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

Flyboy152

zigzigzag wrote: »

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!

Then we can only assume you agree with these people's behaviour, or they don't actually exist at all.

If they do exist, why won't you shop them? Surely they should be treated as criminals. I mean, they are getting away with something you are not.

zagfles

pompeyfaith wrote: »

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.

You should unless you both get IB, or you have some other income (eg carers, pension etc).

Flyboy152

zagfles wrote: »

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.

The last I heard it was "household" income.

Flyboy152

susiesae59 wrote: »

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

Are you sure about this?

mjbmjb

There are genuine claimants for sure. That is what the welfare state is for.

And there are able bodied people with 4+ kids who rake in £30k tax-free per year for doing jack, whilst many earn much less than that before tax, even for doing skilled jobs. This is what p****s everyone off. It simply isn't fair on those that pay tax, bills and petrol to get to work. The government needs to clamp down on this abuse asap.

Ross, good luck mate.

zagfles

Flyboy152 wrote: »

The last I heard it was "household" income.

Lazy reporting. It's per "benefit unit", which would be a couple (or single person if not in a couple) and any dependant children.

An adult son living with his parents and claiming JSA would be claiming benefits independantly and so be a separate "benefits unit", so his JSA would not count towards his parents' cap.

zigzigzag

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Then we can only assume you agree with these people's behaviour, or they don't actually exist at all.

If they do exist, why won't you shop them? Surely they should be treated as criminals. I mean, they are getting away with something you are not.

I don't understand why you're harassing me - as I said, I wouldn't shop them because they are people I love, but sometimes people you love do things you don't agree with. Obviously it depends on the nature of the offence, but for this sort of thing on balance I would feel crappy shopping them. Does that mean I condone it - absolutely not. They, like you who think that £11k after housing is not enough to live on, live in a world of entitlement - thinking that the world owes them not just a living, but a very good living.
If you would shop your family and friends for this sort of thing, that's your business.
Anyway you are completely missing the point I was making, which was that it is untrue to say that benefit cheating is a myth or a rarity. If I know this many people who do it, I would think that it is widespread.
Goodbye!

looby75

zagfles wrote: »

Lazy reporting. It's per "benefit unit", which would be a couple (or single person if not in a couple) and any dependant children.

An adult son living with his parents and claiming JSA would be claiming benefits independantly and so be a separate "benefits unit", so his JSA would not count towards his parents' cap.

which would make perfect sense, after all not everyone who lives in the same house will be related. Especially after the new LHA rates for under 35's come in.

KPanton

I have to be on the side of the guy in the article here, sure, some people on minimum wage don't get much more, but they need to research what benefits they can get, and perhaps we all need to agree minimum wage isn't doing its job of being enough for someone for live on, rather than blaming everything on people even worse off than you, and by that I mean, even if they're getting a few thousand a year more in benefits, I hardly think you'd swap places for what they have to deal with.

instead of wondering why other people aren't having it hard enough, perhaps you should be asking questions about why you're not getting what you deserve. It's been brought up time and time again that the estimated fraud in benefits is tiny, yet the amount of people not claiming what they're entitled to is huge.

Also, you have to wonder why all the blame is being directed at those least able to defend themselves. IF it's about money, why not invest all this time and effort in getting the recently unemployed back to work, instead of demonising those who can't? Surely it's a more economically sound idea.

I think a lot of people need to wake up and realise there's a Leveson Enquiry for a reason and that the newspapers are not required to print facts. At the moment it seems the disabled are the new immigrants, and I wonder who'll be the next scapegoat.

The figures printed in the tabloids are always every single benefit the person is entitled to, housing, council tax, prescriptions, etc, all converted into a yearly value, and then presented as tho they just get a wheelbarrow full of cash delivered weekly, when it's not the case.

Someone living in London doesn't get more to spend than someone in Wales, it's just the housing costs are higher. £10,000 or £26,000 (which btw, was a tiny fraction of 1% and NOT the norm), neither is getting more in the way of 'spare' cash.

Certainly fraud needs to be investigated, but as this thread has shown, many people seem to either 'know someone who knows someone who's got Sky and a big telly and they smoke', or they know people who are apparently robbing the system and do nothing.

In the end, what's worse, that 0.5% get less than minimum wage for faking an illness, or that genuinely disabled people go without what they need to exist, never mind actually have some semblance of a life?

I personally am on incapacity due to mental problems, no DLA or anything, and I don't try to claim it, as I feel I can get by on the basics if I'm careful. However, if anything, I feel it's worse for me as I look entirely fine if it's a day where I feel able to leave the house. (I worked solidly for 15 years before the illness hit me too, so while I am costing the country, I did pay in something towards my keep.) It certainly doesn't help my state of mind to see headlines putting the fall of civilisation at my feet, and hearing people on the bus or in shops effectively blaming me for everything from the price of gas to the snow not being cleared outside their house.

If Cameron wanted a 'Big Society' I'd happily volunteer my services as a moderately knowledgeable IT type to the local community for no cost, when I was feeling up to it, however, at present I feel if I dared to show any kind of ability on a good day, I'd have a box ticked and be told I was 'suitable for work'.

Every day now I have genuine stress when the letterbox moves, wondering if it's that summons to be judged by ATOS and told that I'm fine because I can walk. I think there's a lot of people on some form of sickness benefit who'd happily put some hours in each week in some form, if they had any trust at all in the system.

As it is, there's a few little old ladies local to me who know someone who'll help out if their PC isn't behaving and understand that their helper, while being free, isn't 'on call' and he'll show up when he's able to. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but when the whole country seems determined that if me and everyone like me would just die, the whole economy would pop back up to perfect and everyone would be on double wages.

There's been reports recently of a genuine rise in abuse to the disabled, people in wheelchairs and walking with sticks being attacked verbally and physically because of this myth that they're all 'scroungers'. I just wish for one week people like Littlejohn or Melanie Phillips had to live in a wheelchair with no assistance then come back and tell us how easy it was. (Although I sense they'd both get more abuse in public than any average disabled person.)

Bit of a length rant I know, but it's just so demoralising to be the scapegoat of all society's ills.

Lastly I'll say, I don't drink, don't smoke, don't really 'do' anything expensive, have to consider a £4 bus trip into town and back, and yes, I have the internet, but without it I'd be entirely alone and shut off from almost everything. I'm not living in luxury, and I think people need to remember most tales of people living the high life on benefits are either one offs, wildly exaggerated, the numbers have been fiddled with, or it's just entirely fabricated.

FishOnTwoWheels

Just as has already been said, many people only include what they get in their hand as the amount they received in benefits, forgetting the £1,500 a year in Council Tax, the £10,000 a year in rent, the free prescriptions, eye tests and glasses, plus dental check and treatment. The last three going into hundreds of pounds per year. I take home less than £11,000 a year and everything has to come out of that. If those who are conning the system were as serious about finding work as they claim to be, they would either have to move somewhere cheaper or lower the lifestyle but why do either when you can sit on yer !!! and live where you want in the UK at someone else's expense?