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.

no being female and single parent I am aware

The screenshot showing the “perks” aren’t applicable to all UC claimants, only those on no, or very low, incomes. I get nada. You’ll be thrilled to hear.

Actually thanks to this thread, I’ve booked my very first discounted ticket. Reduced rate James Acaster tickets at Southbank Centre. Annoyingly not £1, but wouldn’t have known about them otherwise, so thanks for bringing awareness! 🙌

So what’s your point? You’ve highlighted something we all already knew & that no one was questioning?

So you've screenshotted and shared some AI searches to prove that not all UC claimants that work, work full time. Do a completely detailed analysis study as to why this is, factors such as household makeup, disability, caring responsibilities, DV, relationship breakdown- information you are unlikely to find as we are talking about the individual circumstances of peoples' lives- and I might be interested in looking. As someone who has worked in welfare benefits for almost 15 years I can tell you that no snapshot is ever going to give a full and true picture. No welfare system is ever going to please everyone, there are flaws within it that UC was supposed to reduce and in some areas has failed. It is human nature going back longer than we've been alive that some will be more advantaged or disadvantaged than others, that some will benefit from it and some will resent it. What I do know is that I deal daily with the sharp end of this system spending hours in court fighting tribunals for people in genuine need, because poor decisions are being made in many cases based on either sheer incompetence of the DWP or a never admitted poor attempt at being 'brutal' to please 'the tax payer' of whom I am one, resulting in months and more cost going through the appeals system. Discounts introduced for well meaning reasons, as is the apparent basis of this thread, exist, and may seem unfair to some. So is being so unwell that you simply cannot work or wash yourself or use the toilet without help but have to go through over a year of struggle to end up having to explain this to a judge and two doctors in court. Life is unfair for a lot of different groups. Life is easier for others who can perhaps benefit from 'perks'. Life is unfair for my DH who is too disabled to work following military service and other conditions that developed after. I work hard and spend my other waking hours trying to look after him. No one is ever going to make the system perfect. Many want us to race ahead to a near-Dickensian system where the vulnerable suffer because there may be a little too much for those doing better because of how the system is set up. Hopefully I'll have either retired from this profession by the time that happens or off the planet all together.

Sure I’m aware, no one is saying scrap benefits and bring back poor houses.

I’m not sure what that has to do with my point about it feeling annoyed people not working or working part time can go to the zoo for £1 but some people who work full time can’t afford to go because the full price tickets are too expensive! (Also apparently to adult comedy concerts in the south bank so not even for children).
which are luxury items not basic needs.

And there numerous things which are are FREE for EVERYONE

Nobody is going to London zoo for £1.

The zoo seems to be the complainers main focus so folks should at least be accurate.

I wonder how long it’ll be before people are twisting the “fact” the % of people on UC working has appeared to drop recently will be used, whilst completely ignoring the context of legacy ESA claimants now being rolled into UC.

Seems like the kind of “fact” benefit bashers enjoy

Is access to cultural experience a luxury though? By having it as such are we not at risk of making it elitist and making gaps between those who have and those who haven’t even bigger?

Surely we should be aiming for everyone to be able to access cultural experiences at some level? These limited term offers go some way to helping that.

Those who think these discounts should be scrapped as they are ‘unfair’ - how else do you think the attractions involved should access the available funding and/or hit their charitable targets if it’s not using benefits as a proof marker of people’s situations qualifying them (the attraction) to claim?

Giving free tickets generally won’t allow them to tick the required boxes for community access schemes or funding toward widening access.

Thats why the attractions do them - it brings in funding or ticks required boxes. It’s not out of the goodness of their hearts.

In your opinion. I think that post reinforces how nasty and begrudging society is getting, which this thread is making depressingly clear already.

So what in your mind either you get the same as someone on benefits who may or may not be working unlike you because that would make you feel better. Do you really think that people on uc are overjoyed at needing reduced price tickets just so they can take their child out. It’s the attractions that are doing all this to help people I know you don’t like the idea of helping anyone but yourself but there are people out there with empathy for others who want to make sure that all kids get to enjoy a day out not just the kids who’s parents can afford a full price ticket. Should people on uc only be allowed to take their kids to the park but no one needs to pay and you would have nothing to complain about.

Cheap trainers are a luxury not a basic need and students and consultants on £150k plus a year are getting them.

as I said, it’s not costing you a single penny, so why cry about it.

if you’re a single parent & get no assistance from the state whatsoever, you are absolutely not the lowest paid in society. Focus your energy onto something worthwhile.

I think the comment about attractions becoming like inner London and only accessible to the very rich or the very poor is relevant.

I don't begrudge discounted/free enriching and aspirational experiences being available to those who otherwise couldn't afford them. But I do see that for those who don't meet that cut-off, the high costs also makes frequent visits out of reach. Overall I think they (we) just have to suck that up - there's nothing wrong in "only" being able to visit these sorts of places a handful of times throughout childhood.

And I do agree that people like Jenrick bringing attention to it is a very deliberate "look over there at them taking everything, don't look at me and my kind who are taking far more of it".

Seems like you are jealous of your so called friends consultant salary, why you keep going on about it. they probably pay marginal tax rates that will make your eyes bleed. Plus as I keep repeating the blue light discounts on shops is not anything really and not comparable, these small retail discounts of 10% are generally available in different forms to everyone via google.

it’s been like this for a while now. If you work an average job you’ll never be better off than the people who don’t work and claim benefits. Totally unfair!

Do you actually know the amounts of any benefits? I'm guessing not, otherwise you'd realise you are talking out of your arse.

Clearly not. UC for a single person is £100 a week, the equivalent of eight hours on minimum wage. The average salary is £37,500.

And when you factor in that a lot of people earn less than that...

That’s not true. The UC system is set up so it is better to work even if it’s just the few hours a week someone can manage around their disability or caring requirements

So why are discounts for some fair and not for others?

I can get 25% at ds favourite restaurant with blue light - is that fair?

Only becuase I’ve mentioned it multiple times and you’re yet to justify to me how someone on £150k needs discounts when someone on £24k doesn’t. Seeing as you think businesses should only offer things to people who otherwise can’t afford them. Blue light is 20% and the discount on my Southbank tickets was marginal too but that’s upset you.

obviously I’d love to earn £150k, bit of a non statement that isn’t it - who wouldn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️

of course she pays more tax, that’s how taxation works 🫠

Nandos are giving free chicken to gcse students in August, is that going to boil your blood as well? I doubt very much you can afford a Nandos if you can’t afford the zoo.

She doesn’t mind blue light, it’s not about discounts for some groups, it’s about discounts for welfare claimants for her. Although further back it wasn’t about that, she was fine with that, it was the fact zoos were too expensive in general.

There are plenty of threads on MN started in a similar vein to yours where there have indeed been suggestions likened to workhouses, work details, vouchers, etc etc. The points I took time to get across are obviously lost on you as you consider them irrelevant to your issue about discounts. They're not irrelevant. I was trying to illustrate that there is never going to be a perfect system that pleases everyone, and its the most vulnerable who genuinely suffer when we start lumping everyone together, breeding resentment. You also need to remember that it is the attractions/amenities themselves that generally decide to offer these discounts, its not as if we have a government department called Freebies For Benefit Claimants. For example, the social tariffs for broadband mean a vast number of my severely disabled clients can access vital Internet services where they were previously classed as digitally excluded because they couldn't afford it. And before someone jumps in and says that's not what we're talking about, it absolutely is.

Then they’re quite often entitled to state assistance if they have a family or caring responsibilities.