I do not know anyone who is having a 'party' living on benefits....post here if you do

[electra]

On MN, I keep reading on many different threads that Labour has been giving away loads of money in benefits to people who don't really need it which has caused the financial crisis.

All the people I know who rely on their tax credits and have children seem to have to watch every penny. I do not see evidence of them having any sort of 'party' life.

I had thought the banks were mostly responsible for the financial crisis by lending money that didn't exist.

Can anyone correct me on this? I'm open to different opinions.

Oh you again Londonone. Have this effect on people quite a lot don't you??

another vote for thesecondcoming

Have been reading through since my post last night and really want to add my two pence worth again and respond to posts that particularly got to interested me.

NotaRubbernecker "Who on earth gets a free laptop and internet?!"
Info on free laptops and internet here, here, here and here or just google it!

Riven ?If you go on entiltedto it says a woman with 3 kids gets ? roughly £200 a week for bills/good/clothing?
Someone working 37 hours a week on £5.80 hourly National Minimum Wage earns £214.60 total per week or £11159.20 per year (using this calculator). Out of this they have to pay bills/goods/clothing AND income tax, national insurance, pension, rent, council tax, school meals, adult prescriptions, dental and health care, and fresh milk, fruit and veg, baby formula ? oh and so on.

Laquitar ?I think those who complain about people on benefits being able to afford things are only using the benefits word because it is easier to target those people and the 'benefit' word justifies their vitriol. But in fact they feel this way about working class in general-with job or no job?
Not true. Those in lower paid jobs, the working class jobs, feel angry and embittered about the way in which people who do not work have more than they do. As cupcakesandbunting put it, it?s ?about feeling OUTRAGE at the injustice of it all?.

babybarrister ?the sum total of most of these posts seems to be the following: 1. if you are fraudulent you can live well on benefits 2. if you have taken out loads of debt you can live well on benefits?
Not true. The point, from what I can gather, is that people on benefits often have better lifestyles than people working in low paid jobs.

expatinscotland ?And NO ONE here is saying, 'Oh, get rid of benefits then.' It's questioning why full-time work pays so little for so many.?
So true!

SanctiMoanyArse ?in a few eyars their kids will leave home and they will get a pittance.?
rhondajean "Just a small not to Moany and Happy - as of October 10 all single parents go onto JSA when their youngest turns 7, meaning they must be actively looking for employment to keep getting benefits."
Expatinscotland My SIL plans to keep having babies!
So true ? the benefits culture is why many people have large families (and they do, judging by my neighbourhood). I know of one woman on her 7th child at age 25. How many more child bearing years has she got left? Choosing to have more children for those on benefits is not difficult, as they will be paid for. I cannot afford to make my household income stretch too far, and while I have a lot of love to give and would love a large family, cannot afford to make that choice. It is frustrating that this woman I have spoken of does nothing for any of her children, and has them only to maintain her income, and has said as much!

I go away to watch a TV drama and my post gets pulled! Not only that but clearly the secondcoming decided to have a pop so her post gets pulled as well! Anyone care to enlighten me as to what she said? Unlike some I think I probably have thick enough skin to take it! I also note that it wasn't thesecondcoming who reported my post just someone desperate no doubt to feel outraged on her behalf. I didn't realise quite what delicate flowers some on AIBU are!

how do you know who reported it londonone?

Because they posted that they were reporting it!

By TheJollyPirate Tue 04-May-10 21:05:46
londonone your post is utterly offensive and I have reported it.

Methinks jollypirate needs to find better things to do that get outraged on other peoples behalf!

what, like watch a tv drama?

pratt

lol - I think I can live with that! Of course you wouldn't really want people like me to lose our jobs would you? Less money in the pot that way.

motherlovebone - apologies for not spending my life chained to MN.

So you would rather prop up unsustainable industries would you? You may also want to check youth unemployment at the moment, Labour have done a pretty special job on that!

Your final sentence says it all for me, you consider yourself bonecrunchingly poor yet are having another child that you can ill afford. Either you think you can afford it as you will get state help or you think you can't afford it but have decided to go ahead and have a baby regardless. I find either of those mindsets very difficult to understand

unsustainable industry would be the mines.

I don't want to make life more difficult for you but the current level of handouts is unsustainable and I don't see why the state should susidise your decision to have a third child.

'Of course you wouldn't really want people like me to lose our jobs would you? Less money in the pot that way.'

