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.

That isn't actually how it works. In the first place, as a pp has already explained, funding for these specific discounts usually comes from partnerships with charitable organisations such as the national lottery, NOT directly from the coffers of the attraction/organisation fiscally responsible for the attraction.

In the second place, these discounts are usually limited to a time window, which is generally off-peak. This benefits the attraction because most people paying full price for a ticket don't want to go in the middle of January, and probably wouldn't go at that time even if the tickets were cheaper. Most deals on attractions in general are for out-of-season dates, when visitor numbers are low.

I'm astounded by the mean spiritedness on this thread

Rubbish. I have to pay the same as any other parent. Nobody has offered me reductions in school trips.

What a twat. Most normal people would rather their child was non SEN than have extra money. Bet that individual would take it all back if she knew how hard it was. I haven't seen many freebies you get for SEN kids anyway?

DLA for mild autism isn't easy to get.

I get free sleepless nights so when we had that run of auroras in England I took some cracking shots on my ancient Samsung

Erm free pee wont go into details about THAT

Free.....actually nope that's all my sleep deprived mind can think of right now

I get free hospital parking which is great fun for our days out there.

Oh wonderful, while all us luckily healthy people have to pay. And no doubt my car park fees are higher to subsidise yours. The gall.

I think what people are grasping at is that if you earn just above the threshold for Universal Credit you probably still have sod all money but you don't get any of the help UC recipients get from various schemes.

Yes, there always has to be a cut off somewhere, but families who earn a tiny bit too much for Universal Credit will not be able to afford £100 for a day out, will not get the same help with energy bills or housing or any living costs, and some of them may well resent people who do get that help even if they earn less on paper. And writing these people off as privileged spoiled children is wilful ignorance, even if you think the existence of a welfare state is good and necessary.

You're really going to cause a few blood pressure and heart attack issues with this dreadful 'poor person fleecing tax payers' statement! Superb!!!!

Possibly in some cases, yes.

The point is discounts schemes always target someone and you won’t be in every demographic. I had much more disposable income for clothes as a student for example, but could always find somewhere offering 20% off with a Unidays code. I’d love that option now, but don’t begrudge it to students.

The level of aggression about it in the media (and on here) would make you think the full ticket cost is being dedicated from a household income of someone who doesn’t claim UC, and it just isn’t.

I think it's pretty flippant to dismiss low income families who get no help from the state because they've fallen off a pretty steep cliff edge in terms of benefits by comparing it to you losing a 20% Unidays discount.

There’s not a cliff edge with UC. It’s a taper system. Theres no arbitrary maximum you can earn to cut you off entirely. You can have a combined household income of £75k or more and still be eligible depending on your circumstances.

The value of my flippant uni days discount could easily be the same or more as the value of the discount on some of these days out. I was comparing discount schemes, not the eligibility for benefits and a student discount
scheme. The point remains that not all discount schemes will apply to everyone and someone will always think they’re unfair. Perhaps you prefer my earlier example of my consultant friend earning in excess of £150k a year, who is eligible for a blue light card. She can absolutely afford full price trainers, someone working on NMW in McDonald’s probably can’t but couldn’t access it. Someone will always be unhappy.

The good thing with UC is the way it is a gradual reduction based on your income rather than being an all or nothing system. Someone close to the limit may get just £20 a month, some people will get a zero award one month and a bit more the next if they have a variable income.

The system was intended to avoid cliff edges but the way it works in practice means they absolutely are there and create skewed incentives:
https://ukonward.com/reports/the-hidden-benefits-bill-how-universal-credit-claimants-get-10-billion-in-extra-benefits/

But if you want to pretend not to understand why people are discussing this then knock yourself out!

UK onward aren’t a neutral source, they’re a centre right think tank pretty closely linked to the Conservative Party.

Just a glance at the first page shows their bias - “taxis for families with motability cars”, why not? Motability is linked to PIP/DLA. What’s to say the parent isn’t working and so therefore can’t transport their child to school, particularly give that specialist schools are rarely close to home.

prescription charge exemptions are for the very lowest earners on UC, so certianly
aren't creating a cliff edge between working
and not.

“Childcare for parents to stay at home” - was a policy designed to ensure the poorest children had access to socialisation at an early age. Of course you can disagree with this, but it’s not about giving welfare claimants more money, they’d never see a financial benefit from it and so would have no effect on a cliff edge. In fact when I was in the trenches of full time nursery for two children when this policy was introduced I was pretty aggrieved, I’ve since come to realise that not all children were as fortunate as mine at preschool age and it really did benefit some.

anyway those are just some examples. It’s nothing to do with my ignorance or refusal to accept anything. Other than my refusal to accept rhetoric rather than exploring the facts behind the headline grabbers and gaining an understanding of how things actually work. Coupled with a realisation that of course any system will have flaws and outliers but that it they don’t represent the system as a whole.

If you know any I would like to know although I imagine my undiagnosed but likely autistic boy will probably not care about visiting anywhere. 🫣

I don’t think the blue light card is a comparison because it’s not really a genuine discount only 10% and to be honest you can normally find public vouchers which offers the same.

the trouble is with these threads everyone comes on with deserving poor bingo and to be honest we all have our own problems wether or not we are on UC.

Comes on these threads? You started it 😂

perhaps best not to worry about it eh. It doesn’t affect you, doesn’t cause you a loss of income, or an increase in tax.

Blue light discount varies from place to place. One of the few places ds will eat out is Bella italia and with blue light we can get 25% off generally which makes it affordable.

if people are arguing that discounts mean others pay more then surely all discounts are bad. Or is it only discounts for scroungers you object too?

Just a glance at the first page shows their bias - “taxis for families with motability cars”, why not? Motability is linked to PIP/DLA. What’s to say the parent isn’t working and so therefore can’t transport their child to school, particularly give that specialist schools are rarely close to home.

Or a travel allowance, which we get for our adopted DD1 (17) to get to her specialist college. She qualifies because of her EHCP (and she also receives PIP). It’s something that a parent with a child in mainstream wouldn’t receive, it’s true, but then they wouldn’t be having to take their child to a school 17 miles away from where they live. Some live a lot further away as well.

So it isn’t really a benefit to get resentful about. Our family life with a disabled teenager with adoption issues definitely isn’t one that should be envied anyway.

Erm, isn't this a thread that you started? Didn't you activate this 'poor bingo' you're talking about?

Is there a particular level of discount where you start objecting?
10-20% is ok but more than 50% is not on?

Perfectly summed up. I’m sure in reality not many would want to swap places with your DD, but still begrudge her having her travel costs funded.

We have a Motability car as now thet DD is 10 I cannot lift her and her power chair.

She gets school transport as she starts school at 8.45am 55 minutes away. My other children start the school that is literally in our street (and we lived in the same street when DD was born) at 8.55am. I cannot be in two places at once.

Had the school literally in our street been built (it’s 14 years old) with actual access she could go there, but she cannot as some bright spark signed off a change the plans that means a school built as two blocks has no ground floor classrooms, and no lift access to the other floors.

She’s unlikely to survive to adulthood (although we were told it was only a 20% chance of her seeing 10 so who knows) so it has been said, mostly behind my back but also twice directly to my face, that spending this kind of money on her education is a waste.