Labour increase benefits bill. AIBU To think what’s the point in working?

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15520831/Labours-push-lift-two-child-benefits-cap-hand-25-000-windfalls-thousands-Britains-biggest-jobless-families.html#

‘Official estimates suggest the cost of scrapping the cap will total £13.6 billion over the next five years.

The Tories said families currently affected by the cap are in line to receive windfalls worth an average £25,000 each over that period.

But the biggest families will gain far more. Thousands of families with five children will receive around £10,900 a year while those with six children will get an extra £16,600 a year.
Almost half of the families involved have no one in work.‘

People living in poverty are 3 x more likely to be smokers, so fags yeh. And I’ll bet tattoos are more common in that income level too.

@XenoBitchI've got enough of them myself! To the point the doctor said he’d sign me off work for three months! But instead I found ways to cope - more healthy habits, reading, exercise, working a job I enjoy etc etc! Sometimes you’ve got to want to help yourself too!

17pw is child benefit?

What was this on the BBC? Please post a link.
Many people on PIP use it for everyday bills because they are struggling financially, because UC is not enough.
But you can spend PIP on bills, can spend it on a wheelchair... you can spend it on crack cocaine.... all are ok because you can spend PIP on what you like.

I agree with that. We need more social housing!

@Mapleleaf114yes but on UC you get a seperate UC payment for your child which can be £500 per child a month approx. Two separate things!

The trouble is I do think there are people on benefits receiving far more than decent working salaries for example some in london with london rents covered then add pip which is not means tested, childcare support from non resident patent which is not included as income, working income you keep a proportion on top of benefits and the rest you keep 55% off. So genuinely some benefit recipients are not on the poverty line, whilst others are struggling to live. I do think there needs to be reform to ensure the money goes where it is needed and the trouble is if you take people out of poverty you take away the incentive to work and make responsibile decisions, but I don't know the solution to that.

If someone is on PIP, they have a disability. You can not compare them to someone who does not have one and is working.
Appels and oranges.

Except they aren't. Birth rates are collapsing around the supposedly 'rich' world because young people can't afford them.

Child benefit is capped from £60k to £80k (goes to zero)

UC element is now UN-CAPPED for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th etc child.

We are talking about £300p/m on average for another child. The amount is a lot larger than CB.

@Starzinskyyou made the point much more eloquently than me! Thank you

We stop giving benefits to those who choose not to work. The two children living in 2017 will be protected should the parents become unable to support them because there are only two of them.
I disagree with our current system as it’s completely unsustainable. PiP for adhd and mild autism? Carers allowance for someone on sickness benefits to look after someone else also on sickness benefits. Too sick to work but can claim to look after another person. Possibly claiming to care for each other ? This would not surprise me.

So many couple not getting married because it’s easier to play the system if you give two separate addresses to the children’s schools to make it look like daddy lives with his parents. I’ve seen this first hand by couples who most definitely live together. Their children are the ones on fsm who also have the trips to Disney. I would be so embarrassed to claim benefits and send my children to school to get fed by the tax payer while I sat at home doing nothing.

@XenoBitchwhat happens if they aren’t on PIP but are still taking home much more than someone working full time?

How ridiculous that you think these families just get £17 a week child benefit. That is just the child benefit. They get hundreds more in Universal credit unless capped. Current UC child elements are £330 for eldest child and around £270 for subsequent children. many with older kids still get child elements for all of them and from April it will be for all kids again so if you have four kids we are talking about 1k per month just in child elements alone. This is in addition to amounts for the parents, for rent etc.

@Crochetandteasingle parents abuse the system! But you’re not allowed to say it out loud!

Many can't. Ask the teachers in primary schools in those areas how many children come in to school exhausted and hungry.

No one on benefits that does not have disabilities or kids is taking home more than someone working.
Stop drinking the Daily Mail Kool Aid.

I worry about women being forced to have more children than they want, to the detriment of their health (yes, sometimes men are coerced too, but we are the ones going through the physical process). Please don't say this never happens.

Yeah I don't get that. If someone needs carers allowance to look after you then surely you are not in a fit state to be looking after someone else and therefore getting the money again

I think the irony is that most people defending those on UC (not PIP) genuinely don’t know anyone on UC - if they did they would know how unfair the system is!

No its not 500 its 292, the point remains- if gov knows this money is needed towards raising a child for first and second,how are 3rd or 4th child any different?

in case you havent noticed british people are on their way out with very low birth rates,if you think having kids is a goldmine do your country a favour and have 10

And the sad thing is those same kids will still go into school hungry, not brushed teeth, dirty clothes. The increase in £ won’t go to them. But labour won’t look at that.

Yes couples can both be on sickness benefits and both can claim extra money for caring for each other. Crazy.

@XenoBitchand this is where you are SO wrong! If you see my first post - a friend of mine takes home £3k more a year working less than me, earning less than me because she gets a shit load of benefits! Please don’t speak as if you have superior knowledge! Your ignorance to how unfair parts of the system are, are why drives this silly untrue rhetoric!

Why can’t we blindly trust people

We are not in a dictatorship or Orwellian country where people have to pass tests to be worthy of the basic necessities in life.

But indulge me - what tests SNOULD poor people pass before we entrust them with money?

Once again most UC claimants DO have jobs.