Happy Christmas

You need to read the story carefully to gets the facts.
The Sun say's
She will be using her benefits and thinks she has the same rights to have a good Christmas as those who go out to work

If she pays for it why not?

She spent £2,000 last xmas on present but £1,500 was borrowed and she still owes £1,100.
Last year, Siobhan spent £2,000 at Christmas — £500 on each of her two sons, £400 on herself and the rest on her family and parties.
"I saved a little and borrowed £1,500 on credit. I still owe £1,100 of what I borrowed but it doesn't matter. If I had a job or not, I'd still be in debt.

She tried working and is signing on looking for work.
"I had big plans for my career but I accidentally fell pregnant and motherhood became my life.

"At first I didn't want to go on benefits and did everything I could to avoid them because I was too proud. But there is no work here and now nearly all my friends are in council housing and on benefits.

She says: "If I got a job, it would only be on minimum wage and I would have to pay rent, bills and childcare. It would be a stupid thing to do.
"I live in one of the poorest counties in England. There is no work and even if I did have a job it would be minimum wage and I couldn't afford childcare.

And this year she will spend on present using money she saved and borrowed.
This year Siobhan has saved £500 for Christmas and will raise the rest by using high interest loans and credit cards, as well as some money lent to her by a relative

Siobhan says: "As long as I pay the minimum monthly payments on my credit cards, I am able to get more loans and cards. I also get money from local loan sharks, but they have higher interest.

Much like any other working family would do.
And she's not alone — 33 per cent of Brits will cover the entire cost of Christmas on credit cards

She claims Jobseekers Allowance according to the Sun but is entitled to claim Income Support instead and not have to seek work. She chooses to be avaliable for work and so is entitled to such benefits.
 
£65/week would be tough, but its more than £65....

image


Thats more than my girlfriend makes working full time and its quickly approaching my wage, again working full time.

How can she get £120 p/w (major part of her income) from child tax credits?

You'd think tax credits were taxes paid back against tax you've already paid?

Without tax credits she'd be on £107.10 pw.

mmm ... going to look into tax credits looks like a good scam :rolleyes:.
*edit:
Its even 'better' than I thought, you don't need to be in work to claim (not sure how its a tax credit in that case ...), and can claim for children in other countries within the EU, can't see how this couldn't be abused by an 'entrepreneurial' individual with fake documents to a family that lives abroad but within the EU.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/what-are-taxcredits.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/children/children-taxcredits.htm

First thing they should call it something different if it isn't actual a tax credit, and second this looks like its got scam artists paradise written all over it.
 
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279562d1323244797-happy-christmas-sun.jpg

A lot more than i earn at 40 hours a week. the more she breeds, the more she'll get given too.
 
image

A lot more than i earn at 40 hours a week. the more she breeds, the more she'll get given too.

Which brings us back to that age old question;

Are benefits too high or are wages too low?

I'll just say that in my area of work, many people earn less now, for the same hours, than they did in the 80's. That's 30ish years.

You should be thinking of trying to drive standards up, not down to the lowest level, imo.

That's the likes of the Stun and the Mail for you though :(

Regardless of what you might think, this country does have the money.
 
Which brings us back to that age old question;

Are benefits too high or are wages too low?

is that an age old question?

free home, food stamps, electricity and heat - fine (well not really)

anything else - earn it

benefits are always too high....I've yet to meet anyone on benefits 'struggling'
 
benefits are always too high....I've yet to meet anyone on benefits 'struggling'

£260 a month for water, electricity, gas, phone, clothes, food, and any other expenses (car, petrol, insurance, MOT, road tax). Does that sound like a lot of money?
 
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is that an age old question?

free home, food stamps, electricity and heat - fine (well not really)

anything else - earn it

benefits are always too high....I've yet to meet anyone on benefits 'struggling'

:rotfl:

I assume you work then.

Why, if it's so cushy when you don't?
 
Berties said:
£260 a month for water, electricity, gas, phone, clothes, food, and any other expenses (car, petrol, insurance, MOT, road tax). Does that sound like a lot of money?

But that's just the JSA portion, there are lots of other benefits that can also be claimed.
 
:rotfl:

I assume you work then.

Why, if it's so cushy when you don't?

I can't be bothered with a full blown argument here but if you're not very comfortable on the dole then you're doing it wrong...I've still yet to meet anyone on benefits who doesn't pull in a fair whack compared to people in working households!!
 
But that's just the JSA portion, there are lots of other benefits that can also be claimed.

This is true if you have kids.

But what are you going to do?
Make kids suffer because the parents have too many of them?

It is a dilemma, imo and I can see your argument.

