Everyone on benefit is a scammer!

[Lace Neil Singer]

My main issue with the British government regarding benefits is that they seem to be unable to differentuate between those who actually need the money they're getting, and those who are scamming. There are no grey areas, so they feel the need to impose a cap on all benefits; not to pull their fingers out and actively search out the scammers, but to make sure that the innocent suffer along with the guilty.

I accept housing benefit and tax credits; my housing benefit has been capped, so I'm struggling at the moment. Yet Mr Cameron thinks that I can get by on £70 a month, so I should be perfectly able to not only live, but pay council tax, right? In my dreams. At the moment, my parents pay most of my council tax, cuz I just don't have the money to pay it and I don't qualify for council tax allowance cuz I'm working, albiet thirty hours a week, and not just sitting on my arse waiting for my benefit to come in.

It's ironic, really; I would love to up my hours a bit, but the way things stand I just can't afford to, cuz upping my hours would mean the loss of all my housing benefit and my tax credits taking a cut. That, along with the unfairly large slice the taxman takes from my income, would make me worse off than if I stayed how I am now. The government supposedly wants people to work rather than stay on benefit; so why the fuck can't they make it easier for people to do so? Why the hell do the working class have to pay so much tax, while the rich have their tax percentage cut by five per cent?

To a rich person, having to pay five per cent extra tax means perhaps that they have to buy Veuve Cliquot champagne instead of Krug, or wait another week before buying another sports car. To the working class, it means choosing between eating or heating, or having to beg handouts from either the government or friends. I just wish that some of these government morons living comfortably in their ivory towers would just pay attention to how things are in the real world. Seventy pounds a month is enough to live on? Get real. That wouldn't even pay my bills.

[fireheart17]

Try the social stigma that comes with being on unemployment. I HATE being on unemployment, but I know that I wouldn't otherwise be able to survive while I'm unemployed.

That said, I have NOT mentioned that I'm on unemployment benefits to people I've been either studying or training with, because otherwise I'll get the stink-eye and the view of "are you just doing this to satisfy Centrelink? (welfare office)". No, I actually would like to get a job so I can get OFF of Centrelink benefits as much as possible. (although if I do get this swimming instructor job, I will most likely still need to be on SOME benefit since there's no guarantee I'll get 15 hours)

[Lace Neil Singer]

Oh, I've had that too. When I left college, I couldn't get a job at first for love or money, so I went on income support. The amount of people who said, "Just get any job" just didn't understand that I was wearing shoe leather out traipsing from shop to restaurant just looking for any job. I eventually did get one; the job centre helped me find one. But I certainly wasn't jobless by choice.

[SongsOfDragons]

*sends hugs to fellow Brit* I hear you friend. I don't know what the government use for brains...I imagine it's some sort of stinky Roquefort. Their path is just a stupid one.

There's been news recently that nobody can get a permanent job, and there's more cuts on the way...all I can get my hands on is a temp job that gives me the stink-eye when I take a lunch break, and the sudden upping of council tax is making it harder to scrape together rent. I get an assumingly Govt-mandated raise at 12 weeks in the job to the going rate of my colleagues, but twhen that happens I'm likely to lose my tax credits...not entirely sure if that means in the end I'm actually getting a pay drop...

[cath]

The whole system is confusing and im almost sure that those employed in benefits agencies also are unaware of the system.

council tax- i am single so why does my council tax have only a 25% reduction?

housing benefit- now has a Local Housing Allowance so they wont pay above this. i have yet to find a 2 bedroom place which has rent as low as the LHA therefore i have to pay the excess.(i did once ask at the local council offices where i could find properties that were priced at the LHA level- they couldn't tell me). On top of that now landlords seem to specify you have to have tenants insurance to insure THEIR property.???? so i now have to pay £15 a month for insurance on top of my rent.

i was so bored and thought i would like a part time job as well as continuing my caring responsibilities. i was told i would be better off NOT getting a job and according to their calculations that is true. I also asked them to help me back into work after finding something on their website about a scheme to help carers get back into work. They didnt have a clue what i was on about and all i ended up getting was tips on how to fill a CV in.

GRRRRRRRRRR

ive just found out that a lot of employers now only employ people on low contracted hours, yet expect them to work over-time. it means come annual leave they havent that much to pay out. SUCKS DONT IT.

[Lace Neil Singer]

council tax- i am single so why does my council tax have only a 25% reduction?

