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

opermh

I have worked nearly 30years as a Public Servant in IT - with a golden pension that gives me not quite £10,000 per annum -before tax.
Before that I did 14years in the Private sector after obtaining a Chemistry Degree.Wouldn't I like to be on Benefits equivalent to £35,000?

zigzigzag

pompeyfaith wrote: »

ZIGZIGZAG

I have a mortgage and do not get mortgage relief as the DWP said Em not entitled so I get DLA LRC and IB my wife works part-time due to being her mothers carer so only gets the maximum £155.55 earnings a week.

Sorry I don't understand your point?

littlerat

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Are *both* of them on state hand-outs? Why are two (apparently - as portrayed) disabled people, with two kids (why choose to have kids in that situation?! ), not being handed more money out of the tax-payers' purse

His condition is likely since having children - and Lupus (his partner's condition) may well have been diagnosed afterwards too.



I'd like to point out here (ay have been said but I'm bored of reading all the posts, sorry) - a couple with 2 children, where 1 is working for minimum wage, will also likely get full housing benefits, council tax benefit, plus child benefits and child tex credits - so actually they won't be living on the 10.5k mentioned by somebody earlier, they'll get that PLUS benefits.

Butterfly_Brain

robpw2 wrote: »

as someone who has lost their benfit and is going through an appeal , i am also trying for jobs and whilst you may refuse to believe that disabled people cannot do some sort of work
many employers however disagree and completly ignore you/ use the insurance risk excuse etc

in an ideal world ther would be jobs for all

I agree. I was once told by an interviewer that I was a Health and Safety Risk because I had to use crutches :eek: You see people could trip up on them or over them So we are Idle scroungers who are not looking for work eh?

littlerat

Oooh also, somebody in a council house with lower rents will be getting a lot less than the standard HB amounts. Not sure how much exactly or if it classes as HB... but I know it won't be anywhere near private rents.

zigzigzag

littlerat wrote: »

I'd like to point out here ... a couple with 2 children, where 1 is working for minimum wage, will also likely get full housing benefits, council tax benefit, plus child benefits and child tex credits - so actually they won't be living on the 10.5k mentioned by somebody earlier, they'll get that PLUS benefits.

Is this really true? I knew you'd get child benefit as it's universal. But housing benefit, council tax, child tax credits too, while you're working? So rather than £10.5k-12k salary, with benefits added they'd really be receiving something like £18k-20k? If that's true, the more I learn about the current UK benefits system the more astonished I am at how generous it is! If it's true, then I don't see what anyone on benefits OR minimum wage is complaining about, financially! (of course I can understand why Ross complains about people's negative perception of him - but he also doesn't seem to think that he receives much money.)

pompeyfaith

http://victimsofatoscorruption.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/ministers-warned-over-adding-fuel-to-disablist-fire/

jgriggle

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

Incidentally, a couple where one parent works for minimum wage and the other stays at home with two kids, would take home £10,424 a year.... which is LESS than the guy in the article claims to get.

Also one very important bit that is often overlooked is the amount of time parents who work miss out on spending with their kids compared to those who don't work.

Don't forget though, that that couple would also be getting working tax credit, child tax credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

People tend to forget that the majority of benefits claimants are in work.

Also, when bashing benefits claimants, why do people always forget that every housing benefit handout ultimately goes towards paying off somebody's buy-to-let mortgage. The claimants themselves don't see the money, they just pass it on to the landlord.

The landlords are the true scroungers. How much effort does it take to take out a mortgage and then relax as the taxpayer pays it off?

kathrynklear

In this debate there are some really awful life stories that I could probably add to but I would just like to say that most, no... ALL people that I know on benefits are struggling to make ends meet.
This isn't living, it is survival and for what? If it is health issues that have caused the problem then these are inevitably made worse by this struggle and the stigma attached to being 'on benefits'.

I was a single parent but had a good job and no real money worries, then cancer hit in 2003.

Hey... I'm still alive! Which I why I don't often have a moan but this is for all my poor friends who, because of CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND THEIR CONTROL have ended up in the benefits-bin!

BTW I send out at least 4 job applications a week and think I have had three replies (all rejections) in five years!!

Short term, benefit income may be 'do-able' but long term? With no prospect of things improving?

My heart goes out to the OP and his family, also to those who have no other family to help them.

looby75

if you think you are judged badly for being on benefits and disabled, try being a single mum on benefits!

I'm surprised, well actually I'm not this is MSE after all, how many people have jumped on the figures and ignored the main points of how demeaning it can be to be on benefits, how hard it is to get a job when you have a disability and/or caring responsibilities and how some people still insist that no matter what the nature of a persons disability there must be something they can do.

I am on benefits, I am a woman and I live in the North East, the area in the country with the highest levels of unemployment. I apply for any job I am physically able to do and that fits in with the chronic lack of childcare in my area. I went to sign on today and the advisor didn't even look at me once he looked at my jobsearch booklet asked me to confirm my address and then shoved the bit of paper over to me to sign. I'm starting to feel like cattle every time I go to the jobcentre, and don't get me started about the waste of time that is the work program.

For everyone who thinks it's all fun and games being on benefits for ANY reason, try it I think you'll soon change your minds.