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

zagfles

TheNickster wrote: »

If he gets IB he would not also get IS/JSA.

A couple can.

Ducklet

I'm on ICB & DLA as I spend most of my time in a wheelchair following a car accident 20 years ago (I was a nurse), that resulted in over 50 fractures to my head & face, arms, chest & leg. I can't use my hands & leg much at all. I find it very humiliating and degrading, so know what Ross Goodall means! I do voluntary work 1 morning a week at the hospital as a ward visitor in the chaplaincy team. Because of the head injuries I battle with depression and my short-term memory is affected too - which can be very difficult - and not just for me.. My husband is now on state pension & worked 8 hours a week up until Christmas, which he has to reduce following a heart attack. I hate being on benefit, but have no choice. I'd far rather earn my own living.
I've seen many people I know claiming benefit fraudulently, but no-one's done anything even after they've been reported.. It makes me feel very angry, especially when I see my single-mum daughter working long hours to support her children by childminding, and my son & daughter-in-law with two children working full-time, but still can't afford to buy their own homes..
I feel for this chap, but wonder if he needs a benefit check?

zagfles

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.

They would not, they would get close to £8000 in tax credits for a start...possibly HB as well.

zagfles

clairewop wrote: »

I get dla I have cerebral palsey in my right arm and get £76 a month,

Yes, the lowest rate of DLA (LRM or LRC) is 19.55 a week, you'll get it every 4 weeks so that's 13 times a year, a bit over £1000 which is as I wrote.

littlerat

Derivative wrote: »

Is this some sort of joke?
I am being completely serious, are you kidding me?

Annually, as budgeting monthly bothers me

Food is the major expense there and that depends on how frugal you are. I would say £4000 as an absolute upper limit unless you are really being ridiculous, that comes out as ~£80pw.

Energy is second. Let's say £2000 to be generous.

Where do you want to spend the other £5k?

Mentioning clothes is just daft. Clothes are so cheap nowadays as to not really be worth mentioning in a budget. Five pairs of jeans and five shirts from Primark cost about £60 and will last you a year.

That's if you even want to buy new clothes, the only clothing I bought in the past 6 months was a pair of tracksuit bottoms and some running shoes. Total £35.

Kids are going to cost a bit more, but a few hundred quid a year tops.

Transportation - if you own a car it's hard. If you don't it's not. Pretty simple one there. Keep in mind noone is working, so noone is commuting - that makes transportation completely optional other than perhaps once or twice a week.

Do people other than me actually budget? I really do not understand at all how anyone can consider £11k a small amount of money after rent, even for four people. Really. Can't do it.

I'd rather have more - so would anyone - but it is easily, easily doable.

Not going to argue with food, my brain cannot do the maths right now.

I think realistically, more like 2000-3000 for energy bills, depending on the illness, for people with some conditions (severe arthritis for example), a blanket doesn't stop the arthritis flaring up in the cold, you need the actual room warm. Plus water bills (about £14 a week in cornwall - less elsewhere though). Admittedly cornwall isn't good for prices though.


Ahh yes, £5 clothes. How the hell they last a year I do not know, simply put when I've bought cheap clothes it's more like 3 or 4 months. Maybe I'm harder on clothes, not sure. But I think expecting to own 5 tops and 5 jeans and them to last a year with all the washing they'll have done, is unrealistic.


Transportation. If you live in the middle of a town - great! If you don't, then it becomes less practical to take public transport. Especially considering trying to carry shopping back on a bus if disabled. We're in a village and, ignoring the fact that he couldn't walk the distance to the bus stop, the disabled friendly buses only come every week or 2 (depending on availability), not reliable. You have to understand, a lot of people with physical disabilities cannot walk to their local shop - it's not safe, it's not practical and it could be dangerous for some. Not to mention trying to get to hospital appointments and such would be impossible on public transport half the time.

So where do you spend the other 5k? Actually, 4k, I'm adding that extra grand for a few hours extra a day heating, pos on low all day for disabled.

Let's say... £500 for car insurance/tax (if you're older, more if young), plus MOT, £5 of petrol per week (will on an older car be maybe... 25, 30 miles I guess), about £800. Let's say a grand to cover misc expenses too (and honestly with tyres etc, you'll be lucky).

Clothes - I'd personally say... £100 a year for an adult, let's say 200 for kids as they need home and school clothes, and grow a lot. So that's another £600 gone, and I don't think that's unreasonable, in fact i think most people are going to kill more than that to stay dressed (remember most people wear socks, underwear, bras for women - which to buy a half decent fitting one, not cheap).

