Irritated that families on UC get heavily discounted entry

[happybug1234]

feel very aggrieved this afternoon to find out that people on UC get heavily discounted entry to popular attractions:

London Zoo
London transport museum
science museum wonderlab
Cutty Sark
kew Gardens
St Paul’s cathedral

As a mum with a professional career, with both husband and I working full time, paying a mortgage, paying a fortune in childcare for 2 under 4’s I seriously despair! From experience of people I see around me, families on UC seem to have more disposable income than us as their rent is paid, have no childcare costs and all their costs subsidised on social tariffs etc.

why is the government getting away with this and why are more middle class/income people not up in arms about it! At the moment I can’t see how us working hard and being self sufficient has benefited us as a family.

Maybe the prices should be a bit more reasonable in the first place. Especially in places that are designed for kids but of course they are too young to go alone so the parent gets stung an extra £30 to go somewhere that's of no interest to them

Christ they’re all fantastic men until the pressure of parenthood makes them fold like pieces of paper 🤣

Yes this outrage does not fit the narrative! Still irritates me however.

I wasn't accusing you of that, sorry if it sounded that way.

I did suspect you had more than £400 coming in in total, and you did, something over £780, rent plus the £400.

I appreciate that's tough, but plenty of incentive to get a job. NMW doubles your salary even without overtime.

I agree with you but there’s always going to be someone who is only slightly over the bar

"plenty of incentive to get a job"
You know this poster, do you?! You have no idea of their circumstances.

What do you think is going to get The Mirror more clicks, an article of people living low income lives on UC or an article with people earning stacks on UC?

They won’t care about representing the majority of people on UC, they care about getting traffic.

You have also not said the circumstances in which they were earning this level of UC i.e. disabilities, etc

Shit happens though and uc is designed as a safety net for people. I worked hard at school. I have multiple degrees and masters which I put myself through while working. I had a good job and a nice life. Then my ex turned out to be doing all sorts behind the scenes and I had no choice but to leave my job because I couldn't get that much childcare plus anti social hours would have meant I never saw my child. Move away to access affordable housing which also meant a significantly reduced job market even though I've done fairly well for myself considering I still need uc support to pay for childcare to sustain employment. By all means teach your kids to work hard but nothing in this life is a guarantee and if the rug is pulled from under them like it was for me, they will want a fall back net too.

What I also teach my child is that while yes he needs to work hard etc because he is capable, we also have a responsibility to look after those more vulnerable than ourselves and who didn't get the same opportunities we got. Because that's what makes a society work.

If you reduce benefits you automatically increase poverty. Which then increases crime rates. Lowers education and health outcomes. Puts more families under stress. So more pressure on already stretched policing, education, social services, healthcare provision. In turn prices rise for everyone. If you want to live in a nice peaceful society, you need to look after the people who will find success the hardest to reach. It is mutually beneficial.

That’s not remotely how the schemes work. The day-to-day prices don’t change to facilitate the schemes - hence the places who only do it as a one off ir for a short period (like Chester and Twycross) don’t change their prices to facilitate it.

The discount works by benefitting the zoos/attractions in other ways. Partly by bringing in people who wouldn’t normally go, but mostly by ticking off things in their constitutions or funding areas that bring them in more funding.

For example one place I know tallied that it cost them about 8k to facilitate this scheme in lost income from people who would normally pay full price. However, it allowed them to access funding of around 60k from a new source.

They don’t charge full price ticket holders the extra, and nor do they do it from the goodness of their hearts. They do it because it makes sound business sense.

Yes always losing out by paying for others!

Yes, that's exactly what I meant, and I don't think anyone is getting wound up over someone getting £780pcm. That leaves a massive incentive to get a job.

A bit different when someone on UC is in the richest 1pc in the country and getting free entry to Zoos.

My sister is on UC having been shafted by her abusive ex husband. She is a student, about to graduate, works in a shop and has two teen boys who play rugby and eat like horses. She feeds them by going to company shop, going at discount time and using Too Good To Go.

i do not begrudge her getting a discount as her kids also deserve to go places, and they deserve the dignity among their mates that they do have chances.

But we are talking about the poorest children in society here, who already have the odds stacked against them. It’s not all about ‘working hard’ when for some children it’s going to be ten times harder to access opportunities and they don’t have the same life chances or privileges as other children. It’s not an equal playing field at all.

I think what a lot of people resent is the time. People who have neve had to or no longer work full time often forget how physically, mentally and emotionally draining it can be to hand over 5 full days of your life per week, often with a commute and other faff on top. We're reaching a point where the boost to your well-being of not working full time is outweighing the (often now very marginal) benefit of having slightly more income. This is one of the reasons why the younger generation is much less likely to be employed . I don't blame them, to be honest. I say this as someone who has been in work since before I left education, and full time ever since I left.

Wow this weapons level stupid.

Some people simply do not have the ability to study to the grade required to make more than NMW, especially as degrees are become more and more meaningless when so many people have them. I know many young people factoring in a Masters to their studies as it is the only way to stand out.

And then there is money, circumstances etc. Upskilling, if not already in the right industry costs money. Fees etc are covered by loans but childcare isnt, increased travel costs aren't and there are limits as to where one can study if constrained by family, caring responsibilities, housing costs etc.

And lets assume that everyone learns new skills....then what? Who will do the unskilled labour? Who will clean the public loos, clean the hospitals, porter patients from bed to operating theatre, pour your wine when you got a leisurely pub lunch....oh sorry, forgot that you cant afford that...

I know you know all this but as you are presenting as thick a mince, I will respond by pointing out the blindingly bloody obvious.

I'm disabled. I worked for almost thirty years until I became so. I'll hopefully be going back to work next year but I have physical disabilities and mental health problems - and it was a combination of both that derailed my life.

I was born in 1969. I graduated in 1992 in the middle of a recession. It took me three years to get a very low paid job and then I went back to uni. I have done crap jobs. Managers jobs. Zero hours jobs. I've been self employed

And even over the last 6 years when I felt like killing myself over stuff that's happened to me in recent years I went back to uni and got a degree

I'm not well enough to work just now - hopefully by the end of this year I will be

I suffer from cptsd. Anxiety. Depression and I have physical heath issues too. If I hadn't had a few years off work - not all funded by the dwp - I probably wouldn't be here right now

I cant afford these places very often, I am not only universal credit but I am a single parent, work full time and above the threshold for benefits. It seems very unfair!

I hate all the ‘work hard and do better’ stuff. Who is helping you or encouraging you if grow up in care? How do you pass that onto your kids if you have a chaotic life?

this sums up the challenge for me https://www.boredpanda.com/privilege-explanation-comic-strip-on-a-plate-toby-morris/

I know lots of people on UC who are at uni. I did my last degree on UC. Just as I got the first job offer in a long time I had an accident and am disabled. I would rather have my old life

This is a pretty unusual situation - four lots of donor sperm? About £1k each time. And oddly one or more of the children is ND, which would normally be something screened out.

Yeah, the system sucks. I do what I can but my hands are tied a lot of the time. People need more money, not signposting to charities.

Yup, I'm sorry to hear all that, I hope things improve for you. Good luck.

I live near Motherwell in Scotland. When am I going to go to Kew Gardens exactly?

Thank you

Are they the poorest children now though? With the benefit packages on offer I actually doubt it.

What do you mean benefit packages? You do understand that people only get money for their kids if they live below the poverty line