| Does anyone on here claim benefits? 12:15 - Oct 7 with 4551 views | Billywitch |
I've never received a single penny of money/or had any help from any government.
And the more I read, the more it seems I'm a minority.
Interested to see the landscape of this forum [Post edited 7 Oct 17:29]
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:09 - Oct 7 with 574 views | BelsteadCav |
In your area, have a look at this
The top 10 most expensive areas in the country are all labour voters, who would have guessed
[Post edited 7 Oct 14:18]
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:09 - Oct 7 with 557 views | Guthrum |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:02 - Oct 7 by J2BLUE |
I was on Jobseeker's allowance about 20 years ago for six months or so.
A lot of people seem to think it's one big party so let me tell you a few details I remember.
I was on about £50 per week I think. I was living at home and was fortunate to have parents who were happy to provide everything I needed for no cost so I had one night out per week spending about £20 in the Heathlands pub and the other £30ish went on stamps.
I was treated like sh1t by the job centre staff. I took in photos of about 100 letters in their stamped addressed envelopes I had sent out to every local employer I could think of. They barely acknowledged it. A few weeks later they gave me a print out of a job at Next where they said they knew it wasn't appropriate in any way but I could apply if I wanted to. I didn't because it was a role I was not qualified for, had no chance of getting and was nowhere near what I was looking for. They then suspended my JSA and investigated me...
At one point they offered to send me to a company called Seetec. Seetec had a government contract to help job seekers find a job. I went voluntarily. Once there, I quickly realised Seetec couldn't give a damn about helping anyone and were just trying to fill time to keep us there to get their money. One of the staff went out to a charity shop to buy some board games to entertain us. That was when I walked out. She phoned me later that afternoon and I told her why I left. She got stroppy and put the phone down on me.
I then volunteered for a charity in town two days a week. I hated it. However, a job eventually opened up in the finance department as a trainee. I applied and got it. It was 25 hours a week, minimum wage and by your definition likely still classed as benefits as it was a government funded job via the Future Jobs Fund. My six month contract was about to end and they were very keen to keep me. Then the newly elected Tories cut their funding and the job offer became a week by week offer. I left because I had another offer at a shipping office.
I found myself unemployed again about six months later for reasons outside of my control. I did not sign on again due to the utterly humiliating dehumanising treatment from the first time.
One moment that will stay with me for life is when I turned up for an appointment at the job centre about 10:00 in the morning to be told that it had moved to 14:30. I said no one told me and the woman rolled her eyes in a really exaggerated way and looked at her colleague before saying "we would have told you". I am not a violent person but if she had been a man I would have hit him.
Moral of the story: Most people don't want to be on benefits. It's mentally crushing, you're treated like a parasite and it's just utterly demoralising. I went for one interview with Britannia Building Society. It was in a pub as they had a flood. Stunning woman wearing a low cut top. I came out of that interview with a headache after spending an hour desperately trying to maintain eye contact. I got a follow up assessment morning before being rejected for not having any experience...something they knew from the first second from my CV. That was about 14k a year at the time and entry level.
If you know someone on benefits you might be better off taking them for a pint or a coffee rather than judging. [Post edited 7 Oct 13:16]
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Problem I found at Job Centres was they're trained to deal with idiots and it takes a lot of work persuading them you are not one. Once through that layer, they could be quite helpful (tho my last experience was nearly 20 years ago). |  |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:09 - Oct 7 with 557 views | BlueBadger |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:46 - Oct 7 by Illinoisblue |
“The more I read..”. What are you reading? |
Nothing with a reading age beyond Janet and John, I fear. |  |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:11 - Oct 7 with 555 views | J2BLUE |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:09 - Oct 7 by BelsteadCav |
In your area, have a look at this
The top 10 most expensive areas in the country are all labour voters, who would have guessed
[Post edited 7 Oct 14:18]
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What do you think is happening there then? |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:21 - Oct 7 with 509 views | BlueBadger |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:57 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/mone
I have no idea what the OP has seen, but this news doesn't make me want to jump out of bed any quicker in the morning for work.
£1bn of help with energy bills, reportedly paid for by taxpayers, and most of it is going to people on benefits, while working households struggling with their bills get nothing.
As I said in my previous post. If the benefits support is genuine, I am all for it but it seems like taxpayers are getting squeezed more and more to the point of breaking. |
Letting people get ill because they can't feed themselves or keep warm will cost a lot more in terms of care packages, hospital admissions, emergency services time, plus, not letting people freeze or starve to death is basic human decency.
