On benefits versus working for a living
06-January-2009
*
* Your Gripe Gripe List Quick Gripe Comments Gripe Poll Resources Contact Us Advertise Home *
* << prev
next >> *
 

On benefits versus working for a living

Random Gripe Random Gripe 
Related Gripes Related Gripes 
Feedburner Subscribe to feed 
 

 
 

I originally came to the U.K. to do a master's degree and stayed when I was offered a job.  I worked in the IT field at the time and there was a demand. However, I now work in social housing. Not once have I ever been on benefits or even received employment assistance from the Jobcentre when I was briefly unemployed.  In fact, the Jobcentre told me I was overqualified for any jobs they had even though I protested and said I would wait on tables, do cleaning work, etc.

A babies cot

She claims she is a single parent...

Fast forward, to eight years later.  I am now pregnant and live in an area where there is a lot of council housing.  One of my neighbours is 18 years younger than I am and is one month further along in her pregnancy.  I am 39 and she is 21.  She already has a 2 year old son and is in a 2 bedroom council flat.  She claims she is a single parent although both children have the same father.  The father works, but maintains another address and stays with her 3 days out of the week.

She gets full housing and council tax benefit as well as income support and child benefit, plus, when her baby is born she will be given a £500 voucher to invest for her child because she is "poor".  She is so poor that just in the last month alone she bought a 40" TV, new computer and had Sky and broadband installed.  Her children have all the latest toys and an expensive travel system.  And she can apply for a Sure Start maternity grant since she is on benefits.  Both her and the father that supposedly does not exist have been buying expensive toys and clothes for their children.

In contrast, my fiance and I own a 1 bedroom flat.  We cannot afford to move for another two years and definitely will not get council housing since we are home owners.  We are both in full time employment.  Almost all of our baby's clothing has come from charity shops or been given to us since we cannot afford a lot.  Even the baby walker, cot bed and moses basket have been bought second hand.  We cannot afford the travel system our neighbour has and our son will be in our bedroom for a few years until we can move.  We do not own a 40" TV and scrimped and saved for our computer.  We will only be given a £250 voucher from the government to invest for our child because we are not on benefits.

I also checked out working tax credits and will receive around £30 per month although our childcare will cost over £600 when I return to work.  We are not eligible for council tax benefit or the Sure Start maternity grant and although my salary will drop by half now that I am on maternity leave and my fiance's will when he is on paternity leave, we will get no form of help paying the mortgage.

I think it is sick and disgusting that working people get nothing. I am an immigrant, but I have worked hard and have paid taxes all these years.  I never received any form of help from the government and my university education was paid for by me!  When I was briefly unemployed, I was willing to scrub toilets if I had to and last year when I needed some extra money, I took a second job doing barmaid work.  I am 18 years older than my neighbour and worked until I went on leave last month, yet this scum has never lifted a finger and is being handed everything on a plate.

I know people go on about immigrants, but there are immigrants like myself who do not scrounge and assimilate.  Also, I lived in another country before coming here where I had to learn another language.  As soon as I got there I signed up for language classes.  I was also working while learning the language and was tested as nearly fluent within 9 months.  I get fed up when I hear people have lived here for 20 years and never learned a word of English.  It is sheer laziness.

I informed the housing officer that my neighbour is scamming the system.  She needs a kick up the backside along with all the others out there who are doing the same thing.  If I can get to work whilst heavily pregnant and return after my baby is born, she and others like her can do it as well!

By: Soon2bmother


Other Related Gripes

Ex-wife knows how to play the CSA
Make them work for benefits
Cannot afford to buy or rent a house
The immigrant hierarchy in the UK
Older generation have the cash
Benefit-claiming council estate residents
The misunderstood youth of today
People who buy their council house
Society is going down the tubes
The freeloader on sickness benefit
Teenage girls that get pregnant
Over worked and under paid
Pregnant women issues





Visitor Comments

Please read this before you post

Enter your comments in the space below

Name or nickname


Remember my name



 
We need more immigrants like you, and deport our home-grown wasters. Perhaps then the country will get back on its feet.
*zed  19-Dec-2008 13:51

 
Can someone please tell me how someone who has been on the sick for at least 25 years, can secure a mortgage, who pays for this mortgage, can he sell the house when it is paid for and then claim houseing benefits. He also has a mobility car.
*bill  27-Nov-2008 13:26

 
Let me set the scene. Girl of approx 20 has her first baby. She does not work and her boyfriend does not work so they get benefits. She is learning everything new has a tiny baby to look after and is not getting hardly any sleep etc etc. The usual stuff for a new baby. BUT then she gets a top floor council flat so moves out of her mums and not has to do everything herself now including washing cleaning bottles etc. So, now if you are following she has a tiny baby, and a top floor council flat and complains she has not money and how unfair it is that when I bought my shared ownership flat that I got carpets and better bathroom. Anyone guess what she did next?????????????? BOUGHT A PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!! Because running around after a little one, cleaning up and bringing up a child is not enough so now she clears up poo from a dog too. Oh and has to feed it and can never take him out for a walk and has no garden. So now I am paying for her baby her flat and now her dam dog.
*kellywelly  22-Sep-2008 23:00

 
My friend is on the dole and gets about £200 pounds a month. When I was college 5 days a week I could only work Saturdays and some Sundays if I had time, At the time is was 18 and earned between £120-£210 a month.

