General Chat

There was a woman in the paper yesterday who had been living frugally on benefits and had carefully saved some of it because she was afraid of a destitute old age,
She saved more than she was allowed to have and was prosecuted for making a false claim and made to pay back what she had saved.
It seems there is a sliding scale for how much saving you are allowed to hold.
Well, I am on carers allowance now but I can't imagine I will step straight into a job when I am no longer eligible. As you all know, I am very mean and have been pugging it away.
It looks like I might shoot myself in the foot if I am not careful.

But why was she saving it, ok its nice to have a bit put by for emergencys or a little holiday, benefits are meger enough and designed to allow a cetain standard of living, healthy food etc, most of the people I know who claim struggle to live a day to day life and treats are very few and far between. We both work full time and would take donkeys years to squirrel away £22,000.00 I think maybe they suspect she had an undeclared income of some kind. Wouldn't it be awful if this was looked at and decided well if she can do so can everyone.

It's not so much that she saved it, it's that she didn't declare it at all, and you do have to declare savings...to not do so must have meant her actively taking that decision because they ask for bank statements etc.

Sharron, as a former carer myself, you're right about not walking into a job... except that the job centre if they know you have been a carer will push you hard into that kind of work because it's the one area where there are jobs still.

In my experience,it is expensive to work.

In the five years I have been a carer I have not had to buy working clothes,put very little mileage on the car, had the time to shop around and to cook cheap food,

The people who struggle badly on benefits are often people who have been used to having a reasonable income and have hit the skids suddenly.There must be a lot of them now.

There are people who seem to have an excellent standard of living on benefits. I don't know how they do it but I think there must be an element of fiddling there,as well as running up debts they will never repay.

Even if it is expensive to work I would rather work any time than struggle on benifits, I have had my years of counting the pennies and shopping a round for bargins although cheap food I have never done. still shop for a bargin in a sale some habits never die :-)

Even when my children were little I always work part time most times I always had at least 2 jobs, if I came out of work now it wouldnt be so much the money but it would the social side to going out to work as well, it would crack me up sitting at home looking at the same 4 walls everyday with no purposes or rountine. :-(

Tell me about it.

The challenge to me is to get as much as I can out of my benefit money.

As we are on the higher rate attendance allowance I have not spent a night away in five years. I know there is respite available but the upset it would cause would be too great.

Maybe the challenge lies in not letting the situation crack you up but I am sure,if you ever are in a similar one Hayley,you will cope.

Oh dear sharron I dont think so, the person I'd care for would end caring for me, I have little or no patience and the only person I have patience with is my Mum and that can be spread very thin at times.

Think I am missing something, if two people receive the same benefit and one choices to eat steak and caviar, and the other beans on toast but saves the difference why should they be made to give it back. I did not realise you were told how to spend the benefit.

Carol :-S

Same could be said for people who aren't on benefits....the person that spends it all is entitled to council tax rebates and higher rates of benefits etc should the need ever occur....and the savers who went without are considered too well off to receive anything until they've brought their savings down.

One rule fits all quite rightly.

She should've declared her savings..she didn't...and is now paying the price. x

Hayley, I am not Mother Theresa by any stretch of the imagination. The woman who came to assess our care package said she would have reported somebody talking to a client in a home like I do to my dad as abuse of the elderly. That is how I do it and that is how it works for him.

Yes, I have had multiple jobs and never asked for anything but nobody is in control of their own fate entirely.The old man's stroke happened without warning and decisions had quickly to be made.

Carol, that would seem to be the way wouldn't it. I will be off out for a huge,flat screen TV this afternoon I think.

I suppose part of the thinking is that benefit money comes out of the economy and needs to be recirculated. If everybody kept some there would be none left for next time.

Muffy, I agree you have to declare your savings if you want to claim benefit, but once done and you receive the same as the next person surely you are then allowed to do with it how you choice. Well think I will blow any savings on a world cruise and then start claiming. Obviously it does you no good to save.

Carol :-)

I'm no expert...but when my OH was out of work for a few months a couple of years ago the ceiling for savings was £9000 (if memory serves) and we were told that if our savings reached above that level (yeah right lol) then we had to inform them or risk a fine x

I think under 6k benefits are not affected and then it is a sliding scale up to the cut off point of 16k, some benefits are excluded from this means testing though.