If anyone was worrying about benefits

[gingajewel]

This wasnt supposed to be a thread about who claims benefits, who should claim benefits or who has what entitlements. I was just trying to post something as i had seen a few people worrying about benefit caps in the next financial year.

I do believe that people with benefits do get tarred with the same brush which i agree is totally unfair. The media only ever portray the extreme benefit claimers or cheats, they never show you the single mommy who struggles to buy food with the bit of benefits she gets. They only ever show you the people who dont want to work and spend all there benefit money on fags and beer.

My personal opinion is £500.00 a week is a mad amount to be able to claim a week from the government. It does deter people from getting jobs because they are better off working the system and getting as many benefits as they can. As i mentioned before even with my ctc, cb and mine and OH wages we earn no wear near that a week. (this is just MY opinion)

Sometimes i think the whole system is injust and unfair but noone has a solution of how to put it right. Xx

 

[xSophieBx]

I£500 is extreme, and makes you wonder how many children they have to be able to claim that & why they are having so many if they aren't gonna bother to try and support them themselves!!

 

[x_Rainbow_x]

Im on maternity, my OH is in FT education, and works 2 days a week all day. between us we only just scrape enough to pay all our bills. We are entitled to child benefit and £10 tax credit that is all.... only because there taking it from the previous tax year when me and OH both worked over 30 hrs a week and earnt double what we do now. My OH s at uni to better our life and his carrer aspects. Im forced to return to work as soon as my maternity stops as we wont be able to live enless we didnt live together. Its like your punished for working...
They wont even accept that now we dnt earn what we did and that money would help with rent and take the pressure off a little.

They 'should' be able to base your tax credits on this tax year if you can give them an idea of what you will be earning... thats what friends of mine have said to me anyway, but they do the same thing to us, i think a lot of it is finding someone on the end of the phone who is worth their salt x

we did. Her responce was untill we can provide a P60 for this year ( which ofc isnt released untill end of tax yr in april) they will base it on the previous year. My OH asked if she was joking!

 

[feeble]

ffs its ridiculous

its THE TAX OFFICE who issue the P60 and then you have to send it back TO THE TAX OFFICE to get your money!

Last year they sent us an 'incorrect' P60 and have started taking money off us because they sent us the wrong information and we sent it back to them!

tis unbelievable it really is.

 

[Kimmy25]

I agree with the government for once, I work a 55 hour week as does my partner, I had to return to work when my baby was 15 weeks old so that I could support my children. At the moment im completely burnt out and I feel incredibly guilty for leaving my baby. However they are my responsibility and I need to pay for them.

I do feel awfully jealous of the people who are screwing the system sat at home all day

 

[lindseymw]

Im on maternity, my OH is in FT education, and works 2 days a week all day. between us we only just scrape enough to pay all our bills. We are entitled to child benefit and £10 tax credit that is all.... only because there taking it from the previous tax year when me and OH both worked over 30 hrs a week and earnt double what we do now. My OH s at uni to better our life and his carrer aspects. Im forced to return to work as soon as my maternity stops as we wont be able to live enless we didnt live together. Its like your punished for working...
They wont even accept that now we dnt earn what we did and that money would help with rent and take the pressure off a little.

They 'should' be able to base your tax credits on this tax year if you can give them an idea of what you will be earning... thats what friends of mine have said to me anyway, but they do the same thing to us, i think a lot of it is finding someone on the end of the phone who is worth their salt x

we did. Her responce was untill we can provide a P60 for this year ( which ofc isnt released untill end of tax yr in april) they will base it on the previous year. My OH asked if she was joking!

To be honest, I would ring again. I do think it depends on who you get at the end of the phone. I rang up to inform them that our income will be higher than originally estimated (by around £7-8k), strangely enough, our CTC has gone up by £6 per month since that phonecall. I would have assumed it would have gone down.

 

[RachA]

I will get ready to be shot down here lol!

I am glad they are bringing in a cap on benefits - it's about time (don't think i'll get shot down for that statement as everyone here seems to agree).

I worked for DWP for 7 years before going on a carer break after having children. I therefore have quite a bit of knowledge about people screwing the system etc. I worked in Incap, appeals and overpayments and i had a very good friend who worked in the fraud department.

I would never tar anyone with the same brush - my parents were on benefits for a number of years and my sister, through circumstances not of her own making, is now on benefits. So i know how many genuine people there are out there-and i could say that from what i know of people on this forum, you are all those honest people that would rather be working but because of circumstances you can't. Unfortunately there are a large number of people who screw the system to make it work for them and that number is higher than most people think. Unless everyone that you know are totally honest then you (not pointed at anyone specific here) will know people who claim benefits that do the odd bit of work that is cash in hand - that can be things as simple as babysitting and getting paid for it! etc.
I also know that you don't have to have loads of kids to be getting £500 per week. Going back to my sister - her husband walked out on her just before Christmas, she does work that fits around the children but doesn't earn much from it, her husband was (well still is) earning a good wage - circa £40k pa. She has found that since her husband left there are actually better off than they were when he was at home. NOw she obviously wants him to come back but it will be extremely hard for them because they would be worse off.
Things that people haven't taken into account are things like free school meals and help with school uniform - that adds up to quite a bit too.

I would tend to agree with Feeble because of having worked in the industry for some time and have seen that the people that i've had to deal with have a lot more perks than i do and my OH earns an amazing wage really.
The situation should never of been allowed to get to this point really but it has and there is quite honestly not much that can be done about it. A system where people on benefits can (not are because is know there are a lot of people who aren't)be better off than people who slog their guts out to bring home minimum wags is totally wrong.