Newbie trying to understand

debtfreeuser

Have been reading some diaries on here, in particular, one about bankruptcy, but have never posted before.
I was wondering how, in this day and age, someone can struggle so much. I read about the poster being self employed but has not enough work coming up so is living off benefits and meals of 10p a day etc.

Would someone in this position not try to find an alternative job, any job? rather than this 'writing to MP malarky?

Granted i haven't maybe got a full understanding of someone's situation but I thought everyone would have been given sufficient benefits to at least LIVE?

thechippy

Sorry,

I don't have time to answer you properly, as I'm right in the middle of applying for those millions of jobs available at the moment in the middle of a recession....;)

debtfreeuser

thechippy wrote: »

Sorry,

I don't have time to answer you properly, as I'm right in the middle of applying for those millions of jobs available at the moment in the middle of a recession....;)

hi there, should maybe have worded it better.
my post was not about lack of jobs but mostly about all the ppl getting no end of benefits but this one gets nothing,
i just dont understand the system

kj*daisy

If you are for real then I think you should thank your lucky stars that you don't need to understand why some people need to try and live off 10p a day for food.

I think it's the case that a lot of people don't get "no end of benefits" they really arent as generous as many think. The Daily Mail isn't always the best place for obtaining info on the benefits system!

sistafromanothermista

This reminds me of a time years back when i was at the jobcentre. A man was there shouting to the woman behind the counter that he was homeless and in order to get a job he needed an address. Also that in 5 days he'd only been able to afford a 10p packet of crisps i felt so sorry for him.

jon1965

I think you are lucky enough to have never had to use the benefit system.
8 years ago I separated from my wife and she stayed in the house, we never divorced but there was no way on earth we would have ever got back together. When I lost my job I was on ESA at 67.50 per week. I claimed HB and CTB but because I had a share of property initially they refused to pay. Because I didn't fit in a little box they were unable to look at it. In fact they were so bloody scared of auditors that they just would do nothing. I got CAB involved I begged I pleaded. What made it worse that they would say that I hadn't provided the right information but wouldn't tell me what I needed to provide. So for 4 months I couldn't pay my rent or my council tax, I could easily have become homeless. Up until that point I had always assumed that the people you hear about who have become homeless must have been at least in some way culpable or ill equiped to deal with the system.
I class myself as reasonably intelligent yet it could have been me!
Thanks to my Landlord being symphatic and my mother being able to lend me some money I was ok.

When I had my ATOS medical I was classed as fit to work, this was overturned recently by Tribunal, so a lawyer and a DR decided the law says I was unfit for work . So many people do not know how to, or have the energy to go through the appeal process.

One problem is that there are some people who know exactly how to play the system, and because of that they tighten the rules so much that the people who genuinely need the help do not get it.

Ok rant over

debtfreeuser

i am not belittling anyone, and get tax credits myself.
But when i read this diary about a single person not entitled to a single thing, i wonder how when you have people coming over from foreign countries specifically to work our benefits system.
I work for a bank call centre and once had someone calling trying to put through a £14k holiday on their card.
Looking back on their account, it was made up over the last year of every benefit under the sun and not a single withdrawal been made on it.

thechippy

debtfreeuser wrote: »

hi there, should maybe have worded it better.
my post was not about lack of jobs but mostly about all the ppl getting no end of benefits but this one gets nothing,
i just dont understand the system

Sorry,

I'm in one of my sarcastic moods tonight...........;)

debtfreeuser

it's ok, one of my pet hates, reading about it in the tabloids when people qualify for so much and yet others get no help at all.
i don't know where the balance lies

dewaldth

be nice to all and all will be nice to you

rising_from_the_ashes

debtfreeuser wrote: »

it's ok, one of my pet hates, reading about it in the tabloids when people qualify for so much and yet others get no help at all.
i don't know where the balance lies

That's the problem with the whole benefits system ...... I know someone who gets more in benefits than my gross pay - and another who's trying to find work but needs to earn a min of £20k to make it "worth their while" to come off benefits .... where's the incentive for either of them to work!

One of the above has had 6 crowns done on the NHS in the last 2 years ..... all free. Yet, I've had to have 2 teeth removed as I can't afford the £400+ to have them crowned - yet I've worked since I was 16.

I've been trying to do my degree and get absolutely no assistance (I am classed as low income) - unless I go full time but how am I supposed to do this as I am single, have a mortgage etc etc.

Yet someone else I know, who earns more than me, is doing their degree and gets the whole thing paid for and a laptop thrown in to boot - just because they get a certain benefit.

Or loft insulation - they came around here and said it was free .... came in, measured up and then when they discovered I don't get any benefits - "oh sorry, you'll need to pay £175".

Now, I'm not saying everyone can / should get everything but it shouldn't be that you get x, y & z if you get a certain benefit and if you don't, you don't get any help with things like insulation or education.

Surely those who work / pay taxes have just as much right to be warm / save on utilities as those who don't - or those who've worked since they're 16 deserve to try to better themselves & finish their education, just as much as those who have kids?

Sorting it out tho ....... can't see it ever being "fair" tbh & sorry for the rant but the system sucks:(