To rant about government financial help

[Alittlenonsensenowandthen]

Firstly, I'll say that I've previously been in receipt of financial help from govt and extremely grateful and also want those who need help to be helped, but...
I've now met two people (retired) who are telling me what they're spending their fuel allowance on (new flat screen TV, holidays, new sofas). This is not an agiest or benefit bashing thread but it just gets my goat that there are people happily spending money given for heating on luxuries. It's not actually their fault - they haven't asked for the money, it wasn't means tested so arguably why not spend it and see it as bonus money. If govt wants to help, it needs to pay for things directly surely?
Just really bugging me at the moment because we're fine financially but only just, and we earn too much for help.
Argh! Just needed a rant to the ether this eve!

The question is: are they buying corner sofas?

I suspect that would really get the OP riled up.

Yep, and I think in most areas they have to have a photograph, so they take a bit of effort to get. Mine was certainly a bit of a palaver (had to take all the paperwork into the library, which has very limited opening hours and no parking anywhere close by, to be verified, then they sent it on to whichever bit of the council issues them).

It's also pretty useless for me. We get one bus an hour (with a very inconvenient two hour gap between 2 & 4), and the last one is before 6pm, and none at all on Sundays. And you can't use it before 9.30, so no use if you have an early appointment anywhere. I've had mine for over 2 years, and I doubt if I've used it more than 10 times. They're no longer valid for National Express buses, either.

Handy if you live in a city with decent public transport though.

That was life in the fifties when I was a kid. And we did stay alive, but not for as long. Until Covid hit, life expectancy has been on a constant increase. DH and I are late/mid 70s, my inlaws and my DF were all dead by this age. Only one of DH’s grandparents lived into their 60s.

I still use a hot water bottle, and keep cosy with a blanket in the evenings when I’m watching my (shock/horror) flat screen telly. The £500 works out at around £5 a week each on top of our meagre state pensions.

Maybe even leather corner sofas.

Imagine the OP’s first if they get the matching cushions.

Comfortable non UC..

Don't listen to the media that's convinced the 'haves' that the reason that dont have more is because the 'have nots' take all their tax.
UC is £350 or so a month for the unemployed over 25s. Good luck paying gas, electric, food, internet, insurance, travel, council tax etc with that.

OP I hope you can think about this phrase which is always important in these contexts:

It's not a race to the bottom.

Isn't it great that this non means tested grant still exists, probably the last one left, and let's hope it's still there when you reach that age. In fact, other support should exist to help us all! Not less. Wouldn't it be great if instead of bashing people for spending the funding they are entitled to, everyone claimed everything they are entitled to rather than stigmatising welfare benefits. Apparently millions that people are entitled to goes unclaimed every year, probably partly because of the stigma being stirred up by the media, government and threads like this. And who wins from that? Not us.

Don't worry, I make sure I punish myself everyday for having the cheek to be on u c due to special needs child and not being able to work full-time - no holidays, no car, second-hand furniture. Always aware of my position in society :)

Definitely had ice on the windows in the UK without central heating, we said Jack Frost had been in the night. This would have been in the 80s when we didn’t have double glazing either. I miss the patterns but not the drafts!

When are people going to stop complaining about massive, flat screen tvs on benefits threads?

I think when they sign their contracts with the Daily Express they have all memory of the past 30 years erased.

We have received the Warm house discount due to being on UC and having a very old and cold house with single glazed windows which we can't afford to replace. It is very much appreciated like the pensioners will appreciate the grant.

DH works with people in fuel poverty, and in many cases helps with benefit maximisation. If you think that all the help for fuel with concession payments goes on fuel or good food then your wrong.

I didn’t say anything about your position in society. I asked why some people grudge older people also getting help.

Every few weeks or so a think tank or junior policy wonk come on here and test out some idea, and this is one which returns time and again.

So, central office, even if you really keep trying, you’ll never get a consensus that taking away this benefit is a good idea. Especially when it’s clear that you want to remove a benefit from the poorest while continuing to turn a blind eye, and even give a helping hand, to the richest getting richer, by fair means or foul.

It annoys me too!

I got annoyed in covid when we got £150 from council tax back and then the £66 for electricity. We’re fine as a family we don’t need the help, yes it was nice to have but I genuinely think the money could’ve been better spent.

How did you spend it better, then? Let’s hear it.

Totally agree with this, why not just give to people on pension credit? Answer, just like triple lock, political parties live pandering to the powerful boomer and elderly cohort, coz they are a big group, they vote and highly likely to vote Tory..

"flat screen TV" is the code word for benefit bashing isn't it. All TVs are flat screen.

Bastards.
If they bought a non-flat TV, they could use the box to sit on. They'd save a fortune on the new sofa.

Yup. If you need a new TV it has to be a flat screen smart style TV because analogue sets aren't made any more. I'm not going to resent a pensioner buying themselves a TV FFS.

🤣

Agreed, my 70 year old parents go skiing twice a year, yachting double handed round the English coast most summers and think a ten mile walk is a Sunday stroll. Their friends are all similar.

(I'm disabled and spent chunks of this year barely able to walk around the house. )

Means testing costs & often the people in need don't claim it , up to £1.7 billion in pension credit is unclaimed , & spending any money boosts the economy , retail and services need it . Better off pensioners will pay tax on any money over their personal allowance .

Wow you sound very bitter !
I am one of the hated boomers , don’t vote Tory and doubt if any of my friends do ! As I did last year , I will be donating my WFP to the local Foodbank where I volunteer .
Is that acceptable ? And if an older person asks for help ( as they frequently do despite the money the Government- allegedly- showers on them) should I afm them what they have done with their WFP ?

And they get the same if they are trying to live independently (apart from housing and CT benefits) as someone living in the family home with no heating expenses, no need to buy furniture etc.

Lets be honest, basic unemployment benefits are meant to be short term. Its very different if someone is also receiving benefits for a disability, or for full time caring for a disabled child or another adult. The carers’ benefit in particular is abysmal.

Holiday, sofa AND the only kind of TV you can buy now on the government stipend? Wow. I'd love thst advertising algorithm.
It's not mean tested - that's on the government. It helps with, let's see, dignity.
I know of one times journalist thst admits honestly she didn't need the child benefit money and saved it up to take the whole family for a proper slap up at the Ivy twice a year. And good on her.
Smacks of 'the deserving poor'. And jealousy.
Don't judge what people feel they need.