Why do you benefit bash?

[greyblanket76]

My family and I are working class and always have been. My friends are too and so are the people that I tend to socialise with/meet in everyday life. I've only been on MN since last year but have seen so many comments bashing people who are on/depend on benefits and I'd really like to know why?

Is this because some people on here think everyone that's on benefits is lazy and doesn't want to work therefore claim benefits? Or is it something else?

I'll talk about my situation and will keep it as brief as possible as I already know people will come in the comments to try and shame me. I'm early 20s and a single mum (didn't start out that way but your whole life can literally change overnight and that's what happened to me). I have one DC and I'm expecting another so I've been on maternity leave back to back as I'll have 2 under 2.

I've worked full time since I was 17 right up until I went on my first maternity leave. Due to the rate of SMP, I'm entitled to benefits as SMP doesn't even cover my rent which is £1200. I'm entitled to £1670 of UC which covers my rent and all my bills. During the first 9 months of my maternity leave I was receiving around £1507 UC (due to deductions) + £638 SMP = £2145 a month.
Once I give birth to my second DC, my UC entitlement should go from £1670 to £1907. This isn't 100% accurate but due to receiving SMP, let's say the deductions would be due £1700 UC + £638 SMP = £2388 a month. That would be excluding child benefit for both children btw.

When I was working full time, I was earning £1383 a month. I do plan to go back to work after my maternity leave ends as I genuinely love my work and have my whole career in front of me. However can people see the huge jump in difference between the two amounts? Nearly a grand in total! When returning back to work, I would be entitled to some benefits however because I'd be working full time, it wouldn't be a lot. That's why it's advised that you drop hours to work part time in order to get the most help available.

I've read my post back and hope it isn't too confusing but I just wanted some people who benefit bash to understand that sometimes life on benefits seems better especially as you have kids because you get so much more help. My mum keeps telling me to consider not working for a year or two just because I need to consider the quality of life my DC and I will have. I wouldn't be able to pay for rent AND childcare so what would I do? There's a lot that comes into play when deciding if you should go back to work or just be on benefits and I hope some people got that from this post. Seeing as this is an anonymous forum, if you judge/bash people on benefits, I'd really be interested to hear why. Posting in AIBU because I'm prepared to be flamed and have learnt not to take nasty comments to heart

ill

@Florenz

I think there'll end up being a licensing system to be able to have children. Both the father and the mother will need to sign a legally binding agreement to fulfil certain criteria and will have to guarantee to support the child upto the age of 21. There'll be no absent fathers dodging paying child maintenance because it will be deducted from them at source, they won't have a choice in the matter.

I do not think so.

[quote lucythejuicy]@greyblanket76 no grey blanket - what's disgusting is that you have had two kids (not just one which I could understand could happen to anyone) that you can't afford to provide for and instead you are expecting hard working people to fund your lifestyle choice. [/quote]
@lucythejuicy what's disgusting is your inability to read. I'm currently on UC because £600 maternity pay doesn't cover £1200 rent. Therefore UC is there to help out whilst you're on maternity leave. If you could read, you'd see I'll be going back to work after my maternity leave ends. I put the figures in the OP to see the difference between being on UC and working full time. The system is flawed yet my situation is disgusting. Ok👍

@MaryAndHerNet

Haha "luck" ok then. More like hard work and good planning. No hand outs. We reap what we sow

nope.

Luck.

Or put it this way.

If your CV was behind another, your high paying job would be someone elses right now, lucky yours got picked.
or maybe you had supportive psrents? lucky you.
or you met a decent man that wasnt just pretending to be decent until you married, thats lucky that is.
or perhaps your children were born healthy physically and mentally, lucky that is.
or that house, your offer got accepted, thats a bit of luck....

Or maybe lucky to have had a good education. Not everyone gets one although that's the assumption many people make.

Oh another thought people in low paid jobs. Are they allowed children ?