I hear you on that. -.- Yet, the council happily pays the council tax of the terminally unemployed and single mothers; there are quite a few of them near where I live and I find it very hard to feel sorry for them when I see them driving up to the supermarket in their people carriers.

If the government really wanted to make it so that people would choose getting a job over taking benefits, how about they make it easier for people who are working to get by? Like, perhaps, not taking so much of their paycheck in tax, or giving them a bit more benefit than the people who are refusing to work, so that there's an actual incentive to get a job? There are people round here who are actually proud of the fact that they've never had work in their lives.

As regarding overtime, I'd do some if only there was any available that I could do. Where I work, the only available overtime hours are on days that I'm already working, due to the fact that apart from the managers, I'm the only person there on flexible rather than fixed hours. There used to a few other people on flexi, but they've all left now. So much as I'd like to work overtime, I can't.

[Rapscallion]

I think what you're aiming at here is that the minimum wage over here, whilst not that bad, is taxed at a rate where it's no incentive unless you enjoy working harder for less reward.

This boils down to the fact that the gap between rich and poor is widening all the time, and for that to happen requires that poor don't get given much money - effectively less and less each year.

I'm all for a minimum wage. I'm also all for a maximum wage as well. Spread the rest more fairly amongst the workforce who make stuff happen. That would allow the taxes to be paid and increase revenue to the government, and the truly rich are the ones able to afford to avoid tax in the first place.

Rapscallion

[Aethian]

Isn't the higher tax rate the reason WHY you guys have the healthcare system and social services systems that you do? Also you guys don't also have a sales tax do you?

[Rapscallion]

We do - VAT applies to mostly non-essential goods, but the tax is included in the retail price you see on the shelves. To US eyes it's not visible.

The higher tax rate overall isn't the issue - it's how it's apportioned.

Rapscallion

[Rapscallion]

Actually, to add to that, in the UK the NHS and unemployment benefits are paid through a deduction called 'national insurance' and paid out of your wages by the employer. Taxes pay for other stuff.

Since you can't legally opt out of national insurance, I guess it's a tax. Never really queried the definition of it.

Rapscallion

[Aethian]

Gotcha. So wouldn't that mean that the minimum wage is actually not a living wage if I'm reading some of these posts right?

[Rapscallion]

It's supposed to be, and it's supposed to be (if I understand it right) enough to live on without being a champagne lifestyle, and thus an incentive to do better.

The reality is that politicians are usually completely out of touch with the actuality. Once in a while one politician will live on benefits for a week to prove it can be done as a publicity stunt, but they don't do it week in and week out.

I've not been on minumum wage or benefits for a long, long time, so I'm out of touch myself. However, I do know that after my current income I'd struggle with reduced circumstances by quite a chunk. What I do know from other people I know is that they often have to work out whether they'd be better off working in what jobs they can get (part time and minimimal income per hour) or refusing jobs if they're able and risking a benefit cut. Usually this is pretty bad for single parents due to childcare costs.

The minimum wage isn't bad, but quite frankly it's more an excuse for employers to set a guideline rate for entry level work and it's low enough to help keep people in line. That's not always a bad thing depending on the people involved (to be brutally fair, some people don't have as much work ethic as soon as more money comes in).

It's an imperfect situation, and I don't have any answers. With the huge slew of different sorts of people there is no 'one size fits all' policy available, I'd say, so it's pretty much the least worst option out there, but I wouldn't object to an increase of fifty pence per hour on the baseline calculations as there really are not that many options out there for advancement on the minimum wage.

Rapscallion

[Lace Neil Singer]

Not to mention the fact that a lot of politicians don't seem to understand that a lot of people working in retail simply cannot afford to advance themselves cuz they need the job simply to live. Also, due to the bite of the recession, retail jobs are all that's available at the moment. I have a ton of qualifications as well as experience working with animals, but there just aren't the jobs at the moment so I decided it was better to have some money coming in rather than none.

I don't want to accept benefits but don't really have a choice. A lot of people I know are in the same situation; the main problem is the taxing of the poor. If we were allowed to keep more of our money, we'd spend more which would in turn benefit the economy. A lot of politicians and others focus on the scroungers and scammers; the immigrants who lived in a luxury house and trashed it; the mother who openly admits to working the system... and forget that these people are in the news simply cuz they're the minority.

[Aethian]

Honestly I have a ton of things to ask and to say but I don't know how they would come off...

[Rapscallion]

Ask away. I certainly won't be offended.

Rapscallion