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.

@Sugarplumfairy18 One tip is to do it a few pages per day. We did this for our son.

I used to work for a charity that did this (amongst other things) I was a pro at DLA and PIP forms. I actually enjoyed them. Appeals too.

Sadly though, most of those charoties are long gone due to funding being cut and cut and cut

Chatsworth House a National Trust Property. The most galling bit of all for me is the National Trust strapline:

"FOREVER, FOR EVERYONE"

Except it's not, is it.

I stopped at a NT property I couldn't afford to visit too OP. I looked at the demographic of aged grey haired seniors with their smart linen trousers and picnic baskets wandering about on the other side of a wall and families with their 4+ children running about on a lawn after I sat with my one on the bit I could afford, a public bench in front of the ticket office where we ate our home made sandwiches after the sheer extravagance of paying the £7 parking.

I confess, not only did I have some ugly thoughts in that moment that I'm not proud of but I gave serious long and hard consideration as to how I could turn to a life of crime and try to break in.

Why dont they scrap the UC scheme completely and instead each individual site have an Open Day once a year where anyone can come for free on a first come first serve basic. With the current social landscape being what it is this would be a much fairer and proportionate solution.

I went to have a look at Chatsworth ticket prices to see if they’ve spiked up since they joined the scheme, but according to this bbc article it was £35 in 2024 when they started the scheme.

So absolutely no spike in general ticket price to cover the discounted tickets

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7202z3rn2ro

@Crosorbled

You aren't subsidising others visits - by them getting discounted tickets you ticket price is lower and the place is open to the public

RTT
a few pages back the Charity commission requirements were posted
Chatsworth do not have to give lower prices
Their status can and is already met in other ways by community and other outreach programmes
aswell as being non profit

I think this yes, coupled with a complete lack of inclination to think outside their own lives. MN will be an interesting place in 30 years time, when the posters who have been so vocal about everything pensioners get realise it's not all a bed of roses. It always amazes me how posters don't seem to comprehend that they will be pensioners themselves one day and the changes they want to use to punish 'greedy boomers' will affect them one day too.
Expensive housing does not excuse the vitriol towards pensioners, who had their own issues in their earlier lives, including higher mortgage rates, negative equity and the financial crash.
The pp who mentioned means testing is correct. We need to get rid of UC as a blanket passport to benefits such as these low-cost entries. There will be many families claiming more in benefits due to their circumstances than working families get in wages, yet they are entitled to low-cost entry despite a higher income.
I've said on here before, out of curiosity a couple of months ago, I inputted my details to an online benefits calculator based on our circumstances when our two (autistic) children were younger. Based on neither parent working, our UC entitlement was over £5k a month. That's the equivalent of a salary of around £85k as year. (of course, I was told the calculator was wrong). Yet on an 'income' of £5k, I would have been entitled to these tickets. It's all wrong.

It depends on where you are but there are still charities or other organisations who can help.

The lottery Open doors day/week does what you suggest at the end of your post in many many places.

i think Chatsworth did discounted tickets rather than free, but the bulk of places are free on set dates (usually either March for the lottery and September for Doors Open days).

its definitely worth keeping an eye on places on their list.

RTT
the tickets are being subsidised by full price tickets

Vote Labour for benefits

@Taxicus

Chatsworth is not NT so why would they have a NT strap line?

You're being ridiculous. How on earth would Chatsworth house have the time or inclination, (quite apart from the legal aspect) , to means test entry tickets 😵‍💫😵‍💫🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

YOU may be able to afford it with your multiple benefits, but that doesn't mean anyone on UC or PIP can.

I think perhaps that’s part of it. They use the offer to get people going, who wouldn’t otherwise and also access at quieter times such as weekdays, then spending when they get there.
The zoo where I have a membership offered thie £1 UC as a promo in December because of shorter days, and people not naturally thinking of a day at the zoo at that time of year.
once in, there’s the food outlets, the shop and the other concessions so people spend a fortune once there.

So why has the ticket price gone down?

There are heritage open days
Not at Chatsworth though
This year it’s between 11-20 September

Get yourself an Art Fund pass for 50% off the entry fee to Chatsworth. You can add your kids. It gives free or discounted entry to loads of places and it pays for a itself in a few visits: https://www.artfund.org/explore/museums-and-galleries/chatsworth

Too true. My mum has had to die in order for me to even be able to think about buying a property and I am £500 into my overdraft every month even with the UC.

Fucking lucky dole scrounger me getting my £8 chatsworth day out.

That's not how it works though.

they have offered a discount to people who would otherwise not be going to the venue so they can afford to go. Therefore it increases their revenue.

He has only been unable to attend full time the last few months. He just about coped in primary with alot of reasonable adjustments. They were very supportive. Secondary school has been an awful experience so far, which is why we are now applying for an EHCP. We are hoping we can then get him into an alternative provision, but as i’m sure you know, it is a very long process and we are going to have to fight to get him the education he deserves and is entitled to.

I understand your point and agree to an extent, but you do not know us and it’s wrong to imply that we are just sat around not helping ourselves and blaming others. We both work. We actually have 3 children with SEN (our autistic son in question just having the highest needs). Life is not that simple. I do not blame anyone, but I do not believe that we should also be funding those who are in either the same position as us or better off. I am allowed to feel like this, both the benefit and education system are broken.

Why dont they scrap the UC scheme completely

because there are lottery funds and grants that wouldn't be so easily accessible to them if they didn't do the discount scheme - as they are a charity

A fairer system would be a tiered pricing structure, if you earn less than £15,000 it's a tenner, between £15,001 and £19,999 it's £20 and anyone earning £20,000 + pays £25, going up to £40 if you earn over £28,000. Seems fair-under that type of arrangement, I would be expected to pay £40, not £3, which is definitely doable for anyone on PIP and UC.

Your proposed pay scale is ridiculous because it would mean someone on £28k paying the same as someone on £100k...

No idea
perhaps they are making money in other areas
they have holiday let’s and all sorts

Its how this country is run now....the less you do the more you get. its very wrong.

I consider myself very much to the left, but I actually agree the disparity is not on.

Fine for those on benefits to get in for £3 but £33 for everyone else is taking the piss. There’s a huge gap there, and as you found OP £33 is just not affordable for a huge number of earners.

Rather than complaining about the discounted price, point out that full price is just unafordable.