I don't see an answer to that one, unless you go down the route of China, where they kill some at birth (particularly girls) :eek:
 
I think while the benefits system is open to abuse and some people live "alright", stories like this glorify it, not everyone on benefits is living the high life. I'd say the reality is that only a small minority are on benefits and living the "high life"

Ask a few people who have worked all their lives in well paid jobs and are then made redundant and having to "sign on", they are certainly not living "alright"

Yes if you play it right you can get accomodation, and a nice little pay out for any kids you have, but you don't live the high life. But often people that way inclined do things on the side, and are up to their eyeballs in debt.

Someone mentioned companies that give credit as part of the problem, and I agree. Yes while it's harder to obtain some credit, a lot of these catalogues give credit out willy nilly.
 
I can't be bothered with a full blown argument here but if you're not very comfortable on the dole then you're doing it wrong...I've still yet to meet anyone on benefits who doesn't pull in a fair whack compared to people in working households!!

So you've no argument at all then.

A "fair whack" as opposed to an unfair whack when you're in a crap job, imo.

And I still want to know why you work, when you could obviously do better on the dole.

And anyone who is comfortable on the dole probably won't be worth employing anyway, imo.
 
Has anyone had direct experience of being unemployed and claiming?

If so I'd like a breakdown of the benefits you managed to receive. I think there are some people on here that have no direct experience and believe what they hear or read.

I was unemployed for a while and I certainly wasn't living the "high life", the complete opposite actually and very worrying as I had much more outgoings than I had money coming in.

I got about £120 every two weeks and managed to have a filling done for free. Ooh talk about living it large :laugh:

The job centre was a depressing place to be, and I dreaded going there every fortnight.
 
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Has anyone had direct experience of being unemployed and claiming?

Yup. I only got £65 a week (JSA) Couldn't get a free house or council tax until I was physically out on the street and homeless.
 
Yup. I only got £65 a week (JSA) Couldn't get a free house or council tax until I was physically out on the street and homeless.

You were obviously doing it wrong, so was I apparently.

We should have been living in 5 bedroom mansions with ten range rovers, buying consoles, and flat screen tvs. :laugh:

There seems to be a massive mis-conception that you can play the system easily and the majority end up with hundreds of pounds a week.
 
if she is employed by the government as a mother, shouldn't she be getting a paycut? :devil:

I still think shame is the way forward, pay the rent and ctax, gas/water exemption. and give them food vouchers to go to shops to eat (i.e £5 meal voucher per family member to go eat AT tesco's, must bring ID)

If the government doesn't get 3 vouchers per kid per day, have the kid taken off them for neglect

You don't get people off benefits by giving them money. you make them ashamed and struggle to live off them!

I have had to be on JSA before (Contributions based), it wasn't easy and I always had a new job within a couple of months tops.


if people feel that strongly about it they can petition to have the issue raised in government
 
Berties said:
Yup. I only got £65 a week (JSA) Couldn't get a free house or council tax until I was physically out on the street and homeless.

Surely you didn't get it because you don't pay council tax? And I thought you choose to live with your parents?
 
You were obviously doing it wrong, so was I apparently.

We should have been living in 5 bedroom mansions with ten range rovers, buying consoles, and flat screen tvs. :laugh:

There seems to be a massive mis-conception that you can play the system easily and the majority end up with hundreds of pounds a week.

Case A - person up at 5am, work for 6 as a retail manager, working 9 hours a day earning half of

Case B - on the dole, free house (moans and gets moved until she has the house she wants), has 4 kids (never looked after 2 of them in her life, shifted to family members), earns twice Case A, has top of range Merc people carrier, full Sky sub, 360 console etc etc, wants for nothing (is always skint), neglects her kids (and social services give her more money), is on incapacity benefit (as is her partner but they're clearly faking it)

one simple example and I've dozens of others....


Case B earns close to what my wife earns after 7 years of university but of course we'd rather work.....and if you need to know the reasons why then you're a just not doing your Case B right :laugh: :rotfl:
 
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And I thought you choose to live with your parents?

50/50 on that. Of course having my own place would have benefits but it'll have drawbacks too (worse area) For one it won't be detached so that means my 7.1 system couldn't be used. plus I'd probably be worse off, as water/electricity/gas is split between myself and parents. If I was on my own have to pay those off by the meagre £65 a week.

So unless I get pregnant really not rolling in it.
 
Has anyone had direct experience of being unemployed and claiming?

If so I'd like a breakdown of the benefits you managed to receive. I think there are some people on here that have no direct experience and believe what they hear or read.

I was unemployed for a while and I certainly wasn't living the "high life", the complete opposite actually and very worrying as I had much more outgoings than I had money coming in.

I got about £120 every two weeks and managed to have a filling done for free. Ooh talk about living it large :laugh:

The job centre was a depressing place to be, and I dreaded going there every fortnight.

Don't believe you mate. You're lying and had it far too easy.

Yours,

A Stun/Mail editor.
 

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