Hmm it's a nice life on benefits it seems

wack61 said:
Single mother of three seems to be doing OK on benefits, while I recognise benefits are there so the children are fed and clothed, I can't help being a little annoyed she seems to have such a cushy life as I get out of bed at 5am to pay the bills.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-single-mother-of-three-Pams-luxury-life.html
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Her kids are 13, 10 and 7 ... she'd better start training for her new career for when they grow up!

Then again, the article boasts she has a £1,600 Golf car; unless it's a misprint for £16,000 she might not be living in the lap of total luxury.
 
wack61 said:
Single mother of three seems to be doing OK on benefits, while I recognise benefits are there so the children are fed and clothed, I can't help being a little annoyed she seems to have such a cushy life as I get out of bed at 5am to pay the bills.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-single-mother-of-three-Pams-luxury-life.html
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nice house... oh the irony of being paid for the story ..


Love this bit ..Must be a great chatup line :)
"If people stopped having kids, then the world wouldn't continue. We all have a responsibility to have children.
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The problem I have is not the availability of the benefits, taking them away would only punish the children, it is the attitude that the world owes her a living and we can work to pay for it.
 
Why are the fathers not chased for maintenance if they're supposed to be paying it.
 
wack61 said:
Why are the fathers not chased for maintenance if they're supposed to be paying it.
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:shrug: She says: "Each time I had another child I received more money from the state. It felt great to be in charge of my life and my own money". :bonk:
 
I love the first comment..........

Whats all u's problem? she does'nt hav a drug problem or alcahol addiction she is doing the best 4 hr kids *** r they suposed to liv on the streets?

good on her if the banks saved lik she did we ***'nt b in the mess we r!!!!
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On the other hand, if she wasn't on benefits then there might have been some money available to fund an education for the person that left that comment.....
 
wack61 said:
Why are the fathers not chased for maintenance if they're supposed to be paying it.
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_39723013_heinz.jpg



couldnt resist :lol:
 
wack61 said:
Why are the fathers not chased for maintenance if they're supposed to be paying it.
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please dont tar everyone with the same brush, i pay 300 a month for my daughter, which i have not seen for 13 years because her mother buggered off with someone else and i pay!!!!!
 
gazza2168 said:
please dont tar everyone with the same brush, i pay 300 a month for my daughter, which i have not seen for 13 years because her mother buggered off with someone else and i pay!!!!!
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How is he tarring everyone with the same brush? He's talking specifically about the fathers of the children in this story.
 
fabs said:
How is he tarring everyone with the same brush? He's talking specifically about the fathers of the children in this story.
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sorry, i misread i thought wack meant fathers in general, my apology :thumbs:
 
Just reading through that article makes my blood boil.
Am I angry at the woman?

No I'm annoyed at the Scum Paper for the way it's written. I bet you a pound to a penny, the quotes are taken out of context too.
Look at all the dramatic wording they use

"Top of the range home entertainment system"
What, some cheap speakers, a free sky box, and a £15 DVD player?

Just seems to me she's very very careful with money, and gets the rest of it on credit (Credit Card / Catalogue are mentioned).

I spent 6 years off work looking after my kids as a househusband. It was a choice, yes, and we did get help while my wife worked.
I did the 'working all hours god sends', and ended up not even being able to see my daughter through depression (of which work was a contributing factor).
So do I regret doing it? Hell no. I lived off credit cards, my wifes minimum wage, and the help we got from the tax credits.
Am I glad I did it? Hell yes. I got to see my children grow up, and was able to use the time to turn them into decent citizens...that's my contribution to society over the 6 yrs.

I have a feeling that this article (much like all of the 'Sun' articles I have read recently) massively misrepresent the truth in order to promote a one sided, biased and sensationalist 'story' just to sell papers.

I see Murdoch's paper is quick to judge her, but not so quick as to refuse her Sky payments eh?
 
gazza2168 said:
please dont tar everyone with the same brush, i pay 300 a month for my daughter, which i have not seen for 13 years because her mother buggered off with someone else and i pay!!!!!
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If you're paying for your kids you're one of the good guys, it's the ones that squirt, b****r off and leave the rest of us to pay the bill i'm talking about.
 