Down to £2,600 now.

I can't be bothered to keep doing the maths but if you say a mobile phone for the disabled person (safety reasons it's a good idea if possible, especially if they go out etc) at £5 a week, kids trips at school and such.

And of course while not every year at some point washing machines, tumble driers, dishwashers, kettles, microwaves, ovens or whatever else people have will blow up. Most people even if on low income have a PC and internet etc - necessities, no, but for those unable to leave their house they're a blessing.

Of course, I am of the opinion people who are disabled should be allowed TVs and computers instead of staring at a blank wall all day, so apologies if that assumption is wrong.


Not saying 11k isn't enough, our family managed on very low income for years and managed ok - but, even after rent etc is paid, it's surprising how things can go.



And again I'd like to remind people, a 2+2 family with 1 parent working for min wage wouldn't only be getting the 12.5k or whatever of min wage, they'd likely get full housing benefits and council tax benefits paid, plus tax credits and child benefit, so would actually be better off still - unless of course someone is on higher rate dla both sides, I guess that could top them over. But you don't get that for a limp.

morizot

Sorry must have missed something, why is Ian supporting a partner? Is the partner also claiming disability (he does mention an illness), can't the partner support themself? Agreed facts are too sketchy

We have neighbours on disability but what does annoy us is that the taxpayer is forking out over £1k monthly in rent for them (it is not in London, just a big detached house in the country). If I was on support, I would want the state to support me, but would expect a smaller house

pompeyfaith

Derivative wrote: »

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.



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.

That's the point you did not show us how to live of 11k a year because your example was very ill thought out and missed many costs an able bodied family would face let alone a disabled person with additional expenditure

pompeyfaith

zagfles wrote: »

A couple can.

No they cant been there tried that we cannot even get mortgage interest relief on our mortgage not that I am bothered about that to be honest because I chose to buy before being stuck down with disability and thus would like and have a duty to pay for my home.

zagfles

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Martin,

I hope that the above was not aimed at zagfles. If it was, I think it is unfounded.

While I agree that the discussion is not centring around how Ross isn't a scrounger (he isn't, clearly, so there's not much discussion to be had on that point!) I don't think that the discussion has been anti-Ross or anti-benefits in general.
In fact what many posts are doing is pointing out that Ross should be entitled to more than he is currently receiving.

If people were coming on saying "I work hard and only earn £8k - why does he get £11k?" then I can appreciate you defending him. But they're not. They're saying the opposite.


I'm hoping to read an MSE News article next week entitled "MSE Forumites helps Guest Commenter receive the benefits he is entitled to" which goes on to say that following his Guest Comment, Ross was informed by various posters (particular thanks go to zagfles) that there were other benefits that he and his family were entitled to. He has since used the sites guide (link) and found he is entitled to a further £4k a year. Ross would like to thank the helpful posters as it means that he and his family, though still far from well-off, can afford a few more of the basics than they previously could.

Thank you Jimmy. I also hope that it's helped cleared up misconceptions that articles such as this can lead to - I know his point wasn't primarily about the amount he receives but he did mention it more than once so it does warrant challenging/questioning. Not only to ensure he claims everyting he's entitled to, but also so that anyone else reading the article and thinking "I earn £15k so I won't be entitled to anything if he only gets £11k".

Otherwise, like with the other popular misconception which is doing the rounds at the moment, spread by inaccurate media reports (and even HMRC themselves!) that implies no family on over £26k can get tax credits, people will not claim as they don't think they'll be entitled.

Someone on £30,000 with 4 kids could miss out on £6000 of tax credits, because they've read some biased/inaccurate report which implied that £26,000 is the limit for everyone.

littlerat

zigzigzag wrote: »

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.)

Just done an entitledto check, on min wage @ 40 hours a week, 1 partner working, 2 kids who can share a room (so 2 bed HB). Working on local council tax rates and LHA rates, so a bit of variation. Pretty sure I've screwed it up though...

We have:

Working tax credit: £39.81
Child tax credit: 108.29
Council tax benefit: £4.61
Housing Benefit: 71.88
Child Benefit: 33.70

That's £258.29 a week - £181.80 in your hand, so to speak.



That cannot be right. If it is I'm finding a bloke and knocking out a kid or 2. :eek: