For being FED UP that people are living in council houses & on benefits, yet some how can afford to go on a holiday every year??

[cleo43]

I have had it with lazy shites that sit in the house that I & my dh ( the tax payer) pay for , living on money that I & my dh ( the tax payer ) make possible, having more than I have!!

Perhaps it's a little bit of a green eyed monster going on here ,but, this evening my neighbour that lives in a council house & on benefits has been round to show me her new car and ask me to look after "her" house when she and her husband ( plus the two children and a grandchild) go on holiday next week!!
I am sick of it. It was only last month that she was dragging me in to see her new giant flat screen tv!!
We can't afford these things yet we have to pay for these idiots to have them??

Mascara makes another valid point.

(several homes in some cases...)

For every genuine person who is struggling on benefits theres always one who is conning the system.

I know someone who has 4DC, she was always buying new things for them, spolshing money about constantly. Usual things wide screen TV the works.

Then one day she told me she was fuming as apparently "someone" had grassed her up. Her DP wasn't officially living with her and she was claiming as a single parent then he was giving her money on top. They had pictures of him leaving for work at 6am and everything. She said she didn't care as she has been doing it for 4 years. She got a £300 fine and told to stop claiming. Hardly fair considering how much she had taken illegally over the years.

So maybe people run the risk of being caught because the punishments aren't harsh enough.

Yes big companies cheating pisses me off. Tax evasion and claiming to be an overseas resident, in a tax haven. hThat pisses me off. But these are different discussions.

Davidtennnat, you are too nice. Wake up and smell the coffee. I don't mean someone sells, ONE car, and pays for a holiday. I mean they claim benfits,and sell 5 or 30 a week, from their front drive. And then they are investigated. And on the day the person comes round. PPPOOOOMMM, no cars on driveway. No eveidence that the rpeson is infact nigh on runnign a rself employed business.How did that happen. Please tell you that you are not so naieve as to think this doesn't go on.

Plus, Many people live of basic benefits. And I suspect , it is a difficult existence on such low amount.
But many people claim lots of benefits legitemetly. I mean the wifeswap people were shown to be legitimate claimers. They had 5 kids or whatever. Thay got this, rent paid, they had this left over and the end of the week.
Compare working man with p/t working mum. One child in school, one in childacee, after mortgage and nursery fees, thay couldn't afford to go on holiday.
Have none of you seen these incomes/figures compared. You do know that this too is not an isolated event ?

well, that's the state of the bloody useless country we live in - it lets people do nowt.

how do you know that these people dont have massive debts and loans? when I was on benefits for a year when dd was born, I got into debt from loans etc... and I didn't even have any flooring in my house and splintered floorboards I couldn't afford carpet at the time.

p.s jobseekers is only £45 a week so can just about scrape by on that.by that I mean having some bare essentials.

damn.......I guess I'd better cancel those plans I had to take the DS's somewhere on holiday for a week in the summer holidays hey.........

opps sorry colditz only read op I see jobseekers gone up since I was on it, but it still fuck all.

It's very easy to always look and think the grass is greener. The fact is it isn't. whatever lifestyle we live we all have tough times and very, very few of us have a life where we sacrifice nothing. We all have hard times, we all make sacrifices and we all are just trying to do what's best for our families. Even the fraudsters.

People in real need are being robbed by benefit thieves.

Oblamov, I also know people like the one your describe.

My parent's next door neighbour was on long term incapacity benefit because of mental health problems. But these problems would disappear between psychiatrists appointments and he worked every day 'on the black'.

I would never begrudge a family on benefits a holiday. I know that the vast majority of people on benefits are not like my parents neighbour.

But you are right, people like him do exist, I've met quite a lot

and he did it for over 20 years that I know about

you just don;t know the circumstances of everyone on benefits, am sure that a tiny minority play the system, but the vast majority don;t and use benefits for their real purpose, to support their family whilst illness , disability or unemployment make things tough.

i know someone who is a single mum, carer for her elderly father, and has 3 DCs , one with SN, her dad has just paid for her to go on holiday for a week. i would hate to think she was being judged by narrow minded people who would presume she was a benfits cheat.

why is it always the presumption that people on benefits are less worthy of having anything nice, that they should live in bare houses, no TV, SKY, no holidays , no treats, so that taxpayers feel better? i don;t like that at all

My MIL was on benefits as she genuinely couldn't work and did always manage to have a Saga holiday every year. To this day I don't know how she managed it - she used to really cut back on other things I think. She certainly wasn't a benefit cheat.

I wouldn't begrudge a family on a low income a holiday. I think people who are genuinely frugal all year in order to treat themselves should not be judged.

However, I would have no sympathy with benefit cheats - this is a completely different matter.

coming back. we are off on holiday in june. as soon as possible after that, i will be putting a desposit down on next years holiday, and saving a few pounds a week to be able to afford to pay for next years. it wont be abroad, or anywhere fancy, it will probably be a caravan somewhere like haven , or if we can scrape the extra together, we might actually get a chalet at butlins! ooooooooooo.

lulumama.. I don't think they are less worthy but I do think that SKY+ shouldn't be considered an essential byt those on benefits when I consider it a luxury iywim.

I don't normally post on threads about this because I think benefits as a lifestyle choice is plain wrong. It should be there for those who need it whilst they need it. That said I do recognise that I'm not in aposition to judge anybody and I a bit of an 'each to their own person'.

I thinks Colditz has raised the most valid point in that fraudsters are robbing from those who genuinely need it.

Do you know why they are on benefits?

Perhaps some long term and genuine incapacity benefit? My parents have been receiving this for years because of my Dads..oh where shall we start?

Heart attack
Stroke
Ruhmatoid arthritis
Pneumonia
TB

Maybe if you would like to know them so well as to judge whether they are deserving of a holiday, you would like to ask what they recieve benefits for?

AMZINWOMAN - is that true about the motability car, you only get it if you have higher rate DLA?
My PILs have it, which they should have, my MIL has severe arthritis in her lower back and hips which she means she needs a walking stick to walk and FIL has POst Polio Syndrome and has to wear a caliper on one leg (as it has grown as much as the other due to the polio) so again needs sticks to walk. So they get motability (which they need because they both have limited mobility). Yet a friend of mine also has it, she had severe back problems a few years back so needed sticks to walk, but the problem has improved drastically, she no longer needs sticks to walk, is quite capable of doing her own shopping, going out to the pub etc., Yet still gets motability. Apparently she needs it because she has a child (he has mild Asperger's but otherwise normal, healthy kid), she says when I challenged her.
Yet a former colleague has an adult daughter who lives with him who is disabled (I think she has CP but am not sure). On good days she can just about manage on sticks, but she is often wheel chair bound and having a car would make a big difference to her life - yet she can't get it?

Colditz - I bet you're like my mum (single mum on benefits with 3 kids), who scrimped and saved every year, always cooked from scratch, never went on nights out, except to visit family, only took the bus occasionally (no car) and was a hell of a bargain shopper, which meant she could furnish our house in a lovely fashion and could afford to take us away somewhere each year - might only have been to visit family in Cornwall, or to a caravan park but it was a holiday nonetheless. Hope you have a lovely holiday btw.

My dh and I both work, (Well I'm on ML) and we always have done. Sometimes we find we can't afford to go on holiday. But that's down to us spending the money on other things and is none of anyone else's business.
Unless you KNOW for definite someone is cheating the system, and you KNOW the complete ins and outs of their financial staus, don't be so quick to judge. Don't forget our taxes go to the government and it is them that allocate it. So it is down the the government to ensure that those taxes are spent wisely.

And there are people who cheat. But their are people who cheat the system on EVERY level of income - as someone mentioned, rich business people who set up their off shore tax havens are cheating the system. But don't tar everyone with the same brush.

Blimey bit of a long one!
Probably been about 15 other posts now since I started typing!

OP - It probably does make alot of people wonder how it is affordable and annoys people - so not an unreasonable post and you did say you weren't tarring people with the same brush and that people have benefits for different reasons rather than 'just living off the state'. I saw a lady from my village in Karen Millen the other day spedning LOADS and she is on benefit and has a council house - she has no disability or reason why she can't work. She has the right to spend her money how she likes - but there is some underlying concern as to how it is being paid for.

I think it is more worrying the amount of debt people are in.

If you own your own home, you have a massive investment and will end up being far, far richer than your neighbour. Presumably as you and yor dh work you are also paying into occupation pensions, and get the tax breaks and employer's contributions on top?

there are more frauds from people who are not on benefits than people who are i am sure

where fucking where?

IMO it sound like they're paying for all this by running up massive debts. The credit crunch is going to make personal loans completely impossible soon and then you'll have to put up with your neighbour whinging about how she can't afford the repayments on all the pricey shit stuff she has bought.

In these situations I always think to myself how much happier I am knowing that me and my DH have worked bloody hard for our luxuries and earned them honestly. What a pathetic life it must be, constantly trying to think of new ways to get more money out of the system. I am NOT having a go at people who genuinely deserve benefits, because I believe there are lots of people in circumstances which mean they rightly should be supported by the state, but people who are perfectly able to work and support themselves and their families and instead choose to claim? Very very sad pathetic individuals.

Here, here KM!!