on .. must be poor ..
well lots of people , elderly , working poor .. have the same fuel issues .

BlingItOn Utterly agree
. For those able .
Not only would it get away from the idea of getting money for nothing , it would benefit society and also there may be less resentment ?
Also work builds confidence and it would help with the c v/ experience .
And I am not a tory . It’s the idea of each person contributing each to their ability for the good of all .

No one is telling you not to buy shampoo grin but expecting to finance luxuries like a visit to the hairdresser is taking the piss a bit, isn't it.

Getting your hair cut isn’t exactly a luxury though is it?
What do you expect people to do? Cut their own hair?

Getting your hair cut isn’t exactly a luxury though is it?
What do you expect people to do? Cut their own hair?

I have been cutting my own hair for well over a decade. Not because I am tight or think I can do better than the hairdresser but simply because it's a luxury I cannot afford without forgoing other essentials (I am on disability benefits as I am a carer for my disabled daughter - I am healthy though in cade you wonder). I had to sacrifice actually more essential things than haircuts. They are really the last of my worry.

HTH

No one needs to have their nails done or their hair professionally done. That's the kind of things you should work and pay for yourself.

I have to say it is quite depressing to read that people actually agree that I do not deserve a haircut as a carer for disabled child.

What am I actually worthy of? I am really intrigued now.

@ThatMuppetShow

And what about those in receipt of in work benefits? I need to be presentable, therefore I need a bloody haircut now and again, and hairspray to keep it in my fantastically styled pony tail without it going everywhere. I also have to have decent shoes, because I'm on my feet, serving alcohol (I've never known anything wreck shoes like repeated beer spillage or line cleaner does!) And moving furniture. But according to you if I can afford these things I'm getting too much? I cut back on other non essentials like gas and electric to afford those things, but I'm only cold right?
How long do you think I'm going to last in a customer facing job with unkempt hair and no shoes? Or without enough gas to have a bath or electric to keep my work uniform clean?
But yeah, I get a haircut to keep myself looking half decent so I can work and hey presto I'm expecting the state to fund my luxurious lifestyle. I hate my hair being messed with, so I'd be quite happy to never have it touched, but I need a proper fringe trim and chop off the length every 6 months or so. I agree on the nails, I can't have them anyway because of hygiene dealing with food/drink etc, and it's not something I would do anyway, and I don't think it's like having tidy hair, which most employers want, having nails all colours of the rainbow aren't usually part of being of neat and tidy appearance.

Anyway off to Work watch my wide-screen TVs (all of them at once) and choose my newest tattoo - all on the tax payer! Of which I am one but that's conveniently forgotten

Thing is OP, you chose to live rurally didn't you? I doubt that's a cheap mortgage and I'm willing to bet you don't exactly drive an old banger either.

If you had made different choices, you'd probably find that you had the money for extras.

I have to say it is quite depressing to read that people actually agree that I do not deserve a haircut as a carer for disabled child

Yep. Just know that not everyone thinks like that. Although I am on benefits as much as the next person, despite the three jobs.

So people on benefits aren't to be allowed enough money to maintain a decent appearance.

Which means people on out of work benefits will never be able to make a decent impression in a job interview.

There are already charities helping people find decent clothes for job interviews, because it's already a problem for a lot of job seekers.

You haven't really thought it through have you Muppet ? You're just keen that nobody gets anything for nothing.

But spend 40 hours a week or more as a slum landlord - for example - makes you a thrusting entrepreneur entitled to all the money and all the respect.

Fuck's sake.

So people on benefits aren't to be allowed enough money to maintain a decent appearance.

Again, no one is telling you not to buy shampoo. You do not need a professional to have a professional appearance. Nails and hair professionally done are a luxury that not many people actually pay for!

Why do people jump on "finding decent clothes"? Clothes are a basic, whilst the luxury of being pampered is NOT a basic. There are thousands - at least - of people who do manage to hold a job without regular salon visit. In the same way as most men manage to shave themselves, and clean their own shoes - using a barber and a shoe polisher are LUXURY.

