To wonder on the future of generous welfare in the UK

[happybug1234]

It seems increasingly obvious that many middle-income families are becoming frustrated at how squeezed they are financially, while at the same time seeing people on universal credit receive a growing range of subsidies and support — £1 attraction tickets on days out, a 6% rise in benefits this financial year, childcare costs reclaimable through Universal Credit, housing benefit, and so on. I see thread after thread on this on this site and also increasing momentum in the media on this issue (income cliff edges etc)

In my own extended family, 1 unemployed parent with the other on min wage, in social housing appear to have more holidays and more disposable income than we do, despite us both working full time with a household income of around £95k. Once childcare, mortgage, insurances, commuting and tax are taken into account, we 100% have a lower level of disposable income than they do as they do not have any of these work related costs and their rent is paid. They have recently gone on a 2 week holiday whilst the most we can ever afford is 1 week.

Quite a few teachers in my friendship circle are declining promotion opportunities or TLR because the extra pay often doesn’t feel worth the additional stress once tax, pension contributions and childcare costs are factored in. Instead, some are putting more effort into private tutoring, which is tax free cash in hand.

What is stopping the government from addressing this as people seek to be responding accordingly in their behaviour!

We all know what entitled means in this context…

FFS give your head a wobble. PP is a single mum... keeping her career by still working part time. Will increase her hours when her kid is old enough.

And will point out got 4yr old. 2yr old and near 1yr old. I am doing my best for them

Yes I am sorry. It’s nothing to envy. People who are dependent on benefits are vulnerable to the whims of any particular government. I don’t see that is something to be jealous of. Hope things don’t get worse. I just feel pessimistic.

Why is their father not paying to support them?

and if she works full time, then the tax payer will be paying for childcare and you will also fucking bitch about that too.

You will be paying either way.

You are just so hilarious.

That is a small gap between them all. I am sure you got your hands full already

Because hes an emotionally abusive prick whos to lazy to work and isnt allowed contact

You keep saying that, as though her taking tax payers money to work part time when taxpayers have to work full time to pay for it is at all morally or ethically acceptable. There’s a word for people like that.

You ignore what people are saying at your peril. Work should always pay more otherwise why do it. What I also thinks helps people on benefits is the black economy where they have their benefits and cash in hand jobs that the benefits people don’t know about. That and people living with a boyfriend but pretending they don’t.

PIP claims are spiralling out of control and everyone knows it. Issue is that there isn’t a squad of people to investigate so they claim it’s not an issue

But again. I HAD to go back to work and so I utilised a nursery (that I paid for) that my little boy attended from the age of 11 months. Would I have chosen to have more time off? Maybe. But I have financial commitments and two children to provide for.
I do understand the desire to stay at home and work fewer hours. The juggle is incredibly hard. However, I don’t think that is a choice we are all entitled to make unless we can fund it ourselves.
There are exceptions to this, such as caring for children with disabilities.

Because they are allowed to just walk away and leave the single mum to all of the judgement and vitriol apparently.

In work with a number of single mums working 40 hours plus. They do it on their own. The previous poster should be able to manage 30. That’s only 6 hours per day.

If I’m paying either way can I choose to pay for her childcare please?

Ok, she could have just left her job altogether and got more benefits.

I'm a pensioner. No children. No handouts as you put it. No benefits until I was eligible for the state pension. And I'm still working.

And that makes it better does it? Why do you think it is appropriate for people to claim benefits who don’t need them?!

Its a privelage not everyone has.

I think welfare (aka wealth redistribution) will become more necessary as wealth inequality grows. AI and technological advances will dramatically reduce the number of menial tasks that most of the population has historically been employed to do. The handful of people at the very top of the pyramid will be incredibly rich, whilst the increasing number of people out of work or in extremely low paying roles will need a helping hand - otherwise they'll be completely shut out from all the benefits such advances could bring to society as a whole.

This is tricky though, as the people at the top and in the middle don't see why they should subsidise people at the bottom, forgetting that the way society and our economy are structured lead to increasing social inequality if this isn't addressed through government intervention.

Too much social inequality leads to social unrest, which further harms human society.

The other issue is that we don't want to tax those at the top too much, as those people and companies will just move their wealth overseas. We have to remain attractive as a place to live, through the right levels of taxation, investment incentives and regulation.

There's a really delicate balance to be struck by the state, and I'm really, really glad it's not me that has to decide where to set it!

you know part time workers pay tax too, right?

Ah and here is the internalised misogyny.

My husband works full time earning just under £40k and I'm a SAHM. We also receive a significant amount of benefits. We have a mortgage and 4 young kids. We don't "live in poverty" and can afford all our bills (which we pay the full amounts for) and have money left over every month without any shame. We also don't drink, smoke or abuse drugs nor do we have a massive TV 😂 Can't say I'm aware of any entry for £1 to attractions near where I live though except the zoo one time.

I have some health issues which weren't a massive problem until after our third child was born. The fourth was a result of a migrated coil and due to traumatic circumstances at the time was past the point of a possible termination but it's unlikely that we would have taken this route anyway. Yes, we proceeded with having a fourth child while claiming benefits. At the time there was little financial gain to this. We now receive more due to the 2 child cap being lifted but we obviously cannot pick and choose which elements of UC we receive. Nobody is aware of my health issues except my husband and 1 or 2 trusted friends. Most people would assume I am fairly healthy and due to living in a "nice" house and area that we wouldn't be claiming benefits either. Yes, I can have children and care for them but it takes every bit of energy I have both physically and mentally at the moment. To others, it may appear that I can carry out regular tasks and have a "normal" life. But, I have been assessed as unable to work by medical professionals and I really could not manage paid employment right now. I trust their judgement more than randoms on the Internet. Not everything is as black and white as most people on mumsnet seem to like to believe about benefit claimants.