We had all this in austerity through the 2010's. Didn't save any money, make people healthier or make the country any better. [Post edited 7 Oct 15:55]
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:22 - Oct 7 with 498 views | BelsteadCav |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:11 - Oct 7 by J2BLUE |
What do you think is happening there then? |
Probably a lot of corruption, some of the figures are mind blowing
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:24 - Oct 7 with 474 views | J2BLUE |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:22 - Oct 7 by BelsteadCav |
Probably a lot of corruption, some of the figures are mind blowing
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What sort of corruption? | | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:25 - Oct 7 with 473 views | Axeldalai_lama |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:57 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/mone
I have no idea what the OP has seen, but this news doesn't make me want to jump out of bed any quicker in the morning for work.
£1bn of help with energy bills, reportedly paid for by taxpayers, and most of it is going to people on benefits, while working households struggling with their bills get nothing.
As I said in my previous post. If the benefits support is genuine, I am all for it but it seems like taxpayers are getting squeezed more and more to the point of breaking. |
I understand the overall point made, and don't claim to know the ins and outs of these people and exact benefits etc. But none of this stuff ever makes me even slightly closer to adopting that lifestyle as seems to be the insinuation by those down on benefit claimants.
A cursory look suggests that the basic maximum income level for those benefits is £16k a year. I'm no millionaire but cannot begin to entertain how a life that scrabbles around supposedly figuring out these loopholes and lives such a controlled little life just for the sake of sitting on your arse. Not for me, and I'd imagine, not for very many at all despite the protests of 'makes us all want to do it'.
Sorry, a bit waffle, but basically I don't think many do it and have this great life that we should all be copying, the small percentage that might be doing it would ultimately live better lives if they worked and participated in society like the vast majority of us do. It's a straw man, not a loophole to exploit. It's frustrating, but that's life. |  | | |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:26 - Oct 7 with 461 views | DJR |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:57 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/mone
I have no idea what the OP has seen, but this news doesn't make me want to jump out of bed any quicker in the morning for work.
£1bn of help with energy bills, reportedly paid for by taxpayers, and most of it is going to people on benefits, while working households struggling with their bills get nothing.
As I said in my previous post. If the benefits support is genuine, I am all for it but it seems like taxpayers are getting squeezed more and more to the point of breaking. |
You think this is better news, the inheritance tax cut at a cost of £6 billion?
"Badenoch seems to be incentivising older people to buy ever bigger homes at a stage in life where it would make more sense to downsize. It is a huge tax break for wealthy families living in London and the south of England, and coming after two other announcements aimed at exactly this demographic (see 10.14am), it means Tory conference 2026 has probably done more to widen social inequality than any other party conference in recent history. "
With finances stretched, I know which I would opt for. [Post edited 7 Oct 14:30]
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:28 - Oct 7 with 443 views | BelsteadCav |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:24 - Oct 7 by J2BLUE |
What sort of corruption? |
Your guess is as good as mine
But I’m guessing benefit fraud going by those figures | |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:31 - Oct 7 with 413 views | Deano69 |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:42 - Oct 7 by J2BLUE |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:31 - Oct 7 with 404 views | MattinLondon |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:24 - Oct 7 by J2BLUE |
What sort of corruption? |
The sort of corruption a far-right Restore member likes to preach.
It’s all the fault of immigrants / or something like that.
Edit. Posters have a responsibility to check their sources. I’ve never heard of NorthernSparky before but it took thirty seconds to ascertain what sort of chap he is. He’s entitled to his views and people are entitled to share far-right types. But to use that person to make some sort of point isn’t exactly balanced. [Post edited 7 Oct 14:48]
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:32 - Oct 7 with 408 views | Zx1988 |
Two years of full-rate Education Maintenance Allowance (£30 p/w) during my A-Levels.
As a single-parent household living in a crappy council house in rural Norfolk at the time, we had the square root of nothing, and the EMA alongside the money I earned working two full shifts at the local McDonald's every weekend, and full-time hours during the holidays, was an absolute God-send. Not least because it allowed me to have some semblence of a 'normal' social life outside of lessons. | |
| Not a prophet, or a stone-age man; just a mortal with potential of a superman. | | Poll: | Worst Ginger? |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:32 - Oct 7 with 400 views | StokieBlue |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:28 - Oct 7 by BelsteadCav |
Your guess is as good as mine
But I’m guessing benefit fraud going by those figures |
So you've got no evidence or specific knowledge but you're willing to accuse a sizable number of people of benefit fraud anyway.
