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

churchrat

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

I have met and talked to people in the same situation. Most of our friends are self-employed and if they dont work they dont get paid full stop.

I do not begrudge anyone a safety net of a benefits system, but why is it there for some and not others?

I think I have misunderstood the point you were making. I thought that you wanted to limit(decrease?) the number of people who recive govt handouts, but instead you want it available to even more people.
I'm not very sure that is a good idea, but well done for suggesting it.

mardatha

So many people in here are absolutely clueless. Let's hope they all stay well and in work eh? It is SO easy for some to feel smug and superior and talk down to others.
Like we wanted to be ill.
Like we wanted to lose jobs we liked.
Like we wanted to spend the rest of our days on a couch stuck indoors .
Like we enjoy form filling and grovelling like hell for handouts from a government who have the morals of woodlice.
It's not only horses who wear blinkers is it ?

Broken_hearted

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

For the £20K a year, you may not have £20K in your hand, but I am betting that you dont have to pay any of the following out of what you do have: tax, NI, council tax, rent, school dinners, presciptions etc.

If you read my post properly you would see I have a mortgage which has to be paid out of the money we get unlike rent which I grant you some get free. Perscriptions arn't free on IB only on IS so again not univeral or fair. IB is taxable so we lose out there as well. That leaves council tax and school dinners which we do get. Still nowhere near the 20k mark not even nea rthe 15k mark:rolleyes:


Side note my back hurts like hell from years of being a carer yet there is no chance of me taking a day off.

SingleSue

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

All I feel is frustration and anger.

I have spend the last 5 months feeling too ill and low to look after my children properly. All made worse by discovering that if I were to stop working I do not get any state help at all, regardless of having paid into the system for 20 years, so I kept on working even though I have been told by my doctor not to.

Then I am made to feel guilty by all the people who are entitled to state help for pointing out that I feel upset with a system that allows this.

Sorry Sue, I understand that you and others feel the need to continually say that you would rather be working etc. but sometimes it might be nice to consider that other people have problems too.

Strangely I do consider others...and have also been where you are now.

I too went to work against medical advice during my marriage because of the lack of support we would have received financially.

On my seperation from my husband, I initially received no support financially as we had savings and these had to be depleted before assistance could be given.

And it is not an excuse about wanting to work, I really really really do want to be back in work and have been trying to move heaven and earth to do so, again against the advice of doctors etc.

Lifeisbutadream

churchrat wrote: »

I think I have misunderstood the point you were making. I thought that you wanted to limit(decrease?) the number of people who recive govt handouts, but instead you want it available to even more people.
I'm not very sure that is a good idea, but well done for suggesting it.

I dont want to give it to even more people! I want the system to be a fair one.

I have always thought that state handouts were a 'safety net' available to everyone. I have found out they are not.

Our country is on its knees at the moment - surely the answer should be to fairly distribute available funds to those in need.

Cleaver

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

This type of situation is only going to continue whilst our government continually rewards non-working families and punishes the working ones.

It's mind-bendingly bizarre that this article (and all the other voyeristic freak show-esq articles this week on the same subject) clearly show that both of these children who are spawned this poor baby are from completely and utterly dysfunctional homes with parents so utterly useless they make that Austrian man with a cellar look like a competent parent, yet people still blame the government for it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with government policy and everything to do with woeful parenting. And blaming woeful parenting on government policy is lazy, wrong and a cheap excuse for a good soundbite.

Lifeisbutadream

mardatha wrote: »

So many people in here are absolutely clueless. Let's hope they all stay well and in work eh? It is SO easy for some to feel smug and superior and talk down to others.
Like we wanted to be ill.
Like we wanted to lose jobs we liked.
Like we wanted to spend the rest of our days on a couch stuck indoors .
Like we enjoy form filling and grovelling like hell for handouts from a government who have the morals of woodlice.
It's not only horses who wear blinkers is it ?

For goodeness sake are you completely mad???

I am not well enough to stay in work!! I am staying in work because if I dont we will lose our house.

But do carry on....:rolleyes:

Lifeisbutadream

SingleSue wrote: »

Strangely I do consider others...and have also been where you are now.

I too went to work against medical advice during my marriage because of the lack of support we would have received financially.

On my seperation from my husband, I initially received no support financially as we had savings and these had to be depleted before assistance could be given.

And it is not an excuse about wanting to work, I really really really do want to be back in work and have been trying to move heaven and earth to do so, again against the advice of doctors etc.

I think you are misreading my posts, but please feel free to keep going on about how much you want to work.

SingleSue

vivatifosi wrote: »

Don't take the bait Sue. We know what a great job you are doing for your family and that you can't tar everyone with the same brush. You've got more important things to do - looking after the kids and studying for a better future - than to let yourself get caught on an emotional downer over posts like these.

Thanks for that...I can't help myself though as I do feel shame and guilt at having to live on benefits.

It was not the life I had planned, it was not the life I have been used to and to be perfectly honest....I feel it is a wasted life.

Bah, ignore me peeps, it's a maudlin Sunday morning!:rotfl:

Lifeisbutadream

vivatifosi wrote: »

Don't take the bait Sue. We know what a great job you are doing for your family and that you can't tar everyone with the same brush. You've got more important things to do - looking after the kids and studying for a better future - than to let yourself get caught on an emotional downer over posts like these.

Yes dont worry about anyone elses emotional downers will you...:rolleyes: