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 worked 42 hours a week not including commuting which took me to 50 hours and I worked in the same town as I live and drove. I earned over nmw and I bought home £1600 after tax. No one can live on £1600 a month and I have two kids. What on earth was I supposed to do exactly? Work 100 hours a week with 2 kids just so I could afford the extortionate bills I'm faced with? I don't even drink, smoke, go out to eat or get take aways, my car is 14 years old, my rent at that time, for a small 2 bed terrace was £800pm and going up yearly. But yes, don't top up my wages or offer an actual living wage, that'll fix it.

Lots of working people are also struggling and don’t qualify for any help.
It doesn’t devalue your experience. It just means something isn’t working.

I would like to add that despite places like Chester Zoo offering reduced UC entrance, we could not afford to go because the travel and associated costs were simply too much. Most people on benefits can’t afford to buy decent shoes, so going to a zoo is a ridiculous concept!

Only to someone who is ignorant.

My child gets DLA so we’re eligible for these discounts. He’s severely disabled. I work 40 hours per week.

This. With bells on. We as a family had the privilege of going to the lost gardens of heligan under a similar scheme recently. We had wanted to go for years but could never ever afford it. We got so much out of it and learnt so much. I could see it was only middle class people there and they were catered for at the cafe and the shop as these were both very pricey. We couldn't afford the food or anything from the shop but we didn't mind, we were just glad to see the nature. You never know what circumstances have led people to need extra help. In our case we've got 2 children with disabilities and I'm in ill health. Hubby works full time for the NHS. Have some compassion.

The local attraction to me offers £1 entry for UC claimants. Meanwhile the student ticket is £25.50. Students cannot claim UC if they have no children even if they are living off £10,000 a year.

That means as a disabled person I'm paying the same as able bodied people even though I can't access everything. How is that fair?

Only to a dick head.

😂

Why can't it just be a slight discount and make the full price tickets cheaper? People on benefits getting a 91% discount is scandalous.

I mean I know people who work 60 hours. Some do 80. A single parent with children probably can't do those hours. (Unless just laptop work relentlessly from home).

But perhaps work to increase your income, idk. My son is 25 and takes home £2k after tax.

Sounds like you need to move somewhere you can find well paid work. Equally, why you heaped having two kids into that financially unstable situation, only you would know. My feeling is tax payers are propping up poor decision making, which we can’t afford to do. The country is broke.

I think unfortunately she had a relationship break down (which is not her fault) and/or the father is absent.

42hr per week on NMW would give you a take home of more than £1900 a month? Not enough I agree, but more that you say?

A "good deal" is only relative to your own means. You cut your cloth accordingly.

NT pass for a year or 2 months worth of swimming lessons?

These are real choices people not in receipt of UC have to make because they don't have a "disposable" income.

I hope you sound more intelligent in real life chunk.

It’s 42 hours a week
not £/ hour

Fair enough, but if the tax payer has to underwrite every failed relationship we as a society are screwed.

That's an incredibly offensive comment.

I’m completely with you OP. It’s not about bashing those who are too disabled to work - it’s the fact that for parents with children (presumably who these incentives are mainly aimed at) UC was supposed to ‘level the playing field’, providing top ups for working families to bring them in line with other working families, so the children have the same opportunities. What has actually happened though is that often, UC tops up these individual so they then earn more than a full time working counterpart. People will say that this isn’t true, but it is. Go on the Entitledto website and use their benefit checker. My ex’s ex partner works 30 hours a week in a minimum wage job. She chooses to work term time only (her child is a teenager). She gets a ‘top up’ of over £900 a month. When added to her wage, which is only just over the tax threshold, she took home more than me as a full time professional with a degree. I was unable to take my children out as I couldn’t afford it - she was at the football every few weeks, having beauty treatments, nights out, trips away in hotels, meals in restaurants, takeaways. In no way did that top up help level out the opportunities to her child (my children’s sibling) it distinctly gave them many more opportunities.

I earn a lot more now, in fact I paid over £16,000 of tax last year. I still can’t afford days out with my 3 children due to other living expenses, pension, student loan, mortgage, etc. My children still are unable to access these enriching activities that the tax I pay is helping other children to access. That’s why I and many others are pissed off, what is the point in us working?

And to the goady posters who are enjoying posting their thanks to the OP that they didn’t know they could visit these places and now they can go. Maybe myself and all the other tax payers will have enough, down tools and quit our jobs as keeps being suggested. I for one am sick of working my absolute arse off all the time, having limited free time, next to no free cash and no bloody ability to enjoy the fruits of my labour because I can’t afford to go anywhere or do anything. Then there will be no one paying their taxes and no UC for anyone anymore. Maybe the subject won’t be so amusing then.