I know this will be contentious - cost of living rise

[qualitychat]

My mum is a pensioner and gets Disability Benefit and Mobility Benefit and Pension Credit. She receives almost what I get in a month. She is moaning about the Government not doing enough about the cost of gas and electricity, which I agree with. The thing is they have said that people on benefits and pension credit will be given lump sums towards their bills. I am a middle earner and so is my husband. We will likely get nothing. Do you not think it will be the ordinary working families who will be squeezed the most if something is not done?

Nope. £10,000 in savings before it affects pension credit and anything above that is considered £1 in income for every £500 in savings, so PC is reduced accordingly. If the pensioner is in receipt of either attendance allowance or disability living allowance and also qualifies for PC, they can receive up to £92 a week in pension credit, depending on the level of disability benefit received. Can take the total pension up to over £900 a month. Still not a fortune if you’re living with a disability though.

To those who are suggesting benefits claimants get too much help:
If I give you my cost of living payments (we'll get almost all of them due to disability) which of your children would like my son's brain injury?

You don't know you're born.

A shameful thread.

Yep, divide and rule, and it’s alive and well on MN.

YANBU…

There is no ruling classes.

There is a cruel, heartless government elected by mainly certain sections of the public.

Hard as it is to hear, this is the fault of people in society, and quite a lot of them.

I want every single person in this thread that believes those on benefits get too much to think about how you would pay your bills on £334 a month.

Come on, let's hear it.

How far do you think 334 will go?
You've got to pay, out of that,

Electric.
Gas.
Water.
Council tax.
Insurance.
Food.
Phone.
Internet.

That's assuming you live in social housing. If you dont, you'd have to top up rent out of that 334 too.

People can have high amounts of savings and still get pension credit if for example they are disabled and have a low state pension. The first 10k of savings is not counted for the pension credit calculation. Anything over that assumes £1 of income per week for every £500 over 10k.

We are middle earners like you OP, and yes I agree we won't be at the front of the queue for help, but blaming benefits isn't the way to go I don't think, the ultra rich play the system to a far higher amount than anyone on benefits could ever do. I think fingers need to be pointed in their direction to be honest.

Couldn’t have put it better myself. People see and envy the ‘extra’ money or the ‘free’ car (for which mobility allowance has to be used, which is conveniently overlooked) without even considering the level of disability you have to endure before the help kicks in. And before I get shouted down by claims that people know ‘cheats’, I would remind you that all disability benefits have been reviewed and eligibility tightened, along with very harsh assessments which screen out even high levels of disability - hence huge costs to the tax payer in appeals. Before you envy the extra funding, ask yourself if you envy the disability too.

It is the same rules as Universal Credit.
And most elderly people want savings for their funeral.

that’s double what non pensioners in the same circumstances get though. Surely that’s pretty good when you take that into consideration

It’s not - less generous rules for uc.

UC is reduced for savings between 6k and 16k. Pension credit disregards savings up to 10k. Not the same at all.

Furlough is one of the reasons we’re in this mess so I hope this doesn’t happen. My 17 year old son who lived full time at home got it FFS!! They were just handing it out willy nilly when they should have been supporting people to get the jobs that were actually available.

I don’t see how benefits claimants are raking it in 🤔

Many a previous mumsnet thread has posters bemoaning that they are struggling as a working family on a large salary (sometimes approaching 6 figure annual income or more)

Then it turns out they are struggling on their big salary because they have big mortgage payments because they’ve chosen to live in an expensive house, they have two car finance payments every month because they’ve chosen to have 2 nice cars etc etc even school fees to pay... basically all the things that people on benefits CANNOT and DONT have.

Yet somehow they equate that to ‘Nobody I know on benefits is struggling’

If you are paying out for stuff like that you CANNOT compare yourself to people receiving benefits full stop

My colleague was furloughed as a benefits advisor whilst hundreds of her clients went without support during covid lockdown. Shameful when it is a job which can easily be done form home. Every other advisor I know just switched to working from home.

I agree. I have epilepsy and I don’t need to put my heating on more than a non disabled person. It’s my choice how often I put it on and how much to spend but that’s different.

It’s not the “same circumstances” though is it? Age is cruel. You really have no idea.

I’m disabled and do need my heating on. I need 18C to be in safe zone. It’s why Im planning to live/sleep in my smallest room this winter and not heat the rest of my flat.

@AnyodyAnywhere try hospitality. Honestly, you don’t mention your ages but DH was mid 50’s when he took a bar job having been out of his banking career for 2 yrs. The zero hours and shifts were hard to juggle with younger kids and my 9-5, and it was a far harder, physically, job than he’d ever done. But he absolutely loved it, new skills, pushing his comfort zones (he has severe social anxiety), but they also loved him. He brought different skills, worked hard, and was grateful for the work. The team were much younger than him, but they leant from each other. It might not be viable for much longer, but I believe at the moment, they are so short staffed that you/he should be able to get something.

Not what the lockdown mob was saying when they were baying for more restrictions. That was somehow entirely cost free.

I work full time for an airline that has lost billions over the last 2.5 years. Definitely no pay rise for me.

I also work shifts. My early shift starts at 4.30am. A late shift ends at 11.45pm. Later if the last flight is delayed. I work a 7 day roster so 5 on 2 off, 4 on 3 off, 6 on 2 off etc so my days off change every week. I couldn't possibly take on another part time job.

For the love of god. The rise in NI won’t fund social care, it will be gobbled up by the NHS. If there was a dedicated social care tax, ring fenced to pay for later life care and levied on everyone, depending on their income, at a rate they could afford, when it comes time for your own care, the funding would be there. How is that working people paying for pensioners ? And how is it more unfair than those who have worked to buy a home or have saved, being made to pay from their own funding towards those who haven’t ? The same stupid argument is used for state pensions - you pay NI contributions and claim it when the time comes. You’re not doing anything that those in receipt of state pension now haven’t done and you’ll still expect yours when the time comes.

If the lower earners have it so easy, I don’t understand why the whinging middle earners (and I am fortunate enough to be a middle earner..) on these threads don’t leave their jobs for something that is possibly less stressful and definitely less money. Then you can claim benefits. 🤷🏻‍♀️If you really thought it was cost effective for the sake of your children, then you would do it.
I have considerable health issues and I work in an extremely full on, albeit part time, job. I push myself to almost breaking point because I know my children need this money and we’d be worse off if I took a less stressful and lower paying job. I really wouldn’t be any better off leaving or reducing hours further.
are people really thinking they’d be better off in a minimum wage job? And if so, why the heck aren’t you doing it?!

Most energy suppliers are going bust or making ver little money. Energy producers are making good money due to rise in prices. They tend to be either privately owned or listed on stock markets. Companies listed on stock markets are primarily owned by pension funds for both public and private pensions. So basically pensioners own these companies not some faceless rich person.

Nationalising them wouldn’t help - global energy prices would still be based on demand and supply.