Some pretty horrible comments on that Tweet as well.
At least this is now going the way the OP hoped.
SB [Post edited 7 Oct 14:36]
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:36 - Oct 7 with 392 views | Cotty |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:57 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
https://www.msn.com/en-xl/mone
I have no idea what the OP has seen, but this news doesn't make me want to jump out of bed any quicker in the morning for work.
£1bn of help with energy bills, reportedly paid for by taxpayers, and most of it is going to people on benefits, while working households struggling with their bills get nothing.
As I said in my previous post. If the benefits support is genuine, I am all for it but it seems like taxpayers are getting squeezed more and more to the point of breaking. |
That narrative just isn't true. The majority of people on benefits are in work. Instead of stigmatising them, we should be stigmatising the employers they work for, who pay so poorly that they are relying on the state to top up their employee's wages. This argument is 99% of the time argued completely ar$e over tit. [Post edited 7 Oct 14:36]
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:38 - Oct 7 with 385 views | Markp68 |
So I’m going to stick my head above the parapet as I’m thick skinned and will give as good as I get if people have a go but hoping TWTD has,mostly, sensible right minded people.
Here goes, I have been receiving a mixture of ESA,UC and PIP for the last 8 years following routine hip surgery which didn’t go “according to plan”. To cut a long story short I ended up with no hip joint for 17 weeks and 3 lots of major surgery in 4 months. This has left me disabled, in permanent pain, on a shed load of heavy duty drugs and thus unable to work; in fact I am effectively ill health retired. It’s not the picnic the right wing press, the Tories or Reform UK PLC would have you believe and is certainly not a lifestyle choice! It took me a good 4 or 5 years to accept that my chances of working again even with a pain management regime that works better than the one I have are slim to non existent. In short life is dull and repetitive and I don’t recommend it.
I may be uniquely qualified in the area of benefits on here as during my earlier working life I spent a long time working in benefit administration from the old Unemployment Benefit in the mid 80’s, Housing and Council Tax benefits, Jobeekers Allowance and Social Fund and I can say with absolute certainty that there was only small percentage of claimants were either work shy or claiming fraudulently and whilst that percentage may have increased a bit I suspect that it holds true to this day contrary to popular belief. There will always be those that abuse the system, that’s inevitable.
As an aside and with a direct link to ITFC back in the Unemployment Benefit days I use to work at the Bishops Stortford UBO and we used to cover Hertford as well 3 mornings a week. We each had a part of the alphabet of surnames we were responsible for and mine included the letter ‘S’ and once a fortnight I used to sign on the one and only Alan Sunderland after his career finished. He was a very nice chap. | | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:43 - Oct 7 with 351 views | giant_stow |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:38 - Oct 7 by Markp68 |
So I’m going to stick my head above the parapet as I’m thick skinned and will give as good as I get if people have a go but hoping TWTD has,mostly, sensible right minded people.
Here goes, I have been receiving a mixture of ESA,UC and PIP for the last 8 years following routine hip surgery which didn’t go “according to plan”. To cut a long story short I ended up with no hip joint for 17 weeks and 3 lots of major surgery in 4 months. This has left me disabled, in permanent pain, on a shed load of heavy duty drugs and thus unable to work; in fact I am effectively ill health retired. It’s not the picnic the right wing press, the Tories or Reform UK PLC would have you believe and is certainly not a lifestyle choice! It took me a good 4 or 5 years to accept that my chances of working again even with a pain management regime that works better than the one I have are slim to non existent. In short life is dull and repetitive and I don’t recommend it.
I may be uniquely qualified in the area of benefits on here as during my earlier working life I spent a long time working in benefit administration from the old Unemployment Benefit in the mid 80’s, Housing and Council Tax benefits, Jobeekers Allowance and Social Fund and I can say with absolute certainty that there was only small percentage of claimants were either work shy or claiming fraudulently and whilst that percentage may have increased a bit I suspect that it holds true to this day contrary to popular belief. There will always be those that abuse the system, that’s inevitable.
