MSE News: 'I'm on benefits but I'm no scrounger'

Arthurian

Am I wrong in thinking a worker on minimum wage gets to take home less than Mr Goodall?

poppy10_2

Cerisa wrote: »

Also seriously -is this thread really bashing a man with a severe tumour for NOT BEING ABLE TO WORK?

No, it's not. Can you show me an example where anyone has bashed this guy for not working?

Norfolk_Jim

Having read through all 6 pages so far I'm very surprised that no one seems to have raised Monday nights Panorama "Poor America" in any of this (Or did I miss it)
The attitude on there is even worse than the worst ones displayed here and I can only hope that we never become like the USA with no healthcare for the poor / unemployed and families living in storm drains as they lost their job.
That is not meant in any way to demean the guest writer - he has my sympathy whatever the figures. And there seems to be a great lack of sympathy or empathy here - I guess its easy when enjoying the anonymity of the internet.
But I agree with the writer about disabled people being perfectly capable of holding down jobs if only someone would give them a chance.
Admittedly it's tough to do a good job wracked with pain. My own fathers spinal column crumbled in his 50's and he was medically discharged out of the army. He tried self employment and working through the pain through gritted teath but had to concede defeat untimately. Fortunately he could survive on his army pension - many others are not so lucky as to have occupational pensions.
I have mental health problems and my wife also has trauma induced OCD which makers her difficult to employ (Unreliable) but fortunately for me my employers stuck by me and have stood by me and I work for a fair wage and I think I do a good job and so do they. But I very much fear losing my job because you don't need to be God to see that employers will find it hard to seriously consider you for a post or see past your disability (and its the same with their customers - human nature) unless they are looking to tick the socialy responsible box.
But what can anyone do?

skarph

I'm shocked at how much antipathy there is on this forum towards anyone receiving benefits. There's nearly 3 million unemployed chasing 500,000 vacancies. The TUC reckons there's 7 million if you count the people willing but unable to increase their hours. Despite making every conceivable effort the majority are going to remain unemployed for the time being. With so many able bodied unemployed what employer is going to seriously consider a disabled/ill candidate? Once we had governments that created full employment and would have been ashamed to have so many idle. Make no mistake high unemployment is the direct consequence of the neo-liberal economics pursued since 1976. Having mass unemployment keeps wages and inflation down. If you're working and work doesn't pay rather than bashing people not working ask yourself why wages are so ridiculously low?

Mara69

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Too many people forget that behind each story there is a human being and it is all too easy to bash those less fortunate and unfortunately this has been caused by !!!!less MP's who wouldn't know what it feels like to have to grovel for these benefits

Really? You don't think you are over dramatising this a tad? No one has to grovel (brown nose, butter up, abase, demean, pamper, implore) in order to receive benefits. Claimants are expected to provide certain information and adhere to reasonable conditions. Your post would have us believing that you crawled on your hands and knees, with a begging bowl clutched firmly in your hand.

With respect of 'benefit bashing' (has there ever been a more tired and overused phrase?!) I've seen no evidence of it on this thread. I think those claiming benefits are so wired to expect abuse and bashing (because you wind each other up) that they are now seeing it where there is none. You all wind each other up and look for the 'bashing' in every thread. Often, like in this thread, it doesn't exist. In other threads there are some posts that are nasty - but then some of those posts are written by those claiming benefits. What I am saying is that in the two 'camps' there is abuse and nastiness from both sides. On this thread though, there was none. Just people pointing that Ross (don't know why I am calling him by his first name; I don't know him) and his family are either not claiming everything they are entitled to or have forgotten a benefit they are in receipt of. This has skewed their figures and given a false impression of how impoverished he and his family are.

Me, personally, I don't care who claims what. My taxes will remain the same, even if all benefit claimants are capped at £2.50 a week. I don't like that our Government rewards families that churn out endless children they cannot afford and I don't like that non working, able bodied people get more in their pocket than I do for doing nothing. I don't like those that defraud the system and I dislike people that deliberately manufacture their lives in order to claim as much as humanly possible. No, I wouldn't want to be in any disabled persons' shoes. Yes, it must be terrible and of course, you should be provided with a comfortable standard of living. From what I have seen on here, you are. Ultimately, if you are entitled to it - claim it. If you are not entitled to it and are claming it - I would like to see you caught, prosecuted, convicted, punished and banned from claiming any further benefits until you have repaid every penny you stole.

