To think work no longer ‘pays’

[Cuppasoupmonster]

This is a controversial topic so I’m expecting a few biscuits to be thrown at me so I’ve got my hard hat on. Inspired by the ‘benefits overhaul’ thread.

I often see on here that working and owning your own home is always better than claiming benefits and living in social housing. But it seems like the perks are long gone if I’m honest.

It feels like every day I’m dragging myself up at 6am to take my daughter to nursery (when I would much rather have her at home with me), just to pay our enormous mortgage and bills, before breaking even at the end. We haven’t had a holiday in 5 years. A few months ago I went into my overdraft for the first time in about 6-7 years despite the fact my spending is no different. What are the upsides again? Is it just that we get to choose the care home we die in (perhaps)? Because right now I’m feeling pretty pissed off with the whole thing and wondering if anyone else feels the same.

Considering OP's recent comments about people with severe depression being able to work (because she did, obviously they all can.. ), I really hope her own DC do not grow up to have MH issues that stops them doing the things they want.

Isn't it lovely to know that should we fall on hard times and need benefits and housing that there are people out there who would consider us to be lazy scroungers sucking the system dry. By sheer luck they finally found the meds to control my chronic illness . Does this mean that I'm a scrounger because my scripts are free and are possibly more than I earn? My cancer treatment was very expensive and left me unable to work for 2 yrs, do I owe you money? I'm due further preventative surgery will I owe you money?My friends son is severely autistic, she also suffers from depression with a number of suicide attempts along the way. Does her not working in order to care for him make them both scroungers ? Dwp reassess my friends son and my colleagues son every year to see if their condition has improved and if they still need benefits. To the best of my knowledge autism is not curable. All get benefits and have the gall to live in social housing. Reality is very different from daily mail headlines.

Work no longer pays ?

We don't live in a society where everyone can all stop working !

We contribute into the communal pot together in paid or voluntary ways

Helping those who are too young, sick, old

Work is not just about money, it's about the soft skills, meeting different people, combination, time keeping, routines etc

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

🙌🏻

So why don’t those on UC all do ‘voluntary’ things to keep up those soft skills? Maybe that should be a requisite of claiming. It would be good for them, right? Or do those benefits only apply to paid employment?

Why on earth do you think they don't?

You keep making ridiculous assumptions that are simpling flagging up your ignorance on the subject for everyone to see.

The majority of people on UC are already working, why are you struggling so much to comprehend that?

Of course I mean any claimants not working full time, like Pp who claims so she doesn’t have to work Monday to Friday.

That poster works part time and cares for her kids the rest of the time. So you want UC to give her more money for childcare so she can volunteer to get soft skills that she already gets in her part time job? Absolutely solid logic OP.

So, is this thread just an out and out benefit bashing one now? Or do you want to talk about your own finances?

If work gives you so many ‘soft benefits’ and enables you to contribute to society, why wouldn’t volunteering as part of the UC scheme?

I don’t know, I don’t know enough about it. But I’m also uncomfortable with the talk of ‘sponging’ and ‘free handouts’ so I’m asking: do you want to benefit bash? Or do you want to talk about your own financial struggles? Because those are two totally separate topics.

Nearly half of UC claimants are in paid work like you, according to the government! Being sick, or have caring responsibilities, either for adults or children, limits the opportunities of some claimants to volunteer, but some people still generously give their time to others despite the complexity of their lives.

I was sympathetic after your first post because I believe life in the UK is difficult for parents of young children. See this article published today coincidentally, about how the UK has become a hostile place to have children. But your uninformed whining is irritating. What do you give back OP, aside from complaining?

This. When I first returned to work after having my dd I just about broke even financially. But it was the best decision I could have made.

I agree, this is my personal experience, mine are teens now and life is now far easier in all sorts of ways. The OP’s anger should be directed at campaigning for universal access to affordable childcare (which would also help the economy), or other practical measures that would help people like herself, rather than attacking benefit claimants.

Stop spouting the bullshit about your taxes, you pay a pittance in per year so where do you get off pretending that you personally are funding people on benefits. Quit your job and be a single mother and move the fuck on

This. Have rarely seen such relentless and wilfully uninformed ignorance throughout a thread from an OP. It's quite remarkable.

And her more recent posts about enforced volunteering would suggest she is probably only one post or two away now from proposing slavery.

So if your DH left you and you ended up having to rent, therefore making you eligible for UC, would you just leave your children to starve instead of claiming it?

So you just want to benefit bash?

It’s terrifying really.
If I was single then I would be entitled to UC top-ups despite working 37.5 hours a week as an NHS midwife, to know that she would then feel she had a right to sneer at me is shocking.
As it happens my dp pays 2.5 of OP’s wages in tax per year, if I found out he’d been on a forum spewing this bile I would be horrified and single shortly after.

So let me get this straight - because I claim UC, you want me to do some “soft skills courses”.

Cool. But I’ll have to claim some more UC for childcare because I already work FT..

I’ve known a doctor and a vet claim top-up benefits (both single mums of course) - what type of education do you think they’ll be needing?

I said anyone who isn’t working FT.

@senior30 Absolutely no understanding of how welfare and taxes work. Routinely turns up on multiple threads to either blame UC claimants or old people in need of care for the shit life she seems to think she has. Claims to be a Labour voter which is either a lie or she doesn't understand party policies or ideology.