Benefit Cheats?

Thank you penguin. I do usually cook from scratch, (we still have a couple of batches of home made soup in the freezer) but you are right re. the basics.

I've been thinking about Jack Monroe, and how she managed, but can't help thinking that it's possibly easier to do in a city than a rural environment, you have a greater choice of shops, markets etc. Could be wrong though!

I think you are right, I live in a city which is in the centre of a rural part of England and know many out in the county are choosing heat or eat. It is easier in the city, I think, because you can find in most supermarkets items reduced being near to sell by, eat by dates. But by the time you have bought the basics and cooked them I can't think you would have any money over.

Just to add not that I think it's all ok for you if you live in a city. It's hard wherever you are on such a small amount. We are all paying more for food and non food essentials, how often are the basic benefits changed to keep up with increasing supermarket bills?

Because of such limited transport, petrol would be close to top of the list I would have thought phoenix. Very difficult if one job is miles away from the other and you only have one car.

Also one needs a computer and a phone to apply for jobs, money etc. They are no longer luxuries, they are necessities.

I also think that it is cheaper to live in a city as previously mentioned. There is more choice and most places, supermarkets and some outdoor markets are easier to reach, also giving more choice and cheaper food.

Last winter my local library was very full, many people staying there all day to keep warm. To me that is a national disgrace.

The thing is Phoenix if your situation was getting you down! anyone less honest would go to their GP and burst into tears and say how suicidal they are feeling! This would result in a med3 with a diagnosis of depression, which providing you'd paid the appropriate NI, would I think increase your benefit.

That's how it's done!. GPs don't seem to delve much these days but just hand out the med3 and a prescription for citalopran.
I'm sure they're some good gps around but there are a,lot who are being deceived by their patients and they probably haven't the time to delve.
There also seems to be a tendency to confuse miserableness with depression.

Many years ago I was recovering from a stress # of my foot. After the POP was removed it took me a while to get back to normal and my job involved a lot of walking. I remember seeing the same GP weekly or whatever to ask for a certificate and the look of sheer amazement on his face when after a few weeks I said that I wanted to go back to work. I am sure he thought that I would be visiting his surgery until I retired.

Galen I'm already on anti depressants, Dosulepin. At least I'm no longer having to pay prescription charges, which I was when only on contributions based JSA.

To be honest, I'm getting increasingly concerned about my mental health. When I did the 3 month stint as a field sales rep I was starting to get increasingly anxious, then had a few panic attacks and came out in stress related eczema. My worry is that when I DO eventually get a job I will feel out of depth because it is so long since I was in that environment.

I have recently completed a Level 2 in Business & Administration, which was really below my level, but at least it gave me a focus and made the brain work a bit. I'm thinking of signing up for another free course, this time in IT because I'm starting to lose some abilities/skills that I had. For example I was trying to help a friend put together a PowerPoint presentation the other day, something that I used to do daily and almost with my eyes shut, if you know what I mean.

I sat there for quite some time in a right state because I couldn't for the life of me remember how to do a certain type of text box and animate the bullet points.

When benefit cheats are found out, the Newspapers make a big thing of it, however you never read about those that could claim Benefits but will not due to pride, (my own brother for one)and you never hear about those that have no choice but to be on benefits, those that have suffered bad health and can no longer work, and those trying to live on £50 per week.

How does the government sleep at night in their comfortable expensive houses and at the same time are making decisions that allow people to have to struggle so badly.

And now what about the big bonuses at the Banks etc how many of those have been cut. And have the Prime minister's salary gone up or down.

I appreciate that as individuals we could moan til the cows come home, what difference could we actually make to all these things going on around us that we so dis agree with

I don't know what the answer is Phoenix.

I do know cooking from scratch is ideal and the ingredients will be cheaper but then you have to add in the cost of electricity or gas. A slow cooker is good as it uses very little electricity, I often use it instead of putting on the oven, then freeze some for later.

But add in the cost of transport (and if you live in a rural area it is either non-existent or at the wrong times) and the cost of living in the country goes up. DD2 needed to get to work in our nearest large city, but the bus service didn't run at the appropriate time to get people to work as they would get 'caught up in the traffic and could not stick to the schedule'. Of course, if they put on more buses people would use them and there would be much less traffic. So she had to drive, pay a toll and was at one time threatened with a congestion charge as well as paying for petrol and parking.

phoenix - that is interesting to note you would receive £112.55 per week on JSA. When I approached the DHSS and asked if there was any financial help I could have after my husband died, I was told that I was eligible for JSA at the rate of £73 (and a few pennies) per week. I might just toddle along and ask why the Isle of Man pays so much less!

