Re: benifits
 

Sadly we tend to only hear of people living the high life on benefits, those on the fiddle and not the true reality of many thousands in the UK living below the poverty line, living hand to mouth so to speak, undernourished pensioners etc families who can't afford to heat their home...thats the reality of living on state benefits in the UK; its not all plasma TV's and mobility cars.

Re: benifits
 

but at least there are benefits in the UK.............there is virtually nothing as far as benefits are concerned in Spain

Re: benifits
 

There is no need for Pensioners to be in poverty in the UK. If they are entitled to Pension Credit (which makes up your income to £137 a week if you are single and £210 a week if you are a couple) then their rent and Council Tax will also be paid.

So EVERY pensioner is entitled to an income of at least this amount. Even if their income is over this amount, they may still be entitled to some rent and Council Tax Benefit.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensions...it/DG_10018692

Winte Fuel Allowance is £200 a year for most families, more if the person is over 80.

Also many infirm elderlies are entitled to Attendance Allowance of at least £49 a week on top of other income.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTax...le/DG_10012442

Also some of the Utiltity companies do special tarrifs for Pensioners and other people on certain Benefits.

So the 'heating or eating' thing is just not necessary. There is the wherewithal to do both.

I understand that some people may not claim all they are entitled to, but the Benefits ARE there.

(However, it must be hard for those who find themselves unemployed to manage on Jobseekers' Allowance, even WITH the rent/ mortgage relief and Council Tax Benefits).

Re: benifits
 

All true but not enough even when claimed in full. You may read about it but I have to deal with it as I do voluntary work for Help The Aged when I'm in the UK. Theory does often not match reality. We are lucky in the UK with the pension and benefits available but please don't think you live high off the hog off them alone, you don't.

Re: benifits
 

I didn't think you could live the life of Reilly. I said there was no need to chose between heating and eating.

Re: benifits
 

Those who do not qulaify for benefits fall into the poverty trap, e.g. £140 a week is not a lot after rent, poll tax et al.

You might find this interesting? > http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013y0nz

Re: benifits
 

I'm afraid that in the real world you are wrong, it is sometimes down to picking heating or food, I've seen this many times:( It should not happen but sadly it can.

Re: benifits
 

A timely reminder? I think so. Getting the balance right must be the most difficult thing in the world. Balancing the Mail with the Guardian and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I can watch an appeal to send a couple of pounds a month to help a starving African child with tears in my eyes, and get angry a few minutes later when I see that guy with the pony tail who has rented out his house in the UK for which he gets housing benefit sipping his brandy at nine o'clock in the morning before picking up people from the airport in his free mobility car with yellow number plates.

He gets a £180 a week because he suffers from depression and hasn't worked for 20 years.

An isolated example? I wish it was. And there's that fat woman on disability because she's fat . . . .

Re: benifits
 

I don't understand what you are saying? Are you saying most folk fiddle the benefit system? Live a high life? Trash publications like the Mail highlight the benefit abusers, takes the focus off the real issue of people living on the poverty line in the UK. As for the chap who rented out his house, report him.

Re: benifits
 

I can only tell it as it is, and I would never grass on anyone, it's against the rules, my rules.

You raise a point I've not really considered before - do most folk fiddle the system?

I don't know the answer, I've lived in too rarefied a bubble as an expat for many years. All I can say is that the ones I know here in Spain, do.

Re: benifits
 

In the UK I'd say that it's not uncommon

In Leamington Spa after I sold my business someone suggested I sign on for job seekers allowance for a few months before we came here. That meant various visits to the DHS. I noticed that quite a few people going to sign on were parking quite flash new cars some distance away in quiet streets and then walking all the way to the office to sign on. Many of them I noticed had quite expensive phones and were very nicely dressed. It made me wonder how they could afford all this on job seekers allowance which turned out to be a pittance of about £6 for me! I'm not saying the were fiddling, but they didnt seem particularly badly off.

Re: benifits
 

I do live in the real world and and my husband have livedf on £150 a week (less than guaranteed Pension Credit for a couple).. You don't have anything to spare but you can manage (providing you don't have to find rent and council tax). We managed to eat and heat. The heating and power for our three-bedroom terrace house in the UK is £80 a month - less than £20 a week. That still leaves over £130 for everything else. And if we were on Pension Credit we would get over £200. a week.

I have some relations who have just gone onto PC. With their rent paid, they are better off than when they were working for minimum wage (they said this, I didn't).

Re: benifits
 

I know individual examples are just that, but I've got a pal who lives on a large housing estate in Hackney. It may be considered a rough place to live, but not to him, he was born there and brought up his children there and never wanted to move even after his wife died and the children moved away.

Out of the thousands of people who live on the estate, he is the only one who works and pays his own rent. The only one out of thousands.

His flat overlooks the car park and every time I visit I'm astounded by the large number of shiny BMWs parked there by people on the dole, or whatever.

Re: benifits
 

those who cream off the foreign aid living in the mansions that are never shown on TV.

Re: benifits
 

To put this into perspective it is claimed that 0.2% of claimants are found to be fraudulent.
Also for as long as I can remember governments have wheeled out the "benefit fraud" band wagon as a vote catcher. This is because it detracts from their inability to maintain an economy able to support full employment.
The real (organised) fraudsters are a part of the sub culture that sadly exists in our society and their lives revolve around crime.
My main concern is that people stop using "benefit fraud" to perpetuate a bigotry towards good decent people who, through no fault of theirs are at the bottom of society already and feel the injustice on a daily basis already without having the unjustifiable slur of being lazy no good for nothing scroungers and cheats.