This meant pretty much a 6-7 day week, I get less than or equal to that which lazy idiot gets for doing nothing.

Unfair or what?
*Burn out  14-Sep-2008 10:38

 
The UK is in a state!!

Right, when did it all go wrong for the UK. We pay our folk to sit at home and we pay foreign workers to do there work, it's by no means racist I have some great Polish mates at work, good hard working honest guys, more that can be said for the "Jeremy Kyle" culture of wasters who sit at home and sponge every penny they some how feel we owe them cause they hurt there are 15 years ago falling over a stool. I honestly have nothing at all against workers coming to this country, but its giving our youth an excuse not to work, and even more its giving employers a reason not to employ them, I would much rather have a hard working reliable Pole that a mouthy little lad who has a doc appointment every Friday afternoon and who's gran dies every Monday morning. The UK is screaming out for trades folk so I think that all school leavers who don't want to go to uni should be made to do an apprenticeship. Not only will that teach a skill, but also teach them pride in a hard days work for a good days pay. We really should not pay for these lazy folk to sit at home and reproduce even lazier kids just to collect our tax money. A sense of pride in themselves and there work would hopefully trickle down to there kids too, reducing the need culture, the kids that thing things are built for them to destroy or spray paint over.

We are by far the easiest country for this type of folk. Ban benefits for the lazy!
*Rik  05-Sep-2008 21:36

 
All the rubbish of the world comes to the UK. They arrive here, housed and start banging out kids like there is no tomorrow and why... Cos the working class of this pizz soaked Isle are summoned to pay for it all.

The facilities we have in this country are the best on the planet and they know it. Does not matter what situation you find yourself in, there is always an agency here to help.

Don't go insulting my intelligence. The failure of this country is those that wear a strap-on handcuffed to their wrist. Alien ideology tackling issues related to a planet unknown to mankind.
*The Lawnmower Man  28-Aug-2008 22:23

 
WELL DONE YOU!!!!!!!! I feel sorry for the genuine people like yourself who are bullied due to their race/culture but it is an unfortunate state of affairs that our country has allowed the minority of immigrants into the UK who are only here because we are the only country who offer such state benefits which they can take advantage of. When I have heard people make racist and derrogatory comments in the past, I have reminded them that those in the 'corner shop' are actually working and paying taxes, unlike a massive percentage of UK citizens who are too lazy to get off their backsides and work, or breed like rabbits knowing that they will never be forced out to work!

Who do you think we should blame? Personally, I don't feel that you can blame 'our neighbours', our government allows this to happen full stop. In my opinion, if you choose to have more than two children, then the first two should be supported to a degree but after that the money should stop and you must go and find work to support the 10 children you chose to have!
*Bugabear  28-Aug-2008 14:26

 
So you've paid 8 years in taxes and Ni contributions? Perhaps your neighbour's family have paid generations of tax contributions. Perhaps a large number of her male relatives died in the the two world wars, decimating her family and having longterm knock-on effects on the family's future functioning, wealth and status.

The truth is your taxes have contributed to the country's infrastructure, which you have enjoyed, and also to the NHS and state education system which you will also enjoy.

I believe one has to be earning £25,000 a year before you are contributing more than you take out. If you and your partner are on £50,000 a year between you and own your own house then you are doing a darn sight 'better' than your socially housed neighbour, plasma tv not withstanding!

Start concentrating on the child you are having and stop stabbing at other people who've probably got it much harder than you will ever understand because you don't care to try!!!
*anon  25-Jul-2008 09:32

 
You will however get a weekly allowance for your new child, which is of course a benefit also. Pot, kettle, black.
*Paloma  24-Jul-2008 13:05

 
Yes,that is sad.I have met several women who do that.Does anyone ever wonder about the woman who just needs a man to support her and her child?.Then disrespects him while she sits on her ass and makes up excuses.WOW.I have had this happen to me twice.Maybe it's me.All I want is a family and got roped in again because I am a nice man.
*sympathetic1  07-Jul-2008 23:14


View more comments on this gripe


 
*   *
* © 2000-2009 The Weekly Gripe. All rights reserved. Please see our privacy policy and disclaimer.   Site Map *