LOL. You're the reason I encourage my UK-born, Scottish children to flee as soon as they are able.

Spend their time working to pay to wipe your arse and the likes of DC's cronies in old age?

I'd rather starve.

Thankfully, I won't have to. Neither will they. Haahaahaa.

And I'll be eligible to vote in UK elections till I die.

Haahaahaa.

Know sever al families on benefits who go abroad every year but I think they are doing paid work on the sly

I can't say I'm bothered if they are doing work on the sly, FWIW. It's usually grunt work like painting, building or cleaning.

Meh.

All these people who know 'people living it up on benefits' ... how do you know it isn't all on hb & they have horrendous bills stacking up?

I used to be annoyed that my sister, living in a council house, earning nothing, 3 children, hubby working min wage job at the time had 2 computers, a TV in every room, a caravan that cost the earth, expensive camping equipment, all the kids DSs, and get games all the time, all of them have mobile phones.

Then she told me that they have 2 credit cards each, and either 2 or 3 (I can't remember) catalogue accounts. Their kids DSs are on HP. They are in debt upto their eyeballs just to maintain their 'lifestyle'.

They own his parents for the caravan, because after paying the deposit they couldn't find the rest of the payment (company didn't do payment plans) and instead of going without, he asked his parents for money for 'bills'.

A friend who was a single parent (2 kids) was in much the same situation. She used to buy clothes all the time, eat out a lot, foreign holidays, mobile phones, huge flat screen TV, leather suite. 4 credits cards, several store cards, 2 catalogue accounts, loans from somewhere else which she is always topping up. last she told me she was 37k in debt. But is paying minimum payments & has no hope in hell of paying if off soon.

I guess what I am saying is that people don't tell us they have debt & we don't know that they may have many debts/credits cards. And yes, it sucks! I would LOVE a family PC or a new DVD player that actually plays dvds! But I refuse to get myself into a debt that I don't need, paying ridiculous amounts of interest!

They owe his parents

I watched this thread develop like some kind of train wreck, sometimes I could understand where the outrage was coming from other times it all seemed kind of petty, but I do respect everyone's right to an opinion.

To get back to the topic in hand, as a single mum on benefits I can only assume I am doing something really wrong, I don't have £200 quid a week for food etc left over, I'm lucky if I manage to rustle together £50, most weeks I can't come up with that. I'm on benefits (not that I should feel I need to justify myself) because I am now disabled and on long term sick. I privately rent because after my marriage broke down my home got repossessed. I can't understand how its possible to have a party on the benefits I get, maybe I'm missing something? I have been saving for months for the kids birthdays and they aren't getting anything particularly expensive!

However given my medical circumstances, if benefits were wiped out, they may as well legalise euthanasia too, what are the people who like me genuinely are medically unable to work supose to do? or is it okay for me to claim benefits for me and my kids because I won't live as long as the rest of you who don't?

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this, so feel free to form an orderly que..............

Not so londonone I reported your post because I found it offensive.
Thesecondcoming responded in the same offensive way that you posted to her (I might have done the same had you been so offensive to me) so that post was pulled as well. She was pointing out to you that she had a job, a home and could easily afford ALL her children without benefits when they were born. Without the aid of a crystal ball she could not predict what happened in her life. In case you are totally ignorant - that is what the Welfare State was set up for - to support those who have fallen on hard times.
Telling her that she should have kept her legs crossed was totally offensive to her and anyone else reading it who has fallen on difficult times (like me - now a single Mum of one child who is disabled and having to reduce work hours and claim a higher child tax credit).

I work with lots of families (well over 2000 in my area) and can count on one hand the number who are large families and long term benefit claimants. ALL of these have other problems as well and are not typical despite what the Daily Mail and right wing press would have you believe.

i worked all my life until i was forced to leave h and then lived in a refuge up until last year, i didnt have a pot to piss in and only the clothes we stood up in, when i was lucky enough to get a council flat i had no furniture, carpet cooker anything, the lovely mnetters on here rallied round and helped me so much, not once did anyone judge me because i was on benefits, i get £120 a week on benefits and out of this i have to pay £20 to council for heating charges ( its an oils system so even in the summer i am charged)£10 a week on water £15 a weel on elec, i do not ever go out and ds lives in second hand clothes, when ds goes to school full time in sept i am gonna try to get a job because at the end of the day i am going brain dead! yes some people scam the benefits, some dont, fucking hell sometimes these threads get so personal!