I thought that it they were going to make it 'pay to work'

[Baby France]

We are exactly the same Indy and lara...we've given and given and given.

We too have had our CTC and our CB taken from us. Our wages have been capped and frozen, working more and for longer and then our pensions. All while others get a rise.

I have been more than happy to 'shoulder' things and will scrimp and save to cope. But touching my future, when only last week they sold Northern Rock for HALF the price we the public bought.

They can save money by making more executive decisions, as in common sense!

 

[buttonnose82]

indy and lara I get what your saying too

we also get no tax credits, we will lose our child benefit, hubby also pays 40% tax, but on the flip side I know people on benefits that struggle so much also

I guess I just don't like the 'if I can't have it then she can't have it' kinda attitude

 

[Laura2919]

I have to be honest here, i have been on benefits, and because they pay for your rent, and your council tax etc, i really am confused when people say they struggle, what are they doing with their money?! i know i only have one kid, and would like to think that maybe it gets harder the more people you have to support, BUT i can only think of people who have it easier based on the more children they have. I'm not saying its a LUSH lifestyle i'm just saying from my experience they have it no worse then low earning working families, of course i am talking about my experiences, as thats all you can really do, and i don't know anything about pensions, or disability. Etc. This is a real kick in the teeth. especially when i cannot see the justification

I have to agree. I'm much better off at home and on benefits than not. Currently HB pay £94.02 of my £99.50 rent, I now pay no council tax and I get paid to do nothing really. Its not forever for me, I wasnt brought up to stay at home on benefits but I barely could afford to live when I was working and now I have no nursery costs, no rent and council tax to pay and I am affording life. I dont agree with it being a lifestyle choice but I can see why people dont want to work when they have it pretty easy!

 

[tallybee]

Whatever our opinions about benefits in general and who should get what, the basic fact remains that many people for a long time have been 'trapped' on benefits because they'd be worse off in work. That is wrong in itself. And a) screwing over working tax credits and b) this rise in benefits is worsening this problem, not improving it. The whole system is screwed IMO, this rise in benefits whilst wages freeze by comparison is just a kick in the teeth really. It's the tip of the iceberg of a fundamentally rotten system.

 

[lindseymw]

Whatever our opinions about benefits in general and who should get what, the basic fact remains that many people for a long time have been 'trapped' on benefits because they'd be worse off in work. That is wrong in itself. And a) screwing over working tax credits and b) this rise in benefits is worsening this problem, not improving it. The whole system is screwed IMO, this rise in benefits whilst wages freeze by comparison is just a kick in the teeth really. It's the tip of the iceberg of a fundamentally rotten system.

^^ completely agree with this

The system is screwed up.

Out of curiosity, I checked what me & DH would be entitled to if we split. We would actually be financially better off if we did by about £4k.....see to me that's penalising us for staying together?! I don't expect to get "paid" off the state for having children, it was our choice to have them, our responsibility to pay for them but sometimes I wonder to myself, what's the point in me working when I can get x, y & z off the state.

 

[tallybee]

^ Yep it's crazy. We get no tax credits at all, DH is only just into the higher income tax bracket, so we will lose out on child benefit as well even though DH is not my kids bio dad and he is supporting us all 100% while I study... whilst also paying (rightly) a large amount of maintenance for his 2 kids with his ex. which doesn't get taken into account whatsoever. She doesn't have to declare it and gets full tax credits etc and can always afford new things.

If we were to 'split up' we'd be massively better off with me claiming as a single mum! When I was claiming as a single mum before meeting DH, I wouldn't say I had more money than we do now but certainly wasn't hugely struggling in comparison!

ETA: I am NOT against DH paying the maintenance he does, it is quite right he supports his boys, just saying that with all these squeezes on us we are left with a lot less than what many people would assume a higher tax rate payer would

 

[smelly07]

Whatever our opinions about benefits in general and who should get what, the basic fact remains that many people for a long time have been 'trapped' on benefits because they'd be worse off in work. That is wrong in itself. And a) screwing over working tax credits and b) this rise in benefits is worsening this problem, not improving it. The whole system is screwed IMO, this rise in benefits whilst wages freeze by comparison is just a kick in the teeth really. It's the tip of the iceberg of a fundamentally rotten system.

^^ completely agree with this

The system is screwed up.

Out of curiosity, I checked what me & DH would be entitled to if we split. We would actually be financially better off if we did by about £4k.....see to me that's penalising us for staying together?! I don't expect to get "paid" off the state for having children, it was our choice to have them, our responsibility to pay for them but sometimes I wonder to myself, what's the point in me working when I can get x, y & z off the state.

Agree with both posts.... and i can see why people do it in all honesty, its too easy to abuse this system and whilst people are better off on benefits nothing will change, myself and my husband both know we would be better off if we didnt work or if we abused the system and when we struggle fiancially its bloody tempting especially when things like this happen...its a kick in the teeth and deflating but we couldnt personally do it.........tbh its much more important for me to have my girls grow up in a home where they see us both working AND im not putting the people who are genuinely stuck in that scenario down but the ones who abusing it or taking advantage of what should be a benefit system for those who really honestly need it but even so they still shouldnt be better off than workers x
i just cant get my head round this 5% rise for people on benefits and 1% for workers!!! its just

 

[tallybee]

The old cynic in me suspects that this kind of thing may be a deliberate ploy to have us all pissed off at each other rather than the 'powers that be' who bugger it all up in the first place.... the sad thing is the high likelihood of there being truth in that!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

The system is screwed up for sure. After childcare and commuting, I had nothing left on an above average salary. I've been made redundant, and once my SMP finishes, we will be entitled to HB which will leave us slightly better off than with me working. FFS!

