Why work when you can get a good salary on benefits?

[Orwellian]

Sorry to come over all DM but I just can't believe the amount that is given out in benefits. I just read this story; www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087857/Romanian-Big-Issue-seller-given-legal-right-claim-housing-benefit.html
and this lady is getting over £25k a year tax free (and will get housing benefit to boot soon) as well as her nice little earner from selling the Big Issue (isn't that supposed to be for homeless people, not those on £25k per annum?).

Anyway, it just got me thinking. What is the point in getting into debt at university to achieve a high career (which will take years to climb the career ladder), when you can simply achieve the same income by having several children. I did a calculation on the Turn2us website and there is actually not much difference (especially when all the extra benefits such as free school meals are included) in a family with one higher rate taxpayer and a similar family where nobody is working once everything is taken in to account.

I never see my husband because he works so many hours. Maybe I should suggest he gives up work as we would only be slightly worse off on benefits but he would be around to help me with the children.

(yr, I read that there was a special deal for both Romania and Hungary as regards benefit actually as when they both joined there were worries their poor would flock here but the newspaper might be wrong).

^
I wonder if her children need alot of language support in the schools as well but I may be wrong.

I am the same about people coming here. If they are going to contribute to the treasury, they are very welcome but not to sponge and take all the available social housing off people who have been on the waiting list for years and not contribute anything.^

If you stood on a chair and screamed "I love Nick Griffin" I couldn't be more convinced of your ignorant BNP sympathies

I go away for a wee bit, and see, nothing has changed for some people.

Often, I wonder what is the point of living at all as I watch our beloved daughter go through chemotherapy for her leukaemia.

Life on benefits, it's so much fun, living in here, divided from my husband and two children, 'sleeping' on a camp bed.

C'mon over and join us on benefits, it's really fun.

Expat - Save your energy for where it is most needed, caring for your lovely daughter.
There are some fights that just aren't worth the effort, and some objects that really are immovable.

expat you need to conserve your energy and try and keep away from the negative stuff like this.
I wont help, please take if from me lovey x

Surround yourself with nice things to see you through the horribleness.
This thread is not a Nice Thing

Valar why would I love Nick Griffin just because I am critical of this women and certain people who are comming here to take advantage of our generosity.

Most people I know feel the same. We can't all be terrible, evil heretics as you would like to portray us.

My grandparents were immigrants but they worked hard and paid their taxes and didn't expect handouts.

I just don't think our system can go on paying out forever. We are meant to be cutting back on services etc and councils are cashstrapped but yet.......

You're right, MrsdeVere, certainly. Still hacks me off, that people would begrudge a little girl with AML living apart from her family. I'd rather beg on the streets and starve than see her have this.

alemci I totally agree with you - there is a very dangerous assumption by some people that questioning the status quo makes one a racist. I've said earlier up thread that I don't have a problem with anyone coming to this country to work (or even for sanctuary / asylum) but I do have a problem with people coming here just to abuse our generosity.

Just for the record, I?m not out bashing those who genuinely claim benefits, claim DLA, have disabled offspring etc. either, nor have I said that a life on benefits is particularly easy. I just believe that, in a time of austerity, importing new benefit claimants is economic madness.

Thats how I feel Mr Pants. It always becomes emotive and personal when it shouldn't.

I am simply answering the question.

I wish the politicians would do something about the situation and not allow it to happen.

I know you would expat.

And no amount of 'oh we dont mean people like you' really helps does it?

Because until people are confronted with their assumptions and sterotyping they DO mean people like us

I am thinking of you and your lovely girl lots and lots x

I don't think it is unreasonable to question government policies on immigration and rights to benefits at all, particularly when so many cuts have to be made and the country is overcrowded. It IS unreasonable to judge this poor woman when she has done nothing at all wrong.

Speaking as an immigrant myself, I don't believe it's true to say that we can all pitch up wherever we want to within the EU and then claim benefits though. In Belgium, to get a "foreign" resident's card we had to demonstrate that we had employment, an address (which was checked by a visit from the local police) and register with social security (payment made by said employer). If we had no job we would be entitled to jack shit, basically.

Presumably this woman had to do something similar to gain entitlement.

According to this workers from Romania have to apply for permission to work and then work for at least 12 months continously before their family can apply for residence status. Methinks there is a big part of the story missing from the DM account.

I used to be married to one of these foreign types and a condition of his entry to the UK was that he was not allowed to claim any kind of benefits for a considerable qualifying period. I am also ever so slightly cynical about the truth of the DM story. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's probably a load of old bollocks.

Portofino I agree with you. We had an illegal immigrant staying with us for a while while he did cash in hand work. Why was he illegal? Because the system said so! The BBC had covered his story of toture in his home country. He had been a BBC journo and this was why he fell out with his govt. Oil money etc.

He just wanted a better life for his family and he did his best to get what he could from the system, he failed, because systems are an approximation of justice and fairness.... But we have to have immigration and benefits system and only questioning them can we get the best outcome.

The same story was also in The Times yesterday so not just DM. Whilst I don't blame people who move to a richer country so they and their families can have a better life it does beg the question how we can continue to support everyone who wants to come here. The majority of families coming from the new EU ascension countries will not be wealthy and as such will use more resources than their contributions in taxes will pay for. Other countries such as France and Germany have limited benefits to these immigrants and in this financial climate I think the UK should do the same.

Xenia, no you're thinking of Romania and Bulgaria. They have arrangements that are particular to those two countries, which are less favourable than those for nationals of any other EU country. They're called the A2 countries. Hungary was one of the A8 and was part of a different regime until last year. The arrangements for A8 nationals were less favourable than for nationals of earlier member states, but better than those for Romanians and Bulgarians.

So in reality, the woman in the OP/or her partner must have applied for a work permit, moved here and worked for 1 year before being entitled to anything at all. I am sure they never gave a work permit for selling the big issue. So what is the truth did the DM leave out here?

I read the story in the Times and it said the same thing as the DM. Maybe not as emotive. It is a shame it is not accessible on line.

The times article

370,000 migrants on the dole

Are they not those claiming benefits rather than out of work benefits?

So WTC etc

I havent read the article but I just heard someone on R4 talking about a break down of the figures.

Anyway the 'dole' doesnt exist anymore so why use the word?

Oh yeah because it only means one thing - out of work and standing in line for a handout.

I am wondering when some of the women in here raging against benefit claimants last did a days work themselves.

It's easy to moralise while sitting comfortably at home waiting for the wage earner to get home. Some of you wouldn't know poverty if it came up and slapped you in the face.

I'm using the word "dole" because it's on the front page of the Telegraph today.

Often, I wonder what is the point of living at all as I watch our beloved daughter go through chemotherapy for her leukaemia.

Life on benefits, it's so much fun, living in here, divided from my husband and two children, 'sleeping' on a camp bed.

C'mon over and join us on benefits, it's really fun.

Yes, yes and yes again.

Don't you know, expat, that if you can work too, then you'll get even more money?! DLA and wages. Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? The money .

I am jealous of people who are so bloody clueless about what DLA actually means for people, and they should remember:

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD (or whatever deity/thing you believe in) GO I.