| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| rosie |
Posted - 21 Apr 2014 : 4:56:08 PM
Anyone hear know how the benefit system works?
Totally peed off at the moment. I'm self-employed and have a small team of staff.
Need more staff but the majority of people DO NOT want to work 
If someone is claiming job seekers allowance, are they allowed to earn anything? ....even if its £30 a week?
Or if a couple is claiming working tax credit because HE works, then is SHE allowed to earn anything?
I find most people don't want to work as it will affect their benefits?
The system is soooo wrong in my opinion.
Wish I earned as much as people on benefits but heyho I've got my pride!
Looks like I may have to speak to someone at jobcentre next week and see if they have any answers if someone on here doesn't know?
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| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Quarabian |
Posted - 28 Apr 2014 : 08:54:03 AM
I read Vik's message as drug related mental health problems. |
| barbara.gregory |
Posted - 27 Apr 2014 : 4:12:52 PM
Jacxkiedo, I don't grudge people like your husband anything nor do I grudge the "deserving poor"; what I do begrudge are people like my neighbour who have never worked and never will. In the winter when I have to eek out my oil until I can afford the £1000+ to fill my tank (or pay more per litre to have a smaller amount) she has her window open rather than turn her heating down while I sit with a jumper and my anorak over the top.
She lives in a 4 bedroom detached house which we pay the mortgage interest on and is now on her own there since her last child left home (and she has a huge mortgage). It is that sort of thing that makes me and many others annoyed with the benefit system.
Barbara |
| jackiedo |
Posted - 27 Apr 2014 : 1:00:43 PM
Vik - I wish that you would consider the message your post is sending out by comparing people with mental health problems and drug addicts - being married to a man with schizophrenia (who by the way is controlled with meds and works full time, claiming no benefits apart from a war pension) I find he has enough negativity to deal with, without people employed in the care system adding to it. We are going back to deserving poor/undeserving poor in our divided society and it makes me uncomfortable. He was in a hostel for a while when he came out of the forces with PTS and delusional thoughts, I hope the people working there did not judge him in that way.
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| rosie |
Posted - 24 Apr 2014 : 08:20:01 AM
Thank you for all your help and advise.
I went down to our local job centre yesterday and had a chat with a lady there.
Seems like everyone's circumstances are different and treated differently |
| Tomos |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 11:20:54 PM
Forgot to say that you would be much better off getting a benefits check from your local advice centre or CAB, as the DWP work in specific benefit sections, though their calculators can be useful |
| Tomos |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 11:17:09 PM
I left my job today after 36 years of being a welfare benefits advisor, so yes I know a bit about benefits !
I have left my job to care for my very ill partner and also because of the draconian changes the present government are making to the benefit system
People get extremely confused, its a complicated system, Rosie you are talking about tax credits which are "in work" benefit, where as Job Seekers Allowance is an "out of work" benefit, the maximum you can earn if you receive JSA is £20-£25.00 but only in very limited circumstances, most people are restricted to earning £5.00 a week, when you consider anyone under the age of 25 only gets £57.00 a week, which if they live independently (not unreasonable at that age) its not much to eat, pay all your utilities and almost without fail a proportion of rent. Over 25's get just over £72.00 a week.
Of course if people are receiving WTC there is no restriction on the upper number of hours they work, but WTC may be reduced.
Vik1 I'm assuming your sister is a lone parent otherwise she would have to work more hours to qualify, if the HMRC were to pay her child care fees so she could work more hours it would be a much larger amount.
The whole system is changing in the next couple of years one of the joyful things being introduced is that all self employed people will be treated as earning a 35 hour minimum wage per week irrespective of whether they earn it or not, plus any capital over £16,000 will exclude you all together.
The benefits system is there to support us all, the old saying you're only 3 pay packets away from homelessness is very true, most of my clients have worked all their lives, and have become ill, had a bereavement, divorce etc etc, and almost all want to work.
What the government should be doing is looking at the vast amount of tax evasion which makes the benefit budget look minute in comparison, but then what would a group of over priviledged Eton schoolboys understand about poverty and deprivation.
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| Ziadomira |
Posted - 23 Apr 2014 : 8:13:46 PM
If you can't get the info you need from the website get in touch with your local Work and Pensions Office. They do have phone lines if you cannot get to visit them. I did work for them for more years than I care to mention and some of them even like Arabs!! |
| Ari |
Posted - 21 Apr 2014 : 7:24:58 PM
Rosie like you the world of tax credits and benefits is something I know nothing about. A way to find out would be to use the Gov. Uk web guidance, all the rules, limits and amounts should be clearly described. I would just google Tax Credits, Job Seekers Allowance etc. That should give you the heads up around what you are up a against.
Apologies, I am a Civil Servant but spent my working life getting money in not out, equally unpopular I know lol. But I do know the web guidance is quite good.
Yes the system is wrong but with recent recession putting good workers out of a job benefits must have helped them but don't get me started on the can't work won't work. |
| Vik1 |
Posted - 21 Apr 2014 : 7:16:34 PM
aargh..the frustration of it all!
My sis only works part time as after getting child tax credits etc she is slightly better off than working full time because she is only on minimum wage....yet I slog my guts out!
I worked in a homeless hostel...some of the residents with drug addicts/mental health probs were getting nearly £100/week! They only had to pay £7/week amenity money...which we had to nag to get. They also got breakfast every day and a meal cooked for them once a week..so that was £93 disposable income. How many people have that?!
Yet I was unemployed for 3 weeks in between leaving uni and finding full time employment...they expected me to travel to/from interviews, maintain a house (I lived on my own), food etc on wait for it....£43/week! based on my NI contributions the year before...I was a full time student!!
Sorry..doesnt help but I felt the need for a rant. As far as Im aware (unless changed) you can work up to 16hrs/week without it affecting benefits. This is the amount my sis does and what I was allowed to do (casual work) during those 3 weeks I was on job seekers.
I think as far as working tax credits go...it depends on the total of the joint income. If it exceeds a certain amount they wont get the tax credits. So obv to make up the shortfall theyd end up having to work more hours. So they see it as..having to work less hours for the same amount of money coming in.
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