Should the South be worried?

[cityliving99]

My niece quit her final year of uni, no one knows why. She was a straight A student and one of the brightest young people I know. She lives in the NE and for the last 2 years has been claiming benefits and PIP.
Her partner is training to be a teacher, via the Teach First programme.
They rent a 3 bed semi and drive a 69 plate car.
Over the last few weeks they have been travelling round Europe and visited us on the way home.
They stayed 3 days and used their time to go off and visit various tourist attractions, none of which are cheap.
There is absolutely no way you could do this in the South, where rents would be several times higher.
My niece claims to be depressed and is now searching for an autism/ ADHD diagnosis. She seems to be very content with her lot and I was shocked how bubbly she is. I appreciate things can be masked, but surely if you can spend weeks travelling and having fun, there is no evidence of clinical depression.
When they left I felt flat. Something is just not right here.
Is this more common than we realise? Are we potentially going to be taxed even higher, so my neice can continue her extravagant lifestyle.
I love her deeply and understand that something triggered her leaving uni. But she genuinely seems content in her decisions.
Am I wrong in feeling slightly irritated?

Blimey you lot really do have huge chips in your shoulders.

Thank you for being kind as to point this out.

If you had kids they will have had far more funding per head than us in the South West.
Schools in the South West receive the worst funding.

Your title is literally 'Should the South be worried?' How else am I supposed to read it?

We see you

Octavia ( posh name that!)
You get the same bursaries throughout England!

Yes.
And students who cannot get graduate jobs are doing the Maths PGCE to get the tax free bursary of 30k.
Many of them have zero intention of being Maths teachers, but it enhances the CV for that finance job in London!

I'm reading it as a niece bashing thread . But it's rather confusing as to what the exact point of it is rather than just allowing OP to vent a bit of spleen.
Don't runderstand the relevance of the thread title at all.

To balance this a little.
I live in the North and I think it is wrong that people in the South, specifically London, get paid more for identical work. I have friends who are nurses and teachers and if they worked in London their pay, for the same job, would be higher. Why should I be paying extra tax so Londoners can get higher pay?

I still don't understand what your niece claiming benefits has to do with any of this?

She isn't unemployed because she's not been able to find a job. She is claiming benefits because she is too unwell to work. She would presumably be too unwell to work in the south of the country too.

Unless you believe she isn't really unwell and if she was in the south of the country she would have to work as benefits wouldn't cover her living costs. But you are adamant this isn't a benefits bashing thread so you can't be suggesting that can you?

Eh? You're the one starting a thread to whinge that "the north" gets too much from "the south", and to warn "the south" to worry that they will all be fucked over even further because of people like your niece, who is lovely but still takes advantage of the poor unfortunates in the south.

I on the other hand do not believe you and am laughing at you.

To have a chip on your shoulder means to act angry, defensive, or bitter because you feel you were treated unfairly in the past or believe you are viewed as less important than others. People with a chip on their shoulder are often overly sensitive and ready to start an argument.

That's a pretty good description of your ridiculous posts!

If she lived in the South she would most likely have to move in with her parents.
She says there are no jobs in the North, but another person on here has said there are loads of jobs in the NE.
i think she probably sees herself as a failure. She has already proved she is not.
She could be doing something amazing as a volunteer.
At the moment employers are not going to be falling over to employ her.

You are one very bitter person.
Sad times.

This is obvious that you get irritated but you should guide her to explore employment opportunities so she doesn't have to give up on her extravagant lifestyle which she was following.

But you don’t pay extra tax?
And the South is not just London.
i live in the South West and get paid the same as someone doing my job up North.
Thank goodness for London though.
Top financial district, top universities, top hospitals, and subsidising the rest of us.
Without London this country would collapse.

😂😂😂

Sez the person who started a thread asking "Are we [in the south] potentially going to be taxed even higher, so my neice can continue her extravagant lifestyle." That, of course, is a simple statement of fact 😂

If people were taxed according to their intelligence levels, you wouldn't be worrying about the cost 😂

But you live in Russia somewhere, comrade, if I'm not mistaken?

Nyet Vladimir, on this thread you are the droid with the chip in its shoulder.

Lol

it isn’t my real name

there are no posh people in the town I grew up in, either now or back then.

oh and most of the south is London or Greater London (apart from Norfolk obviously)

Oh dear.
Geography not your strong point is it?

What meds are you on?
You need an urgent appointment to review them!

Oh dear.
And coming from someone who writes ‘sez’.
Is that the Northern Education? 😂😂😂😂😂

I spell nearly as well as your neice!

Yawn. That’s already been pointed out.
Please do keep up.

I can't manage to keep up, due to my terrible Northern education, deapite all the money you put inro it [sad face]

Oh well, there you go then.
Being a Lord and all that comes with it, I am sure you will survive.