@lalafam none of you and yours are disabled are you. Let's hope that never happens ay.

@peboh

You yourself in your op made the point to why people do. You're better off with children on benefits than you were childless and working. It's not hard to see why people feel anger towards these situations. It's not bashing, but being frustrated at a messed up situation.

OP is pretending to be clueless with wide eyed surprise. She knows full well why people get annoyed at others contributing nothing to the system but being met recipients for almost all their lives. Maybe this thread will help her understand this enormously complicated thing.

Apparently not, according to this thread. Because they'd have to top themselves up with benefits and the lady who got a better job and a loving husband would have to pay a few coins a month to 'pay for it'.

@Gilead

Haha "luck" ok then. More like hard work and good planning. No hand outs. We reap what we sow How do you think this makes people like me feel? I had a good career. Im too I’ll to work. I cannot afford to put my heating on and here you are judging me. How dare you, I strongly suspect that for the forty odd years I was working I contributed more to society than you did, not just financially either.

I quite specifically said that people who are ill or disabled do deserve benefits... I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Just gets on my tits when people make comments that you can't be in a good situation without it being handed to you.

@Tomanynames
Apparently not, according to this thread. Because they'd have to top themselves up with benefits and the lady who got a better job and a loving husband would have to pay a few coins a month to 'pay for it'.

Ive never been a benefit badger, but wow, I’m shocked that a single parent can claim so much in benefits. £1200 is also a lot of money to go on rent. I have a well paid job, in the south east, but can’t afford a mortgage that high due to childcare costs. So we have had to compromise and live in a very small house, in a compromise location.

It does feel like it’s a lifestyle choice for many where I live. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s easier than working for minimum wage and raising a family in an expensive part of the country. It’s not possible to do that where I live unless both parents are working and earning well above average salaries.

@lalafam and equally it gets on my tits when people think all those in unfortunate situations just haven't worked hard enough.

It’s very hard to contribute nothing to the system. If you have children over the age of five you have to clearly demonstrate that you meet the targets set for you each week. If not you’re penalised. It’s not a case of cashing your giro and going down the pub anymore.

Well, I earn £2600 a month and £2000 of that goes on childcare. So You are better off than me doing naff all. I'd call that pretty unfair. I wouldn't be 'entitled' to benefits as I have savings and a mortgage. I'd have to loose all of that first.

I don't 'bash' benefit claimants but I do get mad at a system where both my husband and I are working flat out, don't qualify for any help whatsoever, live hand to mouth and never see our child and yet another family can take get more net cash plus time with their family. The problem as I see it isn't even necessarily the benefit system but infact the fact that reliable childcare is difficult to find and extortionate to maintain.

@TaraRhu

Well, I earn £2600 a month and £2000 of that goes on childcare. So You are better off than me doing naff all. I'd call that pretty unfair. I wouldn't be 'entitled' to benefits as I have savings and a mortgage. I'd have to loose all of that first.

The unfair thing there is that childcare is so bloody expensive. That's part of the reason benefits exist.

OP now that you have had your stealth brag about how you’re making more money on benefits than you did working, you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve with this thread. And the faux ignorance about why it winds people up is a little too obvious. Of course you know why it winds people up, you even gave numbers to back it up in your OP.

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@lalafam and equally it gets on my tits when people think all those in unfortunate situations just haven't worked hard enough.[/quote]
@Waxonwaxoff0 it astounds me that everyone in comfortable high paying jobs thinks that there are enough high paying jobs for every able bodied single adult of this country if only they just tried harder with their CV and interview skills, and that all the low paying jobs like social care, would just disappear.

Someone on the below thread is earning £78k, paying pension contributions so his/her salary is under £50k, getting child benefit and universal credit including rent payments.

www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/sta1ta/unique_situation_78500_in_salary_6_kids_so_large/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Gobsmacking.

Those with disabilities absolutely should be supported and probably to a higher degree than they currently are. Those caring for disabled children too.

