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.

To the poster who asked about qualifications for disabled people, I can't find your post, sorry, but if you are in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, there's a current project funded by Shared Prosperity called, "Multiply" and it offers free numeracy qualifications for adults.

LCW is the same as the job seeking element.. about £400pm. I am sure people love living on that.

@Dorisbonson bottom line modern society could exist without capitalism as history provides many examples

I don't think you cover your own costs from.your taxes unless you individually earn over £45k per year. So if you earn this or less you're not even covering your own education, childcare, pension etc.

If you earn more than that, the welfare bill is 70% going towards other people's state pension. The cost for people on jobseekers benefits is less than 1%. So it's totally negligible.

Look into the figures on where your taxi goes - it's fascinating. But anyway, very unlikely you're paying anything towards people who aren't working

Thank you for your answer rather than just having a go at me.
I've never had that, never knew what job I wanted and worked minimum wage dead end jobs with nothing to work towards. Even now I don't know what I would even want to do if I ever did work.

As a single parent you have to start preparing for work when your youngest child is three, with a view to starting work when they go to school. There is also the two child benefit cap now, so that would be hard unless the dad(s) were able to pay at least a reasonable amount of maintenance.

It's actually LCWRA that is worth about £400
LCW gets no 'extra' money but removes the 'looking for work' commitment.

What would really help women to work would be affordable, available 24/7 childcare plus a change in societal attitudes so that it becomes unacceptable for men not to pull their weight at home and absent fathers are treated much more harshly.

I think a lot of it is the unknown. We had to deal with not being able to pay our rent during covid (for example) and are still dealing with the consequences of that today. My neighbours who have never worked had nothing change during covid so aren't tied to the same lingering debts.

Also if anything goes wrong (illness on a zero hour contract) or one of the kids off school, or summer holidays and suddenly you are expected to live on nothing. Sometimes its better to just know what your income is and adjust your life to suit, rather than worrying about a simple and often short-term change in circumstances resulting in debt and anxiety.

Yes, work is a two way thing. Some people want to work but they don't have the combination of skills, knowledge or, physical attributes that an employer wants to pay them for. A lot of very low entry jobs are very physical so if you can't do physical stuff there are fewer options for those who just weren't gcse able.

Agree with this too.

So many materialistic things though.
Sometimes things happen in life and you realise these aren't the things that are important.
And yes I do work, not full time. No benefits though.

I really don't think MN understands the sheer drudgery and awfulness of some NMW jobs, the physical ones that wreck your body, the filthy jobs, the jobs where you are abused. I've done some of them, there's no pride in them, no achievement, they wreck your health, people treat you like shit.

And on top of that you still end up scratching round for enough pennies at the end of the month. There will be top up benefits and help with childcare and by working you are probably not even saving the state money.
Not everyone can upskill either, low intelligence or not having the homelife to support studying alongside work.

None of the schools around here offer that level of wrap around care. most are 8am til 5.30. One of the schools don't have their own care but a private company work from there (costs more than school based care)

My partner was on it. He got over £900 whilst on it.

I am the parent of a 17 year old Ds with Sn’s . Whilst I acknowledge that Op did exclude parents of children in disabilities . My Ds wasn’t diagnosed till he was 9

As a baby he had separation anxiety to a whole different level . If he couldn’t see me he would panic . We had hc workers in to support this … so no he wouldn’t have coped with childcare at that age . I started working as a childminder when he was 5. Even the training courses were evenings so not that easy to cope with .. not everyone has family to help .

I am not saying this applies to everyone just another example .

many children with SN’s are not diagnosed early but it is challenging .

i do work but 32 hours a week . That’s all I can manage .

Yeah, I meant LCW is £400 a month total. You can still get pressured to do courses on LCW.

Please tell me you’re being sarcastic. 😂 I found 60 hours weeks (which were a good week - they often exceeded this) so much easier than being a mother. I’ll be skipping back to work when my second and last child is a little older.

I am on LCWRA and get £809. There is no £900 UC group.

@TashaTuda, its nice that you think your time is more precious than money, but you can't eat time or heat your home with it.
It's a very naive statement, which you wouldn't make if you didn't have the welfare state to rely on.

Unfortunately that's a pipe dream that will never happen can't expect the men to do anything 🙄

Ah right, sorry, misunderstood your post!
My work coach sent me on a CV writing workshop (I'm on lcw). Showed my CV to the course leader who told me I clearly knew how to write one and sent me home.

What was your job? I can imagine situations where it's less stressful or more fulfilling working. For me, I tried for many years to have a child and very much wanted as much time with mine (one and only) as possible after so long waiting — motherhood is what I'd always wanted, but I can imagine e.g. doing my dream job (which I didn't succeed in qualifying for) as being much more enjoyable than e.g. looking after three children under 5 full time !

Nope im not being sarcastic. Many woman do get pregnant every year to avoid having to work.

Whether it’s easier or not is a totally different debate.

I've worked since I was 14 and full time since I was 16. I have zero desire to work and don't get my identity from my job. I'm so thankful I can work shifts because I literally don't have a clue how 9-5s manage.

My council have placed my children in different schools (long story) and so we leave the house at 0740 and get home at 0920 then I have to do the same at pick up time. I can get DH to cover when I'm on dayshift but I genuinely would have to leave my job to manage this ridiculous situation we have been placed in. And then to think some people are managing this whilst being on their own and have no one to pick up the times when they can't.

The whole benefits system needs a shake up.
Mums working is pretty rubbish all round. But if we're talking about benefits please look at all those who have never contributed and just expect the state to fund their life style choices.
Many mums who don't work are busy raising their children - a really important, hard job. Admittedly some have children to avoid work but many have contributed by working and will again but just take some time out to look after children.