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.

No, it's really not. There's a brilliant post earlier on in the thread explaining it, if you're interested.

Probably because hardly anybody on MN are pensioners. And the only ones they know will be folk with a second home in Spain and go 4 cruises a year. So obviously the state pension is far too high.

40%

The difference being you always have to be eligible for UC to claim it. Many people in council homes were eligible once and now live life on easy mode with a secure tenancy and cheap rent. It’s very hard for a young person to get a council home these days it’s mostly older people who got given one decades ago and are rattling around three bedroom houses when their adult children have flown the nest. Anyway i disgress .

I plan to make full use of UC entry fees this summer as a young parent paying through my nose for actual full rent prices we don’t get many pleasures, if that upsets anyone so be it.

If your son gets DLA, and you want to go to Chatsworth House then he gets in for £3 and an essential carer gets in for free. That’s a huge saving on the cost of a day out imo

Does your workplace offer discounts/ passes? My husband's workplace has a Chatsworth pass that's free for employees. It's one pass for the whole organisation so first come first served but means we can go for free if we're quick to secure dates.

The uc tickets are a bit like cheap holiday prices. They are there to fill spaces to at least get some money through the door.

Holidays the companies make their main money in the school holidays. The £9.50 sun holiday people in term time are known for blowing their cash in the arcades and pubs, big money maker. It’s the only reason it’s cheap.

These Uc tickets as well as being charitable are the same they fill a space that would other wise be empty and weirdly they are often the ones likely to spend the most on the food and gift shop.

Holidays again. We will pick haven. A guest booking their most expensive lodge or caravan is known to spend less money on site than those booking the saver or bronze caravans. So the cheaper caravans are located closer to the pubs shops and eateries. While the more expensive accommodations are further away not all of them but most of them.

The people with the least money tend to spend the most. It’s why making lower earners have less “fun money” doesn’t work for the economy rich people hoard cash those who have just enough for a bit of fun spend it all.

Those in the middle cut their cloth. It’s always been the way.

I am honestly quite surprised at the statistics, I always assumed most people on UC were in a similar situation to us / carers and/or disabled.

edit to say; Google seems to think about 30% of claimants are disabled, so when you add that to the 40% working, it is still very much the minority of claimants who claim without working/disability.

No they're not.

Tge prices for standard tickets remain the same. The discounted tickets bring in ADDITIONAL revenue to the attractions. That's all.

This is simply bollocks.

I work full-time and receive Universal Credit.

After many, many years in a successful career and being a 40% tax payer (happily so) I had the misfortune of having a serious mental health breakdown and have had to scale back work stress for the sake of my health.

So I, currently, receive Universal Credit which includes some housing element (about half of me rent), a single parent allowance, and limited work capacity element (still work but wouldn't be made to job search for now).

And this is how it will be until I am 'better'. My assessment for therapy took from last October to April to happen, and told May that I can have CBT but in an 8 to 9 month waiting list, so it will be 2027 before that starts.

There are tons of reasons people might be receiving Universal Credit, not currently in work, or working part-time. A little compassion goes a long way.

Sorry, this was in reply to the poster who said Universal Credit claimants don't work or only work 12 hours so can go to these attractions any time.

I guess Chatsworth generates sufficient income from tourists and coach parties so don’t much care if they lose the casual visitor. Ditto Westminster Abbey/Tower of London.

Yes, there are plenty of free and less costly places to visit - and I do visit them! - but having seen about a particular exhibition I was interested in going to Chatsworth. They have however eliminated me, which is up to them as a private business.

Or, more likely because, they take up the vast majority of the welfare bill and younger people are seeing their wages stagnate, their access to support and healthcare cut, and yet that generation still maintain young people are entitled, and lazy and should just eat fewer takeaways or drink fewer coffees in order to be able to afford their first home.

Whether it is too high or not, it is more protected than any other state benefit, and it is unaffordable.

Interesting to note, I’ve been hearing about all these lazy benefit scroungers since they were known as “dole bludgers” in the 80s. People who never worked a day in their life and lived comfortably off the state. They will be pensioners now, funny how they are considered to have “worked hard all their lives” and are entitled to a triple locked pension.

Castle Howard and Harewood House have these offers too.

I was thinking the same thing. 60 hours on minimum wage is almost £40k a year. And I would think
a book-keeper/accountant would earn a bit more than the minimum wage! This is why this country is in a financial mess. Stupidly high university costs, high interest rates on student loans, high unemployment, high cost of living particularly housing costs, and wages so low that someone working 60 hours a week is having their salary topped up by the overstretched British taxpayer!

and later posts showing that full priced tickets are indeed subsidising the discounted ones

ie
The Telegraph and
The Chatsworth Trust

I really struggle with the I don’t get it so I begrudge others attitude.

I pay to watch my Premier League team, they give c.20-30 tickets a match to schools / grass roots kids clubs and their teachers, do I begrudge them getting to go for free, absolutely not. Brilliant different groups of people are getting to experience it.

Teachers, support workers, NHS staff get blue light discount loads of places, do I begrudge that, absolutely not, great for them!

All the ‘middle income’ I can’t afford it, I suspect they could, they just choose to prioritise other things, absolutely their choice. But comparing someone getting reduced tickets that may not be able to afford extra curriculars, shop at Boden, have cleaners (mumsnet full of people discussing these things as every day expense) isn’t really comparing apples

And why is that?
Surely 2 average incomes should not be so screwed over at every turn that they would even THINK about being jealous of universal credit.
But that's where we are.

Why not expand it further then. Say, to anyone who ever claimed benefits, or anyone whose extended family does.

More people get to enjoy the attractions and no impact on revenue?

Price discrimination can be profit maximizing but 12x price cut for for such a large group must be cannibalising a lot of revenue. And attractions don’t have unlimited capacity or nil maintenance costs.

Many places give reduced entry to disabled people &/or reduced or free entry to their carers. Including Chatsworth House - those with receipt of PIP/DLA or carer’s allowance qualify for the UC tickets, and they also offer free essential companion with PIP/DLA/AA, an access card, a max card or a disabled person railcard.

Have you not applied for DLA and appealed if necessary?

They might not get more income but being on pension credit is a gateway to other benefits e.g. free dental, help with the cost of glasses, concessionary tickets as in this example. It was going to be only people in pension credit who were going to continue to receive the WFP under Labour’s initial plan until they u-turned.

The thing is, if someone said to me, “Oh dear, I wanted to visit Posho Castle but top-rate taxpayers must pay £500,” I’d be sympathetic, even though I was only obliged to pay £10. Some posters seem to be gloating at people having to pay full price…

full price tickets do subsidise those that are not if you RTFT ( or just a few pages back )

You want Chatsworth house to means test for their ticket prices??

😂😂😂

I wonder what would happen if all middle earners boycott these attractions and they can keep their £3 pp entry.