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.

Your claim would be processed the same as anyone elses.

When this woman entered Britain do you think they handed her a Giro at passport control?

You would have to apply and hope and pray, the same as everyone else. You will have to fight and argue with the bureaucracy they same as everyone else.

This woman has had to go to court in order to get housing benefit, despite being on a salary of £100 per week. Hardly handed to her on a plate!

Any other benefits (other than DLA) will have been means tested, so things like child tax credits and carers allowance. They are the same benefits that everyone can apply for.

Alemci, by all means recommend the single parent on benefits route for your children if all you want for them is to have no choice in where they live and get less than 10k per annum inc housing benefit.

In 13 weeks we'd starve!!!! Where would we be housed?Just interested.I'd always assumed rightly or wrongly that those in the system would be at the top of the queue.

13 weeks is for housing benefit to kick in if you have a mortgage.
Prior to that you are to arrange for payment breaks with your mortgage company.

You get your HOUSING benefit after 13 weeks IF you have a mortgage. If you are in private rented you can claim from the day you become unemployed. Your other benefits e.g Income Support or Job Seekers Allowance, Council Tax Credit, and higher rate of Child Tax Credit, ime take around 7 - 10 days to sort out.

If you don't have enough money to last that long there are emergency funds you can apply to and you have cash in your hand that very day. I forget the name of this (Crisis Loan?) because it has been so long since I needed it, thankfully.

You wouldn't believe that the DM is the most popular website newspaper in Britain would you?

With all these people refusing to admit they read it

Trainwreck viewing, innit.

That's what I meant MrsHeffley - that you would be homeless if you couldn't pay your mortgage. I don't think life is great for low earners at all - far from it. But resenting people for supporting their family on benefits really isn't the way forward. Companies need to pay people living wages and minimum wage isn't a living wage (not saying you are on min wage, just using that as an example) because it has to be topped up with tax credits to sustain people. And that's utterly shit. It's expensive to administer and does nothing to help people out of poverty.

OP, so suggest your DH gives up work then.

Do we know that she came here just to claim benefits? I missed that bit.

I am a Swede. I came here many years ago to get married and have been supporting myself/been supported by dh ever since. I am a taxpayer and contribute to the local community in various ways.

But things could happen, as they could to any other person in my street. Dh could die, I could become severely ill, dd's disability could get so much worse that I had to be her longterm carer. It wouldn't suddenly mean that I came to this country to rip off the taxpayers.

Good point Cory. She could have arrived here with a working husband who then fucked off and left her for all we know.

Dooinme - yes you could apply for loan from the social fund. Though this is currently under threat in amongst the welfare reform bill. They want to scrap it.

though you can put your name to the petition to stop, or at least pause this bill going through Here

Miss Vasile, whose marital status is unknown,

I mean honestly..what does that mean?

If you read the piece cory you'll find your answers.

What the fuck is the 'bottom of the benefit system'?

You dont get promoted the longer you are on it. There is no spinal point that you climb, an extra few grand for every year

ANYONE who loses their job, becomes disabled etc is entitled to the same process as the woman in the 'article'.

Why do people think there are special, secret benefits for people who are not 'them'?

A single parent might get a certain benefit, the exact same benefit that YOU would get if your OH pissed of and left you.

A disabled person (for now) may get a certain benefit that YOU would get if you became disabled.

Dispite what you desperately want to beleive you dont get extra for being foreign, for sleeping around, for being lazy or just plain unpleasant.

Yes, horrible, lazy sluts get benefits but only if the meet the same criteria YOU would have to in order to claim benefits.

Fucking muppets.

I am about to be out of work for the first time ever (I am 46 to give you an idea of this). I will be significantly worse off financially ( having sat down with a benefits advisor). I find this reassuring as it shows me I have not in fact wasted years in a stressful job while others sit on benefits.

And I will be worse off than in work despite DLA (my son is autistic) and being in a position to claim Carers Allowance!

I refuse to read the DM link as it will be full of racist hate

Foglike - it means that the interviewer was so incompetent that he didn't bother finding out.

It means she is being vague and ambiguous.

"Basically if somebody not on benefits can't keep up their rent/mortgage payment which could be as much as 1K a month(so they could actually have less in their pocket) or more they'll loose their home"

People who work can get Housing Benefit if their assessed income is lower than their assessed requirement for their family make up.

If a person is living in appropriate accomodation for the size of their family, and their rent is £1000 per month, but their income is too low to support that, then they will get HB.

Re HB and mortgages: You would only get the interest only paid on your mortgage. Plus if you had extended your mortgage on your current house e.g. To put an extension on you wouldn't get that part of your mortgage paid either. We were left with a shortfall of £200 when we had to claim due to the recession (DH in house building)
Luckily not needed for long (first 12 months paid by insurance policy) then luckily found job.

This subject was on Jeremy Vine also today.

Dione we were discussing this last night on a girls night. Two ex colleagues and myself have worked in education. My DF divorced single parent and her daughers were moaning that 'friends' on FB posted pictures of the lovely 2 bed flats they got from the council because they had been pregnant and single. In good areas as well

and yes they had massive TV's. My friends dd was not impressed. She is busy paying back a student loan whilst working.

I know this is slightly off subject.

And yes the bankers should be paying their taxes too.

also I would love to know if this women would receive all this help in any other European country and if we would get anything in return in Romania such as housing, money etc.

Mrs Devere no need for the insults we were actually having an adult conversation.

Patti that was pretty much what I was saying.The system isn't fair,the poor and many in middle are just totally overlooked,the rich just get to do nothing.I think the op has a few valid questions which I don't think hysterical Daily Mail reader posting helps with at all because everybody wants to protect their own back yard.

Lougle but £35K wouldn't qualify you for help(which is what the lady is getting) and certainly not only £7K (before tax) more which is the higher tax band.

Dont patronize me MrsHeffley this is an open forum and I shall post what the fuck I like. If you dont like it dont read it.

Ditto but think I'll refrain from insults.

Alemci, you don't know anything about those two girls being talked about. You are listening to hearsay. I know because I am a single parent on benefits and it really gets on my tits when it's made out that people like me have it made. The reality is living hand to mouth all the time and relying on family to help out. Because all my benefits total less than 10k per year.

Dont get me wrong, I'm very grateful, but it sure as hell is no picnic or easy life.

alemci - have you ever spent more than a passing drive by moment on a council estate or in a tower block? In a lot of areas, grim doesn't even cover it. In a lot of areas, young people don't get accommodation of their own because there's simply not enough of it an end up in bedsits in shared digs, even if there is a baby. Not a lot of lovely in that.