I claimed Income Support when i was about 18 for about a year and then i worked til i got married.. and because i moved a fair way away from my old job (and the bosses wouldn't raise my salary to include travel expenses)I decided not to work.. and Ray's salary covered us both, til Joel came along and then we were able to claim Child Allowance and Family Credit for a while. For a period of time when i was pregnant with Joel, the place where Ray worked went through financial hardship through not getting enough orders to see them through (they made fire bricks).. so he worked a week on and a week off and claimed income support for those "off" weeks... which was tough.

Now we have two kids, Ray is in a far better paid job (the firebrick company went bust) and i claim DLA for Joel and a carers allowance...include the child benefit and its basically about the minimum wage a week... (just over £100 a week).

My dad can't work, he claims Invalidity Benefit but can't claim DLA, he doesn't qualify as he's not "disabled" enough though he'll never work again... fair enough.. but til he turned 60, he paid full whack for prescriptions (and that could cost up to £24.00 a month), full rent, and community tax.. as my mum works part time and they live just above the poverty level (and i mean just)... they don't qualify for any help for anything..and if she goes full time my dad loses his invalidity benefit... (long story there).. but my parents paid tax and national insurance all their working lives, and this is the thanks that they get..

I think its cases like that which annoy me most, as my parents struggle on the breadline, and there are people who haven't worked a day in their lives, and they get everything paid for them, or claim for anything that they can get their hands on... i know this for fact.. my brother works for the DSS, he worked in the Unemployment Benefits section where he's been threatened, assaulted and had furniture thrown at him because he's had to tell these people why their claims have been refused .. he eventually got transferred somewhere else within the DHSS and is much happier..

The point i think i'm trying to make is the Benefits System is supposed to be helping those in genuine need, but people like my parents fall through the cracks and can't seem to get anywhere

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by Keenangel


My dad can't work, he claims Invalidity Benefit but can't claim DLA, he doesn't qualify as he's not "disabled" enough though he'll never work again... fair enough.. but til he turned 60, he paid full whack for prescriptions (and that could cost up to £24.00 a month), full rent, and community tax.. as my mum works part time and they live just above the poverty level (and i mean just)... they don't qualify for any help for anything..and if she goes full time my dad loses his invalidity benefit... (long story there).. but my parents paid tax and national insurance all their working lives, and this is the thanks that they get..

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Keeny, I think you'll find that "most" people that work with benefits would agree with you. The system for deciding on what benefits you can recieve depends on what national insurence you have paid, and it does work that people who have worked and paid national insurence quiet often end up in a worse postion than people who haven't.
An example :

Joe Bloggs has worked for the past ten years, has a mortage , and becomes redundant. He makes a claim for JSA (JobSeekers Allowence) he gets awarded the contribution based part of JSA (as he paid his national insurence) he doesnt get any help towards his mortage as basically he should have his own insurence to deal with that, because he is recieving the "contribution based JSA" he also has no automatic right to free prescriptions/dental treatment etc etc (as contribution based JSA isn't means tested)also after 6 months his JSA stops, he than has to make a new claim for income based JSA and if he has savings over £3000 (maybe a redundancy payment) any money he claims will be reduced.

Fred Bloggs has never worked a day in his life. He makes a claim for JSA he gets awarded Income based JSA, he lives in a rented house and gets his rent paid and his council tax, he gets free prescriptions/dental treatment free school meals for his kids etc etc.

These are very rough examples but that is how the system works


I do agree with you Keeny that the people who seem to need the money and help the most don't get it

OK, my experience of the Benefits system.

Back in the early nineties I was living in Newcastle and found myself without work and little work experience. I spent every day looking for work that pretty much didn't exist, and the few jobs that did exist were vastly outnumbered by the people who applied for them. What would have happened to me during that period without Income Support (I hadn't paid enough NI to qualify for dole) I dread to think. But then I also know that what I did get I couldn't possibly have got by on without the help of good friends and family. Housing Benefit is all well and good, but when the assessor decides the room is only worth £30 a week and the landlord is charging £40 what do you do? I got by, and got the job, but it was never easy.

I also grew up as one of three children brought up by a single mother. OK, at times she worked as a child minder, and later on as a cleaner, but for the most part we were living off benefits. I also know that things would have been a lot worse if it wasn't for our extended family always chipping in and helping us out. There is no way that the level of help offered by the state can be viewed as generous. And all the while you have to deal with the public image of a sponger and proving that you absolutely do qualify for the benefits, while being given the constant impression that no one believes or trusts you.

Yeah, I knew a couple of families that were cheating the system while I was growing up, signing on when they had full paid work. I knew employers that encouraged it so as to avoid paying a decent wage. But these were few and far between. The vast majority of people I've known on benefits desperately needed the money, and rarely did they get enough.

I find the idea that benefits are too high laughable. Not unless it's been increased by 100% in the last decade. I also think that they are essential for a civilized society. My Great-Grandmother had her drunken and abusive husband walk out on her and their children at a time when there was no welfare state and when there wasn't a lot of work an uneducated woman could take. I am very grateful that neither myself nor my mother had to go through that.

Yes, we need to weed out the benefit cheats, but we also need to stop assuming they're the majority. Yes benefits need to be a safety net and not a comfortable excuse not to work, but we're a long way away from the later. I also understand that many of the staff at the front end of Benefits claims receive abuse, both physical and verbal, that no one should have to put up with. But we need to deal with those who abuse the system individually, and not to demonize and force the majority of genuine claimants to suffer unduly as well.

I only have one expreience of benefit's, that was after i got fired and i was on them for 2 months while looking for another job.

Because i still lived at home i got (wait for it) £56 per month.

Now, i tried to explaine that i was still being charged rent by my mother of £250 per month (no free rides), but it did no good. By the time i finally did get another job i was masivly in debt and had had to take out extra credit cards and extend my limits on my existing ones.

So in my experience benefits arent there to help those in need, thay are there mainly for the lifers (like my dad) who's never worked a day in over 10 yrs, does undeclared jobs on the side and wont even consider coming off benefits for a job if it pays less than £30,000

Now he gets a nice 2 bed house, enough money to run a car and for his wife to play bingo and go out with her mates.

That hardly seems fair. Maybe if everyone had to get off their butts pronto, like i did, there wouldnt be so many people on benefits.