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.

Online somewhere can’t remember where but it stands to reason
like stuff in shops is always priced to cover the stock loss with shoplifting

I don't get the unaffordable logic.

If 100 people were going to go and pay full price. And an additional 100 UC claimants go and pay a discounted rate, who otherwise might not have gone...they've made an additional £100 - not lost money. UC discounted rate attendees aren't preventing full price paying people going.

If poorer children stopped getting cheap tickets, would the holidays become easier for you?

This is exactly why we have one of the biggest wealth gaps in the western world. Outcomes will never improve until we as a society want to do better for everyone.

Btw someone posted on the other thread with evidence that the take up of the cheaper UC tickets was about 5%. Hardly bankrupting the country is it.

Most benefit claimants don’t live anywhere near these attractions.

Hitchens' razor.

No but if I got some nice cheap tickets it would be nicer for my kids
why not offer everyone a 50% off discount

But these attractions also have to make money and balance their books, so those full price tickets are directly impacted and subsidising those at discounted price. I do believe discounts should be available but the disparity is so stark (£100 for a family of 4 to visit Tower of London but just £4 for those on UC) I understand why people feel it’s unfair.

That's an interesting business proposal 😃.

I would not know, or care, what anybody else pays. All I need to know is 'do I want to go to the Zoo? Can I afford it? Is the experience likely to be worth the price?'

Yes, sometimes at off peak times to attract more visitors.
I recall someone saying they went to a zoo using the UC tickets just before Christmas. Freezing cold day, and half the animals were out of sight.

If everyone got a discount then it would not be a discount. It would just be the normal price.

But that ire should be directed at the greedy attraction owners, not people whose life is probably quite shit on the whole, and whose children might not otherwise get to have nice days out. It's not the fault of benefit claimants that attractions are overpriced.

@Everanewbie 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.

The rest are too disabled, or caring for someone who is too disabled to work.

I would argue people who work in low wage jobs, work far harder than I as an average earner ever do.

The unpaid carers (a huge proportion of will be on UC) who save the economy £184 billion annually certainly do.

That is nice that you feel that way. But if most people were queueing up to get into a zoo, and you were in the £100 queue and next to you was the £1 queue, you would honestly keep whistling to yourself without caring what anyone in the adjacent queue was paying?

Do they have separate queues?

Yes in a sence because you have to book the UC tickets

So do you actually want to take something away from poor children?

You just want a discount for you.
Have you looked at what discounts you could qualify for instead? Collect vouchers, student discounts, NHS, Armed Forces, group discounts, buy a pass, go by train?

So no then.

I'd rather pay £100 to get into an attraction and live a good life with home security, not having to worry about putting the heating on, and freedom of choice, than pay £1 and wonder about how I'm going to feed the kids for the rest of the school holidays.

I'd take the £100 queue every damn time.

Those who want £1 zoo admission would, I posit, not want the lack of security and much lower quality of life that the £1 ticket comes with.

Online? You can book any ticket online.
If you are waiting to go in the zoo, can you tell what other people are paying?

I doubt it, i was using a scenario to test the theory.

You get free prescriptions from the age of 60. I always got a season ticket because that saves a great deal
If you get income of more than £35,000 the winter fuel allowance is fully taxed back. I agree that’s a generous threshold
Most people don’t use the bus if they can drive and where I am, fares are capped at £3. I agree that’s a lot for pay for a journey and I agree that’s more should be done for younger people
You could have added the Senior Rail Discount, but that’s also from the age of 60, so irrelevant to pensionable age.

All these travel concessions are a way to get people to use public transport and they do result in increased use.

The triple lock will go. Perhaps you don’t remember but pensioners and pensioners were the subject of political manoeuvres when it was introduced, similar to the Tory party saying “the NHS is safe with us” at every political conference. Not because they supported it but because it got them votes. Times change and so will benefits.

I am definitely getting to the stage where I feel embarrassed and guilty for continuing to exist. It’s at least £15,000 to get finished off by Dignitas in Switzerland, by the way, and it’s not straightforward. I give as much as I can to charity.

Apologies for taking up space

I was born with a rare condition i worked for 20 years full time. I now have multiple organ failure and mild brain damage. I take 72 pills a day. I now work part time and claim uc and pip. Its unlikely that I will survive to meet my grandchildren. Who wants to swap lives so that they can go to a zoo for a £1. Also that zoo is the other side of the country so you wouldn't actually be able to go. Any takers

@Everanewbie yes I wouldn't give a shiny shit because I know why the vast majority are in the £1 que

They either have a very low paid income, are too disabled to work or are caring for someone too disabled to work.

A small proportion of them may have just been made redundant or be between jobs.

And and even smaller proportion will be choosing to live in poverty because they CBA.

And I still wouldn't care and I would still be happy to pay the £100