Dispatches- Britain’s Benefit scandal

[Sunnywalker]

Anybody watched this? It’s made me so angry. Some highlights include a company that can’t recruit an apprentice on 26k because sickness benefits would amount to 24k so it wouldn’t be worth it. 500,000, 25-34 years old on long term sick, a woman who has never had a FT job and claims 35k in benefits, this lady would like to work but says will never achieve the same income if she worked.

This country is bankrupt, public services crumbling! What is going on? Why isn’t there an overhaul!

Absolutely correct. People read this about one person claiming £35K and assume that everyone is claiming that much, and anyone on UC is rolling in cash. There will be a small proportion of claimants who are entitled to a larger amount because:

a) They live in London or a high rent area.
b) They have children in childcare while they work
c) They and/or their children have a disability.

Everyone else gets buttons. A single person where I live would get £8,800 pa including housing benefit.

PIP is not an out of work benefit. Many people claim PIP and still work. For some, getting PIP enables them to work.

And do you know how much full PIP is? And I doubt someone with anxiety is on the highest rate for the mobility element.

I’m assuming that the figure mentioned might actually be the benefits cap. Which most people won’t be getting anywhere near.

Well if they leave their job in the other country, they wouldn't be eligible for months anyway.

Not everyone has parents they can live with while they save for a house..

To paraphrase Jesus, Lord Denning and others, who then is they benefits scrounger?

Over a third of Universal Credit claimants are 'in work'

If you look at whats happened since about 1970

1. The percentage of GDP going to wages has dropped, and
2. The distribution of earnings has become increasingly unequal, and
3. the increase in housing costs
4. High Childcare Costs

What we then end up with is the benefits system as '...a system of universal pauperage' first talked about with the Speenhamland System.

I suggest that in many cases its the employer not the claimant

If we had a Government committed to increasing wages and reducing housing - and childcare costs then we might reduce the benefit bill.

It's hardly subsistence is it? £35k a year for a single parent, with a few kids is not subsistence 🙄 it's work for above minimum wage.

The only way anyone is getting the huge sums mentioned will have disabilities involved and be exempt from the benefit cap.

The issue seems to be more about 'are those people faking?' and we've been there before.

I also had access to the Australian Medicare system under the reciprocal benefits scheme so once again another country I went to an “received benefits immediately.”

Only if they have housing costs too.. You can be on PIP and ESA/LCWRA only (no housing element) and it wont be anywhere near £35k.

Edit - someone living alone, that is.

@dingledangledoos

Thanks for clarifying.

I just don't get it. I have a chronic and disabling health condition which prevents me from working full time or doing anything stressful. I applied for PIP (a benefit for the long term sick and disabled and didn't get it).

Plus mass immigration since 1970. That has pushed up rents and pushed down wages.

Has she actually checked that I wonder?

Universal Credit has been a gamechanger in that respect.

No, the workfare programme was for unemployment benefit. Whether you got housing benefit or any other benefit was a separate matter. As others have pointed out, not many people get £35k on benefits.

Wages in this country are too low and taxes, especially at the higher end, are too punitive i.e. for those that earn just over £100k. It hardly creates an environment that encourages productivity at any level.

Sadly there will always be those that seek to exploit the benefit system, which is absolutely needed in any decent society, and they will know have to navigate every twist and turn for maximum whilst others have no idea how to even start.

@JHound Medicare is slightly different though surely? That's healthcare.

If you were in Australia and couldn't work, you wouldn't be earning unemployment or sickness benefits?

You haven’t clarified.

Who is able to claim benefits immediately on arrival in the UK?

Agreed 35k is insane I just don't believe it tbh. I don't buy that it's all for high rent either because mine was private and quite high still only 15k a year and that's for everything not just the rent. Plus there is a cap on how much rent they'll actually pay.

I can only assume they have loads of kids born before 2017. Even having a disabled child I don't think would make it to 35k.

You could be right about childcare but then people can't get mad about lazy bums

@dizzydizzydizzy and that's what irritates me, people that are genuinely sick should definitely get the help they need but unfortunately some can work the system which means people like yourself suffer! It's infuriating

The advantage for me now - thirty years later, as the actual process of getting to a role above the 'well, you'll be topped up by benefits, won't you, or we can just get somebody who will be...so you aren't going to get a payrise/training/decent working conditions/employment rights' position is utterly shit - is that I can sleep at night not wondering whether I'll be able to make the rent, take the cheaper direct debit gas tariff, buy a winter coat and most of all, know that on the 26th of the month, my salary will definitely be in the bank instead of never knowing until the day whether there will be a payment or if somebody somewhere has forgotten to approve it/tick a box or will be claiming I was sent a letter I never received.

That's why I sleep at night - knowing it's going to be there and I won't be left penniless with hundreds of pounds of bills to pay on nothing.

PIP is ridiculously hard to get and seems to be luck of the draw. DM is terminally ill, can barely move, and has constant costs that are relating to her being able to live in some form of hygienic comfort. She's been denied so many times I've stopped trying.

There's a benefit cap unless you're in a household with disabilities. If that person is in full time work, who is caring for their child full time?

A good breakdown of this 'documentary' here.

Because they meet the criteria for DLA and those criteria don't include type of school attended or ability to have friendships.

It looks at things like mobility, specific daily living tasks like washing, eating, dressing, toileting, night care.