Not judging their individual situations too harshly but two distant relatives (brother and sister) don’t work and have never worked, only a few small part time jobs when they were younger. Now they are in their 80s and the government has given them a row house, a car and some other things. One has a diabetic wife who had issues, but these serious health issues happened recently. How can the government do this? I just don’t understand how it works long-term? They certainly have not have long term disabilities until fairly recently. One says she has never paid into the pension system other than for a year or so.
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Well you are judging them harshly.
Build a bridge
“Not judging their individual situations too harshly”
Then I dread to think what ‘harsh’ means for you.
Have you asked them? It sounds like they either have health issues that qualify for more financial help or they’ve saved their money through the odd jobs. Either way, no one will know except for them and for that reason, we shouldn’t be so quick to judge them. This reeks of classism.
Without details, we can’t say.
Pensions, money from dead relatives, it can all help
I have no idea, but there’s similar scum all over the country. Parasitic vermin.
Inheritance maybe. Won the lottery perhaps.
The benefits system has changed so much over the past 60 years. You can’t compare how governments helped(?) people in the 1970s to how they help them now.
What are you so concerned? Are you expecting some sort of windfall maybe?
Where I grew up in Wales I never got a job either
Their Welsh “row” house what we’d call a terrace is better than your house ? Bearing in mind that housing in wales is cheap because there is so little work, and there are some really seriously deprived areas, you don’t know their story, you don’t have any direct contact with them. It seems odd that you’d be so jealous of them.
Also no one is “given” a house. You might get a council house that you pay rent on, then there was the right to buy scheme where you could buy your council house, but ultimately no one gets given a house
They are in their 80tys dude whats it matter?
They will qualify for a uk pension as long as they received a pension credit which is what happens for people on benefits, if they were not on benefits then they will be eligible for a different kind for welfare benefit, it won’t be much, not as much as a full pension but its something.
Maybe one of them gets a carers allowance for the care they provide for a diabetic wife, maybe they get housing benefit still if they are legacy claimants, either way, they are elderly and its how life has worked out.
You don’t lose anything from this, its their life not yours, and there maybe be strong reasons they did not work much, that are personal to them such as illness and they just don’t owe you an explanation.
If I were you I’d start building a relationship with both of them.
For all you know they could be sitting on several million from inheritances and simply living off the interest…