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.

Why can’t their kids have both
They aren’t mutually exclusive

Why?

Ah, I see. That makes them more aligned I guess. Thanks for clarifying 👍

What help would people who support themselves need?
Benefits are for people not able to support themselves, but they get reframed as some sort of "reward" on here, when they are not that at all.

If you read back in the chain of posts that pp was commenting on, it was children and DLA being discussed.

I don’t understand your point? Why aren’t all tickets subsidised? Because someone has cover the costs of things - there’s no magic money tree.

I am aware of that they are based on needs I complete PIP forms with people I support. I am also aware how many people are claiming their anxiety is so acute than they are house bound or can’t use public transport. If they are going to their GP saying they are anxious being prescribed medication, engaged in some form of therapy (again online) this is enough for people to at times be awarded high rate PIP. You really claiming the system isn’t being ripped off and people don’t lie. I’m asked to lie on forms all the time, I don’t, but how to get the higher rates is well known.

PIP was often assessed in person now it’s online, I have sat in a number of them and the levels of professionalism is often very poor

i have known a number of parents with children who have high needs that are left having fighting to get more

it’s a system that is so open to abuse that the ones who so often lose out are the ones who really are in need

Pensioners as a group seem to get more discounts than people on benefits anyway.

But surely you can empathise that some people do see it as a reward if they’re making a meagre amount more than they would if they didn’t work full time in real terms.

I completely agree and have just left benefits advice work for this reason.

And the reason the benefits bill is going up is because of the triple lock on pensions.

if you exclude pensions then the benefits bill is static at around 10-11% of expenditure year on year.

but this is conveniently ignored by everyone who talks about the benefits bill soaring

What do you suggest? A mass cull on over 80s?

Right but your comments on PIP and PIP assessments aren’t relevant to the chain of posts you jumped in on. It was about children and DLA. Not adults and PIP.

Parents need evidence to support what they write on the forms.

Although for PIP, someone who is housebound because of OPD wouldn’t get enhanced mobility unless they also scored points on the moving around activity since being unable undertake any journey because it would cause OPD scores 10 points rather than 12.

Not at all. I don’t begrudge it but I would appreciate honesty on this point rather than bashing people who live in some precarious situation as though they’re the root of all evil.

what I would like to see is a more honest discussion around organisations like Amazon getting away with paying tiny amounts of tax (cf: tax avoidance generally). If those gaps were plugged then I doubt very much governments would have so many problems balancing the books

we do not have a particularly generous welfare system compared to other European nations and they seem to afford it

No
it was noted children learn goid working habits etc from hard working parents
I noted
wouldnt it be nice if they could afford to go to these places aswell
You noted ‘but I’d rather have a child that can aspire to work and contribute meaningfully’

I said
Why can’t it be both
great days out
and
benefit from a good example set by parents

23% of working age people receive benefits in the uk

15% in Denmark

Yep, that's one approach. Would address equality but a far cry from equity.

I wonder what the retirement age is in Denmark? I have just finished a benefits advice job and a huge amount of people claiming were in their late fifties and early sixties with health problems or made redundant and the state pension age being constantly pushed back is just pushing more and more into claiming.

Yes and a lot of those people in the U.K. are in work as you very well know (around 33% of UC claimants are working). Deduct that and suddenly the figures are a lot closer.

the Danes ensure that people in work are paid properly and are not dependent on benefits to subsidise wealthy employers who can avoid paying a proper salary

Try again

I am in the process of doing the same as you- not because my clients were not genuinely in need but because too much of my work is tribunal work and the system is broken, my own MH is at risk due to the workload and has been for some time Changing career was not my plan as yet but there it is, I'm moving into a slightly different field.

Duplicate post, accidentally posted same twice

You can’t seriously be suggesting that putting someone into full time care at the expense of the tax payer is cheaper than paying a family member benefits, including the pittance that is carers allowance, to look after them at home ? What about someone who claims PIP and sources care from family by utilising carers allowance instead of the much costlier local authority care ?

This exactly Some of the prices are horrendous.

My other bugbear is kids places that charge a lot of money for the adult with them. And the adult wouldn't be going there at all if it wasn't for the kids

The family can pay for their own days out

Noone is entitled to someone else's hard earned money