As an aside and with a direct link to ITFC back in the Unemployment Benefit days I use to work at the Bishops Stortford UBO and we used to cover Hertford as well 3 mornings a week. We each had a part of the alphabet of surnames we were responsible for and mine included the letter ‘S’ and once a fortnight I used to sign on the one and only Alan Sunderland after his career finished. He was a very nice chap. |
It sounds like you've been through a horrible time of it. I can only hope things improve. |  |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:44 - Oct 7 with 356 views | BlueBadger |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:28 - Oct 7 by BelsteadCav |
Your guess is as good as mine
But I’m guessing benefit fraud going by those figures |
A simple ''actually lads, I have no idea what I'm talking about" would probably see you looking more dignified at this point.
This post has been edited by an administrator | |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:45 - Oct 7 with 347 views | BlueBadger |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:32 - Oct 7 by StokieBlue |
So you've got no evidence or specific knowledge but you're willing to accuse a sizable number of people of benefit fraud anyway.
Some pretty horrible comments on that Tweet as well.
At least this is now going the way the OP hoped.
SB [Post edited 7 Oct 14:36]
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I have no evidence that Bellers was wänking off a little yappy dog when he started on this track, but I'm pretty sure that's why he did it. | |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:48 - Oct 7 with 333 views | bartyg |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:22 - Oct 7 by BelsteadCav |
Probably a lot of corruption, some of the figures are mind blowing
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Birmingham listed in the top ten, but why point out Bradford?
We know why, it's because they are the cities with the largest muslim populations in the UK outside London.
Are there per capita figures on there? |  |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:48 - Oct 7 with 317 views | CrockerITFC |
Billywitch: "Is anyone on here claim benefits?"
With that level of English I believe you when you say you've never had "any help from any government"...certainly not at school anyway |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:52 - Oct 7 with 289 views | cressi |
Where I live and I own my property most of the properties are owned by private landlords. Myself being the only owner who lives there.
There's about 12 properties and half minimum of the people living near me don't work plenty through choice. I work in the care sector same where I works flats opposite hardly anyone works out of the 4 or 5 flats one bloke does 12 hours a week to get his benefits aged about 30 I'm afraid it's everywhere people just don't see and I've worked and had FA all my life from any government. | | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:53 - Oct 7 with 286 views | KrakenBlue |
Tried claiming JSA after uni but was denied because I didn't have any NI contributions in the year before, shocker. Now we get about £170 a month of child benefit which goes into an account for kids expenditures such as swimming lessons, clubs/activities, clothes, treats while we're out.
Also tax-free child care and the nursery free hours. Still costs an arm and a leg but it has made things easier.
I'm not sure never claiming money from the government is something to be proud of, if you're entitled to it why not claim? You pay plenty of tax | | | |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:53 - Oct 7 with 284 views | J2BLUE |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:28 - Oct 7 by BelsteadCav |
Your guess is as good as mine
But I’m guessing benefit fraud going by those figures |
The numbers are high pretty much everywhere.
There are 575 MPs in England and Wales (the areas covered).
374 are Labour MPs. That's 65% or pretty much two thirds.
I don't think there's any correlation between the MP and the benefit claimants.
If you look at the East of England, two of the very highest are Clacton and Great Yarmouth...
Far too simplistic to look at this data and come to any conclusions. Maybe it would reduce the benefits bill if someone like Andy Burnham is given a chance to make some real changes?
Oh and those benefits figures include Carer's Allowance and Disability Living Allowance. As far as I am concerned carers more than earn the pittance they get and surely no one wants to see disability benefits cut?
It also includes Universal Credit which can be paid to those in work. Who is the real enemy here? Someone working for a living receiving UC or the business being subsidised by the taxpayer?
£3341 of Tottenham's £4514 is Universal Credit. These figures tell us absolutely nothing about the people receiving the money. | | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:53 - Oct 7 with 276 views | bartyg |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 13:36 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
Personally, no. However, I grew up with a single parent in a council house, so I’m sure there was some level of support there when I was growing up.
Having grown up in that environment, I decided fairly early on that I wanted to get my head down, work as hard as I could and provide the best possible life for my family.
That said, what I find increasingly frustrating is that doing exactly that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll live particularly comfortably anymore.
I’m completely supportive of benefits for those who genuinely need them, that’s exactly what the system should be there for. Equally, I think we have too many people who know how to play the system, and the gap between those who work hard and those who hardly work feels narrower than it should be.
There has to be a clear incentive to work, progress and earn more, and I’m not convinced that incentive is as strong as it once was. |
What do you think is the ratio of people who "genuinely need" benefits to those who are playing the system? | |
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