Benefits trap mum on £70k a year says she can't afford to work

duchy

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

What is needed is a system that makes work pay.

It should never be the case that people on benefits turn down work to avoid losing benefits.

Indeed

Look back thirty years and the *social* attitude was it was better to be working than claiming -You simply wouldn't get asked "Are you looking for a job?" It was a given you were seriously jobhunting if you were on the dole. The only people who considered the dole a lifestyle choice were the longtime unemployed who were completely unemployable and they were looked down on socially. We still had the poverty trap back then where you could be no better off working than claiming but people made that choice.

I can remember a friend back then claiming -and it was made very clear they were checking up that she had attended interviews etc. We need to move away from jobcentres main function been administering JSA and move back to the advisors discussing vacancies advertised and making appointments for interviews there and then -and following up afterwards. My son claimed for a few months last year -as he has a disability he got extra time with advisors -in those 4-5 months at no time was anything more than "Did you look on the internet this week and last" come up. He was never asked for proof he'd applied for anything. It's a joke.

vivatifosi

I don't understand this woman. The same article was in the Sun last week. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/4859753/i-earned-120-in-the-Citynow-Im-paid-70k-in-benefits.html
So is this actually self-promotion and trying to get her career as an author off the ground? Not really sure what the motivations are otherwise. Why would someone out themselves as a benefit scrounger then invite more than one newspaper into their house? If she's getting paid for it, I hope her benefits are suspended as a result.

michaels

Other interesting facts
Even though she and ex husband could afford a 1.6m property he can only pay £13 pw child maintenance?

IF uni tuition fees are a loan repayable only if above average income is earned why are they free for those with unwaged parents?

Is it worth 'separating' when my kids are uni age?

ash28

Says she is on ESA - it makes you wonder if she's been assessed by ATOS - it seems some poor sods are told to look for work when it's evident that they shouldn't and get put on JSA. If she had been on JSA and had turned down 2 jobs she would have had her benefits sanctioned. I think housing benefit would have been sanctioned too.

£200 a month dental/eye care/school trips?? Do they all wear contacts? Have braces?? Don't kids get free eye and dental care on the NHS anyway. You don't get benefit for school trips....if you can't afford to pay for them then the school may - whether you're on benefits or not.

How can £9000k university tuition fees be paid for - they aren't paid upfront - the student takes out a loan to pay for them in the future after they graduate and earn above a certain level - at most the middle one will be entitled to a maintenance loan and maybe a maintenance grant and maybe a bursary or scholarship grant.

Once the middle child (18) starts university she will lose her child benefit and tax credit for him. You can only claim those up to the age of 19 if the child is education but not at university level.

Sometimes I think some of these stories in the Mail are made up - interesting that it was released just days before the new benefit system came in.

ILW

Will she be subject to the £26,000 cap?
Seems she must be over that at the moment.

flea72

jay213 wrote: »

I read this article and had a quick search to see if I could find it posted on here and I couldn't find it. Will she be affected by the £500 per week benefit cap? I can't believe that she is entitled to so much.

I'm not sure if this is in the right section or not but I just wanted to hear the views that people have about it.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4520659

carslet

ILW wrote: »

Will she be subject to the £26,000 cap?
Seems she must be over that at the moment.

i hope so, this sort of thing disgusts me. how can this be right.

princeofpounds

Loads of students at my university were benefitting from split-up families.

Most of them were genuinely separated, but the trick was whenever you needed to claim poverty (fees, loans, hardship funds, etc) you simply put down Mum's income details. Dad kind of faded out of the picture for official purposes.

Whenever you actually needed to buy something, ring up dad for some hard cash.

Result was plenty of students with genuinely rich fathers were getting their university education paid for. I don't know any who were questioned over the matter. Free money.

kabayiri

michaels wrote: »

Other interesting facts
Even though she and ex husband could afford a 1.6m property he can only pay £13 pw child maintenance?
...

Clearly she couldn't afford it. All fur and no knickers, we call this type.

She needs a reality check. Stick her in a call centre flogging phone contracts for 12k pa. That'll help.

lostinrates

princeofpounds wrote: »

Loads of students at my university were benefitting from split-up families.

Most of them were genuinely separated, but the trick was whenever you needed to claim poverty (fees, loans, hardship funds, etc) you simply put down Mum's income details. Dad kind of faded out of the picture for official purposes.

Whenever you actually needed to buy something, ring up dad for some hard cash.

Result was plenty of students with genuinely rich fathers were getting their university education paid for. I don't know any who were questioned over the matter. Free money.

Yes, this was the case when I was a student too....rather than are out of the picture dads I was shocked when I was told people had been adopted by their step dads not because it was love, or an issue of family unit but because financially in their circumstances it had made sense.