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.

You may find you get fuck all in UC if you live alone with no kids.

@WunTooThree
Of course it is!
Paying for the disabled - why should MY taxes pay into the welfare state to go on THOSE people?
Imagine - a charity that funds cancer research - let’s stop that because the unemployed might use it, or those awful disabled people. Let’s keep it for those who can’t use daddy’s funds.
Or the British Heart Foundation- only for the rich.
I pity those who think - and apparently genuinely seem to think - that the state pension isn’t a welfare benefit or who can’t comprehend that if they require aids and adaptations to their home, they will benefit from tax relief, or if little Tarquin suddenly needs a liver transplant and he will do it on the NHS, or anyone using funded childcare hours or state education, anyone who works for the NHS or the civil service aren’t funded by tax, anyone who has had a baby on the NHS, anyone whose dearly beloved parent who worked all their life and ends up in an NHS hospital is using the same funding source.
@BionicWomansAnkle my husband pays taxes the same as anyone else, as did I until I had to stop work to care for my daughter, so fuck off. If you can’t understand the nature of Motability perhaps your private school education isn’t all it’s made out to be.

I don’t understand it, I’d never heard of it until recently and I just thought the person telling me about it was making it up as buying new cars for people on benefits does sound a bit far fetched. Is it as ridiculous as it sounds or am I missing something? I didn’t go to private school, my kids do and I’m pretty sure they don’t spend much time on how to claim free cars as there’s very much an emphasis on self reliance.

No one is being bought new cars on benefits.

I really suggest you go and educate yourself on the whole PIP and Motabilty thing before you post on here with judgemental comments.

In which case I stand corrected, it did sound utterly bonkers to be fair.

@BionicWomansAnkle
Then I take my hat off to you for acknowledging you didn’t know, because most people don’t do that.
I will share this with this post because you don’t know sometimes what emotions you can stir up: I am 50.
I’ve paid higher tax rates when I worked. I am educated with the best results ever from my university, at the time, from my BA, then did an MLitt and then a PhD in my chosen field.
I worked very hard all my life. My parents had nothing to bequeath me but they gave me an extremely hard work ethic.
My first daughter died.
My second was born severely physically disabled.
I would choose not to use Motability because- as per the figures I gave above - it’s a rip off for disabled people.
My husband works damned hard to help children who have been treated horrendously by their parents and are now “looked after” by the State. He is a decent hardworking person, also with a PhD. Neither of us are stupid or feckless or scroungers.
As our situation demands that we acquire a WAV - currently, as I said above - only available to lease via Motability or purchase second hand (none of the type we needed were available when we first needed it).
Count your blessings that you don’t need to know the ins and outs of Motability.
I never thought I would.
The worst part of the hatred towards disabled people is the notion that these children don’t deserve help.
I did absolutely nothing wrong in my life to end up where I am.
You and the others who are quick to judge are a car accident or a childhood cancer diagnosis away from where we are.
I want you to know that I am as tough as they come - but this thread has made me cry.
My daughter will self-fund when her wealthy grandparents die.
Tax will be taken that will more than cover her DLA. That’s if she survives them.
Not every disabled child is so lucky.

I’m sorry. The anger in this thread isn’t aimed at your family, it’s aimed at the Government for what they’re doing to our families but I can see why it’s upsetting for you.

@BionicWomansAnkle
You are looking in the wrong places then.
Nobody asks to have a disabled child.
Nobody wants to be beholden to Motability or the whims of any governing party to try to live a decent life with normal basic freedoms.
The welfare state ultimately benefits the whole country.
By this I mean from the HMRC guy who does his job, to the NHS who researches and funds and operates on anyone regardless of their tax position, the teachers in state schools, and the women who decades before you or I were born had no choice but to be beholden to their husbands and had independence of any kind before they qualified for a state pension.
There are lots of things to be concerned about but anger is a useless emotion- especially if directed at a political party.
You don’t know what will become of your children yet (I mean this to the general audience as opposed to just you). Not just medical mishaps but severely life-limiting consequences from anything to a developed allergy, their own stillborn child, their own nonverbal autistic child, drug or alcohol or gambling dependencies, work related accidents, your own early demise that means they end up in the care system.
It’s easy to think any government has it in for particular groups if they try to increase productivity or decrease spending: in reality they don’t. They want to increase their own power by appealing to their likely voters and to regulate the UK economy, though they differ on how they do that - Reform is the only exception I would make to that rule but I feel disinclined to remark further because it’s so utterly futile trying to make anyone think of understand beyond the 1990s “benefit street” assumptions.

