| Does anyone on here claim benefits? 12:15 - Oct 7 with 6382 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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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:54 - Oct 7 with 690 views | bsw72 |
| 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. |
People have NO IDEA of the impact that chronic illness and/or pain have on an individual's quality of life, it is soul destroying for those who suffer as they just want to be able to live a normal life. My wife has a couple of chronic illnesses which makes life incredibly difficult, so you have my full sympathy.
Anyone who chooses to judge others without (and pardon the very poor pun) walking in their shoes, can do one. |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:54 - Oct 7 with 684 views | vapour_trail |
| 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. |
Good luck to you mate.
Sadly you diverse and lived experience of this topic will be roundly ignored by the small restore / reform element on the thread that will continue to spout their ill informed bullshit. |  |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:54 - Oct 7 with 685 views | eireblue |
| 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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So what you are saying is 2.7% of the population are consuming 1.8% of the benefits spend.
Well done them, are you living in one of those areas that are full of cheats? Not like Birmingham and Bradford, based on those stats.
Maybe it is all the elderly in Worthing that we should be demonising. |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:56 - Oct 7 with 669 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
None currently but absolute shed loads in the past thanks very much. |  |
| "They break our legs and tell us to be grateful when they offer us crutches." | | Poll: | What you watching. |
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| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 15:00 - Oct 7 with 654 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| 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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You really can never be too much of a Richard can you! | |
| "They break our legs and tell us to be grateful when they offer us crutches." | | Poll: | What you watching. |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:07 - Oct 7 with 625 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| 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. |
If you're in touch with any of the staff in Bath that worked there in 1988 can you say a big thanks for paying my giro out early so that I could evade the police that would have been there to arrest me for non appearance if I had been paid on time. Those were the days! | |
| "They break our legs and tell us to be grateful when they offer us crutches." | | Poll: | What you watching. |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:08 - Oct 7 with 624 views | Steve_M |
I had about six weeks on unemployment benefit immediately post-university. It was all rather tedious and unfortunate but - as it is meant to - helped fill a gap until I could pick up some temporary work.
On top of that, and as mentioned throughout this thread, I have received education to tertiary level and healthcare throughout my life. And when I get to retirement age then I'll still get whatever is left of the old-age pension.
All of which is as it should be in a fair society and I am happy to contribute to that through my taxes. |  |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 with 594 views | TownieRob |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 14:53 - Oct 7 by bartyg |
What do you think is the ratio of people who "genuinely need" benefits to those who are playing the system? |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. | | | |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:19 - Oct 7 with 568 views | soupytwist |
| 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. |
The article says that people on means tested benefits like universal credit will potentially be eligible. We've already had a post that gives the example of someone who is both working and receiving benefits. Theirs is presumably a "working household".
As for me, I claimed housing benefit for one year when a student. My wife and I received child benefit while we had two children to make us eligible. We eventually began earning an amount that took us over the threshold. We also took advantage of nursery vouchers when our children were little. I got furlough payments for three months during Covid. Oh yes, and up until I was about 6 my single mum and I lived in a council flat on the Greenstead estate in Colchester so I probably indirectly benefitted from some benefits during that time.
I haven't claimed anything on the two occasions I've been made redundant.
I'm actually grateful the OP started this thread, it's allowed us all to read a couple of powerful examples of what being a "benefit claimant" is actually like. [Post edited 7 Oct 15:23]
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:19 - Oct 7 with 564 views | Zx1988 |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
How do you know that they're not in work and not, for instance, working in a 24/7 environment and just happen to be on a rest day? | |
| Not a prophet, or a stone-age man; just a mortal with potential of a superman. | | Poll: | Worst Ginger? |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:20 - Oct 7 with 561 views | Blueschev |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
Do you survey these people? How do you know they're unemployed? |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:23 - Oct 7 with 526 views | StokieBlue |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
By this logic shouldn't you be working rather than walking around your local Asda?
What a bizarre argument to construct.
SB |  |
| Avatar - M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:26 - Oct 7 with 517 views | Steve_M |
| 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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"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"
Yes, quite. All the confident assertions of those with no empathy and awareness never understand this point. | |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:27 - Oct 7 with 518 views | giant_stow |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
Aside from the other criticism your post is getting, that's just no way to judge who's working these days. People work shifts, they work psrt-time and they work from home or freelance - just daft. [Post edited 7 Oct 15:36]
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:28 - Oct 7 with 507 views | bartyg |
Guys you can't all jump in on Rob, now I feel bad replying even though he's responding to me! |  |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:32 - Oct 7 with 473 views | Blueschev |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:27 - Oct 7 by giant_stow |
Aside from the other criticism your post is getting, that's just no way to judge who's working these days. People work shifts, they work psrt-time and they work from home or freelance - just daft. [Post edited 7 Oct 15:36]
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I could point out that he's sat there chatting on an internet forum in the middle of the working day! | | | |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 15:33 - Oct 7 with 470 views | DJR |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 14:54 - Oct 7 by eireblue |
So what you are saying is 2.7% of the population are consuming 1.8% of the benefits spend.
Well done them, are you living in one of those areas that are full of cheats? Not like Birmingham and Bradford, based on those stats.
Maybe it is all the elderly in Worthing that we should be demonising. |
You live Keno out of this.  |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:35 - Oct 7 with 462 views | wrightsrightglove |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
The fact that people think like this, let alone show this level of ignorance publicly, absolutely amazes me | | | |
| If you want to know how many people are on benefits on 15:35 - Oct 7 with 466 views | Tractor_Buck |
| 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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The only thing that shows is that Labour MPs represent areas with a greater population density.
Try harder. |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:36 - Oct 7 with 453 views | BlueBoots |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
DISCLAIMER: Just so Phil doesn't get sued, supermarkets other than Asda will be happy to serve you if you're either not working, lazy, or both |  |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:41 - Oct 7 with 419 views | Tractor_Buck |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
If you can walk round your local Asda at 'any point of the any week day' (sic), then I'll happily assume you aren't working when you should be and are a scrounger. See how it works? | | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:44 - Oct 7 with 398 views | Steve_M |
| 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. |
Oh, bloody hell, that sounds horrific. My best wishes as you try to dela with that on an ongoing basis. | |
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| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:52 - Oct 7 with 384 views | oldbeardy |
Benefit fraud/error is not at all insignificant - totals around £10 billion and for benefits that are more susceptible such as universal credit the rate is not far short of 10%. Add to this the way that the rules, complex as they are, allow - or force - people to arrange their lives to hang onto and maximise what they get and it's clear there remains a lot of waste in the system. So while the large majority rightly claim their entitlements, a significant minority defraud or game the system. Equally, lots don't claim when they could do so - again, complexity is part of the issue. Definitely an area in need of reform though it is difficult to achieve. | | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:55 - Oct 7 with 377 views | DropCliffsNotBombs |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:14 - Oct 7 by TownieRob |
I don't know.
I only have to walk round my local asda at any point of the any week day, and I can see there's a number of people filling their baskets who aren't working, that could.
I'm all for helping those who really do need it. Unfortunately we are helping many who are nothing more than lazy. |
 |  | | |
| Is anyone on here claim benefits? on 15:57 - Oct 7 with 366 views | DropCliffsNotBombs |
| 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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Great post.
Assuming (sure...) that the OP was genuine, this is the response that they need to take on board.
JSA is a fully miserable experience - gaily skipping around enjoying the quieter times at Asda doesn't negate this. | | | |
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