Punished for working in the UK

Hi just wanted to share a story with you folks and see if its just me that thinks my father has been punished for working his whole life and for being honest.

Basically my father is 60 now, he has worked since he was 15 so you can imagine the amount of tax and NI he has contributed to the country. 2 years ago the company he worked for went under and my father could not get back into work. He went a year with nothing, no one ever replied to any application he made, (Destroyed Him). The scum at the dole decided he was only entitled to 6 months dole as my disabled mother was prepared to go through pain every morning to go to work for min wage. so they cut it off after 6months. Anyway after a full year of finding nothing and the last half of that living of his savings (goodbye any chance of decent retirement) he managed to find a temp contract through an agency. He worked every hour they would give him and ended the contract last month just under a year. Now the good part, he has spent the past 4 weeks trying to claim benefit/dole and was just told on Friday he has not earned enough money now to be entitled to anything. He will now loose his home. What makes it worse is there are 3 groups of people living in our street who have never worked and are all now over 10 years in too living on benefits and have paid nothing into the system. In fact one has just boasted they are getting a crisis loan so the can go away on holiday.


So my question here are,

Has my dad been punished for working and being honest his whole life?

What part of that is a working man meant to respect as a law?

what has the law/goverment offered my dad to make him not want to live a lie and try to lie to his doctor to get a sickness claim??

He says lying is the worst thing he could ever do, but Surly that proves that it pays to lie???

As I said to him, at least the Royals/tories and bankers are doing good in these hard times and that is all that is meant to matter these days is it not? Im sure all 3 of those groups are more than happy to see this happen to my father

 

I hear you. I've had similar problems when I was made redundant last October. People who contribute have to jump through a series of humiliating hoops while people who have never worked have only to hold out thier hand.
A guy at the bank told me when his wife was made redundant she wasn't eligable for any benefits because he had a good job.
They don't tell us any of this as they're taking money out of our wage packets. They know there would be riots.

 

i'd try taking it up with your MP Steff, no gaurantees, but its best to let these Big Cheeses know about the ridiculous rubbish ordinary folk have to live through.

 

But that's the point. When you're married you're one financial entity (kind of). When I left work to look after my son there was no expection from me or my wife that we would get any help as she 'has a good job'.

The state doesn't owe anyone a living.

I do believe that there are genuine hardship cases, but I get ****ed off when people complain that their parents are going to have to sell the family home. Either step up and help your parents financially (as they did for you whilst bringing you up) or understand that a house is an asset and why should the state support you when you have assets?

 

Meanwhile... The chavs and scallies with no work ethic or sense of responsibility to speak of just squirt out more unwanted kids. jeez, I get so angry about stories like yours I start thinking like a daily mail reader.
One big change I'd love to see to the ben system is family allowance capped at three kids. The recent change was disgustingly unfair with people who paid in all thier lives not getting it and vice versa for people who have paid little or nothing. Ok rant over for now.

 

How about "because when that asset is gone, the state will have to pay more to support you?" That's a practical reason.

For that matter, why should the state support those who show no inclination to support themselves? A person with a solid work history is definitely more deserving than someone who's a career dole bludger.

And before you tell me "the state doesn't owe anyone a living" take a look at the retirement packages your politicians give themselves - the ones they are usually eligible for after only a few years service. If the state doesn't owe anyone a living, it doesn't owe them one either.

 

"The state doesn't owe anyone a living"

I agree, but it still sticks in the craw when you pay taxes into a safety net that is then moved because other people shamelessly take so much out.

 

No kidding it does. Let's see our/your politicians have to sell everything they have before they are eligible for assistance. Won't happen. This is the failure of the electorate too. We need to demand better.

 

Wow, so thats the attitude my dad should have when he and my mum have to move into a hostel but the people in our street who have EARNED nothing can stay in the there home with front and back garden, car, holidays. I guess 45 years of NI contributions is nothing really is it? I just hope you never end up in that situation.

