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.

I don't think you are 'rolling in it', I have not said that at all.
What I have said is struggling to make ends meet and not being able to afford £33 entry fee to an attraction is not unique to UC claimants.

Except because I'm not thick as mince enough to be misled by the Daily Mail, I know that the majority of claimants are in fact in full time work.

A child with disabilities is a different situation.

Every adult who is able and their children are without disabilities should be working and paying into the system not taking out of it. Benefits are there as a safety net only.

Even free childcare hours have been handed to every working family, it’s never been as easy for every parent to work as it is now. There’s no excuse in the book that would justify not working if you’re able and your child is without disabilities.

Most UC claimants aren't in FT work

Well you must be (charming) 'thick as mince' if you think 38% is the majority, sorry.
The Govt does not break down any further than 38% of UC claimants are in employment. I'll leave it up to you to guess what % of that 38% are in full-time work, but it's certainly not 'the majority' of UC claimants.
So maybe you don;t read the DM but you certainly don't understand the way percentages work.

But it’s a start. If every UC claimant worked, even part-time it will show willing, they’ll be contributing to society, paying tax once over the threshold and you never know it may reduce overall tax for all eventually!

They may even like working 🤷‍♀️

There was a thread on here recently where it was suggested you shouldn’t go on holiday if you get UC, so I’m surprised someone has said you also shouldn’t go on days out!

I think the problem is days out have become prohibitively expensive for lots of people and the free stuff gets boring year on year. NT is not good value if you live in a part of the country with virtually no properties like I do.

There are clearly people on low incomes who probably should be able to access these schemes as well, how to do that seems hard though. Maybe through free school meals?

No, they aren’t. Around 10% of UC claimants work 30 hours per week or more. Those are statistics published by the government.
As a PP rightly pointed out, most are registered as disabled so are classed as unable to work. The largest type of disability in receipt of UC is Mental Health and Behavioural disorders. Followed by Musculoskeletal issues, such as severe back pain, arthritis or fibromyalgia.

Outside of their mandatory 30 hours a week job searching, unless they have a baby or disabled child.

You said we have the same if not more disposable income that two working people on NMW do.

This is simply not true, you evidently don’t understand deductions or taper rates.

I mean yeh people on UC shouldn't go on holiday unless someone else pays for them to go.

And Fibromyalgia is a debatable condition amongst medical experts. It’s usually the last thing to be diagnosed when nothing else can be found.

My cousin lost 3 stone and no longer had chronic pain. Some experts think it’s psychological.

They can’t just claim it and do nothing, they would have to show they are actively looking for work for 30 hours a week at least, attending interviews and courses plus sessions with their job coach at the job centre.

You're not paying for discounted (not subsidised) tickets.

the venue is offering heavily discounted tickets to bring in people that wouldn't otherwise go, it's a business model that increases their revenue.

keep in mind that a disability can happen overnight, to anyone. You're not disabled today, that doesn't mean you won't be tomorrow. I hope if you are you don't object to other people thinking you're shafting them if you claim pip? Or being accused if having no self redirect or pride or being a scrounging loser.

HTH

Agree it needs reform. They should never have lumped the disabled/ too ill to work ( many of whom claim UC)and carers in with those who don't want to work or want to fleece the system by working as little as possible . At the moment is all comes under the same benefit.

Even if the discounted ticket was around £10 it would still be less than a third the cost of the full price one. I think the outrage stems from the expectation that people not on benefits can afford to fork out comfortably again and again. The reality is they usually spend more on things like commuting and childcare in their working week, many of them are struggling to even afford this now, let alone expensive says out. So we end up in a situation where one group is excluded instead of another. Seems it would be much more favourable to find a middle ground where these attractions are reasonably accessible to anyone who would like to visit them, whether they claim or not.

Those not working and on UC are having their holidays paid for! By their working neighbours.

Probably not a great business model. Paying £33 whilst others are getting it for £3 would put me off going altogether tbh. If I took my dd that would be almost a day's pay just to get in.

thats great. I’ll do that. And benefits people can enjoy a 7 day weekend

Those are their choices, its their charity to run as they want. They choose to give discounted tickets to make it easier to get grants and lottery money. If they gained charity status in other ways, people would also have an opinion on those, everyone also does.

It was moved into a charity status and became a trust in 1981 to ensure its long term preservation, it would seem the choices they have made during that time have worked as it is still a house open for viewing and in excellent condition.

Unless their partner earns enough to meet the threshold and then she won’t be expected to do anything.

I am going to help you out here.

2 people on nmw £1880 x 2 after tax is ££3760

family of 2 adults and 2 kids, assuming one born before 2017 and both adults over 25 (so this is the max) £1323

The argument will be free childcare / council tax / school meals

dinners - average of £14.50 pw - £95
childcare - don’t get this unless you are working or disabled, except standard free school
council tax - let’s call this £2k a year (generous) most council will still expect even nw parents to pay something. Let’s not include that for arguments sake £167

housing - let’s assume this is on the higher end and not social, and going on the highest lha rate for central london for a 2 bed - £1794.

so the working couple, £3760
if they were renting the same, they would be entitled to the same £1232 allowance, £1794 housing, £95 fsm. £3121, minus deduction for wages (total wages £3760 - deduction of £1833) so would get an additional £1288 AND be able to claim up to 85% of their child care costs.
income £5048

The couple on uc
£1232, £95, £167, £1794 = £3228, BUT they would hit the benefit cap, so max they could get is £2110. add in £20 for prescriptions for the adults and what, an average of £50 for dental? Still miles off
‘Income’ £2180

A lot of it is debatable. There is no “scan” or accurate test for a lot of Mental Health or behavioural conditions. Does that mean they don’t exist? No. But something is going on because claims for those conditions have increased massively in recent years.