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!

Even if you're a UK national you can be refused benefits immediately upon return if you're not seen as 'habitually resident'.

Part of the benefits must be rent on housing nobody gets 35000in there hands on benefits no matter what any stupid programme says .I volunteer for citizens advice and know the monthly income the government gives people single person around about £400 a month under 25 £330 so please tell me how that makes £24000 a year even with rent costs imagine trying to live and pay all bills on £100 gas electric food clothes .it's just not true .

Its very simple. Benefits pay enough to people not to die of hunger and have minimal comforts. So not a huge amount of money. Minimal wage is basically the same but you have to work for it and its insecure. What would you chose?

Unless working is more beneficial than not working, why bother? The only way to convince people to accept low wage it to promise progression and pay increase, but its not available in many cases.

So, unless you cut/ remove benefits (resulting in people starving, kids going without, crime levels rising) or raise minimal wage (businesses resisting and saying its unaffordable) there is little that can be done. One of the ways to address it would be introduction of paid apprenticeships and removal of zero hours contracts but I would imagine most business would resist that, too.

Edited to add £26k isn't enough to live on anyway. It's at least £30k for a decent quality of life Plus, very often it isn't what you earn that counts, its what you don't have to pay for that is the real attraction except £26000 is equivalent to over £30000 because there is no tax paid on that.

And for the people saying that you don’t get £35000 in your hand because some of that is rent, the same applies to your wages, no? I earn just over £23000 a year, and approximately half of that goes on my mortgage. But I don’t say that I only earn £12000 a year do I?

It doesn’t matter what the money is paid to or whether some of it automatically goes to the landlord, the fact is that the government are paying out that money.

The benefits cap doesn't apply once you've got reasonable earnings.

@JHound

Perhaps I am wrong then and this is just mis information.

It’s not different though is it. It’s still a benefit I would receive paid for by the Australian taxpayer (as part of their Medicare contributions which, eventually I made too.) It’s seen as a benwfit not simply “healthcare” which is why not everybody is entitled to it but healthcare is still a benefit.

Re: unemployment yes - permanent residents can claim that in Oz. Given you can become a permanent resident off shore it is also possible for somebody to be fairly newly arrived to Oz and claim that benefit if circumstances require.

Point is there were two examples I have given of being overseas and getting fairly immediate access to parts of the welfare state and you have given zero examples of groups of people who can arrive in the UK and immediately claim benefits?

A single adult gets jack all. Once the children grow up, benefits ( work and out of work)fall off a cliff. I expected and planned for this but a lot of people don't think about it. I knew a family that thought it continued while their DC went to university as it it 'full time education', and one DC with health issues. Mum and dad both working minimal hours to maximise benefits. It hit them hard when they realised.
I now work with a young guy who admits he doesn't want to work, works a minimal contract, his mum keeps him, he expects to 'inherit' his mums council flat. I can see him and his gf( she must be daft!) having kids if he thinks he can give up working.

Sickening isn't it.

I would say I have done limited research in the past and the only group I found this was relevant for was asylum seekers but they are not allowed to work so seems fair.

My god - do you lobby outside food banks too?
Just keep walking.

The problem with working is, that we have an economy which serves the economy rather than its people. We always hear on mumsnet about women in particular who are struggling to meet ends meet, yet feel exhausted from working long hours. The more we earn/ the more we work, doesnt necessarily equate to a better quality of life for many. How much harder is that for someone with mental health needs or other disabilities or ND. The world of work is designed to make the rich business owners richer rather than to help vulnerable people feel like they are valued members of society.

26k tax free on benefits is equivalent to circa 40k (with no commuting costs either).

@Frowningprovidence yes I mean I get that they meet some sort of criteria.... but is it needed?! That's the bit that I'm confused about? Maybe if children are able bodied the money maybe isn't as need as those who have severely disabled children?

Apologies if my post sound harsh I honestly done mean for it to come across that way but I can't help but feel some people just look for any reason to find money other than work

Indeed

Can't say I disagree with you. 30 hours free childcare for people on benefits is bonkers. Also sickness benefits paid to anyone who can con a GP into writing a sick note should stop.

I used to work with someone who was totally blind. He could have sat at home and got benefits but he didn't, he worked bloody hard. All these people sitting at home for "anxiety" piss me right off.

I'd like to see a new approach to benefits which ensures that you only get benefits if you are working.

Oh bravo, uncle Joe. Forced labour is literally a genius idea that has only ever improved health and wealth of every nation to try it. Who you going to get to run your gulags? G4S?

Yep - this was me!

I had to pay £50 (or it may have been £30) at an NHS drop in centre.

So you can claim unlimited benefits if you're earning over a certain amount?

Oh good. A benefits bashing thread.

Anecdotally, the only people I know who claim PIP (including a family member) are sincerely very ill.

THIS in a nutshell.

Yet another 'hate the UK' post within a sea of them this week.

It's just Reform lovers stoking fires, IMO.

Having had to recently help a relative apply for UC (they do work 4 days per week!!) I cannot see how anyone is able to "milk the system" ?

She was interviewed several times, had to provide paperwork I didn't even know existed, provide all her banking details, prove separation / desertation from her husband. It was incredibly thorough and demeaning to my relative, on a personal level.

All for a few hundred quid, to make up the few hundred quid her LL had increased her rent by but her company hadn't increased her salary by.

(And yes she could work "more" or change jobs but she's on her own, 2 DC one if whom is disabled and she currently has great flex with her job even if she doesnt have the best salary! Her DH has left the country and she was always the main earner anyway.)

And the reason I am privy to this is because she's confided in me and I helped her printing off certain docs.

If you want that sort of money in benefits, then you have to have the disabilities that entitle you to them too.

How does it solve nothing,For many generations now there has been vast numbers who play the benefits life, never working and just producing another generation who does the same.

In work, benefits need to be agile, download weekly detail and get adjusted immediately. No 6 weeks plus for adjustments to amounts. Low income often isn't predictable. Low hours contracts where you are expected to 'flex up' so one week could be 16 hrs and 40 the next. If you rely on top ups, there is currently no incentive to do this when you end up owed or owing overpayment.