Childcare should absolutely be subsidised or free for anybody working.

NMW has caused many problems since it was introduced in that companies no longer try to offer a bit more to attract and keep good staff, it's just accepted that everyone will pay NMW. It's not enough to support many households and yes, top ups should be paid to reward work.

Where I live, there are quite a lot of people who are professional benefits claimants. They know exactly what they are entitled to and how to milk it for what it's worth. That is not assumption, they will proudly discuss it at the school gates and are very clear that they have never and will never work if they can get away with it.

Of course they don't live in luxury but at the same time, they are not living in poverty either. They are quite content as they are.

Someone very dear to me has already been warned by their mother that when they finish getting their stupid degree, they will have to move out if they plan on getting a job. It will affect the mothers benefits to have a working adult in the house and she should just claim.

These are the people who cause benefit bashing.

Well actually I think wages should be increased and childcare should be government subsidised so that top up benefits aren't needed. But the government would sooner give out the benefits apparently, so that's that

Childcare is subsidised in a sense, for people on low incomes, but it's subsidised through the benefit system rather than directly to the provider.

And how much would wages have to be increased by to make private sector rents affordable, especially in the south. You'd have trouble finding a 2-bed property for under £1,250 a month in my area, and I'm not even in London, but 50-odd miles away.

I'd love to know how much of the benefit bill goes to private landlords, but you don't hear them being slagged off for it, despite the fact that some of them get very rich from money paid in taxes.

Hey OP.

I have no idea why I wasted my time reading this whole thread, time I will never get back. Or why I am responding. I am about a decade older than you. Without giving too much away, I have 2 degrees, spent 7 years in higher education, then have been spending years building my career. I am married. DH and I are long distance due to unpredictable career transfers. We don't have DC yet. I take home less than you once student loans, tax etc is deducted. So does DH. I dont own a home yet. I am waiting to own a home, to get transferred to the same city as DH, build up some more savings and get to a reasonable level in my career before we consider TTC.

I think several people have explained to you and answered your original question in the OP. Happy Tuesday.

@Peppapigforlife fucks me off that people think everyone has the same opportunities in life. Do they think Sharon who struggled to get any GCSEs because she isn't academically bright is capable of doing a university degree and becoming a surgeon?

I saw someone say well even if they work in retail they can work their way up and become a manager. I saw an ad in a shop window for a store manager, the wage was about 30p over minimum wage, yeah that's really gonna make a difference to their finances.

@HTH1 You’re right, I don’t know anyone on benefits and have never claimed them. Quite happy for people to make whatever choices they like as long as I’m not picking up the tab!

Well that was very obvious in your perception of people on benefits but I appreciate the honesty. It's only given me further insight into how people think the lives of those that are on benefits goes. It couldn't be more further away from the truth

@Tootiredallthetime

Ive never been a benefit badger, but wow, I’m shocked that a single parent can claim so much in benefits. £1200 is also a lot of money to go on rent. I have a well paid job, in the south east, but can’t afford a mortgage that high due to childcare costs. So we have had to compromise and live in a very small house, in a compromise location.

It does feel like it’s a lifestyle choice for many where I live. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s easier than working for minimum wage and raising a family in an expensive part of the country. It’s not possible to do that where I live unless both parents are working and earning well above average salaries.

1200 is alot . But thats private renting which op has no control over. She does not see that 1200 it's straight to the landlord. But had op said her rent was 400 a month social housing . It would not seem such a surprise.

But also baring in mind that 1200 is paying a landlords mortgage which in the end will get paid of. so in a round about way benefits are paying for that house.

I earn just short of 50k in a career that's taken me the best part of 15 years and 3 university degrees to establish, not to mention a shit load of personal, professional and financial sacrifices, including 10k of student loan debt. I take home only £300 more a month than you. And a significant chunk of that goes on childcare. I miss my DC terribly when at work and I have no option to work PT hours so it's FT or nothing.

The system is a disgrace.