Closer magazine"s benefit bashing story features a carer.

[carernotasaint]

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2152115/UK-benefits-family-12-live-50k-handouts-appear-Daybreak-defend-controversial-lifestyle.html

She will lose FSMs and freebies. It's the all or nothing system of FSMs etc that is the problem.

The money going through her bank account will be more than on benefits.

Tax credits take your taxable income & work out how much TCs you get. They don't take a £ off for every £ you earn. It's on a sliding scale.

Then the housing benefit take into account earnings and tax credits and work out how much HB you get. Again it's on a sliding scale.

Bonnie - it's nothing to do with a failure in the system.

What about personal responsiblity? What if everyone that would be better off on benefits quit their jobs and claimed?

She's a greedy cow

To be fair the article came from Closer magazine, as mentioned, the woman did the interview with them (which they pay for). It's her words.

Nancy, people get caught in the system and it is understandable why some people choose to stay on benefits rather than work. It isn't always greed. The problem is the system. The Tories said they would fix it but all they have done is ensure that those on benefits and low wages are equally poor.

i disagree - in this case it absolutely is greed and laziness.

and i think it is never understandable that people choose not to work as a lifestyle choice. that is not what the welfare system is for.

NAnacy well said. It is so depressing that an entitlement culture has grown up where some people appear to feel it quite acceptable to tot up the relative advantages and choose a benefits lifestyle.

And what about the sense of entitlement displayed by certain companies taking advantage of workfare.

that's nothing to do with this.

Er...did we all note that this is printed in the DM?

Not exactly known for their honest and unbiased reporting are they?

And on the subject of a "benefit lifestyle" I made a decision to do just that and live on benefits. My autistic son is awake half the night sometimes and quite frankly there are some days when all I want to do is go back to bed once he is in school. Add to that the fact that I was making mistakes in work because I was so bloody tired all the time and it was an easy(ish) decision to make. I am worse off though financially but as there is just myself and DS we manage well.

There may well be issues in this family which the Mail chose to omit OR they could be the feckless scroungers some of you have already labelled them - who knows? Not us based on an article in the Mail that's for sure.

the story was printed in Closer magazine - it was lifted by the Daily Mail.

The couple have since been on TV and confirmed all that was printed

So all carers are taking a lifestyle choice of being on benefits?
Bollocks.

One couple

If I tried to generalise in a research study I was writing from that sample I'd be laughed out of the faculty.

There are carers as in, anybody can call themselves one; and carers as in official terminology requiring you to care for 35 hours a week minimum for a disabled person. These things are not the same. You can volunteer and study alongside being a carer (and do workfare from 2013) but you can only earn a set amount or work a limited number of hours.

If he legitimately gets DLA for the disabilty he has disclosed I would be amazed. This neither means he has disclosed all disability needs or is making a genuine claim.

It makes sense that carers can study part time (not full time sadly, I say sadly because quite a lot of FT courses are within the school day ) or volunteer as many carers will be back on the employment market one day; either because the person they are caring for dies (especially as many care for parents) or needs change or moves on in life. All the time I have cared I have done some part time study, because even 4 hours a week is better on a CV than a blank space.

My attendance even for that was abysmal, luckily I knew most of the subject matter anyhow and could get by with only the most essential lectures and making my submissions.

If I could not manage 4 hours (lots of reasons- Dh held up at work, boys kicking off or ill) I'd have made a terrible employee. If I can find suitable part time work this year I think I can now make a good one (suitable as in hours, has to be school time or around dh for childcare).

By the way, should point out that Carer's is under £60 pw; am glad I was born and paid taxes into the UK system but you'd have to be very lacking in aspirations to choose that!

Oh well - obviously they deserve condemnation then .

Trouble is that these stories do not reflect the millions of carers who have to manage every day.

My son looks normal, will chat away and can appear very able. A few days in his company would tell people otherwise but the trouble is they don't have that. Just the snapshot view on meeting him. Based upon that they might wonder why I am on benefits and getting Carers Allowance.

This is why I'd never let the DM or the likes of Closer within a mile of us, no doubt I'd be roundly condemned and people would miss the "autism" diagnosis and focus in on "ADHD". It would then be a short mind step to " poor parent" and no doubt "free car" ( which I can confirm we do NOT get)

It has plenty to do with it Nancy. To be "eligible" for workfare you have to be on certain benefits so you saying its got nothing to do with it is laughable at best and downright ignorant at worst.
Does anyone think this story is the start of the propaganda wagon ready for when they start getting people on Carers Allowance to do workfare?

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2012/05/31/fury-as-tory-welfare-police-order-kidney-dialysis-patient-paul-mickleburgh-back-to-work-86908-23880089/#.T8eUOjwHZZo.twitter

...no, I dont' think that. I think they're just lazy bastards too bone idle to work.

Well I'm a carer myself so definitely not carer-bashing, but I think the lady in the article might have been misinformed about not being able to afford the rent if they worked and therefore being 'trapped'. My dh was doing two jobs but due to health problems he was forced to give one of them up and wasn't earning enough to pay our rent (south east- small house but very expensive rent) so we have been given a percentage of it in housing benefit. I feel the same that we would much rather have a council house so that we could afford the rent ourselves and not have to claim anything as I hate doing it, but there are none available so that's not going to happen. The point being that it's not all or nothing, housing benefits are still available for low-earners.

'they'.

So Nancy thinks that carers are 'lazy bastards too bone idle to work'

I'd like to see her swap.... anyone else on the rough end like to do the same?

THE FAMILY IN THE FUCKING STORY.....

Nobody has said all carers are lazy Glitter - stop being so melodramatic.

They may well have been misinformed. I was not on a brilliant wage before giving up work but was definitely better off financially IN work - even with paying rent and council tax.

By the way - if she is working all those hours for charity I don't think she can be called lazy do you? More like misinformed about income and work.

Unfortunately public perception has already been horribly skewed by the anti disability benefits press.

The press are now transferring the heat onto carers.... to justify cutting assistance for them now.

I'm sure the family in the story set a very poor example. Public perception can be changed so, so easily by the press.

It already has been with disability.

Being a pedant here, but volunteering is not called 'working', it is a 'role' not a 'job'. All sorts of issues arise legally about 'employment contracts' if people call volunteering 'working'

Exactly Glitter. I totally agree with all youve said.

Whatever it's called though, she is far from lazy and is proving she has skills and commitment which are being maintained.

Are people really signed off because of migraines?? I had them for years and they kept me down for 3 days a month at least. Then my GP prescribed me pills that cured me.

Cannot believe people get signed off for migraines. I worked through them and was in agony but would always work.

Why are these rags part of normal society, that scares me so much, that people read this shit and are influenced by it.