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

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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.

have read most now.....
free abbysitters dont exist. trust me, even with our disabled 2 the process just to get an hour a week for ojne of them is arduous! homestart is the nearest in somepeoples eyes buta ctually they are not babysitters, and also a small eprcent of the famillies I managed were on benefits- most ahd at elast one working aprent.

4 kids- yep me in a few months. We get some benefits- mainly because of the disabled 2. Do I feel guilty? Well, I am a student, dh has 2.5 jobs (is off sick rght now but going back ASAP, and only been on the sick a few weeks whilst I am 21 weeks pg). Not all people with 4 kids are on benefits of the 'non-disabled' kind (and not all of teh disabled either obv). We WERE on bebefits for s ahort while after number 3- dh lost his job thropugh illness, but went back to work BEFORE GP wanted, he ahted claiming.

malo, agree with your post, you have described my neighbour brilliantly

to the poster who asked, we get child tax credits, used to get working family tax credit then dh got a rise and now we earn £11 a week too much to get wftc, although we are paying off an overpayment from a year ago of £80 a month,and with the prescrition/dentist charges we now pay we are worse off than ever

Hi SSD!!!! xxx

Any replies to my post of 11:20??? I'm anxiously waiting for some replies because I can't honestly believe all those that have kicked up at the posts from me and especially inthegutter can possibly agree that it is ok to sit on your arse and claim when you CAN work????????

'there are those in this country who CAN work but DON'T because they are better off staying on benefits. In that situation the benefits system is being abused and it is those people that will never work - ie those that are able bodied, do not have childcare commitments, are not ill, infirm, disabled or have any other reason for NOT working. '

yes, tehre are. Everyone knows that.

BUT beyond people shopping them (how many people on here would do that I wonder) the only way of dealing with that is to cut entitlements, thereby hurting the vast majority who don't choose that lifestyle.

The otehr thing worth remembering si that if you cut benefit you cannot guarantee that Mum / Dad will care less and givce up their what-ever-they-spend-it-on choices, you OCULD just find kiddy ends up mising meals or suffering. pesonally (as taxpaying family) I am not willing to choose that- I would rather see my money safeguarding vulnerable kids whatever their parents choices.

I think some posters are taking the view you are slating everyone, which is clearly not the case

yes most single parents live a gard life on benefits, but also there are a hell of a lot that aren't single, just not married to their partner yet who claim sing;e benefits and take the piss out the whole system

don't know why the other posters slating you can't agree with this

Do you agree that you are happy that there are able bodied, children free, healthy, fit (have I covered everyone?!) people out there who CAN work but DON'T work because should they work their income would drop?

No

Of course their income wouldn't drop, I would however agree that there are people out there that fit into that spectrum that don't work because it is easy not to.

The type of people that commit crime to gain their extra money, and get signed off on the sick for depression or other hard to diagnose problems, I mean a doctor can't say you aren't depressed when you go claiming the same problems as your friend who has also been signed off for depression!

In reality a lot of them are dopeheads/junkies/alcoholics/lazy sods who can't be bothered to work and know how to play the system.

I am not slating everyone! I never have I have just tried to define the difference between those that NEED to claim in order to live and those that DON'T and can get out there and earn their income, not have it handed to them over the counter.

Peachy - how about those that have no kids to feed? Ie those that leave school with absolutely no intention of working?

Malo - I agree that people like that do exist.

However, you've just conceded that the single parents on this thread have justified their claims to benefits, (though it appals me that they should have to, frankly).

Can you not see that making sweeping generalisations about people without knowing the facts is pointless. You are now doing the same with regards to school leavers and two parent families who don't 'want' to work. You don't know their circumstances. You don't know why it's more financially viable for them to be on benefit.

And yes I accept that some people will be out to cheat the system. They are committing a crime and it's wrong.

It was a demonstration to another poster about how the people reported in newspapers are not in fact representative of the general popu;ation, and that behaving like all single mothers are lying about having a partner, are on the fiddle and have 12 kids is about as measured and sensible as assuming all men are paedophiles.

I used paedophiles as an example, but there are plenty of assumptions made by newspapers that simply aren't true, yet are perpetuated to sell the paper eg ADHA is an excuse for lazy parenting, immigrants will have us saluting the muslim flag, polish workers are a danger to our economy, Christmas has been banned for fear of causing offence, oranges cause cancer ... all of which have only the shadies basis in truth.

So why are we relying on newspapers to tell is about 'Dole scroungers'? Sure, go by your own experience but please don't base your judgements on papers that print stories like "By 2050, britain will be POLISH!!!!!"