Marcel said:
No I'm annoyed at the Scum Paper for the way it's written. I bet you a pound to a penny, the quotes are taken out of context too.
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single jobless mother makes exceptional job of looking after the pennies and bringing up her children... would never make the papers .....
 
People like that, who abuse the benefits system really really irritate me.

The money is there to feed and clothe the children - simple fix, vouchers that can be redeemed at any large supermarket, ONLY for groceries and clothing.

Sure it may still get abused a bit and she may spend a load of money on clothes for herself, but at least it stops her paying for a car with that money, tvs, mobile phones, and horrible yappy dogs.

If she wants that stuff, and that standard of living she should go out and earn it. She does not need to be a full time mum, she can work part time and still be home for when the kids get back, I know alot of mothers who do. Even if she got full time work her eldest child should be old enough and mature enough to be able to look after the other two for a couple of hours and keep them in one piece.

I even remember a boy at my secondary school, his mum was a single mother and he had two younger brothers, she worked full time to make ends meet and after a phone call to the school explaining the situation to them, they agreed that the boy could leave school 15 mins early every day so he could get to his younger brothers school in time to pick them up when they got out.

Its simply a matter of its not that she cant work, she just doesnt want to work and is finding excuses.

I freely admit im not working right now because im choosing to focus on a business venture instead, but im not trying to squeeze pennies out the benefits scheme. Its my choice, I can work but im choosing not to, Im not going to go the jobcentre and lie in order to get benefits to live on. When money starts getting extremely tight if this venture isnt off the ground, tough luck ill have to go out and find work. It would be wrong of me to start claiming benefits to tide me over indefinately till the venture starts moving again, as wheres the motivation to do it if I can live happily for the rest of my life doing nothing?
 
out of interest... how many replying to this thread are parents... how many of you are women and how many of you are single mothers..

but the most important question i would ask is... how many of you does this womens life effect apart from your outrage at her life?
 
faddius said:
People like that, who abuse the benefits system really really irritate me.

The money is there to feed and clothe the children - simple fix, vouchers that can be redeemed at any large supermarket, ONLY for groceries and clothing.
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That would be against the Human Rights Charter....
 
I'm a parent, when my wife had our children she worked up to 2 weeks before both births, after the 2nd was born she didn't go back to work until they were both at school.

I supported her by driving 80,000 miles a year starting at 5am most mornings, when they started school she got a part time job working 16 hours a week so she'd keep her pension entitlement.

If the fathers of these children supported them as I did mine and she worked part time she wouldn't be costing the taxpayer what must be 20k a year.

surely it affects all of us, if the benefits bill wasn't so huge the money could be spent on other things, maybe even a tax cut :shrug:

fell free to correct me if i'm wrong, I usually am :D
 
wack61 said:
If you're paying for your kids you're one of the good guys, it's the ones that squirt, b****r off and leave the rest of us to pay the bill i'm talking about.
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I totally agree mate :thumbs:, i have never once regreted paying, she is my daughter and i hope that the cash has been spent on her and not wasted, although i will never find out, she turns 19 in may and the money will stop, i would like to think she has benefited from it.
 
Not that I agree with a whole 'life on benefits, popping kids out to get more then blowing it all on fags n booze' scenario.

I wonder how many people who think this woman is vile, would happily order a lens from Hong Kong with a 'No VAT / Duty' guarantee.
 
Marcel said:
Not that I agree with a whole 'life on benefits, popping kids out to get more then blowing it all on fags n booze' scenario.

I wonder how many people who think this woman is vile, would happily order a lens from Hong Kong with a 'No VAT / Duty' guarantee.
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...or anything else that can avoid a bit of tax, or whatever that would normally be paid.

