to expect to have more disposable income than single mums claiming benefits

[newnails]

i no longer know why me and dh bother, he works full time and i work part time so that i can juggle the child care.

i know of 3 single mums who stay near me who seem to have more money than i can dream of, out every weekend, always shopping and 2 of them manage to run cars.

i know the benefit system is needed by some people but it seems to be a complete joke these days, the wasters in this country are leading the life of reilly while the rest of us are left to slog our guts out to pay for there existence.

no doubt i will get flamed for this post but i have been out xmas shopping today trying to work to a budget then i stand next to these people at the school gates and hear about all the grants they are entitled to so they can buy xmas presents, one of them has even cut back the last 2 months and managed to save £800, it would take me bloody months to save that up.

ok rant over, deep down i am glad i am not one of these people and i do actually work for what i have but it still pisses me of.

Hi ssd - how are you? x

hi malo!

we're fine, kids doing my head in but what's new!

pmsl! totally off topic, but 'money isn't everything' will forever remind me of this wild boss i used to have. he'd say, 'money isn't everything, it's the only thing.' or 'cash is king' all the time.

always makes me chuckle now.

My uncle has really good health insurance, through the US government, acutally, as he was in the military and worked for them as a civilian afterwards.

His 'share' of his bypass operation, the part not govered by insurance, was $35,000.

Routine operation, folks.

Yeah, I'm so going to move back there. NOT.

copied and pasted from oneparentfamilies.org

*One Parent Families|Gingerbread' Chief Executive Chris Pond said:

"It is adding insult to injury to suggest that lone parents, half of whose children are living in poverty, are receiving disproportionate support.

"Anti-poverty measures must target all children whatever their family type but today's report is misleading in suggesting that lone parents are better off than couple-families in the same situation. The figures fail to take account of the fact that working lone parents have only one wage and must cover childcare costs.

Of course poverty in couple- families must be tackled but far from treating lone parents generously, the UK is particularly bad at protecting them from poverty with the second highest child poverty rate in the EU15 for lone parents. Half of all children living with a lone parent are poor, twice the rate of poverty in couple-families. Forty one per cent of lone parents have gross weekly household incomes under £200, compared to eight per cent of married couple-families and eleven per cent of cohabiting families. Policies need to target increased spending at the poorest families with children, irrespective of their family's shape. "*

can the people who insist that single parents are loaded please care to explain the statistics contained here?

No, Kerry. I wouldn't.

I really don't think anyone can realistically think single parent have got disposable income, God alone knows how they manage

but what a lot of posters here are saying is that quite a few "single" parents aren't single at all but have a waged partner that they don't tell the social about, thats why some appear to have a good disposable income

or at least the ones I know have that are cheating the system

no one surely can envy single mums and dads, they must suffer emotionally as well as financially too, they shouldn't feel bad about their situation, no one is blaming them for anyone (surely)

It's a foreign country to me now.

I had very little in common with most people I met there as it was, I'd have even less now.

you stay in Scotland expat!

its the best!

apologies for obvious bias!

no, but ssd, that's benefits fraud, a separate issue from being on benefits itself.

everyone knows i'm the first to admit i have NO problem daubing in people who you know are cheating.

because then everyone else gets labelled a waster or a scrounger and that's nt fair.

i'd consider Continental Europe, ssd, but that's about it.

Ahhh newnails.Agree totally.I don't think you are being unreasonable.My dp is away ALOT we rent a house.A couple we know with a son don't work own a house in another country,receive benefits and have loads of disposable income.We are totally peed off.

if the OP had posted "i am fed up of being skint compared to those who are cheating teh system" we would all have come on and agreed, advised her to contact the fraud hotlines and get them stopped.

btu she didn't and many of the posts here have been about single mothers who seem to have too much money. how dare they be managin when they are unemployed etc etc.

being a benefit cheat is different to being single and on benefits legitimatly.

I know a single mum who sub lets her flat for £240 per week while she and son live with her mum. She has never worked for a day in her life and yet is buying a flat screen TV for Xmas at £800 plus a play station. I work so does my husband and we buy everything second hand.......I do not understand. Government mad.

Damn good quesion Kerrymum...That's what i want to feckin well know

yes its a totally different thing I was posting about

sorry for the hi jack

my god, I am gob smacked at the number of sweeping, rude, unkind, INACCURATE statements being made in this thread.

Tell me something please, how is it AT ALL possible that TWO parents working with children can be worse off than ONE parent with children trying to work? TWO incomes, with childcare to be paid for, equal MORE than one income with childcare to be paid for. Yet this is what is being suggested here... that ALL single mothers should stop claiming benefits and go out to work. it simply doesnt add up.

If it is because you CHOOSE and are fortunate enough in the first place to earn enough TOGETHER to have a farking mortgage It is YOUR CHOICE!!! A choice most single parents simply do not have. So dont come here and bloody moan about it.

many of the posts on here are frankly disturbing, upsetting and down right INSULTING. How dare you sit there, in your smug ivory towers and berate those WORSE off than you. and yes, most single parents ARE worse off than you, in many many ways. they have no choices, no options, no respite from it all, no loving partner to hold them at the end of a hard day. no partner to give them emotional support, to care for them, even the smallest thing of having a cup of tea made for you.

GOD FORBID should any of you horrible SMUG people find yourselves down on your luck, left in the lurch by your husbands having an affair. HAVING to lean on the state and ask for help and claim benefits, to claim back some of the money you have paid into the system in the first place. God forbid should this happen to you, as none of you will have the strength of character to cope, since you fall back on unkind, bitchy, ill educated bullshit comments against those already in that situation.

I'm disgsusted in some of you. Frankly, you ought to be disgusted in yourselves. You have offended me, and i'm not a single mum on benefits ( though I did think I would be for the majority of my pregnancy) and offended a very hight proportion of Mumsnet.

I think this thread should be let to die now really, its gone to far, and is a really really upsetting read.

I didnt see your post skeletonbones it clearly says what i was trying to say much much more eloquently!

I always feel you should never judge anyone until you have walked a mile in their shoes.