To be cheesed off with Universal Credit entry fees?

[MaturingCheeseball]

I know it’s been done before, but…

I thought I’d like to visit Chatsworth House with (teenage) dd. The cost is £33 each PLUS parking at £7.50. So £73.50.

Then I saw the universal credit/pension credit/pip etc price. THREE POUNDS. And free parking! So £6.00 for two adults (age 17+).

I do not have 12 times as much money as someone on these benefits. I doubt many people do. I’m not begrudging the disadvantaged a day out, but come on! The price differential is ludicrous.

When I saw the £73 price I just decided we couldn’t go, and so be it. But upon seeing the potential for a £6 entry, it made me feel mugged off.

There is some truth in it too. I have a friend who is a SAHM. our kids are all in junior school. Her husband works ft but because he's a low earner they claim UC. With this they are able to afford for her not to work. It's doable because they get free school meals, access to council run clubs in the holidays and so on. They both own homes in their birth countries too (but not in the UK).

I like my friend and to be fair she often helps me out with childcare, and I'm not anti-benefits, but I do feel this is a flaw in the system when I feel I'm busting a gut (and paying for after school club most days, missing out on time with my kids) and she is able to live like that thanks to UC.

And how do we test for that? Do PIP claimants need to bring a bank statement with them? Or do we make it universal so those who need it get it? Shall we do this with the state pension? We tried it with WFP and the world went mad about it.

Where did she study medicine, and why did she decide to become a cleaner instead of using her medical training?

🤬🤬

I contributed for over 40years, then I had a stroke. I now claim pip (just pip)
I can assure you my life is.FAR from comfortable.

Well if they both own homes abroad and their worth is over 16k they are commiting serious benefit fraud. I hope they have been declared !

So quit your jobs and go on benefits. 🤷‍♀️

You can't own property you don't live in and receive universal credit

He works full time but earns below £7,400 a year?

We use disabled and carers discounts when we visit places. In general if the discount is there it means we cant access the full facilities. DH is in a wheelchair, often the buildings are those built before they had the forethought to think disabled visitors would be visiting hundreds of years later..😉
When DC were little we would have loved to get low income discount, we usually had a choice get there or go in..both wasn't the option. Kids were often disappointed we couldn't go into places, only visiting free to access gardens etc at places.

There is a general feeling in the UK that our welfare system is a disincentive to work. People who are physically/mentally able to get a job are maintained to a comfortable standard and can get extras such as the cheap entry to Chatsworth which is out of the pocket of people working long hours. It's the unfairness which riles people up. It's not "jealousy"

Feeling. Not fact. Have a think.

Again, as so many are hard of understanding. Lots of people on UC are working. Including full time. Those not working at all are unlikely to be able to afford the travel to Chatsworth. Let alone a car. There's very little unfairness here. It's people making a choice not to undertand the bigger picture.

The National Art Pass is doing a great £20 trial this summer and it gets you 50% off Chatsworth. Loads of totally free days out too, it’s great

https://www.artfund.org/national-art-pass

The issue is people on quite high incomes who should expect to now can’t afford a family day out at say London Zoo because of the cost of living crisis and rubbish government after rubbish government. We also need to sort this

From this autumn term all kids from families on UC will get FSM.

I think the issue is the high entry fee for working people, not the low entry fee for UC claimants. The difference in entry fees is too much, I agree, but I'm not that much of an arsehole that I'd want to take cheap entry away from someone who needs it.

You could always go on benefits yourself if you are that traumatised by it all. Bet you won't though will you?

Disabled people are on more than £86 a week 😂😂 if they’re only on £86 a week - they’re not disabled

OP can I just point out that you included PIP on the list of qualifying benefits. PIP is a disability cost of living benefit and it doesn’t attract the same concessions as those for UC and other means tested benefits. Most venues will expect the disabled person to pay for their own ticket and will offer a free or discounted ticket for an essential carer or companion. And people on UC/PIP work.

I think the point the OP is trying to make is that this is the ‘only way’ you can make a zoo trip - great- but in their circumstances - guessing earning too much for UC, but leaves them with no decent disposable income, so there’s ‘no way’ they can afford the zoo trip. It’s the ‘no way’ for them to afford it but ‘at least one way’ for UC claimants that feel unfair.

I'm on universal credit and work part-time due to lack of any childcare that will accept my disabled child. We're currently in a bad patch due to no fault of our own, and I'm financially very savvy but having to rely on charity for food, and I haven't bought any new clothes for myself in 18 months; £3 per person is a ticket price that would be quite a large outlay for me in addition to the transport costs and likely spending on food due to the cafes and ice-cream vans at attractions (because my child doesn't understand being able to see food and not being able to have exactly that item due to cost, and life is tricky enough without two days of solid crying over not being bought an ice-cream and bottle of drink). The incidental costs like these of a trip out often prevent us from being able to afford it, despite the lower ticket prices, because a £2 ice-cream might mean I'll have to skip a lunch the next week.

I'd far rather be in a position financially where I'm not having to worry about whether I can go somewhere because there might be an ice-cream van my eagle-eyed children will spot. I remember the days when prices were just eye-watering rather than impossible for me, and I wish I could go back to them.

The entry price to stately homes is ridiculous, but the alternative for a lot of them is probably either letting them go to ruin or paying for their upkeep out of taxes or additional merchandise / food sales rather than entry tickets.

That's not the threshold for Work Allowance claimants?

£86 per week is the rate of carers allowance. For caring for someone disabled for 35 hours per week. Less than £3 an hour.

I agree with you OP. There is a scheme in my area that allows free school meals kids access to summer holiday clubs. Fantastic. Except the families with kids who don’t fall into this bracket have to pay £60 per day. I can’t help but feel that it is to make up the shortfall that the government don’t quite fund properly. Like the breakfast club scheme.

I recommend The Art Fund pass

If you’re a teacher, you get a discount.

Or you can buy a £20 membership that lasts for 3 months. It gives you free entry to lots of lovely places and 50% discount entry into others (Chatsworth house is one of them)

I used to live near Bakewell so we used to visit quite often but the prices did start becoming absolutely ludicrous.

I thought I’d like to visit Chatsworth House with (teenage) dd. The cost is £33 each PLUS parking at £7.50. So £73.50.

According to the website, parking is free if you book online.

they gave up one luxury for another luxury, it's hardly a tale of hardship. That school overnight will be THE holiday for many of those other kids.

If carers allowance was someone's only income they would also be eligible for UC including help with rent as well. Uc would give a top up of the carers allowance. No-one lives on £86 a week carers allowance alone .

YANBU.
The issue isn't that disabled&poor people with benefits can afford it.The issue is the big part of society which work and can't.

You remove PIP from
the list. If you are unable to work due to disability you would be in receipt of other benefits that would qualify. I don’t agree with pensioners getting free prescriptions at 60 either, or bus passes in some areas at 60. I once worked with someone on a six figure salary who lived in a lovely £1m
penthouse, had a company jaguar as well, he used his free bus pass to travel to the office very day. Rediculous. Same with winter fuel allowance, my in-laws have half a million in the bank, they don’t need assistance with paying their heating bills.