Published on 12, July, 2020
By that I mean those receiving universal credit/ESA or pension credit(if old enough). Those who live in social housing, and aren't well off enough to be home owners.
I'm surprised that you think that those who work without benefits are wealthy.
I was working as a legal secretary when I had a traffic accident.
The compensation allowed me to put a deposit on a flat purchase.
However, paying a mortgage and all the associated bills on a single unprofessional salary meant I was poor not wealthy.
Debbie said:I'm surprised that you think that those who work without benefits are wealthy.
It was clumsily put, for which I apologise. I struggle to identify with the kind of people here who can talk about buying 200 year old homes in Cornwall, fitting new kitchens, able to live well abroad.I don't know whether anyone else here has experienced 'social drift'. Basically a marked decline, due to disability, in occupational/social status compared to your parents.
I have lived in poverty for many years, poor jobs, struggle, then had some money, then not had it again. I found it hard to cope with money in a different way to hard without it. I prefer the boundary that being skint provides. Less to think about.
I experienced social drift’. I didn’t have a term to describe it before. I come from a middle class family but am unidentifiable as such, yet also am not identifiable as working class. I realise these are crude terms perhaps, yet when you do not seem to belong the class system seems very real and everywhere.
social drift for me feels like not belonging anywhere, having no identity. I am the only person in my family and extended family not to have a professional career, men and women both. Yet I feel like I have worked as hard, harder, to try and prove myself.
I Like having to live on very little. It is just as easy to use as little as possible of everything. It provides a clear boundary for life. I appreciate things more. It works out about the same. A hot bath once a week is as good as a hot bath every day, it provides all the niceness rolled into one instead of divided by seven. I do wash too in case yo are wondering!
The same with food. Eating sometimes is better than eating indiscriminately because you don’t have to consider money. I see nature better when I have less.
Hi, not a problem and thank you for replying.
Roy said:So, do you see a different picture now?
Thank you for taking the time to explain. I apologise for jumping to a wrong conclusion.
I think I’m the person you are referring to buying a cottage in Cornwall. I had to sell my own house as I couldn’t pay the mortgage, I had been struggling with trying to work. The cottage is derelict and all I could afford after paying my mortgage off. I worked for my father for most of my adult life, he ensured all bills were paid. He started work at the age of 10 and never stopped working until he died exhausted. since his death 10 years ago I have struggled. I now have inherited his business premises as I worked for 25 years without a pension and received an industrial accident in the workplace that I couldn’t be compensated for as I would be suing my own father. All I have is because of my fathers hard work, my wife is a District Nurse and has been keeping money coming in as my mental health hasn’t been good. So, do you see a different picture now?
firemonkey said: I struggle to identify with the kind of people here who can talk about buying 200 year old homes in Cornwall, fitting new kitchens, able to live well abroad.
The thing is, you don't actually know the histories of these people.
I've picked up a lot since my time here, and drawn a picture in my head of how some people have travelled this rocky road to where they are now.
Sometimes getting to the point above has involved a great deal of pain.
firemonkey said:Basically a marked decline, due to disability, in occupational/social status compared to your parents.
No.
My father worked very hard long hours, 1 week days, 1 week nights, as a manual worker in a factory all his working life.
My mother did some cleaning.
Its their death that helped me financially (and meeting my now husband late in life).
I understand why you want to identify with others here but we've all suffered in different ways I think.