Working vs Benefits

Purplekylie22

I was replying to a comment on my last thread and found myself writing;

"I honestly think that life would be so simple and easy if I just gave up work and stopped trying to make a decent living for me and my kids and just lived on benefits."

This isn’t the first time I have thought this. Why do silly people like me work so hard to try and keep themselves floating above water, even when they are about to declare them selves bankcrupt? Especially when people out there that have no intentions of ever working and not want to manage so easily on benefits.

Im not having a go on anyone not working and on benefits, just the idiots that do it on purpose. I was brought up by my mum on benefits and even she did volunteer work for elderly people and now she is disabled so can never go back to work.

What are the advantages in staying at work when quite clearly me and a lot of others would be better off if we stopped?

ClaireLR

I can see where you're coming from totally, and that's the fault of this stupid government for making it easier for people to give up work and sit at home all day rather than going out there to make a living for themselves and contributing to this country.

I think the main reason that I would ever have for staying at work is because I don't believe the state should keep people who won't work, only those that can't work.

You're not silly for going to work, your doing what's right and good and you should be proud of yourself that despite everything you're going through you still choose to get up each morning to do an honest days work.

Praxis99

As someone who has worked -in various roles- with the long term unemployed in the past and also spent time unemployed myself - indeed it was that which contributed to my BR in Sept 07 you have to realise that like the stories about prisoners having a wonderful time in jail, living on benefits is no soft soap option.

The media too often focus on what they say a person is 'earning' on benefits when in reality they often are receiving benefits 'in kind' and do not see the money that goes to pay their rent or council tax (that goes to make those headline figures you see in the papers).

Some people on benefits may well be trying to 'work' the system but I guarantee that if you try to live on just benefits you will be given enough for you and your family to just 'subsist' on. When I was unemployed after paying all my bills (which go out via DD) I was left with approx £20 a week for everything else (food, travel, cleaning etc) from my unemployment benefit. It was only by supplementing it with a small amount of savings that I was able to feed myself a semi decent diet.

There's a line in an old ACDC song that goes 'can't even feed my cat on social security....' I used to wonder could anyone ever get that bad that that might be the case. And you know what you can, I've been there, my old dear cat had to be put to sleep in Aug 07 (she was 19 with terminal cancer), had she lived during the few months I was unemployed following my BR I'd have struggled to feed and look after us both (I'd have found a way however and gone without to ensure her standard of care).

Final point is Purplekylie22 is that while many of us feel down about our work on occasion it is important for many peoples emotional and mental stability as well as a sense of self worth. There where occasions you know when I struggled with debt prior to going BR and felt I was going backwards that I'd thought 'you know I'd be better off on the dole' but the reality as I can attest is a lot more complicated than that. Be 'careful what you wish for'!

skylight

Can I throw this back from someone who was recently on IS with 4 kids who went BR. And I can tell you its not as easy as it sounds!

In theory it sounds great. Loads of money for doing nothing - but it is not loads of money. I have learnt to strictly budget over the last few years and this left me in great stead for having to "spend" a month of benefits and ensure there is enough to last. You are not "better off". You have a certain lifestyle that will remain when you are on benefits. Living hand to mouth is no great fun and that does not matter if you are on benefits and need to go BR or if you are earning, have a mortgage and need to go BR. Its all relative.

A big advantage to going BR is the freedom it finally gives you. Once you are discharged and earning, the money is yours. By that point you should have learnt to budget well and things will look up - big time. If you are on benefits then things do not change before or after BR, you are still paying the same out on the same coming in, as I said that lifestyle does not change because by its nature it cannot. With employment you have more choices. Choice to move job, better yourself, the choice to spend or save and that feeling of pride. You do not get that on benefits.

And you will always have people who see benefits as a way of life. Don't lower yourself to that way of thinking.

Purplekylie22

thank you for you opinons guys, but the whole point is - I dont have any disposable income that goes on debt because i havent paid any of them for the past two years becuase I cant afford to, I do all the calculations e.t.c and I am 350 in the red everymonth after paying for just living expenses rent and council tax. I earn £14K a year, becuase I only do 32.5 hours a week and this is enough for me to not qualify for any benifits except tax credits, which matcheds exactly what I pay for nursery every month in total, including working tax credit, child tax credit and child care tax credits. so all I have is my pay which goes on transport, since i work across town to where I live, rent council tax, roughly five thousand a year, so there I only have 9K a year if i take away extra money spent on unches and things at work (okay Iknow I should make sanwhiches) but is that extra few hundred pounds a year really worth spending 3 housr a day on 4 jam packed buses with a 4 and 5 year old? And it wont get better after than bankcrupcy since that is without paying any of the bills!

elisebutt65

Purplekylie22 wrote: »

I was replying to a comment on my last thread and found myself writing;

"I honestly think that life would be so simple and easy if I just gave up work and stopped trying to make a decent living for me and my kids and just lived on benefits."

Some of us are on benefits AND trying to make a better life for the family as well though!

I'm doing my PGCE and getting some HB for my rent and then next years while I do my Masters, I have to go on IS in order to get the HB paid as I don't get any student help at all! I need my Masters so that I can teach at Uni level because you need to be a level higher than your students. At the mo I am teaching levels 3 and 4 but I want to teach at level 5 and 6 i.e. degree students.

I will be working a bit next year but only enough so I still get at least a quid a week IS so I can get the HB - otherwise the finances won't let me feed the kids and then I can carry on being a good little tax payer and pay it all back again.

Because of the 10p tax allowance going and the WTC rules about working 16 hours a week - I can't do it part time - I can't get a FE post teaching 16 hours a post round here as our FE college has just merged with all the others so there is only one FE employer now and they only take part time casual hourly paid teachers with no holiday or sick pay.

If I want to get a decent salary then I have to further my own education and take advantage of the benefit rules.

We don't all sit on our butts and just rake it in - not that there's a lot to rake in anyway!

viktory

This generous Government won't be in power forever and I think things will change - the benefit system will become less generous and those that work and strive to provide will get the support they deserve that is sadly missing at the moment.

elisebutt65

viktory wrote: »

This generous Government won't be in power forever and I think things will change - the benefit system will become less generous and those that work and strive to provide will get the support they deserve that is sadly missing at the moment.

I just wish that they'd lower the WTC level of hours or make it means tested so that it worked on a minimum wage level instead of that flipping 16 hours!!!! I just can't get that many - I can only get a guarantee of 12 during term time!

Praxis99

There an old adage about it been easier to get a job while you still have a job, which still generally holds true, certainly has for me over the yrs.

Living on benefits isn't going to make your situation better if anything it'll be worse and will give you plenty of time to consider (rue?) your position while you do so.

Why not look for a better job or take on a second PT job to boost your income and perhaps in the meantime also seek to resolve your debt situation once and for all. Otherwise I think you could find yourself 'stuck' in what seems to be an untenable situation until matters perhaps beyond your control force your hand,.

blind-as-a-bat_2

viktory wrote: »

This generous Government won't be in power forever and I think things will change - the benefit system will become less generous and those that work and strive to provide will get the support they deserve that is sadly missing at the moment.

I would love to know why people think the benefit system is generous? I must be missing something:rolleyes:

maxmycardagain

viktory wrote: »

This generous Government won't be in power forever and I think things will change

oh

my

god

do you ACTUALLY believe that?

10 years tories 10 years labour.....no real change

except MP's outrageous expense allowances are a bit more public

I know two people, one is on £5K a year part time, one is on £30K a year

guess what, that 10p tax band? they both lost the same per year when gordie chpped it out.

HOW is that fair?