To think too many people are happy to live off benefits forever?

[BritishQueue]

Okay, I know this is a touchy subject here on MN, but I need to ask, AIBU to think that too many people are just choosing to stay on universal credit rather than work?

Obviously, I’m not talking about people who genuinely can’t work - disabilities, carers, etc (even though a lot of those who claim to be unfit for work are perfectly capable, and I’ve seen “carers” for people who don’t actually need any care…). But I know multiple people who are completely able-bodied and yet have no intention of ever getting a job. They say things like “it’s not worth it” or “I’d be worse off working,” and honestly, I don’t get it. I work full-time, pay tax, and yet I see people getting rent paid, extra handouts, and still managing holidays and luxuries I can’t afford. Not to mention that a lot of women think the government should subsidise their SAHM lifestyle.

I just don’t understand how it’s fair? Surely benefits should be a safety net, not a lifestyle choice? AIBU?

What do you propose they live on if after your hypothetical 18 months of jobseeking they have not been successful in finding work? Would they then qualify for UC, or what?

I knew some would start to whine about no roles. There are always jobs around. Depends how fussy you are and if indeed its not worth you working due to your benefits.

Having two grown up sons who are both full time working. What has happened to our young people. Anxious, claiming all sorts - 1 in 8 out of work. Just why??

We cannot continue like this with people constantly taking tax payers money and ADHD and such like is becoming the old bad back reason for doing bugger all!

There must be some very daft people around if they have Masters and cannot pass a normal retail online test. I dont have a Masters btw but can pass and indeed did work in retail for a while until something more suitable came along.

people with severe congenital abnormalities (born without a limb, or eyes

So people who lose a limb or sight later in life should not claim any benefits?

I know a few people that were born with a limb missing or lost their sight in early childhood. They work because that disability has always been their normal. They have not known any different.

It is very odd that you would differentiate between someone being born and disabled becoming disabled in later life. The latter can happen to anyone.

About 30℅ of people with Autism work. How do you suggest the rest of us work?

And sensory issues are very disabling

You can't just separate Autism into low and higher functioning. We're all different

There must be some very daft people around if they have Masters and cannot pass a normal retail online test. I dont have a Masters btw but can pass and indeed did work in retail for a while until something more suitable came along.

Or maybe the tests are just fucking nonsense.

I don't know anyone with ADHD alone that does not work. It is something that can be medicated. A lot of them would not function without their meds.
The people that I do know with ADHD that do not work have other disorders too.

Yes, if you are ND then those tests are pretty much used as a filter to make sure you don't get anywhere.

Yup.

I've worked in food service for 15 years because I am good at it. So good that despite handing in my notice several times a year, my boss continues to message me, "I know you don't work here anymore, but could you..."

And I'm loyal enough and hardworking enough to say yes to helping out when he's in a bind.

But can I fuck get past Gregg's online test. That says fuck all about me and everything about Gregg's and the staff they are missing out on.

The fact they even used the terms higher and lower functioning just proves their level of misunderstanding.

"I don't know anyone with ADHD alone that does not work. It is something that can be medicated. A lot of them would not function without their meds.
The people that I do know with ADHD that do not work have other disorders too."

I agree. The young people I know who will likely struggle to work in the future have other conditions besides ADHD.

Given every ND person is apparently different, why do they all struggle with 1 test according to you?

It would be ‘people without a limb’.

Agree completely. Us debating is just academic - we can’t afford it, so it will have to be tapered down/off.

Where have all these conditions come from that are now affecting our young people? It’s unacceptable that we allow young people to decide from a very young working age that they don’t have to bother.

FGS - there are even Influencers who apparently help you answer questions in the right way to get benefits.

They've always existed, but we didn't understand them, so they went undiagnosed. The people with those conditions went untreated and usually struggled to maintain long-term employment or success because their condition was unmanaged.

Fortunately, science and academic research happened, and we now understand how to diagnose, treat, and manage these conditions.

Been an outreach worker for more than twenty years, exclusively dealing with disabled people. This is not my experience at all. And judging by your disgusting ableist comments here your real life experience hasn’t endowed you with any understanding of or empathy for, disabled people or those who care for them. Or indeed any real understanding of how disability benefits enable those who need them. The sad fact is, you can say you only mean to target those people who are taking the piss all you like, but the cuts will inevitably affect the genuine claimants as well. And that’s built in to the system. Because, guess what ? It’s the most severely disabled people who cost the most to support. So the more that can be screened out by a process supposedly to catch the cheats, the better for the government.