Do you know what, I haven't even bothered to read the article, there is no point. It's published in one of the gutter press pieces of crap and to be perfectly honest, I have run out of the antiseptic hand rub one feels one needs whenever one ventures near anything so dirty [that was a little facetious btw, before anyone blows a fuse]

I spent 6 years as a single mother to 2 kids, living on benefits, paying off the debts the idiot ex had left me with and trying to scrimp and save for those 'luxuries' like a basic £40 stereo system or a basic cable TV package, so the kids could have just a little of what their better off friends at school had. I managed to get some work from home and then went to college 2 1/2 days a week too. During this time I met every type of single mother you could imagine, from the ones that really did get pregnant at 15 in the hope of getting a council flat or house to help them escape the apathy from their own parents. Then there were the ones like me, that had worked for years and paid tax, before finding themselves in a situation they couldnt control and yes you know what, the state pays, and something else, its those small luxuries can keep you sane because its bloody easy bringin up kids on your own, often not seeing another adult for more then the 10 mins a day at the school gates and finally crashing into a cold empty bed. Absolute piece of cake. I also saw the far extreme, the mothers that had 5 or 6 kids, to keep the state paying, where the youngest was still in nappies whilst the oldest was looking for bar work.... and but for the grace of god...I could only ever feel pity for them, they had no idea what they missing in life, in the bigger world.
It might not be right, you, and indeed, I, might not agree with everything about how someone on state benefits chooses to live their life, but walk a mile in someone elses shoes before pressuming to tell them they only entitled to Primark end of line slippers.
 
I'm going to side-step the attack on The Sun and it's sensationalist articles (despite them being justified) and take a more genuine look at what has been reported.

She gets £252 a week excluding rent and council tax support. That equals £13,104 a year. It's not exactly a huge amount to take home, especially with 3 children to support, and as the article points out a job on minimum wage would only increase her income by £50 a year but leave her with no time for the parenting duties she has to deal with alone. The fact that she stretches it far enough to buy some of the 'luxuries' (which, incidentally, they are so non-descript about judging their value... A touchscreen pink mobile phone? She could get something like that free on a contract for a tenner or less a month I suspect) listed is testament to her stringent control of her own finances, not evidence of an unjustifiably generous benefit system. If anything it's a model of how a relatively modest sum provided by the government can, with a little prudence, be stretched to provide a comfortable lifestyle for a family who would otherwise be in a constant struggle because their mother wouldn't be able to be present to satisfy the necessities of a child's upbringing because of full-time work commitments.

I could go on (and fully intended to originally) but I realised whilst typing this it will only fall on deaf ears so I see little point in continuing.
 
TriggerHappy said:
If anything it's a model of how a relatively modest sum provided by the government can, with a little prudence, be stretched to provide a comfortable lifestyle for a family who would otherwise be in a constant struggle because their mother wouldn't be able to be present to satisfy the necessities of a child's upbringing because of full-time work commitments.
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from the sun said:
And she insists: "No one can call me a benefit skank or scrounger because I am very careful with the money. I make sure there is enough to pay my direct debits, which total around £470 a month.

That goes on gas, electricity, water, the TV licence, Sky, BT Vision, credit card, house and life insurance, BT phone and internet, catalogue payments and my mobile contract."
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mmmm more a modest mum with a huge credit limit methinks..

if all she gets is what the gov says she needs to live on then where is she cutting back to afford all the luxury items..?
 
faddius said:
People like that, who abuse the benefits system really really irritate me.
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Me too, like you wouldn't believe

But the woman in the article doesn't abuse the benefits system though :shrug: Can you provide evidence otherwise?

The money is there to feed and clothe the children - simple fix, vouchers that can be redeemed at any large supermarket, ONLY for groceries and clothing.
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Total crock IMO, supermarkets are not the best place to buy food if you want it on the cheap. No, I could not agree with this at all

Sure it may still get abused a bit and she may spend a load of money on clothes for herself, but at least it stops her paying for a car with that money, tvs, mobile phones, and horrible yappy dogs.

If she wants that stuff, and that standard of living she should go out and earn it. She does not need to be a full time mum, she can work part time and still be home for when the kids get back, I know alot of mothers who do. Even if she got full time work her eldest child should be old enough and mature enough to be able to look after the other two for a couple of hours and keep them in one piece.
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Right, she gets exactly what she is entitled to - and that is the same as everyone else on benefits gets. She just seems to do a remarkably good job of making that money work for her - I have a very dim view of the benefits culture but even I'm moderatly impressed with her story (Despite the paper trying to persuade me otherwise). You seriously cannot argue that because she is good with money and able to spend it on these things that she should have her benefits cut can you?

