Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To hope that some people now understand that it's not somebody's fault they're poor?

336 replies

Moomin8 · 26/03/2020 23:08

All of a sudden loads of people have had to claim UC

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/24/britain-benefits-rishi-sunak-claimants-austerity?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Torsten Bell, head of the Resolution Foundation, says people on £50,000 salaries have been anxiously asking him about benefits rates. They’re in for a shock, he says.” Funny, that: before this crisis, those doing alright were adamant that benefit rates were too high. Now, they’re worried it’s the opposite.

OP posts:
gingersausage · 27/03/2020 11:50

Exactly SubjectMatterExpert. You are saying what I’ve been shouting into a vacuum for years. Who the hell do all the high earners on here think is going to make their coffee, scan their groceries, wipe their arses, empty their bins and clean their large expensive houses if there is no-one willing to take low paid roles? Can you imagine the chuntering if their cleaners or childminders suddenly wanted £25 an hour because “they didn’t want to be low earners” or wanted to get off tax credits. No-one then would be impressed with people trying to better themselves.

I’m reasonably clever but not particularly academic - health issues meant that I didn’t go to university so I ended up working in a low paid sector (hospitality). I was damn good at my job and had various leadership and management roles that within the public sector or a different industry would have paid twice or three times what I earned. Am I then just a loser or of no account because I “chose” to stay in an industry I loved, had scope for promotion, fitted around family life and kept my mental health balanced?

Those of you who look down on low paid roles should ask yourself next time you go out to eat at a fancy, expensive, well run restaurant with excellent food and efficient pleasant staff - how much do you think the person serving your food, the commis chef, the pot wash and the restaurant manager are actually earning? Added together it’s still less than you are, yet you would complain long and loud if the price of the food was put up to pay them all a wage you would deem acceptable to be earning.

Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 11:51

No, but I don't presume to know other peoples financial circumstances because I don't see their bank statements.

It's quite simple really.

OP posts:
Pentium85 · 27/03/2020 11:54

OP, you've definitely presumed lots of things.

You've presumed people would 'definitely work' and would pick working over not, you've presumed some people ' aren't lazy'

So yes, you have presumed things without knowing someone

Pentium85 · 27/03/2020 11:55

@gingersausage

Who, on this post, has looked down on those in low paid roles?

Hearhoovesthinkzebras · 27/03/2020 11:57

This is just like people's attitudes to lockdown - " everyone must abide by the lockdown, well apart from me because I simply have to go for my ten mile walk twice a day, go to the shops multiple times a day, drive twenty miles to a national park to walk my dog".

This is the same - "be edit payments are plenty to live on, apart from me. I deserve much more because I pay tax, work harder than everyone else, made better decisions than the rest of you. It's not my fault I need to claim benefits, unlike you who has chosen to do it"

inlawsimnotsure · 27/03/2020 12:32

I don't have a great job - because I didn't try my hardest at school and in early jobs.

I am not having more children because I can't afford to, rather than doing it anyway and expecting benefits to make up the difference.

Whereas I know someone who had a child and then purposely had another child because she wanted one, even though she knew she couldn't afford it.

People have choices in life - there is no blanket argument for this.

Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 12:35

You've presumed people would 'definitely work' and would pick working over not, you've presumed some people ' aren't lazy'

That's because I've never seen any evidence that people are lazy. And by evidence I mean actual evidence not propaganda.

OP posts:
inlawsimnotsure · 27/03/2020 12:38

@Moomin8 there's enough posts on here about people committing benefits fraud to suggest that in some cases (not all) people are lazy

Miajk · 27/03/2020 13:30

So according to you OP your opinion is facts and evidence but the opinion of anyone who disagrees is propaganda? Why are you even on a discussion forum then?

That's quite immature and hypocritical.

Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 13:37

Why would posts on MN be evidence of benefit fraud? Again, they are often ill informed people who want to create a benefit bashing thread.

If calling me immature and hypocritical helps you get over the fact that I don't think most people are lazy then that's fine jog on.

We all base our opinions on our life experiences.

OP posts:
Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 13:39

And even if a few people are lazy that certainly doesn't justify punishing the majority.

OP posts:
inlawsimnotsure · 27/03/2020 13:48

@Moomin8

because you see posts about people debating whether to report their sister, neighbour friend etc.

You seem to be gleeful about higher earners being punished during this period of time - assuming that they all look down on low earners. When some of these people will have been helping their communities and the people that should now be relishing in their hard times?

Some people have better starts in life than others but everyone has choices to a degree and you can't make blanket general assumptions about every person on either side

Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 13:52

I'm not gleeful whatsoever. Stop making things up.

If you bother to read the article it says that people think benefit rates are too high.... until they have to claim themselves.

OP posts:
MarginalGain · 27/03/2020 13:56

I'm not gleeful whatsoever. Stop making things up.

No, of course you're not gleeful. You're just hopeful that these aspirational types who have had their work cut off from them by corona now understand what it is to be chronically unemployed, right?

Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 14:00

@MarginalGain you sound like you have a chip on your shoulder.

The situation adversely affects me too. I won't have a job after all this.

Which of my posts have I sounded gleeful in? Some people have posted things about being happy that people can only get help on their profits because they've fiddled the system but that wasn't me.

OP posts:
Pentium85 · 27/03/2020 14:01

OP you're only happy if someone agrees with you on here.
That's not the way opinions work.

Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 14:01

I am however hopeful that people realise that bad luck can happen to anyone.

OP posts:
Moomin8 · 27/03/2020 14:02

You can disagree with me all you like but if people make things up I'm going to point that out 🤷🏻‍♀️

OP posts:
Pentium85 · 27/03/2020 14:03

No where on here OP does anyone say bad luck doesn't happen to people.
What we are saying is that some people make choices that put them in poorer positions.

Pentium85 · 27/03/2020 14:04

Just because someone has a different view to yours, it doesn't mean they are making things up.
You haven't seen every part of the world, and therefore you cannot say that there aren't any people, who by choice, are poor.
People may have seems things you haven't.
It's really that simple.

MarginalGain · 27/03/2020 14:04

@MarginalGain you sound like you have a chip on your shoulder

I am terribly upset about what has happened, call that a chip if you like. As it happens I'm entirely insulated from Coronavirus financially, in fact we've done embarrassingly well out of it, but the number of jobs lost and businesses going bust is an absolute tragedy.

SubjectMatterExpert · 27/03/2020 14:14

@TheWordWomanIsTaken I am in the public sector and I can confirm, there is a high proportion of lazy bastards

StarbucksSmarterSister · 27/03/2020 14:19

transformandriseup

Your post at 4.24 sums up the situation perfectly. Sadly some people are too judgemental and blinkered to see that.

scaryreading · 27/03/2020 14:20

Some people are very bad at money management buying expensive things rather than using their money wisely

isseywith4vampirecats · 27/03/2020 14:24

my daughter and her husband have seen their business go from successful two years ago to just covering everything basic bills etc to absolutely zero with no income in the last three weeks and the landlord of their premises took the rent money out of their account via DD so they have no fall back money and due to the nature of their business (auction house) when they are allowed to open again their buyers will have no money to spend so this could be the death of their business my daughter is distraught and June till the self employed grant kicks in

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.