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

KarinaD

Ross, you are exactly the reason why we should have a benefits system, for genuine people like yourself. Unfortunately its those stories that we read or see on TV of mostly non-British born people who are being subsidised by the tax payers. My family and I work very hard with hardly anything over for luxuries, we just get by, heaven help us if the interest rates go up though !!! If it wasnt for the ridiculous amounts being frittered away on high rents people there would be more in the pot to help out those who genuinely need and deserve help, of which there are loads. Please hold your head high and your poorly wrist. I can only wish you and your family all the very best for the future and I for one am happy the tax I pay goes to help souls like you. And for all you scroungers out there we can only hope that "what goes around comes around". Kindest regards Ross

beanielou

Eowyn wrote: »

I am a genuine disabled benefit claimant. I have cerebral palsy, I have trouble vocalising my thoughts and hearing what others say, I am unable to walk and use a wheelchair and my body writhes with spasms every waking hour. I have problems eating as i have a tendency to choke even when food is mashed up for me . As i get older my body has developed osteo arthritis from the contant moving of my limbs . I have Stenosis of the spine and cervical spondylitis. And I now suffer from sciatica and am in constant pain. I am telling you all this not because i want your pity. but because I want you to realize how lucky you are. You may not earn much money but you have the luxury of life choices. You can choose to have a relationship, have children ,go fo a walk go out , eat what you want, dare i say it, work for a living. I do not have this choice. I rely totally on my carer for my needs and on the taxpayer to help support me and i am very grateful to them. However if i had the choice between the benefit i get and the life you live I would choose yours every time . PS It has taken me 3 hours to type this so i doubt any employer would be willing to pay me for my typing skills in spite of having an IQ of 135

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story.
Take care.

gadgetmind

Solly_Atwell wrote: »

I only take £15k home for 42 hour week so ineffect I work for £4k a year.

Good on you. The best way to get a better job is to do your current one well, to hone your skills while actively seeking out new opportunities.

It may not always seem that way, but it's better than sitting on the sofa in your jimjams while watching daytime TV.

I used to work a 30 hour week at age 13 (7.5 hours after school on two days, and 8 hours a day Saturday and Sunday) and still have the payslips to prove it! During school holidays, I worked a basic 48 hour week, and piled overtime on top, and I kept this up while at university.

What was this glamorous work? Washing dishing, changing sheets, and waiting on tables at a seaside hotel.

I'd do it again without hesitation to put food on the table and let me keep my dignity.

Disabledmumof4

The benefit cap is the total amount of benefit income per household. So if you are having to rent private because of lack of council housing that is counted; if you have two children, child benefit is counted. If one of those children turns 18 and is looking for a job, that is counted; if the mother is disabled and in receipt of ESA and child credits, that is counted. If the father works part time and gets working tax credits, that is counted. But this will all then be reduced as a 'household' cannot take in more benefits than £26k.

Sorry does not count child benefit.

zigzigzag

Flyboy152 wrote: »

So why are you complaining? You are clearly as bad as they are.

Most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! :rotfl:

And I wish I lived in your world where £11k after paying for housing was not enough to get by on ... reality check in order I think!

Disabledmumof4

~Jem~ wrote: »

I MASSIVELY agree with this post! He says he has just over £11,000 to live on. That's to the same as a person earning minimum wage. Yet the person earning has to pay full price for everything.

If you're getting £11k in benefits though you get housing benefit, tax benefit, free prescriptions, free dental, subsidised this that and the other, therefore making you better off for it.

If you are only on the minimum wage you get working tax credits too and child tax if you have kids, that also entitles you to free prescriptions, dental, school meals etc and in some cases HB and CTB too. Therefore, what's the difference apart from this guy is disabled and cannot get a job and even if he did I would imagine he would struggle with the considerable amount of pain or effects of medication while in the workplace. What seems to be happening here and I am not aiming this directly at you; is the government is making normal working people jealous and suspicious of what their disabled neighbours etc may get 'free'. We really should consider that they inflate the problem of cheats which is really only 0.5% (although I do not condone) to take away the publics focus on city bonuses, M.Ps expenses claim which to me are very much like benefits only no cap there.....

zagfles

Disabledmumof4 wrote: »

The benefit cap is the total amount of benefit income per household. So if you are having to rent private because of lack of council housing that is counted; if you have two children, child benefit is counted. If one of those children turns 18 and is looking for a job, that is counted; if the mother is disabled and in receipt of ESA and child credits, that is counted. If the father works part time and gets working tax credits, that is counted. But this will all then be reduced as a 'household' cannot take in more benefits than £26k.

