Are We Paying Too Much In Benefits?

[naomi24]

This woman can’t work and is on incapacity benefit, but nevertheless has paid for multiple trips to Tunisia and can afford to send her husband money which he passes on to his family.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2836930/Grandmother-ten-stunned-family-marrying-Tunisian-toy-boy-met-online-begs-Home-Office-grant-visa-vows-convert-Islam-prove-devotion-husband.html

(Don't want to sound like a kill joy, but I can’t help thinking that whether this man is eventually allowed to come here or not this marriage is doomed to failure).

[ummmm]

//Mrs Makhloufi, who earns gets £70-a-week in incapacity benefits//

^that doesn't make much sense.

Is she on non means tested benefits? No one could afford holiday abroad on £70 a week.

[ummmm]

And the last place you'd want to go when you're skint is Ireland! Yeah, we can get cheap flights but that's the only thing that's cheap.

[ladybirder]

White Dee said the benefits system was too generous and she should know.

[naomi24]

The article says she "suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis which keeps her out of work", so I assume her £70 incapacity benefit is paid on top of other benefits. She flies to Ireland now as often as she can to see him.

[VHG]

We are paying too much in benefits (to some people).

My wife's mother and father lived in a low rent home all their life as they knew the owner (it was a poor house in a poor area of Birmingham).

When my wife's father died her mother moved into a "care home" run by a local charity.

Every so often the care home arranged for a benefit assessor to come in and see if anyone was entitled to benefits.

They found that my wife's mother was entltled to £7,000 in benefits she had not claimed in the past.

So she got the £7,000 but as she was living in the care home she did not need any money so she gave it away, she shared it our amongst her 3 children (my wife and my wife's brother and sister).

[ummmm]

My nan, although pays care home costs privately, she's still entitled to benefits. The benefits reduce her fees, she doesn't get the cash.

[VHG]

Another example.

My son has a slight disability and he still lives with my wife and I.

But he does have a part time job which pays him about £350 a month take home pay.

But he also get various "disability" payments (disability living allowance and so on - not sure of details my wife sorts all this out) and he also gets some sort of tax credits.

His total "take home" pay from his job and his benefits is about £1,000 a month.

But as he lives with us his outgoings are minimal.

He currently has about £8,000 in his current account as he gets more money coming in than he can spend.

[VHG]

Referring to the grandmother above, does she not realise that as soon as this guy gets to the UK he will be off like a shot.

She wont see him for dust.

He is just using her to get in the UK.

[ummmm]

Of course he is. Anyone with half a brain knows that.

[ummmm]

Love is blind...yada yada.

[Deskdiary]

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I am always astonished whenever a story appears where a British woman has married a young foreign bloke and they declare undying love.

She may love him, but I'd bet my right arm her love is not reciprocated.

How absurdly naive must this breathtakingly ugly and hideously fat grandmother be to think that a young good looking Tunisian is in love with her.

Surely even the thickest of mouth-breathers must realise that if he obtains a passport that'll be the last she sees of him.

I despair of these gullible idiots.

[B00]

If she loves him that much and his moving to the UK is proving a problem, I fail to see why she can't move to Tunisia....oh wait, yes I can ;-)

[ummmm]

Because he lives in Ireland :-)

Irelands benefits system is much more generous than the UKs.

[EDDIE51]

Luckily the government is as good at seeing through this as we are! He will never get a visa.

[Svejk]

I think they make a lovely couple. There's some right old cynics on this site.

[sandyRoe]

Would an elderly chap on benefits have as much chance of encountering a nubile young Tunisian woman if he were to go on holiday there?

[Svejk]

I'd try Thailand if I were you, Sandy.

[ummmm]

I went to Tunisia years back (and Egypt) and there was no female employees to be seen of.

[sandyRoe]

There's only a 15 year age gap between that loving couple. Call me ageist, if you must, but I don't think I'd want to try and strike up a relationship with a 52 year old Thai former bar girl.

[lindapalmara]

//Irelands benefits system is much more generous than the UKs.//

It's no wonder Ireland had to be bailed out (by us) a few years ago. Sounds like Greek politics!

This woman is being duped. How many women have been taken for a ride by these young men. If it's such a love match maybe they should go and live in Tunisia. Or she can move to a more generous benefits system!!!? in Ireland..