Here is my total income as a lone parent on benefits.

[HereBeHubbubs]

Inspired by a thread which is glorifying us lone parents as 'rolling in it', I'm prepared to declare my benefits income. It's not gauche to do so, because it's your money after all (looks at taxpayers), and you should probably know that I am also grateful for this support, prepad to pay back into the pool when working again, and am not extravagant nor consider this a 'lifestyle choice'.

I don't have Sky, a plasma tele, holidays, credit or catalogue accounts, smoke, drink and rarely socialise due to childcare issues. I buy all our clothes from charity shops. I do however have a concession rate council leisure centre swim membership of £18 a month and a £10 rolling contract mobile phone, with a phone somebody gave me.

I am terrible at budgeting and have been living on a £500 overdraft for at least the last couple of years - I never have enough income to return the account into the black, so I'm generally always at least £400 overdrawn.

My utilities are on prepayment meters currently eating up old debt weekly and a not competitive tariff.

I'm currently looking for work and can't understand how people sit at home without good reason, because since my youngest started school, I have been going stir crazy and begun to feel quite down and despondent about not working.

Fortunes will change in the near future as doubtless I will find work, but meanwhile, when you break down the cost of my outgoings, hopefully you can see that lone parents really are not 'rolling in it'.
Especially the ones who receive little or no maintencance from their absent children's father.
Unimagined outgoings include things like termly Brownies subs, school snacks at £8 a month, school shoes every new term, birthday and Christmas presents, rent shortfall £75 a month, winter utilities alone are £40 a week each gas and electric.

Lone parent age 45, two children 5 and 7, private rented three bed (officially two as one leads off the bathroom) terrace Anglia region.'Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit don't enter my bank account, they're paid direct to recipients.

Weekly Income
5.00 CSA
72.40 JobSeekers Allowance
34.05 Child Benefit
114.08 Child Tax Credit

£225.53 week
£902.12 every month

Well,ok. Wheres' the aibu?

900 quid after rent and ct....its not a huge amount but its not bad. As unearned income its enough for 3 people to live on.

That is after your rent and council tax have also been paid though. So although you dont physically get that money in your account, you still get it.

I Don't smoke or drink I should add!

You could check if you are entitled to housing benefit?

We would love to have 900pm after rent and council tax!

So that's disposable income as your ct and rent are paid? Tbh you have a lot more than most working people I know. What's your issue?

£827. After the rent top up is paid. Can I just check is that 40 a week thetotal for gas aand electric or is it 80 a week?

Oh sorry missed the last paragraph
Thats not really all that bad then, I work 2 jobs and thats roughly what I have left after rent and council tax.

Oh dear OP, I don't think this is going to go well. I think you'll find that plenty of working families have less than that once rent and council tax have been paid.

Not begrudging you your benefits at all, but not sure what the AIBU is?

Hang on. Is disposable income being re-defined on the fly to mean "anything left over after rent and council tax" now, Misssss?

£900 after rent isn't bad. I used to end up with around ~£400/month after rent... This is before my job went down the crapper with the last round of cuts, but frankly I'd still kill to have that back.

That seems reasonable to me. Not enough to pay for holidays or to save any significant amount but enough to pay utilities and food for three and have a little left over?

We both work and have not much more than that after bills including rent and council tax to feed and clothe five of us.

That is a lot more than a lot of working people have!

My friend is on minimum wage and she doesn't have any of those nice things either. She often can't afford food if she's had to replace something or get her scooter serviced.

well your better off than me im single and work after shortfall on rent and council tax i have £170 a month to pay gas , electric, water rates, television license and eat

That's pretty much my take home pay after mortgage and council tax as well. Although in fairness my mortgage is a big chunk of my income.

I imagine yours is less than many single parents if your child is school age as well ...

We are a working household and have much less than that after rent and council tax (we don’t get any HB or council tax benefits). The situation is shit for lots of people, not just those on benefits.

Um, that's not bad really is it?

Suppose you add in council tax (120ish?) and housing benefit (700ish?) that you have paid direct to recipient that is 1722 a month in benefits.

That's equivalent to 20664 take home pay, which is equivalent to a job paying £26000.

That's not that bad?

I can see that £225.53 week is not a huge deal of money if that has to cover food, all bills except rent and council tax. In fact it's a pittance but as others have said there are families who have little more or even less, from full time low waged work.

Actually this has made me feel rubbish

So after you pay your rent shortfall, you have £827 every 4 weeks? (not per month) which works out as £895.92 per month. That's not bad OP. No, you aren't going to be living the high life, jetting off on holiday twice a year etc etc but that should be plenty to feed and clothe you all and generally get by until you manage to find a job.

This can't possibly go well and certainly not the well you intend it to.

Trouble is, after housing and council tax, £900 for a lot of people is a massive amount of cash, especially if you don't have any of the costs involved in going out to work (travel, smarter clothes/shoes, childcare etc).

There have certainly been times when DH and I have considered ourselves fairly comfortable on not much more, after housing, CT, the cost of commuting and childcare were deducted. That was to support 4 people, 2 of whom were working f-t.

I absolutely agree the welfare state needs to be there for people who need it but I do see why "hard working families" feel hard done to sometimes.

That's what I'd expect from my own experiences.

Benefit threads on here only deal in hyperbole. You're either sharing one bowl off gruel a week or wiping your perma-tanned arse with fifty pound notes.

QueenTilly I made a mistake. Obviously minus utilities. I still maintain that OP is probably a lot better off than many working people.

Hate to jump in but yep, that's less than we get as family with two children one under ten and one over with both of us working. Disposable income is less than £100 after everything is paid, and the only new clothing items that are ever bought are kids shoes. Charity shops do us proud!