Galen how do you tell if someone is genuinely bursting into tears or faking it? Surely, it doesn't do to regard all benefit claimants as potential skivers!

I know somebody who was out of work for several months and would not claim because our local benefits office is so dire and he couldn't face it.

There must be others.

I wonder how may Gnetters know of someone like this or a person or family who are drawing benefits to which they are entitled and doing their best to manage on what is, after all, a very small income.

I think the £112.55 pw is for a couple, HollyDaze.

As for people who 'fake it' just a bit, am I the only one who, when phoning to say I am (genuinely) too ill to work or to make an excuse to cancel a social engagemen at short notice, makes sure my genuinely sore throat is evident in my voice?

Holly Ana is right, that is the Income Based JSA for a couple.

Contributions based JSA, which is available to anyone who is looking for work, regardless of their household income BUT depending on sufficient NI contributions for the previous qualifying period (usually 2 tax years) is currently £71.70

rosequartz I love my slow cooker, however even Mr P is starting to get a tad tired of variations on the chicken thigh hot pot theme.

I'm making mock biryani tonight, with the meat stripped from, yes, cooked chicken thighs, fried with onions, diced potatoes & spices then mixed with cooked rice, a handful of frozen peas and the last bit of a rather tired looking red pepper!

Sounds good Phoenix, we use everything up that we can.
I don't know why but there is usually one very over-ripe banana left at the end of every week, each of us eyeing it up but avoiding it. I should make muffins but too fattening.

rosequartz I have a lonely over ripe banana so it could easily wing its way to you and be certain of a good home.

In the food recycling bin, Charleygirl! However that always makes me feel so guilty on many levels, just one of them being that I know how hard farmers work to produce our food (and all the other reasons).

My MIL would have eaten it, but I prefer mine slightly green.

Cooking from scratch, etc, will really help stretch benefits.

But the point made in the programme last Monday and Tuesday, is that, once temptation has led to a loan from loanshark- the money required to repay means that there will NOT be anything left for food and essentials.

And I truly believe in many cases this is the crux of the matter- so what can be done do stop people borrowing from loan sharks in the first place???
A clear and massive education campaign to explain interests and what it truly means in reality, is the key here. Huge posters- with clear signs, showing that borrowing £100 will cost a ginormous deal more to repay and lead to true and abject poverty for too many. I don't thin we can expect tax payer to pay to compensate for loan shark disgusting and inhuman interest rates. They make bankers look like saints (and that IS HARD).

Education can teach people how to calculate the phenomenal cost of borrowing from a loan shark, if they don't already know, but it doesn't tell them where else to borrow the money when the washing machine breaks down.

I realise that- we do live in a very unequal society, and temptations are all around- and the desire to keep up with neighbours, friends and what is seen as 'normal expectations' huge- but some prices are just too high to pay- in so many more ways than one. Only one loan can blight someone's life for many years, and more- and once you have one loan- even if the washing machine breaks down- you just will know that you JUST CAN'T take another anyway.

You can actually buy a washing machine from a catalogue, or other ways than loan shark, at much lower repayments. But honestly, it might be better to go to the launderette (I did, for many years). And I am fully aware it is easier when you know current low salary will go up significantly in future- then when you do not hold much hope things will improve.
The point I am trying to make, is that no amount of benefit increase will cover for disgusting 1500% loans- so they must be avoided whatever the sacrifice- because it will make difficult conditions xxxxxxxxx times worse- always.

I have indeed NO IDEA how to counter this. But no amount of benefit will pay to cover all temptations thrown in by modern society- (and to some extent the expectations of many young people today).

Oh granjura, you are the very epitome of Swiss-ness – a veritable national icon. They should put a picture of you in the middle of the Swiss flag.

I do agree that some people seem to either feel that it's their "right" to have things such as huge TV's with every function known to man, top of the range latest phones, satellite tv etc or perhaps feel that they are letting their family down if they do not have these things.

I'm feeling somewhere between bitter, cross and upset. I have never asked for much in the grand scheme of things, exotic holidays (or any holidays come to that!) designer clothes, new cars etc, just our house.