I even remember a boy at my secondary school, his mum was a single mother and he had two younger brothers, she worked full time to make ends meet and after a phone call to the school explaining the situation to them, they agreed that the boy could leave school 15 mins early every day so he could get to his younger brothers school in time to pick them up when they got out.
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How it should be, but the government has taken the country to a place where that can't work. Now it is easier to get your family paid for, and tbh I would rather they were brought up like that woman is doing rather than some of the scumbag criminals that breed in our local council estate.

Its simply a matter of its not that she cant work, she just doesnt want to work and is finding excuses.
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Now, interesting bit. If she goes to work the picture changes for her. She will earn no more money than she is currently but be out of the house for XX hour a day. This is a situation that has been created by the government over the past couple of decades.


I freely admit im not working right now because im choosing to focus on a business venture instead, but im not trying to squeeze pennies out the benefits scheme. Its my choice, I can work but im choosing not to, Im not going to go the jobcentre and lie in order to get benefits to live on. When money starts getting extremely tight if this venture isnt off the ground, tough luck ill have to go out and find work. It would be wrong of me to start claiming benefits to tide me over indefinately till the venture starts moving again, as wheres the motivation to do it if I can live happily for the rest of my life doing nothing?
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Rightly so, that would be benefit fraud wouldn't it?
 
I'm with Yv and Marcel here. It seems people are being a little judgemental, not hard really though considering the slant that paper will likely have put on the article.

> I did write a long reply after this point, but I have erased it as I don't want to bore anyone :lol:

Let's just say though, from personal experience I can tell you, you do whatever it takes to see your kids grow up the best way you can.

I am also aware of those people out there that see children as nice little earners though. These are the ones that all your grievances should be saved for. Not people like the lady in the article. She is doing the best she can for her children by the look of it, and I tell you what ... I could use some of her advice on money management!
 
Oh brother! If her benefits are her 'wages' then my taxes are paying her and she's my employee - your fired! B****Y NERVE of the woman.
 
Seems to me she's hardly picking up a fortune each month considering she has 3 kids to look after, and good on her if she's managed to get the luxuries out of that income. I'm sure there are more scrounging sods than her deserving of being highlighted by this rag of a newspaper.

The mindset that she's entitled to keep having kids as a single mother and we should pay is something else that I wont go into.
 
Edit: this is in reply to photodiva, not CT :lol:

You are paying her (probably less than 1p a year I might add) to raise the children that may well one day pay to look after you. Just like you are paying taxes that pay for the schooling of all the other children in this country. You can't pick and chose what you pay for.

Harsh I know, but you really should walk in someone else's shoes before judging her on the words of a not so reputable newspaper IMO.
 
LOL. Jo the only thing that concerns me is that these kids are being bought up with no work ethic example and given mum's attitude they're likely to be another 3p a week for each of us along with the hundreds of thousands of others. ;)
 
Would love to know how she does it, I am a single mum I have worked fulltime for the past 14 years since I left school signed on for the first time after being made redundant and I dont seem to be getting anymore than an 18yr old living at home with his mum and they arent interested in my mortgage till after 13 weeks...cheers..so glad I been paying my taxes /rant
 
Stiglet said:
Would love to know how she does it, I am a single mum I have worked fulltime for the past 14 years since I left school signed on for the first time after being made redundant and I dont seem to be getting anymore than an 18yr old living at home with his mum and they arent interested in my mortgage till after 13 weeks...cheers..so glad I been paying my taxes /rant
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a homeowner in need of help? you are in the bermuda triangle as far as the gov' are concerned.. my sister hit a similar situation and pretty much hit a brick wall, she was told outright that it was because she had a mortgage and if she was in council/housing association rented property she would have been sorted..
 
I love tax credits - they pay for my camera equipment. :)
 
strumstrum said:
a homeowner in need of help? you are in the bermuda triangle as far as the gov' are concerned.. my sister hit a similar situation and pretty much hit a brick wall, she was told outright that it was because she had a mortgage and if she was in council/housing association rented property she would have been sorted..
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Yep..so punished basically for working hard all my life and having something to show for it. Why they cant just pay the same as what the rent I wuld be eintitled me I will never know and then they inject LOADS of money on stupid adverts on how to help people not lose their homes..errrr..heres an idea..help with the mortgage so I dont have to go on the game.:naughty:
 
CT said:
LOL. Jo the only thing that concerns me is that these kids are being bought up with no work ethic example and given mum's attitude they're likely to be another 3p a week for each of us along with the hundreds of thousands of others. ;)
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I can see why you might think that, and it probably is the truth in some cases. The same could also be said for kids brought up with endless amounts of money though. But then they would probably not ever have to claim benefits as ma & pa will always help them out.

