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.

Free school meals, free lap-tops and internet subscriptions, free adult prescriptions, dental and health care, free milk, fruit and veg, baby formula, housing benefit, council tax benefit and then money for a disposable income on top of this. To be able to afford all these things people need to earn more than minimum wage. Some people are not prepared to work and live a subsistence lifestyle. They don?t see the point in working and doing without Sky, consumer goods like cars, mobile phones, games consoles and flat screen TVs, and even pets, which are expensive. DH and I work, and it really galls to see neighbours on our part owner-occupier owned and part council estate who do not work have the things that we do not. Plus, they don?t have to worry how their income will stretch if they decide to have another child, as the amount they get paid increases. We would have to make our income stretch. We don?t get a pay rise just because we have another child! The system sucks!

Who on earth gets a free laptop and internet?!

I think as a result of our competetive and selfish society, people are always seeing who has 'more' than them. It's like a competition, even among 'friends'. So what if others have more tat or 'things', that is not what is important in life. Just find happiness in your own life. You have alot more than many other people in the world.

home access grants for free laptops and internet

One of the things that never gets accounted for in threads like these is the precariousness of benefits.

I know it seems as though they are safe as stone. But I can promise you they aren't.

I've spent the past 4 months without benefits (so no income) due to communication errors between departments. We could only afford to eat/pay rent due to help from our families.

We know from experience that this is likely to happen again, in fact I'd bet on it being next month. We still haven't actually received housing benefit.

This is how you live on benefits, you just hope to god no one cocks up, because you know it's an average of 3 months to sort it out again. In the meantime.. well.. have fun.

I think some people have a very hard time of it. However, some people seem better at milking the system. Personally I don't believe benefits should enable people to have Bugaboo prams, Wii's and pedigree puppies. Yet I have seen people with these things yet no hint of a job.

DH has a very good job, sadly public sector so not as well paid as it would be in the private sector. However this does not enable us to afford £400 pedigree puppies! I does annoy me that DH works such long hours in such a demanding job and you see people having things that you could only dream of (that he partly funded!)

"but how do you know that the bugaboo wasn't paid for by an aunt\grandparent\isn't off ebay."

Or bought before benefits?
Or on loan from a friend?

So many reasons! And yet it's easier to assume they've sponged off the government right?

Well if someone out there has relatives that will buy them a Bugaboo, 2 pedigree puppies and a Wii then I will apologise. However, I do find it much more likely that a good portion of those things will have been bought with benefits. It is just my personal opinion that they may not be the most sensible ways to spend your money, especially when pedigree pups can often have health problems which come hand in hand with large vets bills.

Benefits should be for those who really need it. If only those who really needed benefits claimed them then those people would not have to struggle. It's because people take advantage of the system that those in real need are often left without.

I sold my Bugaboo for a very small amount of money, less than the price of a Mclaren. Doesn't always follow that these things are expensive - some people are pretty savvy shoppers, and some people are willing to hand things on and sell things for less than the norm to friends in need.

'The goverments own figures show over 80% of people who are claiming disability benefit are falsely claiming it.'

If that was cracked down on, the 20% who really did deserve it would be able to access all the help they really need. Why should people in real need go without carers or their carers having respite?

There is benefit fraud, it's undeniable. Sadly it's those who can least afford it who lose out because of it.

I am bothered because I see posts by Riven saying that with a very disabled daughter she cannot afford to heat her house. I think there must be something very very wrong for the system to allow that. It should be the most vunerable in society protected, not those who think working isn't really worth it when they'll have to actually pay for things themselves...

People do take the p**s, it's terribly naive to think most of the people who have nice prams etc on benefits are the ones carefully budgeting for them. There are people who know how to save and are stuck in the benefit trap, but I do not believe it's all the 80% of people lying to get disability benefit.

iknowsomeone - re being unable to afford prescription charges - are you aware of the prepayment prescription scheme?

You can pay £10 per month for 10 months and get a years worth of free prescriptions -
see here.

Re your family members on benefits and with a large debt - I find it very hard to believe that they can pay back £1.6k of their debt out of £30k. One day the baliffs will come round and take all their nice stuff away?

If you know anyone working for substantial cash in hand then please please report it.

The country cannot afford it!

Hijack

Riven...
That things we have been talking about should be sorted. But please check as my email is crap, I can't seem to send mails out and I am being all techno crappand useless......I could be emailing DC for all I know [sigh].

Off out...see you later

end of hijack

i lived on benefits as a student parent for 4 months. it was asolutely awful - and i knew all that time that it was short term, that it was only until i graduated and would get a reasonable job and be ok. I never had enough money, i would often not be able to get to university as i didn't have the £1 bus fare and walking took so long that i would be late to get back to collect kiddos so couldn't do it. I was on income support and i needed every single penny of it - and i had a student overdraft of £1500 which I used all of. I did not go on holiday, I did not have fancy clothes or go out partying. What I did have though, and what I still to this day really really treasure - is time. I had time with my dcs to hang out in the park and have fun. costs nothing, was so precious - much easier in that respect scraping along moneywise, but having loads of time with kids, than now, enough money, much less time with kids - but trapped into f/t work by enormity of mortgage. sometimes i long for the halcyon student benefit dayS! though i accept it is my responsibility not to rely on others my whole life! I have pride, and I want to support myself - the money is spend now leaves a much nicer feeling than the money I had for that 4 months on benefits - I was actually quite embarrassed to receive it.

Well said, Riven

I used to have a friend who was single and had 3 kids. She did not work and received full benefits. I work part-time (24 hours a week) and have 1 child and receive a small amount of housing benefit and a couple of pounds off my council tax each month.
I have to watch every penny and went without luxuries for many years (such as a car, sky TV, Computer then Internet,holidays, clothes for myself even essential things like a washing machine) as I could not afford to get them.
My friend had all of those things plus extras like games consoles.She lives in a large 3 bedroom house rented privately but paid for by housing benefit. The house is very modern and has all mod cons like underfloor heating, utility room, large downstairs loo, en-suite to her room and large family bathroom.
She also went shopping every day and treated herself all the time. They went to Spain every year to visit family so no accommodation charge but flights are not cheap!
She also got free vegetables, fruit and milk with her child tax credit.
Her lifestyle was so at odds to mine that she could not believe how skint I was all the time and kept badgering me to give up work as I'd be better off!
The only thing I had that she didn't was a sense of pride that the little I did have was paid for by me!
I used to feel something was very wrong with the benefit system if she was better off than me, and many other working families.
Don't get me wrong, I'd never want to see her and the kids in poverty but the spare cash she had every month was unbelievable.

In 2003 I left my former partner and had to rely on benefits for a while. I worked 16 hours per week at M&S and received Housing benefit, Child Tax Credit, Working families Tax Credit and some other bits and pieces. My income, including earnings during that period after tax, was in the region of £2300 pcm. I then did a PGCE and qualified as a secondary teacher. It was 4 years after qualifying that I finally achieved the same take home pay as I did when on benefits!!! I think this is madness. I mean, I am grateful for the system and it did help me and my boys, but I really don't think I should have been better off working part time for M&S than full time as a teacher!!!

I do know a married couple on benefits who have Sky+, a nice house, a car, gym membership, kids get lots of lessons and holidays.

It's possible they get money from a parent.

I dunno.

None of the children is disabled nor are they.