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

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Comments

  • olly300
    olly300 Posts: 14,738 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Ducklet wrote: »
    I've seen many people I know claiming benefit fraudulently, but no-one's done anything even after they've been reported..

    Either you live in an area of high benefit fraud and they can't get around to checking all the benefit fraudsters out, or you are mistaken?
    I'm not cynical I'm realistic :p

    (If a link I give opens pop ups I won't know I don't use windows)
  • evenasus
    evenasus Posts: 11,866 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    zigzigzag wrote: »
    I personally know lots of people who bend (if not outright abuse) the system - eg choose not to work or even look for work when they are fully capable of finding work for years and years (so they can happily enjoy their hobbies), ask their employer to lay them off so that they can collect benefits and enjoy spending all day at home with their kids, hide income and savings to qualify for more benefits etc - and these are intelligent, able-bodied friends and relatives of mine! And I've read of families who enjoy more luxuries on benefits than many working families do eg http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16812185. Like jumbo said above, I want these people taken off their benefits so that people like Ross can be treated decently.
    People like this, I would not have as friends. Being related to these type of people, I couldn't help.

    BUT - I would report them without hesitation.
  • Doom_and_Gloom
    Doom_and_Gloom Posts: 4,750 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 15 February 2012 at 9:31PM
    Flyboy152 wrote: »
    Council tax at five thousand pounds a year? I really think someone needs to have a reality check.
    *rolls eyes* I obviously ment CTC. If you noticed I had already stated CTB as over 1k in my post. So common sense would say I was on about CTC. This is the problem when you have a disability with pain you do things wrong and don't notice and I did check that post as well. Yes pain really does effect you.
    zagfles wrote: »
    Think he meant CTC rather CTB!! CTC would be over £5k.
    Thank you, but just to clarify I'm a woman :rotfl:
    I am a vegan woman. My OH is a lovely omni guy :D
  • zagfles wrote: »
    You should unless you both get IB, or you have some other income (eg carers, pension etc).

    Yes wife gets carers allowance not for me but for her elderly mum who lives with us and is cared for by us.

    She could do full-times hours with me being home aswell, but the system limits her to £100 a week max earnings if this government are promoting work pays why do they still have this limit in place when there are two carers even though only one gets the £55.55 carers allowance.

    Considering we are saving the government a fortune by us refusing to allow her to go into care that in my opinion is unfair
  • zagfles
    zagfles Posts: 21,503 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Chutzpah Haggler
    littlerat wrote: »
    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:

    Looks about right
  • zigzigzag
    zigzigzag Posts: 64 Forumite
    edited 15 February 2012 at 9:30PM
    evenasus wrote: »
    People like this, I would not have as friends. Being related to these type of people, I couldn't help.

    BUT - I would report them without hesitation.

    My guess is that many people, maybe even you, have such people as friends and family. There's no 'type of people' like this - the ones I know aren't stereotypical underclass scroungers, they're largely university educated, intelligent, middle-class, middle-of-the-road people, who for some unknown reason feel entitled to live off (or benefit from) the state. I guess I'll need to start a separate thread about whether people would/should shop friends and family like this, to find what the MoneySavingExpert population think about that.
  • zagfles
    zagfles Posts: 21,503 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Chutzpah Haggler
    Yes wife gets carers allowance not for me but for her elderly mum who lives with us and is cared for by us.

    She could do full-times hours with me being home aswell, but the system limits her to £100 a week max earnings if this government are promoting work pays why do they still have this limit in place when there are two carers even though only one gets the £55.55 carers allowance.

    Considering we are saving the government a fortune by us refusing to allow her to go into care that in my opinion is unfair

    Agreed - also not letting people claim carer's with the state pension is unfair as the state pension is an entitlement you've paid for.
  • Wonder what is going on in today's job market ? can Tesco afford to pay minimum wage ? then this is a scandal of the highest order and advertised by our Governments jobcentre.

    http://jobcentreplus.jobhits.co.uk/TESCO-NIGHT-SHIFT-id-BSD-27442

    People wake up
  • smk77
    smk77 Posts: 3,697 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    ~Jem~ wrote: »
    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.

    really? Are you 100% sure about that claim?
  • smk77
    smk77 Posts: 3,697 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    £11K for doing nothing? and he says unenvieable postion?


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

    My heart bleeds for the guy.


    I earn well over twice what you earn. If you've got that kind of attitude then I am glad you earn so little. I guess you should have studied harder at school. Perhaps the education would have done you good in more than one way.
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