Do some mums just not like working?

[Dragontooth]

I know this sounds awful, and judgey but I'm trying to understand. I am not a benefit basher and I used to be on benefits, also a single parent.
I'm on a lot of 'being skint' forums, I was on UC but now I have quite a lot of experience in various things so I like to try to help.
There are a number of mums who were previously on legacy benefits who are terrified by UC and the work search appointments. Lots who are unemployed and some who do very part time jobs, 10 hours or less.
I don't understand why they are so resistant to finding work or better paid work. Having been on benefits, it is a horrible existence. I was paid £850 per month. Clearly it would only take a MW part time job to make me so much better off. And they pay for childcare/ holiday club.
It literally changes your life. You can pay for things to have a better, easier life like driving lessons. Not only that but you are back in the work place so it's not such a shock when your children leave home.
I feel these women are so anxious, they can't see how their lives could look with more money/ options. Not only that but a lot of them have their heads in the sand about retirement, will we even get a state pension? Then there's the fact that it's so much harder getting back into employment after five or ten years out, I think that's what UC wants to avoid. I'm not saying it's a kind or person centred system but in reality is taking years out of the workplace really in these women's best interests either?
Disability/ disabled children obviously excluded.

You don't get that much. Benefits are that great you know...

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I dunno, quite honestly I'd rather work than have to be a carer. At least my job is done at 5pm.

Yes that's not right.

I work ‘very part time’ because it means I have more time for my home and family, which I enjoy, and don’t have to treat life as a problem solving exercise. I’ve been there and I burnt out and we were all the worse off for it. Husband around who pulls his weight but has a FT job. I have the choice to do this and don’t claim benefits. I am married and do have that security. I don’t think I’ll do this forever but I didn’t cope with a nearly FT job and two young children: I was suicidal. Financially, we get no help so we are no worse off with me working less as childcare cancels out more working hours anyway.

So yes, I don’t want to work more than I do (at the moment) and don’t see that as an issue.

I smell bullshit and social engineering. This stinks of propaganda.

Some people do both. Some people have no choice.

On parts of UC you can. Like living capacity.

I don't understand why someone would want to work if they don't have to

I enjoy working, the challenge, the satisfaction, the achievement, th4 social side, my colleagues, the advancement, the money it pays, the lifestyle it affords me, my home, my car, my child’s education, the nights out, the holidays, my clothes, my hairdresser, the role model to my kids.

thags why I work. I don’t want to be poor. I don’t want to stay home all day every day, scraping to make ends meet.

Hard to have mobile phones, sat navs, tvs, internet and electricity without global capitalism. For instance (and ignoring the global supply chain) I doubt phones would have developed into mini computers without phone shops providing finance to enable mass purchase and upgrades and without marketing people demonstrating the potential uses of those phones. No phones, no sat nav, fewer deliveries etc.

How about global pharmaceuticals and international research collaboration enabling COVID vaccines? Or the science labs in south Cambridge funded by international investors? Or the billions invested into EV batteries by Warren Buffett?

You couldn't even make a toaster without a globally diversified supply chain. There is even research into this specific topic. The world cant function without capitalism - (thats not advocating for unfettered capitalism though).

Limited* not living

I am aware of nurses and teachers/lecturers who refuse to eork more than 16 hours when work is available and plentiful because their UC would cease. They prefer state handouts than earning their own money in return for rendering work. My disdain is reserved in the main for well qualified people who really are lazy bastards and milk the state.

In circs like the above when work is available if work is offered and refused the UC payments should automatically cease. It is scandalous.

Yeah I get that but I don't think being a full time carer to disabled kids is lazy. I'm a single parent working full time with a 16 year old lad and my life is probably easier than that poster's.

If you don't have a supportive partner and/or nearby family around it can be really hard with young children. I find working and raising kids much easier than raising kids without work. It's a break, and it gives me a little self-confidence. Having said that I'm lucky to have a very understanding boss and I work close to my childcare facility, who are brilliant. Without that support, which is in replacement to family and co parenting, I wouldnt be able to work and my mental health would plunge. I can completely understand why some mums literally cannot work. Even now, when the kids are ill it's horrendous trying to juggle it all.

Work is like a muscle, you have to exercise it. I was dreading work after 10 days annual leave. If you’ve been out of it for months or even years it must be hard. Free money must be hard to give up on too.

So people with disabilities or people who care for children who are disabled shouldn't get any benefits? Or is it just random strangers whose opinion you don't like whose children should suffer?

Yeah, that's not what OP was referring to though. Some people seem to be under the false impression that a perfectly healthy single parent can choose not to work and live on UC until their kids are 18.

Perhaps you have a university degree and are qualified to do the work you do, presumably online?

Can you see how life might be different for a woman who left school with a few GCSEs and who can't do the kind of manual labour that sort of educational profile leads to, because of physical ailments or mental health issues?

It may come as a surprise to many on this thread, but there are people who have three or four passing grades at GCSE level who don't have any hope of being employed in the sort of industry where you can work from home.

Where did I say I judge everyone who is disabled and don't work? I didn't. I said that there are few disabilities that render someone completely incapable of working.

The people I have judged for being, "lazy" are people whose situations I have an in depth knowledge of. I hope that helps you understand.

Your issues sound horrible, yes. They sound like one of my disabilities. I can't get out of bed in the morning due to pain either, and working is also difficult due to side effects of medication, vomiting 30+ times a day, and myriad other problems. I'm merely pointing out that for many people, they are choosing not to work when they could. I used myself as an example because I am me.

While it's true that global capitalism has played a significant role in advancing technology and facilitating complex supply chains, this does not necessarily mean that capitalism, especially in its current globalized form, is the only or best framework for innovation, technological development, or scientific collaboration. A closer look at history, alternative economic systems, and the nature of innovation challenges the notion that without capitalism, society would lack modern conveniences like mobile phones, vaccines, or advanced technology.

Not to mention the average joe public didnt make these possible, so its not like anyone can be the scientist etc and even then once the position is filled due to capitalism then that person is not needed etc

I study part time via the OU and hope to return to the workforce once my youngest starts high school in 4 years time.

I love studying and get the tuition fees covered as I am not in employment. Hope to pay back into the economy once I obtain my qualification. I won't be rushed as I have chronic health issues and children with additional needs.

It wasn't me, but from the experience of other people. My own work coach told me that (after a WCA), if I was found fit for work, I would be expected to apply for scaffolding jobs and bouncer jobs... despite both needing some sort of regulatory ID thing.. and me not being able to say boo to a ghost (so being a bouncer was not even an option).
She was great, and understood MH issues. Would have our appointments in a side room and took her time to listen to me.

Child rearing includes paying for your children. Putting a roof over their head. Paying for their food. It’s an essential part of raising a child and a major responsibility of parents.

And the ‘kind of society’ you’re sneering at is also the reason why when you take your kids to ED, it’s staffed. Typically by a raft of working parents. I’m yet to have the parents of a child I’ve resuscitated chastise me because my own child was being cared for by someone else; they all seem fine with working parents then.

The person you look down on for making coffee is a person I value when I pick up a coffee on my way to my 12 hr shift. Their work is important to me, to the business that relies on it, and to the family they support with it.

I am lazy, I've never found a job I like.

I still care for 2 disabled children which is exhausting and if they magically got better but I had to work 100 hours a week cleaning toilets with a toothbrush I would.

It's not like I had them and wished for them to be disabled so I could get out of working

@Dorisbonson not to mention most of those important rich investors made profits of giving a little as possible wages to the average worker while making their ££ and avoiding tax etc