WTC will not count, nor will any non dependant's benefits (such as an 18 year old claiming JSA) as they'll be treated separately. Also it doesn't apply to DLA recipients.

susiesae59

Feel sorry for this case and so many more genuine cases, the amount people need to live on is set by the government it is not meant to be easy or more than someone working main problem is lots of wages are so low yet people working with children they too can get Child Tax Credits and Housing and Council Tax rebates.

Anyone can easily end up reliant on benefits with all the propaganda being fed to the newspapers benefit claimants are despised and majority of claimants are genuine. I never saw such a witch hunt against bankers and MP`s who have fleeced the system and who still are!!!!

My daughter lost her job last August she had struggled to maintain it with being Bipolar. she has a 2 bedroomed house and because she is under 25 she is only entitled to £48.50 Housing Benefit her rent is £80. You have to be 35 as of January 2012 to get full Housing Benefit. She gets just over £90 a week on ESA she as got into lots of debt trying to keep her bills paid how dare people label such as her a scrounger, she as worked since leaving college. I am sick of people, government, newspapers spouting out half truths on situations. How can anyone run a home on £90 a week? and at that be £31.50 a week short towards her rent, my daughter does have Sky she had it in when she was working in time for the system going to digital and she as a mobile phone so we can contact her.

People in prison are in a better position than my daughter and when they leave prison they are allowed full housing allowance as the government does not feel it fair to expect prisoners to have to share accomodation in case they are picked on, my daughter is being told to find a bed sit then she will qualify for full housing benefit why can`t my daughter stay in her 2 bedroomed home to be near her family who support her she does not feel she could share, we do not have any one bedroomed properties around us or bed sits. And they say crime doesn`t pay? whose spouting about prisoners tv.s. 3 meals a day, leisure facilities, computers etc even some elderly in our society who fought for this country not got such luxuries.

This whole system is full of flaws but I do not feel we should judge cases on what we hear and read because this is not always accurate it is meant to create divisions so the government can rush their Welfare Reforms through with as little fuss as possible. The whole thing about the Welfare reform is to make serious cuts, why don`t this government target the people at the top of the ladder instead of those at the bottom to cover the gaps in this countrys finances, they said the sick, vulnerable, etc had nothing to fear I would say they have everything to fear

Derivative

Flyboy152 wrote: »

One doesn't just buy food at the supermarket and clothes, especially school uniform really is not as cheap as you are trying to make out. For two growing children, shoes alone can be almost a hundred pounds in a year.

Did you actually read my post? I've stated that kids can be a few hundred quid a year in clothing.

Shoes are the single most expensive cost because they are the item of clothing that takes the most beating. Shoes wear out and need to be replaced. Most other items of clothing take far far longer to do the same.

Anyway - your post did not mention the OP. You asked us to try and get by, as a family of four, on £11k a year. I showed you how it could be done without any difficulty at all and with huge amounts of money left over.

I live on ~£7-8k a year including rent, bills, CT, food, clothing. I could itemise the costs for you.

Article wrote:

Yes, we have a 17-year-old car. With the numerous trips to hospitals across the country for my arm, my partner's systemic lupus erythematosus and plus my son's reflex anoxic seizures and my daughter's issue with only having one kidney, it is cheaper than using unsubsidised public transport by just over £100 a year. That's two weeks' food shopping to us.

The OP is a very, very, very, very rare edge case. How many families in the UK have the same set of problems as this?

Noone in their right mind thinks that disabled people deserve no benefits.

The problems people have are with able bodied families getting more than those in work. No more, no less.

Every now and then we get daft posts from people claiming they should be 'entitled' to money for their pets or for various bits and bobs which for anyone else exist as an item in a budget.

zagfles

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Council tax at five thousand pounds a year? I really think someone needs to have a reality check.

Think he meant CTC rather CTB!! CTC would be over £5k.