To think being on benefits might be better than working

[Feedup]

Is there anyway being on benefits is better than working? So much of day is spent worrying about work, working and dealing with office politics. I dislike work, and get no pleasure or satisfaction other than my pay. It’s got nothing to do with my job or team; I just dislike working.

I was thinking that being on benefits might not be as bad as people once thought. The main benefit would be not having to stress about working. With council tax, housing benefit and a hole host of other benefits, you could life a fairly decent life.

A return bus journey is £8 where I live. You have to work 30 mins just to cover your trip to and from work. You’ll work all month, live in a HMO and have nothing at the end of each month.

Go and get some qualifications, you don’t have to spend your life on the minimum wage! Anyone can improve themselves it’s actually not that hard and many adult education courses are free. Do an apprenticeship in something that interests you! I’m guessing you’re young so make the most of it. You only get one life!

Maybe you need a different job? I don't feel like that about work. Yes I look forward to days off but I also enjoy going in. It's not stressful, my colleagues are nice, the work is stimulating but not too challenging.
I hate the thought of being on benefits. The poverty, the lack of interaction, not using my brain.

Being on benefits puts you in a very vulnerable position.

If the government ever change things (which they often do and are very likely to over the next few years as the UK gets poorer), you are screwed. You are also often subtly looked down on and treated worse. Getting back into employment is more difficult after being on benefits/ out of work.

Even if in the short term you could get as much money as if you were working, it's not a good option in the long term. You are completely dependent on the state and with the way it currently is, no thank you.

I don’t however buy the stories of how hard life is being solely on benefits and don’t accept that they aren’t high enough because free money is free money and people should stop complaining, plus benefits were raised to deal with cost of living while most people’s salaries were not.

How hard life is, is very dependant on your situation. As a single person, no dependants, I would be eligible for up to around £90 per week. Out of that comes energy bills, council tax (still pay 20% so in my case around £30 per month), TV license, broadband, phone(s), food, household cleaning/loo roll/personal hygiene etc, any insurances, transport (and I understand DWP no longer pay travel to interviews). If you rent, you'll get UP TO the local housing rate for your area; if you have your own home & have a mortgage, you get nothing but of course still have to pay at least the interest on it. I am mildly disabled so need a car - I get lower level PIP but £100 a month doesn't cover the costs of running the car.

And that's it. Try adding it up just what it costs to live when you include all the things above and you can see just how hard life is on benefits. I earn around 1 month's JSA per week (on a bit over minimum wage), and if I didn't have a small pension coming in which doesn't quite cover my mortgage interest rates I literally couldn't afford to live. I don't go out, my only indulgences are Sky TV and 2 cats.

That's a bit harsh, I'm sure Kate Middleton etc are lovely people.

@Feedup you say you live in HMO? Does your one take Housing benefit? How does it compare to the ones that do?
I'm out of work because of health issues, I'm nearly 60, so mortgage free and have private pensions. If I wasn't doing the school run, a few days a week and helping out more disabled family members, it would be soul destroying. I can see the appeal with primary/younger children and a educational course thrown in, but for every other category, it's dismal.

Oh forgot to say - working I also have a pension being paid into, and as time goes by having your own pension will become all the more important as state pension will come later and later, and be reduced over time - if it even exists!

I work on just above minimum wage but still prefer that to being on benefits(ive been there, so i know). It's lonely, boring with nothing to do and not much money to spend on anything. Even if I don't have much money now, I feel like I've got a life. I see people. Chat about stuff, go out socialising with colleagues every now and again. It's like 2nd family there. Benefits these days are not given out easily, you have to fight for them, prove your doing everything you can to find a job or prove your disability.

Try it and get back to us. I could tell you right now it'll suck but people like you have already made up their minds it's delightful.

About 20 years ago my sibling spent a short time on benefits, after being unfairly dismissed at work. They were previously working ft in a minimum wage job. They found once their housing was paid they weren't actually much worse off, (that is likely not the case now) but they absolutely hated it, and applied for as many jobs as they could, to get back to earning their own money

DP told me about a girl of 7 with 'issues'. She was asked what she wanted to do when she grew up. She said "I don't want to work. I think I'll be a gamer like my Dad - he's got a bad back."