 

I’ve had a few beverages at lunch time, but was just thinking of the following. Not sure how feasible or realistic it is, but maybe something to play around with.

Any possibility of selling assets (house) to a third party which is in the eyes of the gov' and related agencies, not directly connected to the current owner, but who are willing to keep the property for the owner until such time as they become financially solvent. The proceeds of the house sale should also be moved away from UK traceable sources and banking details revealed to Gov' agencies only until such time wherein the proceeds do not have to be declared to relevant agencies and subsequently proven but do not appear (due to timeframe) on official documentation.

 

Oh well! Good thing I'm not in charge of OP's finances!

* not to self, avoid mixing booze and financial decisions!

 

Wow, big can of worms eh? I've been on both sides of the fence. Married, huge house, paid cash or checks for everything never needed a loan except for a house and car, never worried about the bills. Then I got divorced, lost everything, house, car, retirement account, I had NOTHING. Lived in families basements, scrounging for aluminum cans, literally.....

Now, after working for the government for 20 years I had a relatively nice income, retirement, etc. In a matter of a few months, all was lost and I'll NEVER be able to retire. Yet I have employees who make minimum wage who 'qualify' under government grants for low/no interest home loans, phones, cars, free health care that live better than I do making twice their money because I'm a non-minority citizen.

Explain that to the millions of hard working americans who will never be able to retire who live a lesser lifestyle than immigrants and/or minorities both legal and illegal...

 

in very simple terms because we are in a democracy (theoretically) the state, or rather the state is an extension and representation of us the masses, we fund the state, without us there would be no state, they work for us not the other way around. this is of course putting it very simply (and not at all how it works out in practice) and I do see some merit in what you are saying but I believe your comment is insensitive to the op's situation especially considering that the government is essentially in practice in our society a representative of the business class protecting its interests to the detriment of we the masses.

 

I know people from school who have never worked a day in their lives (not even a paper round) yet earn much more money than me (and I'm on a more than decent wage) by simply squirting out children. They've also being put in a 5 bedroom house in the more upscale end of town, much to the annoyance of the residents there...

A friend of a friend gets stacks of incapacity benefit as he is "unable to work" as he walks with a cane. Yet, during the summer he's running about the park playing football with his friends. He's been reported many times, but nothing ever comes of it...

The local council/government/whatever seem to bend over backwards to help people who don't want to help themselves, yet another friend who is supporting himself and his unemployed brother on a minimum wage bar job. He can't get any government/council help at all, not even a reduction in council tax as two people are living in the property, even though one is unemployed and seeking benefits.

The system blows. We probably all know people who abuse it and reap the rewards and we no doubt all know people who try to help themselves but get nowhere...

 

Although no system is perfect, I grew tired of seeing the UK system abused by spongers, wasters, junkies and chavs.

So I left

You ain't getting any more of my money you worthless piles of poop!

 

The system is broken, but fixing it is a political minefield. Any substantial change to the way things work will inevitably have a negative impact on some genuine claimants, who will end up on the front page of the red tops and lead to very uncomfortable questions for the government of the day.

...and there will always be ways around the system for those willing to be dishonest.

 

Good salary means you pay about 30% of income in taxes. Then 20% of most purchases are tax, MUCH higher for petrol etc... plus stamp duty on your house and (probably) inheritance tax on assets left for your children.

'Tis a bumper load of tax. I'd put some numbers in but I think I'd cry.

@OP: That's major <beep>. Is there any way to readdress the case? I am shocked to hear that over a full working lifetime he hasn't made sufficient NI contributions to meet pension requirements, sounds a lot like a mistake at their end.

Others can correct me if I'm wrong but I think that 20-30 years at min. wage would be enough NI to get you a pension?

 

To get a state pension you only have to make 20 years of full contributions. I believe that's designed to make it easy to actually get you're full state pension.

 

Osu,


I am afraid to say that there is no way this can last...


Osu!