THRIFTY_GIRL

The key point is that more needs to be done to help/encourage those that CAN work.

I am disgusted that I cannot claim benefits simply due to the fact that I have made the effort over the last 10 years to build up a savings pot. Others in my situation receive benefits (they were in the same jobs but spent on luxuries).

And for those wondering if £1000 a month is doable....we have been managing to keep under a budget of £1000 per month for the last 15 years, and we have 3 children.

Obviously, it is often hard to distinguish between those genuinely unwilling to work and those unable to work. People should not be labelled, but it is increasingly difficult telling my children to go without when those receiving more benefits get everything.

Then there is the issue of the utility companies charging over the odds...the list goes on. A review into actual costs/benefits is long overdue.

Paul_Herring

skarph wrote: »

The TUC reckons there's 7 million if you count the people willing but unable to increase their hours.

The TUC changing their own private definition of the word 'unemployed' does not change the fact that anyone in part time work (whether or not they would like to increase their hours) is singularly NOT unemployed. The TUC is simply trying (and succeeding) to make the headlines by making bogus claims.

'Under-employed' perhaps, but they simply cannot arbitrarily increase the unemployment number by claiming those with a job are unemployed.</rant>

beckythemadcow

There seems to be some sort of agreement that this man receives more than £11k in benefits if we include HB and CTB.

My husband and I both work (for more than minimum wage) and our ENTIRE living costs for the past 12 months have been £15400.

This includes rent and all bills, the cost of running a car (and replacing one), food, a small amount for entertainment, a 4 day holiday in Europe, a week in the Peak district

We are saving to buy a house, so are careful with what we spend, but it infuriates me when I see workless benefits claimants spend more than we do, and pop children out knowing that the taxpayer will fund the children.

I think there are disabled people who can work, as I know disabled people who do work. I think it must be hard to get a job when you are visibly disabled (or have to disclose a non-visible disability) and anyone who cannot get a job because of that should not be penalised. But anyone who CHOOSES not to work should live at the lowest standard accepted by society- the level set by the minimum wage.

gaily

""Someone on Twitter said they would happily give up work and stay in bed for £11,000. Go on, then. Try to maintain any kind of lifestyle.""

Ross - I would also love to stay in bed all day and live on £11,000, but I must assume that the person who said that meant that they were living in a heated home, with a full larder, and have £11,000 in their pocket to spend. I was that teenager once, but now I live in the real world.

I don't know if the people posting figures about what the family should get are right, or wrong, or if the family should be entitled to more than they get. To be honest I DON'T CARE, it sounds like they are struggling - maybe Ross wouldn't have written the story if his family were on £15-16,000 a year, as they would be coping. I'm hpoing that if his family is due more that this post helps them get it.

I agree that it's tough out there, and I feel very sorry for the families who are struggling to make ends meet, and are trying to get or keep a job, have health difficulties meaning that even if they get an interview, they won't be considered for a position before a 'healthy' person.

My issue is with those who don't want to or won't work, and expect that we the working population should subsidise them.

Good Luck with finding a job Ross, I hope your tumour can be operated on, and you'll be able to return to work as a healthy person sooner rather than later - it sounds like you can't wait to find gainful employment, so that you don't have to feel the way you do. My htoughts go out to you and your family.

shorty1961

Hi ses6jwg,
I see you happen to be one of those that judges people, not everyone on benefits can have foreign holidays, sky tv or smoke. I have had 2 spinal operations in 3 yrs and looking at a third one, yes, Im one of those 'scroungers' on benefit. I have the pleasure of not being able to afford my own place, having only £67pw to live on. I am a lodger, I get my rent paid only up to a certain amount. I have a car to run, a necessity for me, so take out the costs of insurance, repairs, mot, tax etc and I have about £50pw to live on, this includes dental costs, petrol (to which I am limited to £10 per fortnight) hospital trips, personal stuff for myself as in toiletries (brought at Poundland). I dont have the luxury of holidays, sky tv etc, my car needs repairs but I dont have the £350 it's going to cost. I also have the worry of it I was asked to leave my lodgings, I would have nowhere else to go as I could not afford a place of my own. Yes, its a real hoot being termed unemployable because of my back, surviving on benefits and having to put up with judgemental p--ts like yourself.