Better off on benefits

annie1975_2

tescovaluecrisps wrote: »

A friend of my mum has never worked and she gets a bit less than £50 a week.

But if she is a pensioner surely she would get pension credits, and housing benefit,.Unless shes getting a private pension of her husbands.

tescovaluecrisps

Her husband still works and she has bought her house with her hubby

leveller2911

Morlock wrote: »

. Benefits are designed to provide a minimal amount that is considered reasonable to live on.


Not quite true though is it. For instance after the current benefit slashing it is still possible for a family on benefits to receive £26k net a year in benefits which is a gross income per year of over £34k a year.Its hardly "minimum amount to live on" is it.


Wages have been kept so artificially low, that they now often equate to less then the government deem to be the minimum amount of benefits one needs to survive. The government's solution is to slash the amount deemed necessary to survive at a subsistence level, by slashing benefits, not raising wages.

Be careful what you wish for, if NMW were to rise substantially then the cost of everything we buy in the shops would rise and many thousands of small businesses would go to the wall because they could not compete and inflation would rise.

The main problem this country has at the moment is house prices and house rents.Far too much of peoples earnings/benefits are spent purely to keep a roof over their heads.If this was reduced people would have more disposable income to spend.




Leading people to believe that benefits need slashing to save the economy is smoke and mirrors, the ignorant and uneducated suck it all up, ignoring more powerful adversaries who are the real cause of the problem.

Benefits should be a safety net/last resort but they clearly haven't been for many over the past 20 years or so.Truth is the more kids people shuck out the more money they were given.Human nature I'm afraid kicks in and many people will take the "easy" option and take benefits rather than work.Ive lived in Social Housing all of my life so I speak from the coal face, have been out of work in my life and walked in their shoes.

The NMW has meant that many big businesses have used this as an excuse not to pay their workforce a higher wage knowing that benefits will top it up. I don't really see a solution to that problem.

I'm afraid your post is also smoke and mirrors. and full of the typical Socialist bull we have had to endure from the previous Government.The current coalition has many faults but if Nu-Labour were still in power we would be in a worse position than Greece.

Remember Former Treasury chief secretary Liam Byrne, who left a note for his successor, David Laws, saying: 'I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left,was he lying ?

gingergee

morganedge wrote: »

OK.....Here's the thing, though.
Isn't that still tempting.

For example, if my boss said to me, ''Hey, new deal, Morganedge. Your pay is being cut from 1000 per month to 900 per month, however, you don't need to ever actually come here or work for it anymore''
I'd bite his hand off!!!

We all dream of not having to go to work

Errrrrrrrrrrr in a word....NO!!! I'd give anything to work, even for free!!! There is only so much daytime TV one can take!! (joke). But in all seriousness your out of your mind to think about giving up work in the current economic climate. What if you and you partner split (god forbid), or you got pregnant? Having job security means these situations can be dealt with, without stress!! I bet we will see a million posts in the future starting ...............I gave my job up, now im pregnant, what can i claim? Or the other amazing classic..........................Im pregnant, dont work, what can i claim?
Give your head a wobble hun and look at what you do have, a job. I don't mean to sound cruel, but i bet a speak for a lot of wanting to work but too ill to do so folk x

benefitbaby

Fay_elizabeth wrote: »

Listen guys,

I have taken what everyone has said and advised into account and despite my stubbornness I can see that I need to reduce my debts in order to improve my quality of life. I don't now think that going on benefits is the answer, I hadn't taken into account all the changes that are coming into place within the benefits system.

I will stick at my job (that i hate), try and do more hours when I can and try to get some of my debts paid off. I have already contacted CCCS about a debt management plan and I just contacted my mobile phone provider and managed to get my bill down from £50 a month to £36 so I am quite pleased about that.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Have you looked into whether you and your OH would qualify for any working tax credit ? Check out the tax credit calculator to do a calculation and see

Marisco

gingergee wrote: »

Errrrrrrrrrrr in a word....NO!!! I'd give anything to work, even for free!!!

I really cannot understand this way of thinking at all, not having a pop or anything, but I've never been happier since I retired!! I can now do things I never had time for when my nose was to the grind!! Have folk really got nothing else in their lives apart from work????

We don't have a lot of money, but get by ok, we are the ones some have mentioned, just over the limit to get anything. But there again we don't really need it either, I'd rather see it going to folk who really need it, and am quite in favour of means testing WFA and bus passes etc. We'd lose them, but I'd be happy with that, providing those who really need them get a bit more. Our "needs" are few and our "wants" even fewer!!

nomoreboomandbust

Alleycat wrote: »

If I'm totally honest, I don't! I enjoy the job I do and I enjoy the interaction with my colleagues, the routine, daily challenges, the feeling of self worth. When I've been off before (maternity leave), I was bored stupid by 6 months in. I'm due to take 6 weeks off to have an operation in a month and I'm dreading the sheer boredom I'll face.

Are you getting full pay whilst you are off ? Just curious, if that is the case you have reasonable bosses and probably enjoy working there, I wonder how many would just get SSP

McKneff

tescovaluecrisps wrote: »

A friend of my mum has never worked and she gets a bit less than £50 a week.

If she has never worked this wil not be a state pension unless her OH is receiving state pension and she has claimed on hsi contributions. The amount is wrong anyway, it would be around £70 if that had been the case, so it may well be a private pension that she has paid into previously.

If they have substantial savings, they will get nothing at all.

My OH gets state pension, I get 60% state pension but becasue we have small private pensions, I get £188 a month (and I worked blummin hard to get it) and my OH gets £80 a month)
We get nothing, not that I want it to be honest, we live well on what we get and we even manage to save the pensions for holidays etc.

Unfortunately, it's not just the government to blame, people are just too greedy, in my opinion.

McKneff

Marisco wrote: »

I really cannot understand this way of thinking at all, not having a pop or anything, but I've never been happier since I retired!! I can now do things I never had time for when my nose was to the grind!! Have folk really got nothing else in their lives apart from work????

We don't have a lot of money, but get by ok, we are the ones some have mentioned, just over the limit to get anything. But there again we don't really need it either, I'd rather see it going to folk who really need it, and am quite in favour of means testing WFA and bus passes etc. We'd lose them, but I'd be happy with that, providing those who really need them get a bit more. Our "needs" are few and our "wants" even fewer!!

:T:T:T
I agree with everything you say, except for the bus passes, I love the freedom.
to go 10 miles to our nearest town is £7.50 return. Now thats a lot of money when 2 of you are going.

Wicked_witch

I would advise against anyone deciding to claim benefits instead of working, even if it does seem like a better option sometimes. The grass is always greener...

My husband is disabled and needs me to care for him full time, so we are dependent on benefits. On the plus side, it's a fixed income and we don't have to worry about being made redundant or losing our rented home. On the minus side- it's a fixed income. If we need money to replace a washing machine, there's no overtime or second job to cover it. You can't get a loan, even for essentials you have to beg the DWP for money. You can't look forward to getting a better car or a bigger house, or to any future lifestyle changes that would involve having a higher income. Ever.

In addition, benefits are changing and becoming harder and harder to qualify for. We have the coming changeover to ESA to dread- will they put my husband in the support group (he does fit descriptors) or will we have to fight the decision? Ditto the change from DLA to PIP.

I would happily pare our income down substantially for the chance of a real future.