To have the green eyed monster

[Aeschylus]

Ok. I feel a shit for feeling like this. Our friends who have 4 kids live a life of luxury on benefits have just moved into their new home which is a 4 bedroom old vicorage and absolutely stunning and all provided by the tax payer. And here we are with 1 dc in a 3 bed terrace with a sensible mortgage. not much money and certainly can not afford any more dc. Makes me wonder why we bother I know I am being pathetic but to top it all of they are having sky multi room installed in all 4 bedrooms and we are stuck with freeview. People claim we are a fair society and if we are then I would like to know how

Do they work? What benefits are they claiming

There is no such thing as a fair society surely?

They must have another source of income surely to get the sky multi thingy installed?

Do you think they're claiming something they're not entitled to?

I wouldn't worry
the benefit system is having an overhaul for cases like this, if it is how you describe, so they'll probably be moving on soon

Nope neither of them work. They had a 4th child as they decided they wanted a bigger place and could claim more housing benefit by doing so

Agree with Compo - hope the govt's new measures will really come down hard on people like this.

are there things they are claiming they should not be? IF SO REPORT THEM

maybe they are very frugal about othr things eg food, clothes, cars, holidays?

maybe there are benefits YOU are entitled to which you don't know about

YANBU

I agree with you. My SIL and her husband are on benefits and they have all the mod cons, foreign holidays and, dare I say it... a 50 inch flat screen TV .

It's not fair at all and yet if you dare complain, you are accused of being mean spirited. You sound like you don't have much in common with this family - why are you friends?

OP are you still a sahd? If money bothers you so much then go back to work.

why do they not work?

Lol they have a 40 inch plasma with full surround sound they eat like kings. I remember him telling me once that when you add all the benefits up like free council tax etc they got about 25k a year in benefits. Sickening

I am still a sahd but jobs are scarce at mo and child care is expensive in our area

We're on benefits and certainly couldn't afford sky multi room let alone sky We have my MIL's old sky box which is effectivly on freeview as we don't even have a normal TV ariel.

We don't go on holidays, we don't have a huge flat screen tv. We have a cheap oven, washing machine, tumble dryer etc.

Unless these people are cheating the benefits somewhere its just not possible. Theres myself my OH and DD we get £180 JSA every fortnight, £53 of CTC weekly and £20 of CB. It doesn't go that far when you've paid your bills, gas, electric, shopping etc.

So they're either cheating the benefits or have a whole lot of debt via credit.

25k a year for a family of 6 is not alot of money, how could they afford to have such a big house and sky multiroom etc?

A vicarage, sky package and a huge plasma tv - golly its a buzzword benefit-scrounger bashing full house

He said house gets paid for by council theyvtold him he could rent up to 1000 a month on their circumstances

i dont understand how it is sickening, surely they are entitled to it? unless they are claiming to be disabled when they are not.

perhaps the 25k excludes the free house?

so is the cost of the house not included in the £25k?

presumably it is sickening if you work and make sacrifices, spend time away from your children, etc., to see someone who does none of these things living off your hard work and having a better lifestyle than you do.

'entitled to' does not mean it is 'right'

entitled could mean fulltime carers or both disabled or one disabled and one full time carer. or they could both have been made redundant and like OP unable to find work or afford childcare. all of those i would consider 'entitled'.

Oh it gets better their youngest has just qualified for free nursery for 2 year olds as they have no income. we applied and got told. sorry only for those on benefits.

I'd like to give that lifestyle a try just to understand and then maybe I could give a balanced objective comparison to my present life.

You aren't entitled to a 4 bed house on housing benefit, with 4 kids. 3 beds max. They must be topping up the rent. They might be getting up to £1000 a month if it's an expensive area - but in an expensive area you can't find 4 bedroom vicarages for £1000! We're looking round our way now and you're lucky to find a 3 bed under a grand, and you'd probably get £1000 a month for 3 beds here.

If neither are working then their income will not be enough to afford luxiries. They may be getting DLA or carers allowance which would bump it up but that money would get used on extra costs associated with caring for a disabled family member.

It sounds like a lovely life, but it's not accurate. They must have lots of debt or be fiddling the system.