£26,000 benefits cap - an example case ...

[sunny-dave]

I've always vaguely wondered how any family could get over £30,000 a year on benefits. This article explains where it comes from and allows the family to explain where it goes out to.

Perhaps we can have some reasonable discussion this time, instead of the usual entrenched positions - at least we have some actual numbers supplied instead of vague generalisations and prejudices.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16812185

Personally, I think (even though they have undoubtedly made an effort to select a 'sympathetic' case) that this isn't going to persuade many people that a £26,000 cap isn't a good idea.

There are many, many working families who would like to be able to afford some of the regular weekly outgoings listed in the table at the end ...

Over to you .. but play nicely **please **

[B00]

After a couple of years of "works dried up in any particular field" surely the logical thing to do is find another bloody field to branch out into then?

[cazzz1975]

there are options to retrain:

http://www.direct.gov...eLearning/DG_10033137

[scowie]

£4500 a year on clothes/books/white goods seems excessive too.

[Ankou]

not with 6 or 7 growing kid perhaps. i'm forever buying new shoes / tops and skirts for school, pe kits etc for my kids. and contrary to popular belief it aint all that cheap - and if it is, it don't last. presumably toys and what nots come into that figure as well.

[Mick-Talbot]

I always thought living on benefits was recession proof .....


Working people are having to make cuts, why not the people on benefits?

[McMouse]

This reinforces the point that being on benefit may pay more than being in work. As soon as it tilts the other way many of these slackers will find work. There's work out there if they look.

[sp1814]

This is going to sound harsh - but yes, living on benefits should absolutely be a fun free zone. It should be a temporary safety net, rather than an alternative to gainful employment.

The Sky TV should be exchanged for a Freeview box. And the cigs should be exchanged for patches (which you can get on the NHS).

[Brenden]

Almost £100 a week on tobacco - I dont think so, that really is taking the michael.

[Ankou]

agree with you there brenden, i often wonder how anyone can afford (financially) to smoke, let alone them as on benefits.

[Baldric]

given the amount spent on smoking and drinking makes me think it's easier to waste money you've not had to earn yourself, eg taxpayers cash!!
Ggrrrr!!!

[scowie]

I can actually understand people on benefits making sure they spend whatever money they receive and not saving any. Cos if you save up too much money you lose the benefits. I was in that position after losing my job. Got 6 months of JSA then zilch after the switch to means tested benefits due to me being silly enough to save! :-)

[whiskeryron]

http://www.guardian.c...ameron-work-programme

[askyourgran]

"There is a total lack of work in his area of expertise", (that had dried up 10 years ago, and he never bothered to diversify in order to get another job. Is the wife getting treatment for her bi-polar disorder and anxiety? As others have said the cigarettes the beer and the Sky TV should be through the window if they can't afford to live. The £26,000 cap is too generous. There is no incentive to work, and little effort is made to curtail the number of children these people have.

[starone]

We were as poor as church mice when I was young. We could not go out anywhere, my husband gave up smoking, neither of us could drink. The kids had to wear hand-me-downs and I was grateful for anything anyone gave me. I had one pair of shoes and when they eventually wore out with a hole in the sole my father bought me a new pair. Our food was basic. And there were no benefits. My husband had a job but the pay was also basic. I used to pray for some overtime to be available for him so that we would have a bit more money. Honestly, people on benefits do not know what it is like to have to manage on so little. I am still frugal although it is not now necessary, through force of habit. I would have been very happy to have received such large amounts. No children's allowance either, by the way. Sorry, rant over, but perhaps this will explain to some extent why older people are so, well, annoyed I suppose, at the amount of money some people get while doing nothing for it.

[flip_flop]

"I see eight people here having to choose between eating or heating."

So it seems Ray would rather protect the 200 fags, pouch of tobacco and 24 cans of lager, mobiles phones and Sky TV each week rather than being able to heat and feed them all.

The man is a wastrel - in the 10 years since the call for his skills have dried up he could have trained to be pretty much anything.

He is a lazy p1ss taker.

[ummmm]

To put it bluntly...lol

[Brenden]

Put into perspective, almost half their food allowance goes on baccy and beer.

[Ratty2E]

I can never understand how some people on benefits seem fairly well off. We had the misfortune to have to live on benefit for almost a year many years ago and it was damn hard. We had no luxuries at all, we had to be very careful with food shopping and new clothes etc were just a distant dream. I had a 4 year old at the time and he had charity shop buys for Christmas. It was horrible and not a life I would choose, I think we must have been missing something.

[ummmm]

If they appear to be well off there's a good chance they are on the fiddle.