My girlfriend and I: stopped work for life on benefits

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The worrying thing about this is that although the OP was clearly a troll, it does highlight how flawed the system is.

Me and my partner recently enquired about what she was entitled to - as a background, she's about 6 months pregnant, was working before, and was planning on carrying on working, but unfortunately it turns out she has hyperemesis ("morning" sickness, except it lasts all day, every day, for potentially the whole pregnancy), so within about 3 weeks of falling pregnant, she was being sick all day without warning, and so unable to work at all.

She was unable to claim maternity pay due to not having been at the company long enough, and not able to claim anything else because of not working enough weeks within the qualifying period, due to the sickness.

She gets ~£200/month ESA, and isn't entitled to anything else because my earnings are just over the threshold.

All of this is fair enough, we're struggling to get by, but managing (just).

The stupid part is, if I wasn't working we'd be far better off, if we split up, she'd both be far better off. It seems like there's this middle ground where you earn too much to get any help, but not enough to be able to keep up with the cost of living which seems to be rapidly increasing!

Before I get any flames about "she shouldn't have gotten pregnant if you couldn't afford it" she was intending to keep working, and it would have been fine if it wasn't for the sickness.

Edit: Just as a point of interest - the government reckon £108/week is how much a couple need to live on. Laughable!
 
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battlefieldfan said:
Well my girlfriend has decided to give up work as we will be better off on benefits. She was doing 18 hours a week part time but now she is quitting work to go on income support as having 2 kids, with one thing or another she will get £450 a week in benefits. we only just realised this and it is literally better in this country to not work, than than to try and work and bring in a poor income for effort.

We have never been on benefits, but now we have realised this, we think what the hell, this life is here for the taking, good old liblabcon as thety have made this possible.

You will probably thing this is outrageous, but who can blame us, in fact who can blame anyone for doing this, there are few jobs anyway.
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You wish mate you'd never get £450 a week with 2 kids,
 
krooton said:
So I can't blame thieves for stealing someone's bag that they left in a vulnerable place in a pub?

Yes, the owner of the bag should have been more careful, but that does not exonerate the thief of their crime.
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this isnt a crime, the op is quite legitimate in taking a hand out if the government will hand it out

hardly the same thing
 
battlefieldfan said:
Well my girlfriend has decided to give up work as we will be better off on benefits. She was doing 18 hours a week part time but now she is quitting work to go on income support as having 2 kids, with one thing or another she will get £450 a week in benefits. we only just realised this and it is literally better in this country to not work, than than to try and work and bring in a poor income for effort.

We have never been on benefits, but now we have realised this, we think what the hell, this life is here for the taking, good old liblabcon as thety have made this possible.

You will probably thing this is outrageous, but who can blame us, in fact who can blame anyone for doing this, there are few jobs anyway.
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EDIT - troll
 
Haggisman said:
The worrying thing about this is that although the OP was clearly a troll, it does highlight how flawed the system is.

Me and my partner recently enquired about what she was entitled to - as a background, she's about 6 months pregnant, was working before, and was planning on carrying on working, but unfortunately it turns out she has hyperemesis ("morning" sickness, except it lasts all day, every day, for potentially the whole pregnancy), so within about 3 weeks of falling pregnant, she was being sick all day without warning, and so unable to work at all.

She was unable to claim maternity pay due to not having been at the company long enough, and not able to claim anything else because of not working enough weeks within the qualifying period, due to the sickness.

She gets ~£200/month ESA, and isn't entitled to anything else because my earnings are just over the threshold.

All of this is fair enough, we're struggling to get by, but managing (just).

The stupid part is, if I wasn't working we'd be far better off, if we split up, she'd both be far better off. It seems like there's this middle ground where you earn too much to get any help, but not enough to be able to keep up with the cost of living which seems to be rapidly increasing!

Before I get any flames about "she shouldn't have gotten pregnant if you couldn't afford it" she was intending to keep working, and it would have been fine if it wasn't for the sickness.

Edit: Just as a point of interest - the government reckon £108/week is how much a couple need to live on. Laughable!
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Hope the rest of the pregnancy is ok for her. ESA is a complete PITA just make sure sick notes and doctors ref's are handed in on time and there are no missing days between them otherwise they stop it while they investigate.

Must be awful feeling sick 24/7 i hate it once or twice a year but every day :(


Also do you currently have children cause unless your working part time couples aren't usually better off on benefits.
 
Paul11 said:
this isnt a crime, the op is quite legitimate in taking a hand out if the government will hand it out

hardly the same thing
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As far as I'm concerned quitting your job to live off benefits is tantamount to theft - just because you're legally entitled to it doesn't mean it's morally correct.
 
shoes said:
As far as I'm concerned quitting your job to live off benefits is tantamount to theft - just because you're legally entitled to it doesn't mean it's morally correct.
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im not disagreeing with you about being morally wrong. i also agree that people like this are blood sucking scummers that are the lowest of society

im just saying that to stop it , its the system that needs to change

if you basically hand out free money, you cant blame people for taking it
 
At least you are using the system correctly ... thats what its there for ..... at least you are not sending the benefit money back to your family in India and also working on the sly .... thats what most of the people do claiming benefits! :eek:

Oh btw - The system is ****
 
sometimes i wish we could just abolish the welfare state because of the fact its getting abused like this. it sickens me to the stomach and gets my blood boiling!
 
bigjimmyauk said:
Hope the rest of the pregnancy is ok for her. ESA is a complete PITA just make sure sick notes and doctors ref's are handed in on time and there are no missing days between them otherwise they stop it while they investigate.

Must be awful feeling sick 24/7 i hate it once or twice a year but every day :(


Also do you currently have children cause unless your working part time couples aren't usually better off on benefits.
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Thanks for the sympathy :) she's a bit better now, she's been given anti-sickness tablets, which take the edge off, but every couple of days she's just sat with a bowl in front of her retching :( really not fun!

He's due in Feb, and she can't wait! She's dying to get back to work too. No children yet, this is the first (and I'm terrified :p) I've got no intention of quitting my job or anything, because once he's born she's wants to work a couple of evenings and then obviously we'll be ok again.

It just pee'd me off because we've both been working and paying taxes our whole adult life, but when we need a bit of help we get told to get lost, while at the same time there's people who've never lifted a finger to work and get a worry free, work free life :(
 
Haggisman said:
Thanks for the sympathy :) she's a bit better now, she's been given anti-sickness tablets, which take the edge off, but every couple of days she's just sat with a bowl in front of her retching :( really not fun!

He's due in Feb, and she can't wait! She's dying to get back to work too. No children yet, this is the first (and I'm terrified :p) I've got no intention of quitting my job or anything, because once he's born she's wants to work a couple of evenings and then obviously we'll be ok again.

It just pee'd me off because we've both been working and paying taxes our whole adult life, but when we need a bit of help we get told to get lost, while at the same time there's people who've never lifted a finger to work and get a worry free, work free life :(
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Yeah i know what you mean, When i had to finish work due to my partner being ill it felt like we'd hit a brick wall. No job and no benefits at all for 8 weeks luckily my dad helped us out until the back dated funds came through.

I'm sure troll and or people pull the benefits figures out of thin air or know how to play the system cause we get no where near that much and we have 6 children, And yes we both worked and had 6 children before she became ill so i'm not a benefits sponger who's wife popped out kids for cash.
 
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