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

aimeeb30

smk77 wrote: »

I know little about all of this but here is a a question from something that sticks out from what you've written. You get £105 income support. If you were go to work I can understand that you lose income support but why would your husband?

Also, surely you'd still get some housing benefit on such a low income?

Because i would be working 16 hours a week my husband wouldn't be entitled acourding to the job centre

When the CAB worked it out we wouldn't get because of getting working tax credit cancels out housing and council tax benefit

iamthedoctor77

Please remember, my article was about quashing the myth that we all get £26k a year and the discrimination some of us have to put up with. I wasn't bleeting about not getting enough. That doesn't alter the fact that it is harder to keep a family afloat on £11k a year than it is a full time wage.

iamthedoctor77

aimeeb30 wrote: »

Because i would be working 16 hours a week my husband wouldn't be entitled acourding to the job centre

When the CAB worked it out we wouldn't get because of getting working tax credit cancels out housing and council tax benefit

a friend of mine is in a similar boat. It can seem as if everything and everyone is against you at times.

iamthedoctor77

Flyboy152 wrote: »

How is it using Kinect?

The Canon 500D SLR is Flyboy12's current goal. He has a long way to go before he saves enough for it, but, by next Christmas he might just be able to afford it.

We are a Whovian house too. We went to the Doctor Who experienced a few years ago and we loved it. My favourite was always Jon Pertwee, and my earliest scariest memories are Patrick Troughton sitting on the edge of a London Underground platform, playing his penny whistle (yes I know, keep you dirty minds to yourselves MSE ) and being approached from behind by a Yettie. :eek: :eek:

We dont have kinect. I'd like a nikon d90. My Doctor was Peter Davison. The Master used to scare me as did Davros.

qetu1357

iamthedoctor77 wrote: »

Thankyou, and it is, for a couple, not for 4 people. Just leaves nothing spare, which was my point. Plus I was answering the many who seem to think people in our position are on £26k.

Thankyou for your comments.

Tough, I grant, but do-able.

There isn't much - in reality - that anyone can do about the people who think all benefit claimants are on £26k.

But the challenge is that some people ARE better off on benefits than if they worked.

This is what the governmemt has go to crack.

Make work pay more than not working.
Have a decent safety net for those who can't.
Address those who won't work.

These debates always seem to end up as tax payers v benefit claimants.

What it should be is tax payers + genuine benefit claimants (like you) v scroungers.

aimeeb30

iamthedoctor77 wrote: »

a friend of mine is in a similar boat. It can seem as if everything and everyone is against you at times.

Yes it seems that either you live on benefits and have to feel like a common thief the way people look at you or you take any job available and even though you would get less than the goverment says people need to live on they wont help.

I wonder how many more people would apply for lesser paid jobs if the goverment would help us.
I am willing and able to work but the goverment in affect have tied my hands i'm sure there must be many more out there in the same situation

iamthedoctor77

qetu1357 wrote: »

Tough, I grant, but do-able.

There isn't much - in reality - that anyone can do about the people who think all benefit claimants are on £26k.

But the challenge is that some people ARE better off on benefits than if they worked.

This is what the governmemt has go to crack.

Make work pay more than not working.
Have a decent safety net for those who can't.
Address those who won't work.

These debates always seem to end up as tax payers v benefit claimants.

What it should be is tax payers + genuine benefit claimants (like you) v scroungers.

I heartily agree although I'm not claiming because it pays better. It doesn't, nothing like. I was earning £16k a year when i left school. Attitude has to change or the wrong people will still be the only ones being hit.

zigzigzag

iamthedoctor77 wrote: »

Please remember, my article was about quashing the myth that we all get £26k a year and the discrimination some of us have to put up with. I wasn't bleeting about not getting enough. That doesn't alter the fact that it is harder to keep a family afloat on £11k a year than it is a full time wage.

Hi Ross - I applaud you for writing your story, and for coming on the boards, and I wish you all the best with your wrist and your future.

On the point of your £11k in relation to the cap of £26k - my understanding is that the £26k cap includes housing, and certainly for me as a reader I would include housing in any calculation of income/outgoings in my budgeting because for my family it's our largest outgoing by far (edit to add: £9k pa plus over £1k council tax - so if we had to pay for that out of £11k, we'd be in big trouble). So if the £11k is your income after housing is paid for, then I think it's easily enough for 4 people to live on - not luxuriously, mind, but very decently. Also if it's excluding housing, it would produce a figure larger than £11k as being what the government is actually providing for you and your family - which is what the benefit cap relates to. Please don't think I'm nit-picking, I don't mean to sound like it, I just feel that if we're getting facts out in the open to make readers understand the realities of being on benefits, then it's useful to know what the figures relate to - as it stands I am not really any the wiser. Thanks again for your interesting article.

(Edit to add: After just reading Joyful's note below, I want to second their assertion that the many people who have done 'benefits checks' for you and your family earlier in the thread were IN NO WAY being disrespectful to you, the opposite - they were concerned and looking out for your interests and your family - the MSE boardees are always doing this sort of thing for everyone who posts, to make sure everyone is being looked after.)

Ducklet

robpw2 wrote: »

people on IB or ESA do not get free prescriptions free dental etc they are only for those who get income based benefits. they can apply for a hc2 but the reasons for refusal or often baffling trust me .

i do not know if dla entitles you to free prescriptions

DLA is not means-tested, so prescriptions have to be paid for, unless one also receives a means-tested benefit such as Income Support, Pension Credit etc.

bobbyf

qetu1357 wrote: »

But the challenge is that some people ARE better off on benefits than if they worked.

This is what the governmemt has go to crack.

Make work pay more than not working.
Have a decent safety net for those who can't.
Address those who won't work.

These debates always seem to end up as tax payers v benefit claimants.

What it should be is tax payers + genuine benefit claimants (like you) v scroungers.

I agree with this entirely. The whole debate aboue 'scroungers's is just a red-herring to stop people from really engaging with the fact that many people on a full-time wage still struggle financially because some wages are so low.