Seems we x'd posts Malo- I did reply

can I add another point- its absolutely imposssible to understand a pesons motivation. For example, a friend of mine doesn't work to support her 2 kids- her DH buggered off abroad to live with a Prostitute and doesn't send cash, she's 4 months behind in rent and we couldnt work out why seeing as she gets it covered. Seems her lovely DH is taking the oney under threats of severe violence (he is a brothel runing fraudster and employs heavies in Thailand). She is too petrified to go to Police- we have begged. But he ahs the girls passports (fraudulent ones) and says he will snatch them. I know him, he will. he is a nasty bastard. She doesn't have a life of riley- she has one of terror and fear. She is convinced if she goes into a refuge he will find her, and also it would leave her Mother alone in the world and with nobody to help care for her. She's too scared to work, or leave the kids with anyone- and the only boyfriend she ahd was beaten up. Life of riley, eh?

As for the few families that have 12 kids and live off benefits(there really can't be that many of them!) if they were to go to work, the tax credits would end up paying childcare, and working family tax credits/child tax credits, so their income would not be lower, and the government would still be paying for them.

Shall I answer your question with this MALO, I am a damn site more upset about the fact that someone like Buffoni (who incidentally makes his living streamlining companies, thereby putting workers on the dole and ruining companies in the process), can legally secrete the sort of amounts of money that could pay the mortgage of a whole row of middle class houses and still have change for a ferrari.
Take that into account and all your whinging about a £6.59 prescription looks rather petty.

Malo this thread isnt about single people with no kids, is it? Single poeple get pennies to live on, really they do. my parents (obv not single but no kids at home) are on benefits (2 X pension plans collapsed- not any fault of their own btw) and get a tiny amount to live on.

meemar - I didn't ask single parents to justify their reasons for claiming benefits - did I? You may find, when reading their posts, that they all felt they had to justify themselves why they claim.

Should have put secrete money from the tax man there!

Of course you didn't ask them to. But with a thread titled as such, and people laying into them about how they are living the good life do you not expect them to?

MALO, i wasnt referring to you in particular, but including the general theme of the majority of posters who are targetting single mums on benefits, and being fairly inaccurate and offensive to say the least. Someone did actually refer to benefit claimants as scroungers further back too, by the way.

again, i tell you, that most of your so called examples are of people who are quite obviously committing benefit fraud. Why not actually to something pro active about it, and stop being so outrageously un kind to those in need. YOU may not be meaning to have a dig at those in genuine need, but beleive me, that is how it is coming across.

just to re-itereate also, I'm not claiming benefits. I'm not single, i have a DH who supports us. however I am so furious at reading the posts against people who are.

Err...did I say single parents were living the life of riley? I don't think I did actually.

Of course we feel we have to justify why we claim, we are under constant surveillance by the general population regarding how much we spend and what we spend it on. The "My neighbour" posts prove this!

Single people that are able to work with no children recieve (according to the jobseekers website, which I assume knows what they are talking about)

If you claim Jobseekers Allowance, the amounts that you can expect to receive are

£34.60 a week for single people aged 16-17*
£45.50 a week for single people aged 18-24 (including some 16-17 year olds)
£57.45 a week for single people aged 25 or over.

(*If you are 16 or 17, before you go to the jobcentre you will have to register to do either work or training at your local Careers Service or Connexions.)

Gosh, that's an awful lot of money

So a kid just left school who doesn't want to work is committing benefit fraud? No, he/she isn't. They simply do not want to work and this country isn't going to let them starve so it supports them by providing unemployment benefit.

exactly ssd - which is why the welfare system needs reform.My 16 year old dd actually said to me the other day - 'Hey mum, if you and dad split up, I'll get £30 a week EMA money for being at 6th form college'. She looks around her and sees many of her friends who receive this grant because they have parents who are split and they are resident with the parent who chooses not to work or works part time. This is the case even though they might stay regularly with the other parent who might be earning a fortune! The benefits system has so many loopholes and anomalies. Yes, there are the minority who act fraudulently and are benefit cheats. But there are a hell of a lot more who aren't acting illegally - they are just taking advantage of a crap system.

Colditz: But I didn't ask all you single parents to justify why you claim, did I?

Blimey...I'm feeling battered and bruised on this - I'm going for a caffeine fix!

Considering most 16/17yrs will probably still be living at home with their parents to receive £40 a week for sitting on their backsides isn't bad is it? Oh sorry....I'm making assumptions/generalisations here again aren't I? Naughty me.

MALO, I have answered your question, to no reply, I ahve shown how much money these school leavers are recieving, to no reply, and have questioned your idea's on the parents bringing up 12children on benefits, to no reaply.
Do you actually have a reasonable reply or just the ability to rant?