AIBU to feel annoyed about discounted attractions for benefit claimants?

[Sheldonsheher]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15721199/Benefit-claiming-families-UK-attractions-working-Brits.html

I know I’ll get slated as the origin is the daily fail but, but this kind of annoys me too! I mean as a single parent I don’t want to pay £60 to go to the zoo either.

Working and claiming benefits are not mutually exclusive.

Benefits are not a lifestyle choice for many at all - they just don't work that way anymore. Of course you'll always get some bad eggs, but they don't represent the majority.

Give me his number 😂

Lifestyle choice, my arse. There will always be freeloaders but they are in the minority. Why should children of benefit claimants never get to do anything nice? It's not their fault times are hard.

And anyway, what gives you the impression that those on benefits don't 'cut their suit according to their cloth'? (That's kind of difficult to accomplish when all that can be cut from the available cloth is a pair of underpants, incidentally.) You sound utterly clueless about what life is like for most people on benefits.

No yanbu at all op. It's frankly a disgrace imo and why there so much upset in this country about benefits. What about the working poor who aren't eligible for benefits. Their kids don't get to go. Working parents have to budget to take their kids in days out, so those on benefits should as well. A discount is fair game but some of these £1 tickers when others are having to pay a lot is ridiculous. If you don't work and you could but are chosing not to then no you shouldn't get to go to these activities imo

It's absolutely messed up in this country that it's at a point were your rewarded for not working. Benefits should not be a lifestyle choice, they should be a safety net.

@JustTryingToBeMe nope nope only 19% of people are claiming UC and not working through "choice". These are typically people between work, or people who have been recently made redundant, these tend to be short term claimants. These people are less likely to have children and not take advantage of the scheme.

You have a large group of people working but being paid piss poor wages I would argue people who work in low wage jobs, work far harder than I as an average earner ever do.

The rest are too disabled, or caring for someone who is too disabled to work. The unpaid carers (a huge proportion of will be on UC) who save the economy £184 billion annually deserve a day at the zoo on the cheap IMO

Not another person who doesn't know that working and claiming benefits aren't mutually exclusive, surely 😭

You cannot surely be so outraged over something you clearly have no understanding of. Most UC claimants will be either unfit for work (medically or for caring reasons) or in work. Only a very small percentage (19% I think has been mentioned several times) aren't working but are able to. And that's not necessarily through choice, but through being between jobs and will soon transition into or back into work.

Almost like it is orchestrated.

@MyNeedyLilacBird Well me and my husband work full time in low/average paid jobs and can't afford trips out to the zoo for my kids and I just can't bring myself to hate another poor person for getting something for free. Good for them I am happy for them and I know they are not where the problem for inequality in this country lies.

Do you actually realise how poor the average person on benefits is i don't mean the 1% that are living in London and have multiple disabled kids im talking your average family who gets uc top up because their wages are so low. How much do you earn?

Unbelievable isn't it.

I'd also like to know on what evidence some on this thread are basing their assertions about benefits being a 'lifestyle choice', because it's definitely not facts. I doubt they even know the amounts of the benefits in question.

Definitely.

@dreamiesformolly oh yea! I could live a life of luxury on £740 a month, more so with trips to the zoo included! <sarcasm:>

Some people have no clue!

I couldn't agree more. I could understand being ignorant if you have no first hand knowledge of it. What I don't understand is the refusal to accept the facts once they're presented.

That 2m claimants cost the tax payer between 8-10 billion. Not inconsiderable.

I don’t (and I think the majority would agree) begrudge those UC claimants a day out. But people are being squeezed hard and are struggling to make ends meet. The number of working poor is increasing - many not claiming anything but child benefit. Those people understandably feel resentful that those not working are able to take their children to activities that are out of reach for them.

@Kitte321 I am working poor who can't afford daytrips out to the zoo as well as many other things.

I'm still not going to hate another poor person for getting something for free.

Good for them I am happy for them and I know they are not where the problem for inequality in this country lies.

And many working are claiming benefits. I find it hard to believe people would begrudge working people who still cant afford to make ends meet, or people who cant work through illness or caring, any little bonus'

And to maintain the attraction’s income the standard ticket prices have to increase for the rest of us. So then £60 for the zoo becomes unaffordable.

@SmallHoneLiving nope as it has been stated before in this thread the cost of the free tickets is covered by charity grant funding. Stop spreading hate and lies.

Working benefits just mean the tax payer is subsidising low wage employers. They should pay at a fair rate.

You could post it 400 times. The hard of thinking will keep ignoring it because it doesn’t fit their ‘victim’ narrative.

I took her to the London Zoo
I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere
So it started there
I said, "Pretend you got no money"
And she just laughed and said, "Oh, you're so funny"
I said, "Yeah, well, I can't see anyone else smiling in here"
Are you sure
[Chorus]
You wanna see the Zoo for a pound
You wanna see whatever common people see
Wanna see the Zoo for a pound
You wanna see the Zoo with common people like me?
But she didn’t understand
And she just smiled and held my hand

@SmallHoneLiving They absolutely should, but while they don't poor people don't deserve to live a life with no joy.

Nothing in the article suggests thats the case.

The language is just ridiculous "requiring just a PDF as proof" - as opposed to what, blood? 🙄

Ticket pricing strategies are designed by Merlin Entertainments to maximize volume, and are not funded by charitable donations.

Can you give me an example of this charity?

SOME working people get a discounted entry.