You are clearly proving the point that benefits are not a safety net at all, if you start including all the luxuries that no one NEEDS. That will make laugh quite a few very senior women who don't bother with hairdressers and look perfect. I can think of a few.

Yes automation is a problem. Yes cheap overseas labour is a problem. You know what? That problem isn't going away, and that problem isn't getting any smaller.

So what does happen? If someone can't find a job because there aren't any, how should they live? They can't grow their own food unless they already have a privileged amount of land, they can't just pitch a tent because that's mostly illegal these days.

We're going to get to a situation where there aren't enough jobs for the people that want them. We're already at the point where a significant proportion of jobs aren't paying enough for a decent standard of life. And we've already got the 'entrepreneurs' telling us that they should only have to pay low wages because otherwise they couldn't afford to hire anybody - exactly the argument American slave owners used BTW.

So when we're at the point when we've got 10-20% unwillingly unemployed, and probably the same again on subsistence wages - and we can't just hop a plane to pick up a job in another country because that costs a fortune in itself - will you all still be blaming the people looking for work, or for better-paid work - or will you actually have a proper think and think that just maybe there's a big fucking structural problem here. And to solve it we're going to have to find some new solutions. But those solutions won't involve funneling ever more money into the pockets of the current wealth owners, so they're going to keep pushing the narrative at us that it'll all be better if only Him down the road wasn't on benefits and Her next door kept her legs crossed.

Fuck's sake.

We're going to get to a situation where there aren't enough jobs for the people that want them.

we are not there yet. I am in London and we recruit overseas quite a lot because of the lack of candidates locally. And there are not minimum wage, 0 hour contract at all.

It's not politically correct, but the truth is that British people would be preferred - for fluency in the language and culture. Can't find enough who wants to apply, so have to look somewhere else.

So the "no jobs" arguments makes me laugh.

Yanbu, I have thought similar things at times when we've been struggling and then, for example, seeing a mum at school who I know doesn't work and is on benefits with a brand new shiny car, when me and DH are working all hours and driving an unreliable 10year old car and no hope of replacing it. Or hearing another mum who's has just come back from holiday in Egypt say she can't afford a school trip and has got school fund to pay for her DC when Ive just put a grocery shop on a credit card, had no holiday but still paid for my DCs school trip. But as they say comparison is the thief of joy, maybe the grass isn't always greener but it would be nice to feel hard work paid off !

Your anecdata doesn't reassure me Muppet. I've also recruited from overseas in a previous job because the employer wanted to save money and could make it look like there was no local talent.

Pockets of anomaly don't disprove systemic problems. Try harder.

Runnerduck the person who's left you short of cash is the employer who's not paying you a high enough wage. The school mum - who's probably put a whole lot more than a grocery shop on a credit card - has nothing to do with it.

The kind of jobs we have a skills shortage on are generally highly specialised careers like medicine or cyber security. Not exactly much use to Joe Bloggs who barely scraped three GCSE's or a single mum whose been raising kids for the last ten years.

@ViciousJackdaw actually I live in east Anglia where it isn't that expensive. I live in a area where public transport is rubbish and very poor. Yes I choose to live here as I've lived here all my life. And no I drive a 7 year old small car.

And @ViciousJackdaw my mortgage is approx £550 a month. I have no luxuries. I do everything I can to save money.

@Runnerduck34 exactly you sum up my feelings entirely

I'll say it again.

HAVE NONE OF YOU HEARD OF THE BENIFIT CAP? IF YOU DO NOT WORK YOU CANNOT CLAIM MORE THAN 20K PER YEAR. Barring people with disabilities.

@Greysparkles that's three grand more then I earn

Greysparkles
But that is more than some earn
.. minus the added benefits such as free dental care etc . I guess it’s why people feel frustrated ?
Perhaps , as someone said , if there was ( unless disabled , or a carer or single parent for example ) claimants got benefits but did community type work in order to qualify it would make for less resentment .
Also , if you are cheating the system it’s up to 20 k .. plus the additional money ?

I do not mean that everyone or even many are cheating the system
I simply mean that there CAN be , from evidence of my past job as an investigator , two sources of income .. benefits and a job ‘ on the side ‘ .