I disagree, the anger is aimed at exactly the right place with Labour and their supporters.

Funnily enough I didn’t have a line of wealthy suitors waiting 🤣 if only it were that easy, I’d be in the Bahamas with my millionaire!

Yes, I've included rent and council tax. Alhough possibly UC wouldn't cover all my rent, meaning even more money on min wage compared to UC.

Ah I only get £400 as have a mortgage

I also have a mortgage. If I can't find work in the next couple of months (trust me I am trying very, very hard) and my assets sink below the UC threshold I will not receive enough to run my home and support my son. I could take a mortgage 'holiday' but that's kicking the debt down the road. I guess I'll lose my home and then get housed.

I am a very qualified professional.

Oh don't you come along here with your facts and truth talk, that's not what we do here at all!!

Have you claimed contributions based job seekers allowance? It's not means tested and is for 6m, you do have to show that you are looking for work, but you might also get a job coach which might be useful.

Here's how this went:
Applied online. Popped into Job Centre a few days later as I was passing thinking I could check I was doing everything I needed to do (I've never been unemployed before). Got wrestled to the floor as my foot stepped over the threshold - "When's your appointment?" the security guy barked at me.
I explained why I was there and once they saw I wasn't about to torch the place one of the staff (work coach?) did very kindly take me aside and say there was a 4 week wait for claims to be processed.

Waited. Got my snotty email saying it was being processed. No "we are here to support you and give you advice" rather "IF we deign to give you JSA you will have to jump through these burning hoops of fire".

Waited. 3 letters. One pointing out that benefits are liable for tax, lest I think my taxes might already have paid for this.
One saying my reason for backdating wasn't reasonable. I was reeling pretty much, but said that I wasn't sure what my NI code was.
One saying. No you're not eligible.

This is where it turns into 'couldn't make it up'. I was registered as self employed. If you have a child under 12 your NI is paid. When my child turned 12 my NI was not paid. No one told me. I didn't realise for 2 years. It is one of those things you don't know you don't know. It took some back and forth with my accountant to realise what had happened. I didn't think I'd need to pay the shortfall because I've got enough years to qualify for state pension. Little did I think that it's exactly those 2 years that I need to have paid in order to get JSA.

I did call JSA line to see if I could still get some support finding work. When I finally got through she talked to me like I was scum. I just wanted to talk to an actual person who might help me navigate this situation. She shut me down.

The default is that people seeking benefits are lazy, scum who just want free money. At least that's how I have been made to feel. It's very isolating.

Maybe I've swerved a bullet. I am not on the bones of my arse yet and to date I've just be made to feel worse.

When I lost my job and couldn't work because my child was seriously ill in hospital, I had a work coach helpfully ask if a cleaning job would be an option until my son's DLA came through?

Funnily enough, the answer was no.

It took a strongly worded letter from the hospital my son was at for them to stop hounding me when I had a seriously ill child.

They are fucking awful to deal with.

The number of people receiving jobless benefits without having to look for work has climbed above four million for the first time.

Figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show the number of Universal Credit (UC) claimants with no requirement to look for a job rose to 4.03 million in October.

What's your point? People cheating the system? The system's bar is too low?

I'm sorry you had to deal with that at what must have been a very difficult time.

I've tried applying for any job until something in my field turns out, but I'm being rejected from those too (Tesco, Aldi).

Oh dear, well I guess if you don't qualify due to missing NI payments that's the way it goes because it is contributions based.

I claimed for seven weeks in 2020, and it was a piece of cake. Cancelling it when I got a job was harder though.

You should be able to apply for means tested job seekers, which I think falls under UC, as you say - when you've run your savings down.

Yep.

No one is interested in employing me the minute I mention how it will need to be flexible due to my son.

I'm sorry you have to deal with it too.

Oh dear, well I guess if you don't qualify due to missing NI payments that's the way it goes because it is contributions based.

Yes, I understand that. I have paid NI since I was 17. I'm 55 now. There are some gaps but I do think (morally) I have made sufficient contributions to have been able to have claimed.

The problem was that I had not contributed for the 2 qualifying years because my child turned 12. Yes, it's the way it goes.

Don’t be like that.

To inform, to inform.