However I have been out of work a few times, and I can honestly say I have only ever once signed on, and I only did that once. I felt ashamed and so I took the next available job working in a flower factory. I have done the same since ... If I need to work I will. I will also do what ever job it takes, so long as I can put something into the household pot I have some self pride at least.

My eldest sister recently parted company with her husband and is now a single mum of 2. She was working before they split, but there is no way she would have been able to support her kids on those wages. So she changed direction and found a job that works for her and the kids. She is now a teaching assistant I believe (or something very similar) training up on the job to eventually become a primary school teacher I think. This is a totally different career to what she went to college for.

My youngest sister is just in her first year of A levels, having passed all of her GCSE's with flying colours. Though her maths was less than expected, and she is also re done that GCSE (I believe she is awaiting the results). She has every intention of becoming a teacher. I dont honestly think she would have done so well had my mum been working all hours to bring enough money in. My little sis has been through some very traumatic stuff in the last few years, and without my mum being there for her I sadly think she may have turned out much different had she had to deal with all of those things herself.

Considering my mum has been on benefits for the last 19 years, I don't think she has done too bad raising us to have some sort of work ethic :) We have all seen her struggle through, and none of us want the same for ourselves.

I do agree there are some folk in the system that don't have the same attitude or drive to make sure their kids dont end up the same way. But I do remember my mum using catalogue to buy Christmas for us, and clothes that kept us away from the bullying at school. She even has a very large TV, but she bought that from a friend who was upgrading for cheap. She also has other things that she saved very hard for. My mum's attitude is that she is getting what she is entitled to. Though she does now work 16 hrs a week, she is still helped quite a bit by the benefits system. I don't begrudge her any of it. She worked hard all her life before us kids came along :)


Stiglet said:
Yep..so punished basically for working hard all my life and having something to show for it. Why they cant just pay the same as what the rent I wuld be eintitled me I will never know and then they inject LOADS of money on stupid adverts on how to help people not lose their homes..errrr..heres an idea..help with the mortgage so I dont have to go on the game.:naughty:
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Wait the 13 weeks and if you haven't found another job in that time you can get help with your mortgage. This is the reason there is a 13 week wait ... your incentive to get another job. Do whatever it takes. Almost worst case scenario you could get a manual job in a factory to tide you over (there are worse jobs, believe me). You won't lose your house in that 13 weeks provided you were up to date with your mortgage payments before being made redundant. Mortgage companies don't want to repossess, that is the last thing they want. I'm sure if you communicate with them you can come to some sort of arrangement until things are sorted for you one way or another. :)
 
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To add to what Jo has said, another thing that seriously rankles with me is successive political party leaders that harp on about 'family values' and a return to the old days of kids having a mum at home when they returned from school to stop all this wandering the streets unattended and causing chaos. Then dinner round the table with dad when he returns from work, as a family.... unless you are a single parent of course, YOU are meant to work doubly hard to instill the right family and moral values in your kids, whilst every tom, dick and harry tells you to get and earn a living. Such mixed messages are at best annoying and leave many single parents feeling that which ever option they take, they are being frowned upon for either scrounging off the benefit system whilst trying to be there for their kids, or for not being there for their kids because they are working and creating more problems for someone else to deal with.

There are plenty that are abusing the system, there are plenty that don't bother trying to instill any kind of values into their children and there plenty for whom every effort is thrown back at them by 'modern children' who decry their 'modern rights' and skate round any kind of discipline to be withe their equally self-destructive friends. THis is not a black and white issue, in fact it is so damn grey, the clouds over Gordon Browns head would struggle to compete.

The point is, gutter trash like the Sun will only ever sensationalise everything, their job is to provoke a reaction [and lets face it, they have succeeded] and sell papers. What would be nice is if people took each case on merit and looked a but more deeply at what is happening instead of taring everyone as 'dole scroungers' or similar, because in so many cases, it simply isnt true.
 
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