That's why productivity is shot and as long as we pay people not to work they won't work. It's a vicious circle. People on benefits increases tax which make work less appealing.

Just watch I, Daniel Blake if you think being on benefits is preferable to working. A truly shocking film

They are goady government bots or trolls designed to perpetuate this drama when it's not commonplace at all I'm on benefits because of my child's disability I thought when he got to secondary I would be in a better position to work again turns out I'm not because there is no after school care for secondary children and he needs supervision....

I think the cost of living has risen to a point that working really doesn’t pay right now if you are in min wage jobs or just above. It is causing a lot of people frustration. I think we need to push back on the big companies that control those things.

The website ‘entitled to’ does a good job in letting you find out your entitlement to benefits based on individual circumstances. I use it a fair bit to give myself a forecast when I’m expecting changes ie a child leaving education so I can be prepared as although I work full time I get UC top ups.

I know they won’t pay for an amount of time if you leave a job without cause so you’d need savings to cover that. Most single people of working age won’t get more than £373 (ish) a month actually in their pocket for bills and food. Rent and CT may be covered too but only for a property the size they are allowed in the LHA for their area. It depends on what you may do with the time you gain over money too. Starting a business you love could make it worthwhile but doing nothing would be a downward spiral as once savings are used up you will struggle on only that much a month.

If you're earning £16 an hour after deductions ( bus fare comment ) you won't be better off on benefits . Not anymore anyway

Please could you give me tailored advice as to how to get an above min wage job?
I went and got a degree (whilst too ill to work, pushed myself to do something). Its really not at easy as you nake out to get a better job.

If you're sufficiently ill or disabled its better to be on benefits than make your health worse trying to work, or go from job to job being repeatedly dismissed for incapability you can't help. If you're a carer it can be better to be on benefits than make yourself ill trying to combine care with work, probably feeling like you can't give enough to either job or care. Some other people may find life on benefits preferable to work. If they are willing tolerate poverty and the severe restrictions to life that go with it in exchange for the ability to stay home.

When you go on benefits you might as well be naked. Because you are claiming public money the government want to know everything about you including your mother's shoe size because the taxpayer wants to know where is hard earned cash is going!!!

Was she really?

If she stops working, the childcare costs are stopped. They are oaid to enable her to work.
Removing her rent from the calculations, she only actually receives her personal allowance and child allowance. I don't know how many children she has, but based on 1 adult and 1 child, that is approximately £727 to pay for some council tax, food, energy and all other expenses.
Impossible to be better off not working, surely.

If you make yourself intentionally homeless then you are not entitled to free housing. I think it should be the same if you make yourself intentionally jobless, no free money.

Even better OP, become disabled! Then you get a free car and a "hole host" of other benefits.

Why so many thinly disguised benefit bashing threads on MN these days? Labour HQ testing out the waters?

Very few people solely on benefits have a good lifestyle. A lot are in poverty.

Unless you are disabled or have children under 3 you are expected to work or be penalised for not doing so. You could put your details into a benefit Calender like turn to us but I'd be surprised if you are not significantly worse off

Funny how on another thread everyone is falling over themselves to praise billionaires, who by definition hoard money, thus keeping it out of circulation and doing fuck all for the economy.

Whereas benefits go straight back into the economy, one way or another.

Of course, we could go down the route of a universal basic income, and then no-one would have to bother making benefits bashing threads on MN, and working would be a choice for all.

This should be the time to start looking at ways to get a better job. In other words, put the effort in.

I think it depends on your circumstances. I have a very young coworker who told us about how he was 16k in savings from benefits, since he lives with his parents and they charge him no board.

Is it frustrating that a Very Lazy kid has more savings than me, working FT and sometimes more than one job in the past? Yes.

But generally speaking for a functioning adult I think it’s a bad idea. My DP worked at a cheap pub and a lot of the regulars were like that and it’s just a depressing, locked-in life.