Fuck it - the government will look me

[Phonicshaskilledmeoff]

I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the way our country is run. I love my country, but what on earth can I do to fix it? the Rachel reeves pension and stamp duty rumours have tipped me over the edge.

I believe 90% of our lives is the summation of our own choices. Bar (some of) our own (and families) health and tragic life events, there is very little we can’t choose in this country.

I’m not saying that the playing field is fair - I absolutely acknowledge that some groups face structural barriers that make good choices harder. Others are unaware those choices even exist. That’s where government should step in—not to equalise outcomes, but to equalise access to meaningful choice.

I think we all acknowledge that bad governments are ones that take away choices. This government, however is also taking away choice by incentivising bad choices. Policies should nudge people toward self-sufficiency, not make state reliance easier than self-reliance, or rewarding short-term decisions over long-term

Our Government should be working towards equitable availability of choice (not equal - see below) to make sure those choices are as easy and available to everyone. Policies should be in place to make sure people are encouraged to make the right choices.

I increasingly feel like I make the right choices and think what was the bloody point!

I’m going to wish I never paid into my pension soon and went on holiday instead! Should I just spend my money, move into a smaller house and quit my job. At this point I think I’d be better off.

Jargon Buster - EQUALITY - It’s assumed there is a level playing field and everyone gets the same resources. EQUITY - Everyone gets what they need to succeed, which may mean different levels of support.

Off you go then.

I’m at the point now no mortgage kids no longer financially dependent
I could work less and have more free time and travel to places I want to go

but currently working extra cut back on a few things so I can have a few hard years to bump my pension up
but with all this talk of means testing not sure if I’m just wasting my time as not going to get any benefit of all that extra work and cutting back

Your mum is a pensioner and is viewed as more 'deserving' by people who want to clamp down on people in receipt of benefits. It's quite amusing how the dial moves from 'benefit scrounger' to 'deserving pensioner', the minute that person reaches state pension age.

Is your mum eligible for pension credit because she is on the old-style pre-2016 state pension or because she didn't make sufficient National Insurance contributions for the full post-2016 state pension?

She is on the pre-2016 state pension.

When Covid started, her PIP assessments stopped and I doubt she will be assessed again.

That's my experience too.

I don't have any health conditions but lost my job the minute my workplace realised that my son's health needs would be life long and involve me needing more flexibility and reasonable adjustments to fit around his constant appointments and care needs.

No one wants to hire me because there's plenty of people out there available that they hire instead because why wouldn't they? In their eyes, it would be madness to hire me over someone who can work full time without any complications.

I haven’t read the entirety of the thread because it’s too fast paced while I’ve been getting my daughter to school…
But what strikes me about this (seemingly never ending repertoire of ways to criticise benefits and this government) as peculiar to this particular OP’s stance is the notion of State controlled “self-reliance”, which the OP calls “equitable access”.
Now here are my questions-

1. When in human history, in any country, has there been equitable access to opportunities?
2. What is wrong with living a fairly basic life without holidays or a pile of Christmas presents or whatever woe-betide me thing Labour is supposed to have caused.

Unless history has changed since I went to school for most of history humans have en masse been controlled top down, as slaves or tenants or labourers (depending on the era) and the few industrialists or landowners or pharaohs had wealth and power.

obviously none of that was good. To me, the world is actually getting better in terms of freedom, opportunity (travel, employment, peaceful living without State control or endless hours of working as a child in a factory, mostly abolishing slavery (obviously trafficking and modern day slavery are still problems), education, healthcare etc.

The insistence that we have to be striving forth boldly to get more and want more is probably one of the many reasons some people feel intense pressure to do more than they can and feel inadequate, leading to depression.

I, for one, am pretty grateful for medical advances- I would be dead at 27 from cervical cancer if it didn’t happen that students could access free healthcare. I’d be dead again (as it were) if c-sections weren’t possible when my first daughter died in utero. And again if c-sections weren’t possible when DD 2 was born with an impossible natural birthing position of her limbs. She’d be dead if it wasn’t for medical intervention in her early days of life.
She would be in an institution if this were a different era (although some would argue on MN that she should either be dead or institutionalised because she’s disabled).

Yes my life would be better if I could work full time etc etc but honestly I’m actually grateful that I have had years of employment and had freedom to holiday and socialise - my daughter will never have those things. I’m lucky I got to university to study what I wanted because women in previous generations fought for my freedom to do that.

Economic black holes and cost of living crisis are scary subjects for many but the “I want to throw my hands up and live on the scrounge” posts sicken me beyond belief. I’d be careful what I wish for

Choices/freedoms are being taken away slowly but surely though? Children education choice, gifting money to your children, renting out your flat/house to try living somewhere else, starting a business, access to state health care, access to private health care, access to pension, access to invest… all though all still legal, these are all being chipped away at either by punitive legislation or prohibitive taxation

@BionicWomansAnkle
I think you are deliberately missing the point - the choices you speak of are not being “taken away” - the ability to give gifts of money or own second homes or have private healthcare and other wealth based activities are not available to everyone anyway. It is not what the OP is proposing and it’s not what I was talking about - the OP specifically speaks about a government that should give everyone the same starting point.
Clearly, you don’t think that should ever happen. That’s fine.
You feel aggrieved that Labour’s budget might impact your wealth. Fine.
The OP wasn’t talking about hampering freedoms as per the rhetoric of the wealthy “if they gain, I lose” and “why should anything be taken from me, I didn’t cause them to be feckless, sick, useless scroungers”.
The OP wasn’t talking talking about how to stop people relying on welfare benefits by creating opportunities- by having a government that offers equitable access to EVERY opportunity.
That government has never existed and never will.
I don’t care whether people like Labour or wish it was a Tory government or will vote Reform (if they do they will regret that I’m sure).
IF the “choices” (by which you strictly mean opportunities not choices - because the choice to give gifts of money etc still exists but the consequences might be different) - would you want a government that (however they would do it) gave everyone a choice of private healthcare, school of choice, wealth to distribute etc - from birth or 18 or whatever the OP means..?
What magical kingdom would that be?