 

[summer rain]

There is something wrong with the system, OH was working full time on a decent wage but after paying rent and council tax (social housing but band D council tax) we'd be left with about £100 a week for everything else, once he went part time he gets £200 a week from his job, we get full housing benefit and council tax completely paid for, higher tax credits (including free prescriptions etc) so we end up with about £350 cash at the end of the week-its a joke. Work less hours and you get more money than a person who is working 70 hours a week?! OH has no intention of working part time permanently; its just until he gets his green badge but no wonder something like 16,000 people in London switched to part-time hours last year (according to LBC) xx

 

[MrsGlitz]

Has anyone read the IFS' report following yesterday? It makes for scary reading actually.

 

[summer rain]

Do you have a link to it?

 

[Nibblenic]

I have to say, I worked for a Goverment funded employer putting people though NVQs. Obviously the funding was cut in the budget which resulted in my job being cut too.

Since I could only work 2 days a week due to childcare and my disability. I always knew I could/would be better off in benefits but choose to try and work. Since being made redundant I am not really worse off and could be much better off if I claimed for all I am entitled to claim for.

So thanks Mr Cameron, for making me redundant giving me more money than I would have if I had been working. :doh:

However what I would say is however much I used to get annoyed at people being better off on benefits. Its been difficult to claim, you get spoken to like shit by the people who man the phones. It is EXTREMELY stressful to claim and you feel like they can take it off you any time. It took them 3 months to sort out my claim and it can go wrong at any time and you'll not get any money for whatever reason.

I would really rather be working even if it meant being slightly worse off. However I was made redundant from a job, which was perfect for my condition which even I struggled with at the time. The chances of getting that type of job again in this climate is nil. Then I would be expecting my employer to spend money on me making 'reasonable adjustments' which however much they are a requirement of law there are a million and 1 loopholes and not time limit into them sorting it. Now Acess to work has no funding, they have to dig into their own pockets.

We're all knackered, tbh if Europe goes well, think we'll be counting out chickens to have a roof over out heads.

 

[tallybee]

Do you have a link to it?

I think this is the one MrsGlitz means https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5710

This here https://negativentropy.wordpress.co...orse-off-in-2016-than-they-were-14-years-ago/ is a pretty good breakdown of what it's about

 

[summer rain]

Thanks ever so much! Makes some reading for me after the kiddos are in bed xx

 

[EmmyReece]

I wish, wish, WISH I had the option of working!!!!!!!!!!

But I'm a carer and without me my mum would be in a home. I have to be here 37.5 hours a week for £55.55 - that's not even £1.50 an hour. Yet a qualified nursing carer would set the council back £7.55 an hour (as that's what her other carers get) So I'm sorry to say I will be welcoming this rise, and if it's by 5% it'll only be an extra £2.77 roughly.

I'm sorry to all of the people who work in the public sector and haven't been given the raise that they deserve. But as buttonnose82 so rightly put, not everyone on benefits want to be on them. I wish I could be working a proper job, that I had a healthy mother, that I didn't have to ask my oh for handouts when I've needed money for christmas presents and my carer's allowance hasn't stretched enough, and even more so that I didn't feel like crap when threads like this come up

 

[Harveysmum369]

Like we have said hun,no one is getting at the people ,like yourselves who NEED to be on benefits...after all thats what they are there for...our point is that the people whos stay on them because they can't be arsed to work,they are the ones who don't deserve any increase.xx

 

[EmmyReece]

I feel so bad for the public sector workers, yet on the other hand I will be welcoming the increase and in a way it makes me feel a bit guilty because I get a raise and they don't (I hope that makes sense), I guess that's why I feel so touchy about the subject.

 

[Lydiarose]

I have to be honest here, i have been on benefits, and because they pay for your rent, and your council tax etc, i really am confused when people say they struggle, what are they doing with their money?! i know i only have one kid, and would like to think that maybe it gets harder the more people you have to support, BUT i can only think of people who have it easier based on the more children they have. I'm not saying its a LUSH lifestyle i'm just saying from my experience they have it no worse then low earning working families, of course i am talking about my experiences, as thats all you can really do, and i don't know anything about pensions, or disability. Etc. This is a real kick in the teeth. especially when i cannot see the justification

In our case we were living on £70 a week JSA and had to find £100 every 4 weeks from that to cover the rest of our rent as housing benefit didnt cover it it was absolute HELL.. . . i thought we'd be so much more better off now dans got a job,but the truth is were not at all.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I wish, wish, WISH I had the option of working!!!!!!!!!!

But I'm a carer and without me my mum would be in a home. I have to be here 37.5 hours a week for £55.55 - that's not even £1.50 an hour. Yet a qualified nursing carer would set the council back £7.55 an hour (as that's what her other carers get) So I'm sorry to say I will be welcoming this rise, and if it's by 5% it'll only be an extra £2.77 roughly.

I'm sorry to all of the people who work in the public sector and haven't been given the raise that they deserve. But as buttonnose82 so rightly put, not everyone on benefits want to be on them. I wish I could be working a proper job, that I had a healthy mother, that I didn't have to ask my oh for handouts when I've needed money for christmas presents and my carer's allowance hasn't stretched enough, and even more so that I didn't feel like crap when threads like this come up

I am my sons carer. I have no choice really and I hope things work out for you hun xxx