Could claim benefits...but choose not to! Why?

Lemoncurd

We've never claimed CTC despite being eligible for it. I checked several times and according to the website thought we wouldn't be eligible for it, the next year I checked again and found we would have been eligible for it and had a baby under 1 so would have qualified for the extra baby component. I did request the forms but after a redundancy payment and new job straight away realised that we would go over the limit for that tax year. Then the changes were announced which meant we would not be eligible in the next tax year so I just left it.

Blue22

dseventy wrote: »

I own and run my own company, it consists of 9 off shoot companies. I employ 721 people across the UK (and some in Eastern Europe).

My turnover last year was 9 million pound.

Personally, me and my wife have 7 children (yes! 7).

I started up 15 years ago. From then to today there was times that we had 0 income. The profits of one venture went to pay the problems off in another. I knew I could claim something, at one point even out of work benefits. We re-re-re-mortgaged the house, I worked 20 hour days, and for my (now) older children, I missed parts of their lives (first steps, first words, even first day of school).

But you know what, I would not change it. I conctrated on the end
:Agame, which was to be financially secure for me, and my children when they are adults. I found the level of state intervention into my affairs too much. What they wanted back in exchange for the meagre sums they would pay was too much for me. I thought the tax man was bad.

D70

Well done on having such a large family, I also had lots.

Can I ask you if the above means you have never claimed CB?

Spendless

dmg24 wrote: »

So did I.

There was an example the other day where someone wanted to find a way to still qualify for CB once the rules changed. I suggested that as an alternative his wife seek part time work (less than ten hours at minimum wage, so no need for childcare). The outrage expressed by some* that someone would choose to work rather than claiming benefits spoke volumes.

* Not the OP, he was willing to consider other options.

That wasn't quite the whole story though. The point being made was households on a lot higher income than him would still be able to receive it because the household had 1 x 40% taxpayer earning rather than 2x lower rate, and also despite him having a higher salary the overall money into the house was the same as someone on a lower salary due to the 'top up income' they receive. In addition the wife home-ed, which restricted working hours and the husband was away from home working so meant an evening job wasn't viable either. When CB stops she will lose 'HRP' (or whatever it's now called) and wouldn't pay NI even for a 10 hour job, unless it was fantastically well paid, as NI doesn't kick in till you earn a certain amount.

OP_ I imagine that you too are not being told the whole story when you are coming across people saying 'they could go on benefits but choose not to' with the few exceptions that people have given you here. I cam across one recently where someone was saying 'they would not claim JSA' though on the face of it they were entitled and would certainly make sense given their circs, but it sounded so bizarre to me I looked thru their posts and discovered it wasn't quite as the poster had claimed.

Blue22

AimeesMum wrote: »

i have read more and more often on this forum people saying

"I could claim benefits but I choose not to"

Can I ask the reason why you choose not to? Is it pride? do you feel like the government is stretched enough already?

If it is the CTC that you don't claim...do you not think it would be a good idea to claim it and at least put it into savings for your kids future?

Thanks all xxx

Hi AimeesMum

I could have claimed various benefits over the years but choose not to because I didn't see it as the 'governments money' but tax payers money. Those tax payers aren't anonymous people but people I know. Neighbours who are working long hours to support their own families, young single people trying to pay for their education or their first car, relatives past retirement age that can't afford to stop working etc.

So my feeling is that I would be taking off those people if I was dependent on benefits. Mind you Im not against all benefits and know that they are needed at times for some people. But I do feel strongly that everyone in this country of working age should make it their goal to become tax/benefit neutral and not sit back until they have reached that level.

divastrop

I agree with all those who have said being on benefits is vilified. I had little choice but to go on IS when I threw my violent ex out;- my eldest children were were little then and I had severe depression, just getting through each day was a struggle. I think though that it becomes a 'trap', the security of knowing you have money coming in each week and can feed your children compared to the uncertainty of getting a part time job and not knowing if you will have enough to live on.

I myself was raised by a single mother who scraped by on a widow's pension, relying on donations of clothes etc from neighbours rather than claiming benefits. My mum got a part time job as soon as I started school and has worked ever since. I hate claiming benefits, even though I am now a student trying to better myself so that one day I can truly support my family financially. This is a distant dream, as I have 5 children and live in private rented house. That said, it is my ultimate goal that I don't have to 'scrounge' any more, and it is that which keeps me motivated. That and the fact that my children will see me working my bottom off and hopefully follow suit. I just find it unfair that people who are born into money can sit on their lazy b***s all day and not be condemned by the media in the same way as those on benefits, when I bet their parents aren't paying the taxes they ought to be!

allen35

Do we seriously want to become a third world country, i watched slumdog millionaire and it disgusted me.

There used to be a nature of helping your neighbour/friends and family through hard times with food parcels, unwanted furniture, pass down clothes in this GREAT country of ours.

I understand that a lot of people on this forum are jealous of others receiving their correct entitlement in benefits but that's what it is 'entitlement' or should we all receive a dividend every year from excluding the needy of their entitlement.

There is definitely a culture of 'i'm alright jack' from the long term abusers/posters on this forum who are quite happy to disrespect the needy when they ask about benefits, is this a forum to ask about benefit entititlement, i wonder.

I am all for eradicating child poverty and helping people apply for benefits they 'MAY' be entitled to to the best of my ability and i am also totally against benefit fraud.

It's not a moral thing by not claiming what you are entiteld to, it's either a middle class sense of opinion or (as has been posted) can't be bothered but do remember there are a lot of people less fortunate than others and who aren't aware of what they can claim which may just HELP their family avoid debt or something more serious.

As for knowing a lot of people who don't claim DLA and they are entitled, well obviously they are managing, the people i know who do claim need the financial gain to get through their lives with a little more comfort.

dseventy

Blue22 wrote: »

Well done on having such a large family, I also had lots.

Can I ask you if the above means you have never claimed CB?

No, we do claim CB. Its one of the few benefits that does not does not require state intervention into your affairs. You have a child, you are entitled until they are not a child.

Though that will stop soon with the changes.

D70

cheap_charlie

My late husband had chronic heart disease and was entitled to claim DLA but he point blank refused. He was under the illusion that if he claimed it the tax man would somehow come knocking on his door and as a freelance worker he didn't want that.

He didn't take issue with us putting in a claim for our disabled daughter but there was no way he was claiming ANYTHING for himself.

Looking back I can see why he didn't want to claim it - the forms are daunting and depressing, something I came to learn from filling them in for our daughter.

melly1980

dibblersan wrote: »

why are you entitled if you don't NEED them. just because you CAN, why does that mean you SHOULD

alternatively the difference between some who need them and some who doint need them is that one catagory hasnt p1$$ed their money up the wall and living within their means. So with that in mind why should the group who have been wastefull get them because they NEED them and the other group do without.

Sixer

I would say it is false pride to not claim benefits one is entitled to. It's no different to opening an ISA to protect savings from tax. Or any other financial organisation one makes for one's life.

If people don't like the current benefits system, then they should exercise their vote in that regard - whether to make it more or less generous - at election time.