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??

I'm not going to read through all this, btu what a bloody obnoxious thread.

Does it make some people happier to know that others are suffering more?

I think so.

Just because the government waste money in other areas does not excuse benefit fraud. The Iraq war, necessary or not, Does not make it right for someone to work whilest claiming jobseekers allowance imo

Of course it's an imperfect system and there are some people who exploit it.

But it's better than the alternative.

My best friend was given up for adoption when she was three months old because her parents literally couldn't afford to feed her. My own DD is now three months old and when I look at her and think of what those parents had to go through, the horror makes me shake.

Fabulous posts from Colditz.

iloatheironing - no, but it does make me wonder if people are actually worried about their taxes being wasted or just like judging others.

Beansmum probably both I would think

Most people agree that there are benefit cheats. It worries me that people will look at a neighbour and decide they are one on limited information.

For example if someone has a terminal illness they get extra benefits. Think how you'd feel if you knocked on the door and said "how dare you have a TV!" and they explained that it was rented and they didn't expect to need it for more than a few months.

A more common example might be someone who is 'between jobs'. They claim as they have a right too, but borrow to maintaim their lifestyle until they can get work again. Is that wrong?

The point is you can't tell by looking at them so should only judge the system, not the people.

Wot Colditz said, and probably anything else she continues to say.
I said my bit on the other thread.

yes that is a good post colditz [admiring]

Ninedragons ...my point exactly for every person who exploits the system there would be someone suffering horribly if it wasn't in place.......So unless you could investigate throroughly each person's circumstances which is impossible there will never be a perfect system

I am glad we have a welfare state, and I do not begrudge helping out the long-termed disabled, those with learning difficulties, and able-bodied people who need temporary help.

I realise there are scroungers, but I think it would cost more money to police these people out of the system, and would also hurt genuine claimants, than it would save.

The only way to deter scrounger is to shun them, imo. What do they do with all the time they must have on their hands?

Thank God there are civilised human beings like you Science Teacher.

Perhaps in my naievety and ignorance, I assumed that most people were like you, glad that it is not like Rwanda or Zimbabwe where if you lose your job you starve.

I used to go about my business in real life thinking that "nobody thinks any the less of me because I am on benefits". And then I read the bile and venom and the begrudgery that people type under the cloak on anonymity, and I am quickly disabused of that notion.

I feel a little uncomfortable about the comment "But these problems would disappear between psychiatrists appointments" I've been on sick for ten years because of mental health problems and you probably wouldn't know if you met me, yet they're worried about how I would cope if I went back to work. I don't sit outside in the street crying my eyes out, you probably wouldn't notice the routine I have with my partner to give him my money and shopping list so I could go back to the car because I'm panicking. You wouldn't know that I ring my parents every other day begging them to have Tink for a night.

Mental health is very easy to fake. To fake that you have it and to fake you are ok.

The comments about mobility componenets of DLA, someone said that to get higher rate you would have to be very limited in your. That's not actually true, you can get it for mental health problems (for example if you can't go far from home without help because you panic) and for mental disabilities (such as a child for example with autism that needs constant care when out because they would run off), I don't get mobility though technically I should get lower, I think my brother does (or did as a child?) because he has we think aspergers (missed because of his age) and was very difficult for Mum out.

I'm tired and struggled to write that last paragraph, so sorry if it doesn't flow right and for all the brackets!

I haven't read all the posts only the first few,but i can feel my blood boil.It really isn't right to tar us all with the same brush.
We are on benefits.Dh claims job seekers £92 per week for a couple,and i get Child tax benefit.We live in a council house,and get the rent paid now,but we paid it for the 17yrs Dh worked.Dh worked for 17yrs with the same firm untill it closed 8mths ago.He hasn't had any luck finding another job YET,but is still looking.We had the children before Dh lost his job,so what can we do about that now.The last holiday we went on was a sun holiday 4 years ago.It's really hurtful when people run other down for living in a council house and being on benefits.
Just to add Dh never goes to the pub but he does look through the paper for a job.Like i said please don't tar us all with the same brush.

Hope your DH find something soon, mommy6. I don't think anyone is pointing the finger at your family.

