AIBU to be angry about the benefits system

@WithACatLikeTread i didn’t think she was claiming. I agree. No need to claim. Don’t claim. I get so hacked off at posters who claim for everything possible then whine that their savings are prohibiting further claims. Their savings are from benefits. Not ok. Benefits should be needed. Every single penny. Where do people think the money comes from? Leave it for those in real need.

Surely your figures are wrong? Aside form childcare and child benefit,

It boggles my mind how someone with a household income of £60k+, with no housing costs, would be entitled to some sort of top up.

It is madness when people who are unable to work, are expected to be grateful for the little over £700pm in UC.

Something I am angry at is the work allowance thing. I am on UC (LCWA) and if I tried a little part time job, 55p will be stopped for every £1 I earn (I have no kids). Working for half the minimum wage... no thanks. Yet my friend on ESA (also childless) can work for up to 16 hours a week and get to keep all her money.

And yet my newly disabled friend without children received less than £400 per month and ultimately lost her home because of it.

It's a broken system when the most vulnerable can't afford food and the wealthier get support.

Likely very high rent. If someone is paying eg. 1200 in rent then as long as its within their eligible amount their entitlement will go up by 1200, then 60p will be taken off their payout for each £1 earnt, so when you factor in high childcare costs too then the starting figure can be huge and end up at a few hundred still.

THIS is the real problem.

The benefits system is a safety net for those who need help. Perhaps if you'd been struggling before you would (like many others) have been scouring all the info out there to see if there was more help available.

Why on earth are you going to claim a benefit that you don't need?

Money section.

So why is OP claiming then?

Successive governments since 1997 have changed that, the reason being, previously it was all or nothing benefits system.

so you either worked and got paid or you were unemployed and got benefits- it didn’t work for some people. Take a single parent, if they worked all there money went on childcare

so U.K. looked at Australian system of tapering benefits when working, so work paid

but now you have over the last 26 years employers who have benefited from this system - as they’ve been able to keep wages lower. The government tops them up with benefits

working benefits would be great and are for keeping people in work and making working worthwhile for many

but no system is perfect and it was brought in with decent intention of helping the working poor

Please link thread 🙏

This just shows what is wrong with the system where people think they should claim because they are ‘entitled to ‘ Benefits should be as the OP says very clearly, only for those in absolute need who cannot work/earn enough for whatever valid reason.

I can quite believe that. DP have both just applied for attendance allowance. Dmum just got awarded highest rate. DDad awaiting the outcome of his. DBro helped them apply as they knew nothing about it.

I'm struggling to understand a situation where people are both entitled to UC, but also in so little need of it they have plenty of disposable income and would have accrued £16k in excess income had they claimed. In my experience of working with people entitled to benefits those not claiming have without exception been either living more frugally than reasonable, being supported by family or struggling and accruing debt. Are you saying that had you known you could get help with childcare you'd have claimed, but made other childcare arrangements because you didn't? Otherwise your situation is very rare, and I wouldnt say reflective of the benefit system, which, although broken in many ways, communication bring one of them, typically cannot be faulted for its over generosity.

I'm more angry that approx. £19 billion goes unclaimed every year. Yet they are persecuting the disabled yet again, when many don't have enough to eat or pay for there care.

I wonder why this is. I have always wondered why more don't claim DLA who would qualify for it.

Maybe she doesn't qualify for a mortgage.

Jesus I'm so sick of people who have kids acting like they shouldn't really have to be out of pocket for it.

£4,000 monthly Net is Annual Gross of £64,550. Why would any household on £65k be entitled to extra benefits?

The government is very sneaky in not making it clear that it's easy to apply and many working people on lower incomes qualify for support.

People talk about benefit frUd but that's a tiny issue - unclaimed benefits swap that figure

I believe that the Government has also published unclaimed benefits for pensioners like
Some people have been struggling, when there is more help available

However, they do need to apply, because it is not automatic

Pension credit
Winter fuel allowance
Attendance allowance

@Spectre8 - I'm glad the previous poster explained it to you. It's not that my rent is paid (because my rent is £1.3K a month and my childcare is £1.2K a month, and in total I received around £1.1K that month in UC.

If I'd had no childcare costs that month, I'd have 'only' received approx £230 that month in UC. So whilst you and I have the same income, I have 3 kids to cover school uniform / school trips / birthday and Christmas gifts / birthday gifts for kids friends / kids hobbies and sport / kids clothing and footwear / toiletries / haircuts for kids / god knows what else, with about £230 more than you have, when you have no kids. Honestly, UC doesn't mean someone is rolling in it, I promise. It doesn't even cover the childcare costs of me working, let alone all the travel costs I have for work.

I know UC is meant to be a benefit that encourages people to work, but I can assure you I would be better off not working and getting free school meals/ free prescriptions, and being able to spend time with my kids rather than having them in childcare for almost 10 hours every day etc etc, but since becoming a single parent I have barely stopped in trying to better myself to earn a better income for my kids, so that hopefully one day I don't need UC at all.

The SMI only kicks in after 9 months of claiming UC but if there is earnings in that 9 months you are then not eligible for the SMI

You can't use HMRC Tax account and UC to pay for childcare. If you claim UC then you can only receive help through your auC

I am on a Facebook group with lots of knowledgeable admins who all say that the online benefit calculators aren't accurate. There is a formula used which is posted thread or anyone can apply for UC to see what they'd be entitled to, if anything.

SMI is a loan repayable with interest and the general advice is to avoid at all costs because most mortgage providers would be able to offer a payment holiday to people who are struggling, which works out cheaper than taking out a SMI loan.

I earn 32k a year as a single parent of 2 and get a £360ish UC top up per month which mainly pays for after school club, so a far cry off £4k a month. If I rented I would get support for housing costs but I'm in a much better position owning my own home.

I don't resent people with high childcare costs getting more because that money goes straight to the childcare provider! It doesn't go into that family's pocket as soon as childcare costs go down, whereas a family who isn't entitled to help towards childcare gets to keep that money as the costs fall.

I find it worse that, as a single parent with 2 children and earning 3k a month (if you count child maintenance from their Dad, much less if you don't count that in), and yet I don't qualify for any UC.

Weird how it works that you, with 4K income, do.