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.

I agree with you word for word. I know a couple of people on uc that actively boast about how well off they are, and that they struggle to "sqaunder" all the benefits they get. Because once their bank account gets above a certain amount their benefits stop. It truly is wrong and sickening. I was thinking about taking my dd to the zoo for her birthday, however for a family it would cost £100+ for a day trip. Total extortion, why are benefit kids more worthy than kids from normal working homes? The real deprivation are not benefit kids because everything they do is heavily discounted and subsidised it's the children from normal working homes, they miss out the most, not many families can just throw £100 at a day out without a second thought. It is the free swimming passes that really get my back up. All children should get this period. Swimming is not a cheap thing to do, but it should be, purely because of the health and fitness benefits alone. Families on uc are handed an unlimited pass in a lucky bag, to add to all the other cheap privillages that they grab and demand. It truly is unjust and horrible. Well done you OP for calling it out, despite the hate and backlash you will inevitable get.

I did security work on UC. I used to go and work in Inverness. We got no travel expenses. We had to drive up. Do a shift and then drive down. The driver was so tired he almost crashed his car - several times. Then we got dumped in the middle of Glasgow and had to make our own way home - and for every pound I earned at that point - 67p came off my benefits. But I'm entitled for not counting my rent into my total benefits - up yours!

I wonder if it's coincidental that the OPs first post on the thread is almost identical to bilge posted by Rupert fucking Lowe today.

Maybe if you didn't get your news from far right fuck-bags like him, you'd have a more balanced and charitable view of the world?

Yes, I agree. It’s madness.

Could you live on that?

Well, provides a place for you to live.

I was meaning more of people in same circumstances. Like a single parent with 2 kids, working 16 hours a week. Rent same in both cases.

But one person works that extra hour a month and then earns too much for UC.

Therefore they end up worse off by working more

My rent was not 400 pounds a month. Once more. Can you read? It was around 250 pounds at that point. What is your point exactly? I also owned my flat for a few years until it had to be demolished - so the dwp were paying nothing. Is that OK with you?

FFS, what is your problem?
You are like a dog with a bone.

In the cold and dark and hungry. But here, its a roof right?

Reported all of your posts.

Listen. Just go away. There is really something wrong with you if you think chasing someone around a board that's poor to make you feel better is ok

No, it gives you a capped amount. The waitlist for a council house in Edinburgh is at least 3 years. Private rent is more than you get in housing benefit. Then there is uncertainty of landlords selling up. My sister had to move every 18 months, find a place close to budget, fight for her deposit, pay move costs.

She is a bully who makes herself feel better by putting other people down.

Pathetic.

@SpryTaupeTurtle If you owned a flat you didn't live in I am surprised you were entitled to UC as it is counted as capital.

Eh, semantics.

Yes but many people seem to be under the impression that it's a case of you earn £1 over this amount and you receive nothing but under it and you receive hundreds of pounds.

It's tricky to explain because UC is actually quite complex but it's basically this.

Say a total claim award before deductions for income is £2000. I won't go into the individual elements but assume a couple with kids and childcare.

The 2 adults both work full time and bring home a total of £3800 between them after tax/NI and pension.

The deduction made for their earned income would be roughly £1700 so they would still receive £300 in UC.

But if one parent got a promotion or a new job and their total take home was now £4500 between them then the deduction from the UC would now be £2085 so their UC award then becomes £0

In the examples people give when someone is "One or two pounds over the threshold" it would actually be a case of if they earned say £2 less than their current salary then yes they might get UC but it would literally mean they would receive £1 not hundreds or thousands. In order to receive hundreds of pounds of UC they would need to earn hundreds and hundreds of pounds less.

Yes.

Because you don’t like it when you are being questioned.

Oh for crying out loud, there’s no need to be so bloody nasty and twist what the poster has said repeatedly. She has £400 a month to live on AFTER her £380 rent is paid. I’m not sure why pp are pulling her apart and bullying her. You don’t need to be fucking Archimedes to work it out.

A single person on UC with no dependents gets £400 a month to live on (plus help towards rent, if renting). In most cases, they will have to pay a portion of rent out of the £400 (but not in this case). If they have children, they’ll get roughly £300 a month per child. It’s not the ridiculous £100k a year figure mentioned previously.

No.

I have a question that PP does not like.

Who paid what. The rent when I owned my flat? Not the dwp. Happy now?

That is not how it works. I am a single parent with 2 kids and when I moved into a better paying job and increased my hours from 22.5 to 30 I became better off by £500 per month.

This whole thread is full of it. Is depressing to read.

There was a similar thread a while back, and a few posters had no idea about the discounts they could got, so it was informative.

Maybe we could just fill the thread with websites that list all the places you can go to for cheap.