To think that shouldn’t be allowed to abuse benefits?

[candiecorn]

I’m slightly annoyed about this one…

I worked with a man, he is around 52-54 years old. He always looked down at us, his colleagues, and made it clear that the job meant nothing to him.

he quit a couple of years ago to pursue his career in creative writing… I haven’t read anything from him, so not quite suee how good he is but he has definitely not been picked up by a publisher.

he lives in a rather nice area, rent free in a friend’s holiday home… he is very proud of this… and initially would make it sound like that it’s his place.

So I recently found out that he is on benefits… he is a fully capable, fit, young middle aged man with no family or children.

I think it’s a bit much that he is fully capable of working, yet he doesn’t … it’s a tough market but still, so something at least part time. Benefits are not there for fully capable middle aged man to live his dreams to become a writer…

I wish him the best, I hope he will succeed one day and probably would cut him more slack, had he not been so full of himself and looking down at everyone else…

I feel like it’s abusing the system though. There are people out there who do actually need help but imagine if we all did this 🫨

What would he be entitled to? The UC for a single man is very little £393 a month, he wouldn't be entitled to housing element as he pays no rent. So unless there is a disability or health condition which would attract PIP. I don't see how he would be living on that.

ETA and he'd be expected to job search 35 hours for that

Sounds like a lot of bullshit is flying around. Whether it's from him, from you or from both is hard to tell.

Aren't people still expected to sign in at the job centre and be actively seeking employment to qualify for what I'm guessing is job seekers allowance?

Yes 35 hours job seeking, can't turn down workshops, training, job interviews etc

I don’t really know how the system works. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I don’t know how much he gets… all the info I put in my op came from a mutual ex colleague of ours, but I don’t see why they’d lie about anything like this.

he was just soo full of himself and made it sound like that he was above a lot of us. And it just annoys me…

Perhaps you should stop listening to hearsay and gossip and you might feel less annoyed.

I think people talk up their lives either to look on the brightside or make themselves feel better.

As he's only a colleague and not someone you know very well he might be deeply depressed by being jobless and not making it as a writer. He might be lonely and looking for a job that makes him feel good...who knows!

Maybe worry about your own life!

I don't believe a word of this. Are you sure it's your ex-colleague who's trying out the creative writing? Not you?

He'll be getting barely anything and will have job search requirements that take up the majority of his spare time.

It's also not unusual for it to take more than a couple of years from finishing a book to one being published either so I wouldn't read too much into not hearing anything about a book either. Even once you've have a publisher it takes ages for rewrites, editing etc to actually getting on shelves. Often a sequel is fully finished before the first is available to buy as there is such a long time delay.

Sounds like whispers have twisted a story or there's something you don't know. Fit and healthy men don't get a shit tonne of benefits to live the life of Riley on. It just doesn't happen.

A very close relative of mine had former colleagues fuming that she was "sponging on benefits" for several months when she was a "fit and healthy young woman". They had zero clue that she was recovering from injuries sustained in a horrendous sexual assault that left her requiring surgery. It was none of their business either.

So you've listened to gossip and are essentially just clueless and bitchy. He wouldn't get enough money to live as he's single and rent free, so if he's on benefits it will be for a reason. You have no idea what's going on in this man's life so just focus on your own.

How do you know he’s on benefits? Is it an assumption someone has made that has been passed on? It sounds like it’s not something he’d tell you if he was, so how would anyone know? There’s got to be more to this story. Either he’s not on benefits or there is t going on that he is entitled to. Is he actually unwell and not working for a reason?

So you're just listening to idle gossip then, on the basis you don't really like him.

Makes you sound a bit silly really 😬

I can 100% see why your colleague would lie considering no one likes this man. It’s not easy to be on benefits. If he actually is then there’s more to the story.

Are you also an angry Daily Mail reader OP?

Maybe he has a passive income, maybe he had an inheritance, maybe he had a pension he could take at 50, maybe he writes very successful erotic fiction under a pseudonym.

You don't know anything, about his circumstances or the benefits system (I'd argue this also stretches to logic and rational thinking) and I say this as someone who has no skin in the game , I have never claimed a benefit in my life. I can still clearly see you're talking nonsense.

This sounds very unlikely, under the current system no one is living a life of leisure or comfort. I used to work for a charity that helped people claim benefits. There was nothing sadder than dealing with people who’d worked all their life and developed serious illness to discovered they would be dealing with an adversarial, uncompassionate system. Even worse if you became unemployed and thought you would receive enough to live off. He probably won the lottery but doesn’t want to tell everyone.

You got all of this from a mutual ex-colleague? Sit down OP and ask yourself what they say about you when you're not there? Maybe something about you being a person who passes on gossip to a bunch of total strangers as a topic of conversation.

It sounds like hearsay and gossip to me. I doubt benefits pay that well that he can support himself.

He's "writing a book" and not doing anything else .

The Op is pissed off he's a twat. He can work but freeloading other peoples money ( whether UC or something else) is easier.

There's a thread like this once a month and it's always 'some obscure person told me this so it must be true'.
People lie. It's always so obviously untrue and the op always says they know nothing about the system. How can you have the opinion that people are abusing benefits when you know nothing about it?

@candiecorn

I recently had the misfortune to have to apply for universal credit
I am 59, fit and healthy
As a single person I was entitled to the princely sum of £393 per month.

To be clear that is a month, not a week.
It did not even cover my gas/electric and council tax.
For that I had to have a weekly meeting with a job coach and agree to certain work search commitments.

Fortunately I am a homeowner and paid off my mortgage two years ago otherwise I would have been in serious financial trouble. And I have a son who subbed me for a month.
Thankfully my situation resolved itself after 2 months.
I suggest you get yourself clued up on how the system works before participating in gossip about this man's situation.

This doesn't sound right. The free home surely won't last long - if that's even true. It doesn't sound realistic. If he has no health conditions of note he won't be living the life of Riley with much of an income. He's also likely to be encouraged very regularly to demonstrate actively pursuing work.

@AndThereSheGoes have you read the OP? She doesn't actually know that, and benefits are less than £400 a month. It's gossip not fact.

Sounds like Chinese whispers.. best ignored