Labour promised a root and branch reform of the assessment system for disability and sickness benefits, rightly saying it’s not fit for purpose and needs to be fairer and more transparent. Instead of that, all we got was an arbitrary cut to PIP which will screen out many people with significant disability as well as the piss takers. Exactly the same as the Tories they were castigating for considering something similar. At each and every round of welfare reform disabled people are the low hanging fruit and wildly inaccurate figures are bandied about to try to sell reforms to the public. There are many ways in which the government could save money and many things MN could direct their fury at before condemning the sick and disabled as the root of the problem. What about big business who use UC to foot their wages bill ? What about greedy landlords increasing their rents every year in line with UC increases ? How about having a look at how child benefit is spent. I see so much criticism on here about PIP helping out with the cost of disability and how it should be means tested in line with other benefits, and people like you trying to shame those who claim cares allowance, thereby saving the tax payer a fortune. And yet no one questions that parents can earn between £60k and £80k before CB is affected.

My best friend works for the DWP, specifically in claims. She says that 90%+ of all people want to work, and usually find work within 6 months.

It's a small minority who want to play the system. Always has been.

Vent your anger at all the huge corporations who pay no corporation tax.

But it's not just about there being jobs ffs. It's about competing with umpteen other people to get one of those jobs. For people with certain disabilities, they are starting the race at a disadvantage - the playing field is not level. How is this not blindingly obvious, what with your Masters degree and everything?

And as for 'the old bad back reason' - I am only able to work because I'm lucky enough to have a desk job that lets me work from home because of 'the old bad back reason'. There are a ton of genuine back pain sufferers out there who aren't so lucky, and they too find it much harder to find work they can physically do.

Who pays no corporation tax?

So why were their outcomes better when not diagnosed?

They weren't, they were worse.

The increase in long-term sickness and disability has nothing at all to do with our better understanding ND.

It is a multifaceted problem. Obesity and the food industry shoulder a lot of the blame. COVID (eg, long COVID and the impact on mental health) compounded the issue, and the decimation of public services and mental health services was the final nail in the coffin. Along with many, many other reasons, none at all involving scientific advancement.

Well it does because it’s ND conditions that are driving the increase. That’s not ‘ableist’, it’s a fact.

So what if she had her first at 17? These threads always have posters trying to bash teen mum's and drag them into a discussion about benefits and laziness. Every single thread like this it happens. The laziest most long term unemployed individual I know didn't have children until she was in her thirties. Was there any point in me saying her age though? What does it bring into this discussion?

Sorry to pick at such a random part of your comment. Do you know this woman now or was this year's ago? Benefits are capped at 2 kids for almost ten years now so she sounds pretty stupid

Honestly the writing is on the wall about the way people are being trained to think.

People at the lower end of the socio economic scale are being painted as the sole reason why the world economy is in turmoil. It's an easy broad stroke target. Disabled people shouldn't have children. If relatives can't work and care for their vulnerable and elderly relatives, the state should do nothing. It's all beginning to sound suspiciously like history repeating itself. The lack of humanity displayed by some posters on this thread is quite chilling.

Just waiting for the scoffing, rolling eye emojis and the invocation of Godwins Law, but some of the replies on here illustrate exactly how one European nation were persuaded to commit genocide.

I don't think, in my 56 years, I have ever been quite so disgusted, or fearful of the direction the world is going. When Elon Musk did his "awkward my heart to yours" salute it was no fucking accident. It was a signal that dark days are coming. And with the proliferation of social media and 24 hour online bilge, encouraging demonisation of whichever group is flavour of the month, and no examination of how we truly got here, which is due to monopolies, asset stripping and self serving power grabbing by the elites, we live in dangerous times.

I keep hearing that poem in my head..... and then they came for me, and there was no-one left to challenge it (sic).

Acknowledging there are a frankly terrifying number of people reliant on very generous benefits, while workers struggle, is not Nazism. And, like me, you can be disgusted at Trump/Musk/misinformation/the fucking over of the working/middle classes, while also thinking there are many individuals in this country who are frankly entitled, a bit lazy, and act like they’re doing the country a favour merely by existing and not getting themselves into even more of a mess.
I have enormous sympathy with disabled people and fully support a welfare state, but I think there’s a difference between having a condition and being all-out disabled. I think there are huge numbers of families raking it in by being very committed in learning the system and playing it. This opinion has come through first hand experience at work, not reading the Daily Express/Mail/truth social.