I just remembered, we went on holidays every year (my parents worked but this applies to people who don't) courtesy of a charity because of my brother. They also replaced our washing machine with top of the range ones regularly and did other things for us.

I go on foreign holidays each year because my parents are in a club, they don't have to pay for the accomodation so they let me have a week away, I just have to find flights and that's not hard when you look around. I give Moneyway a little extra money each week and I have a Euro top-up debit card from the post office so I use that to pay for things when I'm away. People here collect money for me during the week and put it on my card.

If you're not proud (like not buying named stuff, using Freecycle and Ebay or accepting hand me downs) it's not hard to live a comfortable life.

I think this is the problem with this thread. Posters like Mommy6 take it to personally. I have absolutely no doubt that her circumstances and need are genuine. And it is for families like hers that we are so fortunate that there is help available. But whether we like it or not there are people who abuse the system always have been and always will be.

Personally I'm never happy unless I see people who live in council houses being piss poor, feeding their children bread and dripping, dressing in potato sacks and lining their beds with copies of news of the world in order to keep warm when the icy wind is blowing through their broken windows and they've no money for the meter.

Thank you ScienceTeacher.Like i said i haven't read all the posts but will try too.
Dh had a fairly well paid job before and gets down about not finding a job.It really isn't has easy has it sounds.Most places like giving jobs to school leaver because they can pay them less money.
I'm thinking about going to college because the only thing i have done really is bring up the children.That way we can both get a job to bring in abit more money.IYKWIM.I know i could get a cleaning job or something like that,but would really like the be a nurse.Hmm think i'm going to look into it now while i'm on the pc.Ds is due to start nursery sept so might be just the right time.

iloatheironing i was trying to point out that some people claim benefits because they have to,not because they don't want to work.And it is hurtful to the honest ones to be made to feel we are living off other people.Like i said Dh worked for 17yrs so paid his taxes for them years.At the moment we need help but hopefully not for long.

The OP is judgey, but sometimes i can understand it. The benefit system is meant to be a support system for those unable to work for a number of reason. However, it is a sad fact that there are people out there who play the system. Even if they are not commiting benefit fraud, they are taking the piss. We would be so much better off on benefits and have only just started claiming tax credits, do people consider that the same thing?

From a different angle, how do people feel about this?? My parents lived in council property all their lives. My mum was the first person in the road to have an automatic washing machine, they always had the best TV, first to have video recorder etc etc. I was absolutely spoilt, did the whole ballet, horseriding stuff. We were not poor. My father worked all his life, for an average or just below average wage. When they got their council house - oooh, must have been 40 years ago or longer, it was a simple choice i guess. I personally think they would have been better off if they had invested in property but for their own reasons they didnt. Were my parents, who paid their rent, my father never out of work, my mum often worked part time for a pittance, not entitled to have nice things then??

Now DP and i struggle to pay our mortgage, our TV has just turned up its toes and we can't afford to get another one, flat screen or otherwise. When i walk past the council houses at the end of my street and see new cars and giant flat screen tvs (why would you want one of those anyway?) on the walls, in peoples houses who i know are on benefits, it does piss me off. But of course i dont know their circumstances and why they might be on benefits in the first place, perhaps its not my place to judge, but it doesnt stop me feeling resentful sometimes.

hercules I love bread and dripping but I have to eat in secret when I'm 'stacking the dishwasher' as everybody tells me I am gross (and I probably am)

mommy6, you and your DH are just the sort of people that the benefits system is there to support. You are very clearly entitled to the help and you deserve it, after all, your DH has probably paid more in tax towards the benefit system than you will recieve anyway. I really hope he gets a job soon, it must be hard for him. What does he do, want to do? My DP is a builder and often needs to get work quickly, we are trying to establish a business but its a slow start. Might i be really really cheeky and suggest he takes a look at the job centre online service, just google job centre. The only reason i suggest this is because DP has had loads of work from this site and the jobs tend to appear on there before they go into the actual job centre, quite a long time before it has seemed in the past.

I think mommy6 situation just highlights that there are genuine people out there. Probably in the majority if you were to care to look into their situations. Why should people not have any luxuries just because they are on benefits, if they can manage to eke out enough money to do this, then fair play to them, so long as they are in genuine need of the benefits in the first place i dont have a problem.