Boom-time on benefits: The 140,000 families who claim £20,000 a year in handouts

neverdespairgirl

fc123 wrote: »

Oh! That makes me feel better....the last thing in my life not have succumbed to the MSE treatment. Their pouches of finest 'Ocean Feast' per wk cost double our meat budget ...and it's worthy, local organic stuff.

The price I pay for my lovng furry friends.:D

My parents' Little Cat got offered some fresh fish today, lovingly cooked and served up for her majesty's pleasure.

She sniffed it a bit, stalked off, and was later found munching a mouse my cat Yossie had caught. She eats all of it apart from the head.

neverdespairgirl

DW123 wrote: »

And the immigration service can't deport anyone without their passport cos they don't know where they have come from so they too are free to continue sponging. How have they managed to get a job and a council flat????

Why is whenever I drive past a mosque during the working day it is full of Muslims going to or leaving prayer. How can you work if you have to pray two or three times a day.

There are two different ways of taking someone out of the country - removal, and deportation. In both cases, you can do so withou the original passport. You can get travel documents from the home country, replacement passports, or EU travel papers. For some countries it's a lot trickier than others, but it's not as simple as "no passport, no removal".

You can work pretty well and pray. The solicitor who sends me the most work prays several times a day, but also works a minimum of 50 hours a week. In similar fashion, some people manage to work full-time and have fag breaks.

neverdespairgirl

nickmason wrote: »

EDIT: do I get a Zavvi voucher for using the phrase "hard working immigrants"? ;)

Of course not.

Had you said "hard-working immigrant families" that would be a different kettle of fish altogether.

neverdespairgirl

fc123 wrote: »

When I was late 20's / early 30's, I thought I knew it all.........well. I did, I just know more now.;)

Mother Christmas brought my bruv a mug for Christmas which says, "get your revenge on your whinging parents - move out, get a job, and pay the bills, while you still know everything"

neverdespairgirl

mvengemvenge wrote: »

that's to throw people off the scent of the much bigger numbers of non-EU people who come over and just go straight onto benefits. Labour never want to discuss this group, as it's not 'pc'.

I don't want to spoil a good rant with a mere fact or two, but you can't just come into the UK from a non-EU country and "go straight on to benefits". Ain't possible.

neverdespairgirl

fc123 wrote: »

Mine never even got ill enough for a dose of antibiotic....though son was always fracturing bones in Rugby. I can't imagine coping with all that .....so I promise not to moan too much on here anymore.;)

I don't think it quite works like that - dealing with family illness is always upsetting, and you can't think, "oh well, son's broken his leg, but another boy somewhere else has broken both". You focus on your nearest and dearest.

My sister, who is 29, developed two illnesses at the same time a couple of years ago. She has Coeliac disease, and a rare blood disorder which means she has to have blood taken regularly to stop her system getting overloaded.

She may well need, as result of the blood problem, a bone marrow transplant. She was told she was "lucky to have three siblings" as this means she's more likely to have a family match for tissue typing. Her take on it was more that she was unlucky to need a bone marrow donor in the first place (-:

SingleSue

I agree with you there NDG, when the boys were small I used to take them to a special needs playgroup (the same one I volunteer at now) and our coffee breaks were 'interesting'...we were all feeling sorry for other parents as their children seemed to have more problems or have disabilities that we thought we would never be able to cope with while those same parents thought the same for the problems our children had.

Yet there was others in the group who would try to top (almost like keeping up with and beating the Joneses) whatever you was going through even if the children had a similar diagnosis - whatever hassle you was having, they was having it worse!

We came to the conclusion that no matter what the disability or illness, it is because it is your child, a disability/different need is erring from what you would expect as I think most of us want to have the perfect child and there is a grieving process to go through for the perfect child you never had.

To some people, dyslexia could seem a pretty non event but if your child has it, the emotional process is similar to that experienced by a parent of a child with (for example) cerebal palsy, even though the ramifications are an awful lot more with CP.

I know we can't expect perfect children but we all do deep down.... you don't expect to have a child whose needs would be greater (unless of course you have been forewarned) and it is a huge reality check when it happens. I found it difficult with Joshua when his problems were becoming clear but it was still sort of copeable but with Joe, I cried for weeks at the loss of 2 perfect sons.

I know that there are children who have worse illnesses and disabilities than my children and I do try to remind myself of that fact when I am feeling all woe is me...not that it helps!

spiritus

!!!!!!? wrote: »

That's because Britain entered the war because of a treaty obligation to defend Poland.

True, but you could also extend that argument and say Britain went to war so countries like France, Czechoslavakia, Belgium, Holland and France could be free but would you describe any of these countries as Britain's staunchest ally ??

What was Poland's reward for contributing to the war effort - 50 years of Communist rule. Therefore, Poland's independence was never really secured or achieved.

neverdespairgirl

spiritus wrote: »

What was Poland's reward for contributing to the war effort - 50 years of Communist rule. Therefore, Poland's independence was never really secured or achieved.

It was worse than just that. By the end of the war, Poland had in effect been levelled, it was one massive rubble heap. The only city not to be destroyed was Krakow, I think. And perhaps bits of Lublin.

PasturesNew

Making some sweeping generalisms, for which there's always one person who knew one individual for whom it wasn't quite like that ....

Before the benefits explosion, parents got some child benefit for the 2nd and 3rd kids only (until 1977). There was none of this DLA/carer business. If you had a sickly child of any sort and looked after them you'd still only get the standard child benefit money I believe. They just went to special schools where the staff could cope with a bunch of them because they were familiar with their needs. Now if there's one child in every class, each having different needs, the whole school's disrupted and nobody wins.

Back in my day, there were also none of these Tax Credit top ups.

This proliferation of benefits was promoted by the Govt to bring children out of poverty. All it did was give families more money. Those that previously spent it on fags/booze would spend more on fags/booze. Those that spent their previous money wisely would have had money for treats.

Having all this spare/extra money sloshing about enabled prices to rise for goods. Then credit cards could be obtained for this "income" - and even mortgages!

WTC has enabled a lot of employers to dump full-time jobs in favour of giving some lower paid part-time jobs to working parents, because of the top ups they get. Instead of paying one adult, say, £16-18k for a full-time job, employers have opted to employ two part-timers to cover the same hours for about £12k, knowing the Govt would top up their money if they had kids.

It's all been a rough deal for singles.