Don't it just take the P. !!

If she's claiming what she's 'entitled' to, then she'll be on about £4k per year in all (not including housing benefit and council tax benefit which you can't count because they go straight to paying your rent and council tax). So if she's saving £2k per year, then she must be living off about £2k per year. That's barely enough to eat, let alone heat the house/flat, buy clothes etc.

Genuine claimants who are neither fiddling nor manipulating the system can't really afford to save up. That's from experience, both first hand and from close friends. When you're living off the old king cole, you're living on Aldi baked beans, and 20p pasta with half a 9p tin of tomatoes poured over the top, or 9p noodles, and if you smoke, its boot-legged baccy or nowt. Its no fun when you're sticking exactly to the rules.

 

As I said before, the article only contains certain information and much is left to conjecture.

Her family allowance (child benefit?) will be worth something like £1716 pa on it's own. And most people get that (even working ones ).

Maybe she eats well because she's a freegan? Exploits coupons? Has a large number of siblings/aunts that help her out? Does favours for barter? Maybe she and others in her situation take it in turns to do one meal each per night per week and that keeps her costs down? Maybe she spends all day in a free library/Surestart/friends and relations houses and reduces her bills that way? Perhaps she doesn't smoke and does all her shopping in Lidl, Aldi and Netto or on the market in the final hour to get the last of the last at a snip; I don't know! It's all conjecture. How she was able to save was not explained (deliberately so, perhaps? Maybe that part just wasn't interesting enough?)

When *you* lived on the dole you were claiming just for yourself - otherwise you would have had supplementary benefits for any dependents. The two are not comparable. Nor am I suggesting for one moment that being on the dole is a cushy number. But - being a single male on the dole is not the same as being a single parent with dependent children.

Clue, she must be a "genuine claimant" ... she's not working, a single parent with 2 children under 3yrs old! The newspaper would have checked her entitlements *before* running the story.

A "fuller and frank" story would have gone on to explain just how she was able to make those savings (thus helping out all those people who are gobsmacked at how she does it ).

But no, that is not what the article was about. The newspaper has exploited her position for their own ends - as is their way of things.

It is the newspaper who should be ashamed of themselves because they have exploited her naivety. She's presenting herself as someone who is proud that, despite being in the benefit bracket, she still manages to "save" and still give her children a perceived "quality" of life (the quality of it is debatable!). She's under the illusion that what she is saying is a "good" thing! And it's all being used against her.

 

Any payment made by an ex is disregarded as income, So it is NOT taken into account
an ex can pay £1000pw and it is not included (Incomes disregard)

I used to pay this out

Jack McH

 

Child benefit £33pw Child Tax Credit £110pw, IS or ESA £61pw, so the income NOT including full HBA and Council tax, is £10,088 tax free plus free home and anything the fathers are paying is a bonus
You usually find the father is in the background otherwise where did the additional children come from,?

As a single parent she gets what she is getting as described above, if admitted living with someone it is down to £4k a year

The Gov made two of our three fraud officers redundant, their wage was £24k each
the money they recovered was £284million per year (I can not see the logic either)

The current single officer can not even look at cases below £50k a year fraud as there are more than 6000 in his area alone

You can not just know about it, (many many people shop their neigbours on the fiddle)
You have to prove it, this entails observation teams, transport and proof over a minimum of twelve weeks, then interviews and court

The ex director (now deceased) was questioned in parliament 2010
X your tax credits, out of 6million calls a year 30% are not answered, what do you intend doing about it

X Well I intend cutting the staff by 40% this way we will be more efficient

Parliament PARDON

X Well I intend cutting the staff by 40% this way we will be more efficient

Unbelievable, and her succesor, the same

Jack McH (I spent ten years at this coalface dishing out the cash, thankfully retired april)

 

How so Jack? Even before the gov lowered the entitlement threshold to below my salary, we only got about £80 per month.

 

Because you were a COUPLE MARRIED Though there has always been tax credits at about this rate if your income was below £12k

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/index.htm

Try it yourself now using the "do I qualify", if you are working then do not forget to include child care, £300 per child per week (most have their pal looking after the kids but claim it is official child care, If you work more than 16hrs single 24 joint, one has to do at least 16 but 24 in total)

You may be suprised, Remember if you can claim even one pence you are then entitled to other benefits but in reality it is £25 per year to entitle other claims

Jack McH

 

Cut off point is £49,999 Joint income

Jack McH

 

What about these poor mums who 'have to' steal to feed their children?

Young mothers steal formula milk so they can feed their babies

 

Read that earlier, Scrungee. Years gone by they didn't have to buy it if they were on benefits, they were given milk vouchers and picked up cans of formula in exchange for the vouchers: ensuring babies were not left vulnerable to undernourishment.

 

Oh, for pity's sake! Whatever happened to mammary glands?

 

Wife and I discovered when our son was born that not all babies manage to breast feed. Our lad couldn't get the hang of it, and according to the midwifes, it is not that unusual. In the olden days such babies would just have died. Thankfully we've moved on since those days.

 

but remember not all mammary glands work my dear ! for many reasons

 

Sorry, that should have read, "Whatever happened to the Paps of Jura?"

 

Perhaps that's still the case http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthy-start-vouchers/do-i-qualify/ if so why do they still 'need' to steal it?

 

That's very true. But what's the percentage of mothers who can't produce milk and babies that don't manage to suckle? A lot smaller than the percentage that doesn't breastfeed, i would imagine.