Friend would rather stay on Benefits

[Mavan1984]

Hi everyone

I have a friend who is in her early 40s. She has 5 kids, eldest being 17 and youngest being 4. No disabilities in the family.

Friends husband is on minimum wage and Works about 35 hours a week. Friend is SAHM and has never worked, they have always been topped up by CTC and WTC.

Friend has recently been transferred over to UC and said she is slightly worse off and she's been told that she needs to start looking for a job.

Friend told me she has no intention to get a job because she thinks she will be worse off- would this be the case? She also said she is very unlikely to get a job which will match her benefit payments.

I'm really annoyed with her attitude. She basically has no intention to work and would rather just claim. In her case what would the jobcentre do?

I love friend to bits but her laziness is really starting to get to me. Me and DH both work average salary jobs, we don't get any benefits apart from Child Benefit and there are times where I've really envied her life of leisure.

I'm not against anyone who works hard/has disabilities and claims but I really think it's unfair that people like her can choose to be a SAHM and expect to get money handed to her on a plate.

I'm not really sure why I am even posting this but I just needed to rant.

I get you. Although my ire would be (very much internal) more towards the fact that she has children, rather than the SAHM aspect, which I'd bloody love to do. I'm at that low point in my pursuit of motherhood where I flatout envy those who had children so easily. But I do understand both sides. It's tricky.

You are not this woman's friend.

You keep forgetting to say that £2000 of that is rent and childcare, as people can earn up to £100,000 and still get their childcare paid I don't know why you are so offended by this

Yep and not to mention the people who are self employed who then employ their partners so that they can claim free child care.

Sorry ignore previous post I thought I was starting a new thread 🙈

I was a single mum in 1999 and I claimed Income Support. I didn't work. There used to be an amount for me and a separate amount for my child. Then after a few years, the amount for the child was paid as child tax credit rather than Income Support, but I still got some Income Support paid for me. The rules when I first claimed was that I could stay on Income Support as a single mum until my child wad 16. Then the age was lowered, but my child became entitled to DLA and I claimed Carer's Allowance, so the work seeking requirements didn't apply to me.

I came off means-tested benefits about 10 years ago as I remarried and DH's salary took us above the earnings limit. So my Income didn't plummet thankfully.