Carry on resenting potential changes to your wealth and opportunities for spending that wealth, that’s fine. You will be in a majority of people who feel like that (even if Reeves doesn’t do any of the things currently floating in the media), I’m sure people who have this level of current wealth will feel aggrieved at even the suggestion or hint of a thought that there’d be less wealth to spend for those who have it. I know my PILs are like that - and they haven’t been affected one iota since Labour came to power.

It is after all your choice to feel peeved at things that have yet to happen after all. It still doesn’t engage with what the OP asked, nor what I said either.

‘wealth based activities’ amazing!

I’m not missing the point at all, you are happy for other people to loose choices in their lives as you believe it won’t affect you. It’s not a new attitude.

@BionicWomansAnkle
What are you talking about?
Literally which of any freedom has been taken away?
And you have no idea what does or doesn’t affect me personally or financially.

which of any freedom has been taken away?

Taken away and limited: Tax free non state children’s education/plurality of education, to safely rent out a property without risking bankruptcy, to pass down a generational farm, to employ someone without risk of ending employment if they are unsuitable, to be upwardly mobile in a property market, to be downwardly mobile in the property market, to pass your pension into your children tax free…that was last year, this year remains to be seen but it’s not going to be pro growth is it?

I'm single, live alone.
Just done the maths - I'd be £180 a week better off on minimum wage than on Universal Credit.
Hardly "marginally less money".

@BionicWomansAnkle
sone of those things do affect me.
Im not trying to be difficult to you or anyone in particular- inheritance is one thing that will affect my family and more specifically my daughter - she will inherit, personally I won’t.
I don’t care for this government one bit but I don’t think that was the point of the OP…

is that including rent? I’ve had to claim UC for the first time and get £400 a month!

So you don't want to pay to help disabled people?

Surely you believe disabled people should receive adequate support, though?

LOL always the same old classics. You could have also used ‘so you hate poor people’ or imply someone’s racist …..or you could actually just address the point and attempt to justify why tax payers are buying so many brand new cars.

I do agree. I’ve always made responsible choices, been careful, sensible, not done rash things or taken risks or been flippant. I went to college. I did a degree. I’ve worked constantly from being 16 years old.

A friend of mine from when we were kids is the opposite. Never really took responsibility for her life, worked for a couple of years in a base level job then started having kids at 19. Never worked again til mid 30s, married someone who owned a house and now at 40 years old I’m no better off than her yet I’ve slogged away at work for 20+ years and she’s barely done anything 🤣

Who’s the fool? Because I’m convinced that it’s me.

I agree some of this is a waste, but surely you agree that motability cars will be necessary for some?

I can't blame disabled people for being disabled. I just can't.

I agree the system is flawed, but do you accept that for some disabled people, not having a car would have more of an impact than for an abled person?

You could have chosen to marry someone with a house. Sorted.

@BionicWomansAnkle @WildLimePoet
Motability cars are NOT “bought for” disabled people.
To assert so is a lie.
You should at least be informed of the facts.

Motability is a charity. An independent charity from the government. That is fact number 1.

Fact number 2 - Motability gets VAT relief. As will any other UK charity providing equipment for disabled people. I believe the government are considering changing this.

Fact number 3 - the cars and WAVs “given” to disabled people are leaded to people- the provider still OWNS the car.

Fact number 4 - depending on the car or WAV leased by a disabled person a down payment is made by the disabled person that is NON REFUNDABLE.

Fact number 5 - the mobility component of either DLA (child) or PIP is given to Motability.
The car is not given to a disabled person “on top of” DLA or PIP.

Fact number 6 - WAVs in this country are not available to purchase, as far as I can tell, and therefore can only be obtained as new except via lease from Motability. There are second hand cars that many buy once Motability take the car back and sell it. HOWEVER, adapting a car that you buy is another black hole of costs for a disabled person so, on the face of it, it makes sense to lease a car.

Fact number 7 - Motability is never out of pocket and sits on a very healthy profit. I believe Reeves is challenging the CEO who sits on 4 million unspent profit,

Fact number 8 - the figure of “1 in 4 new cars are given to disabled people” is not true. It is Motability alone that claims it owns 1 in 5 new cars on the road.

Motability purchases a vast range of cars - not disabled people.

Fact number 9 - as either leasing any car, Motability is an expensive way to use a car, but one that many have no option but to use because they don’t have substantial savings (clue: because being disabled means it is it less likely that a family will have two full time working parents if a child, or adequate savings prior to being disabled if an adult).

I currently lease a WAV - the down payment was around £4,000. Of my money. The adaptations cost a couple of thousand pounds more. Of my money.

Every month my child’s DLA mobility component goes to the charity, at source - that is £4004 every year. My lease is for 5 years. Thats £20,020 to Motability.
THEN they take the car back and sell it - for around £17,000, maybe more.
So around £37,000 all in for that one car.

If I bought that car, without adapting it, (Peugeot Rifter) it would be around £24,000.
So… who is the fool - me or Motability? Clearly it’s me - obviously as I had no choice when DC was 3 (couldn’t work as she wasn’t in school) whereas that CHARITY is making enormous profit leasing cars to desperate disabled people.

Can you at least be properly fucking informed about who the baddies are?

@Overthemhills So are you paying for your own car lease or am I paying? I’m none the wiser.

I don't get it. Is this yet another whining thread about how people on benefits are raking it in, and someone on a high wage should just jack it in and claim UC?
Because that is getting very fucking tired now.