To think people on benefits can’t win

[Flamingosareflummoxed]

I’ve heard so many people this week, in real life, moaning about people on benefits. I get it that we are all struggling. The cost of living is crippling.
But every week there are posts on here from women who were in 70K per year HR positions who are finding it difficult to get interviews for MW jobs.
There are no jobs.
The few jobs that there are will be flooded with applications, why would recruiters chose someone who has been unemployed for years?
Plus all those with long term disabilities who need reasonable adjustments.
Its like people want to bash people knowing there is no real alternative.

The number of men who get away without paying maintenance really riles me, and the CMS is shite at collecting it when they (eventually) get round to it. Even when they get round to collecting via attachment of earnings, the feckless fathers suddenly go self-employed.

YANBU people on benefits are easy pickings. The press encourages it and people lap it up.

There are also people that do work and get a top up.

Because it’s not very much if you just get UC but the majority of people have PIP, DLA and disability element add ons. Then they get as much as a working person pretty much.

My lovely plumber prefers electronic payments, because it makes it easier for him to do his accounts.

He's a good lefty though, and believes in paying his taxes. (He's also a damn good plumber!)

The only person I pay cash to is the window cleaner. Even taxis take card payments now.

You need to remember that they have a disability too. One that impacts their daily living and/or mobility, hence why they get PIP.

You demanded I stop responding to you, so please show me the same courtesy.

Don’t have children with a man who is not willing to equally share the childcare is a good start. Between two parents, even working FT, it is manageable. One does drop off, the other one picks up, share sickness days, accept that your DC will have to use breakfast and/or afterschool clubs, etc.

Back to the main topic, there are jobs in my area. Random example, cleaners! They are paid 20£/h and when you hear of a good one, you have to take the slot they offer as they are otherwise fully booked. A few cafes nearby also have ‘help wanted’ signs. After-school nannies / sitters is another example, many people looking for one for September already - not FT work but still better than not working at all.

Up until this one, I made 3 comments on this thread. None have said such a thing. None were even uoting you.

Around 40% of UC claimants are working.

The other category that the previous poster omitted was carers. Carer's allowance is such a paltry amount that no-one could live on it, especially if they paid rent, and they're entitled to a UC top-up.

I must be doing something wrong in that case because even with DLA and disability element add ons, I don't have any disposable income.

Also, you can be in LCW/LCWRA and be working.

No, try reading again. They pay for the car, from their mobility element. That is not 'free' now, is it? I am quite aware of how the scheme works, as well.

You asked me to stop responding to you on another thread and made unpleasant remarks about me. I’m respecting that so please respect me.

A lot of working people don’t either. That’s not me being snarky, it’s quite normal not to have a lot of disposable cash unless you’re a higher earner.

I have no idea who you are.

Oh, I know. I don't expect to have a lot of disposable cash, it's the assumption that I do when it couldn't be further from the truth.

I think if I’m being honest people on both sides of the line (working or non working on benefits) assume this about the other. They assume working people are loaded, that they love their job, that their lives must be so fulfilling and financially comfortable. Couldn’t be further from the truth even in so called ‘good jobs’. Not helped by people who sell their stories of making 40k in benefits to the newspapers, making out it’s the norm.

I'd like to see your source for that.

The govt reckons that only 27% of UC claimants get PIP/DLA as well.

Indeed you can, and many are. If you're in the LCWRA group and work more than 16 hours or earn more than 16 x NMW a week, it often triggers an LCW reassessment though.

I’m on benefits and I have a fairly ok full time job. I think people forget that benefits are subsidising wages too low to live on in 2026, a quarter of claimants are in work.

Also I agree the job market is awful. People who are benefit bashers are pathetic. Imagine resenting struggling single parents and disabled people, they must be real misers in real life.

It’s group (a) that gets my back-up! They feel their lives and their kids lives should be paid for by everyone else. Their kids suffer from being brought up in poverty and the parents think they’re doing a great job providing for them if they put them in clean clothes and have food on the table (that tax-payers have paid for). Being a good parent and providing for children is so much more than this.

I know, I was brought up on benefits, so I’m speaking from experience.

My children’s lives are wonderful in comparison to my childhood as they have two working parents who value work, education and learning through experiences. If we were not working, these experiences couldn’t happen.

Everybody who can work should work and pay for themselves and their dependents.

All other groups listed are of course deserving of benefits.

Ah, I did not know that. I just know about the 55p deductions if you earn a certain amount.

Of course they get your back up - they do everyone's. But they're an incredibly small portion of the total number of welfare claimants and yet they're talked about like it's the norm. It would be almost impossible to survive long term on benefits if you were genuinely just choosing not to work. With UC, you are always better off working if you are able to.

That is the trouble when people talk about UC claimants. They tend to generalise because of what social media and gutter press tell them.
Hell, there as an article that all the rags are sharing right now about a woman who claimed she could not walk, but was caught doing a 10k run. Followed by countless comments about all PIP claimants are taking the piss... they just have not been caught yet.

It came up on my FB, I don't know why.... someone rang into a Jeremy Vine show, and JW implied the caller was a fraud because he was ringing into a show so could therefore get a job. It was the same on here when a lady with anxiety was on Question Time... even though she said she was looking for a job.