How do the "Have Nots" get on in life?

Thank you Jane, I am so angry, I have got free furniture for them and now worried who had a genuine need and had to wait .

Why is speaking of benefit cheats such a crime

Exactly Jane so not reporting them is very unfair to other decent claimants

Anniebach knows what she's on about. She's done a lot of good direct work with and for people in need of all sorts. Hearing about those two must be absolutely infuriating for her.
It's people like that who give all benefits claimants a bad name. Not fair to others.

I do not suspect - I know and I would not report anyone

Why won’t you report them — according to you they are breaking the law

What does CAWL mean?

If as you suspect, they are benefit cheats, report them to DWP. I would do so, the same as I would report someone for cheating HMRC by working cash in hand and not paying VAT, two sides of the same coin, cheating is cheating however you look at it.

Well with all the personal information you put on here and now your description of the twins ( and they must be unique in your town) they are easily identifiable to the DWP.

Spelling error - CAWL , I expect you would report them , I wouldn't

Because I am bloody annoyed that's why and if others can post of a nurse using a food bank why not post of two benefit cheats , I didn't bring up zero contract hours , what has that to do with the O/P

And anyway why mention them at all ?

What do you mean crawl in the winter? Why not report them - if I was so sure of all my facts that someone was cheating the system, I would.

Gill, I repeat it is true, they have asked me for work - cash in hand, I have made them crawl in the winter,

You asking me if it's true after maryeliza did was uncalled for, and I said TWO benefit claimants not all benefit claimants

Even if this case you describe is true Anniebach, it is not a reason to criticise every benefit claimant. Yes, there may well be some who are, on the surface, not a deserving case (whatever that means), but I am happy to acknowledge the few who abuse the system if it means that the vast majority who do need help get what they need. How do you know they use the foodbank? Do you hang around there checking who goes in?

If it wasn't true I wouldn't have spoken of it, and I do know all the facts .

I find it profoundly depressing when anecdotal examples are brought in - so what about the twins? What does that tell us about anything - even if it’s true and you know all the facts

In the fifties there was an acceptance , if one struggled that's how it was,

I am not feeling kindly towards benefit claimants today, well two benefit claimants , twins in their fifties, one can't work because of a back problem the other suffers depression. I heard this morning they have gone to Thailand for a break , aw bless . And yes they use the food bank

I wish I thought so

Maybe this thread is a set-up?!

Well, it used to be that the have-nots got on by getting as much education as they could manage. That was when education cost money, and if you didn't have any to start with you had to work extra hard, first to acquire basic literacy so as to be able to benefit from the books that some generous and far-seeing person allowed you to borrow, then to earn enough at the day job to keep you alive by day and pay for evening classes, and work again with your brain in the evening (if you could keep awake). If you were very clever and lucky you might get a scholarship which paid your fees and allowed you to study beside more well-to-do (and/or patronising) teenagers.

Then in the nineteenforties secondary education became available to those who appeared to be able to benefit from it, in the free local grammar schools that are so denigrated nowadays but were a small step forwards from what had gone before, when the have-nots mostly received no education at all after they were about 13-14. Those who were not deemed to be up to an academic course got something less . Gradually better education and certificates for all became a right and the school leaving age rose and rose.

These days, with universal qualifications, it is possible to have a fistful of paper but still not make much headway in actually forging a career for oneself. And it seems for some children to be sliding back to prewar standards again.

Well it did seem easier in the 50/60/70's to rent a place without huge deposits and not be judged for make do and mend furniture and h/hold goods.
However it was hard to get into work for women who were returning after children going to school: not much in the way of flexitime until the 80's.
We lost our business and home in the 70's and it took every bit of determination and some luck to get back on our feet.
I would not want to be in the same situation in this current climate even if I was in my prime.

I grew up in the 40s and 50s and got married in the late 60s and, yes, life was less elaborate than now, but I really think grannysu that you are looking back through rose tinted glasses? There were plenty of out of marriage pregnancies - and shot-gun weddings with the bride looking suspiciously plump. Many woman our age can talk about the horrors of struggling to be single mother then, treated as a pariah society, your family ashamed of you.

As for starting married life with mum and dad, with a baby as well- in a small house with tiny bedrooms and wafer thin walls, and the overcrowding. It is quite right that that sort of living is not considered acceptable now.

The use of HP was common and expanding, I can remember all the furniture shops and white goods suppliers advertising it on their shop windows, not to mention garages offering it on cars.

Eastern European immigrants or not, the current unemployment rate is 4.5%, much the same as it was in the late 1960s and through out most of the 1970s. In the area I live in the current unemployment rate is around 2%. Then there was no minimum wage and you used to hear of people being offered appallingly low rates of pay, so not much difference from now. There was little legislation then to protect you from dismissal on the spot for no good reason, women were routinely paid much less than men and excluded from some jobs.

So, I am sorry grannysu, I just think you are looking back with very deep dusky rose tinted glasses.

People on zero or low hours contracts may well be "sitting at home on benefits" for a lot of the time, as they are not actually "in work" for a full week and they can need benefits to compensate for their low wages.
If their hours are erratic, that can add extra complications in trying to claim, and get, the right benefits.

grannysue05
I would just like to know what a 'mid European is.
I would add that you've been watching too many poverty porn programmes, or are all your comments Re trainers and iPhones come from your own observations

Oh no, not another 'they all have smart phones/flat screen tv/trainers'.......' we had to live on a boiled sock and a turnip, but we were happy'.....give me strength! Go and visit a foodbank and then let us know your thoughts.