AIBU to be angry about the benefits system

Thank you for taking the time to explain that makes sense.

Because the way Uc works is that people get whatever elements they qualify for based on their circumstances and everyone who rents gets a rent element. If you were to apply for UC you would also get a rent element on your claim but because you are single with no kids your total Uc entitlement would be a lot lower than someone with kids and therefore your earnings would wipe out all of your Uc entitlement. People with kids on their claim also get what is called a work allowance where an amount of their earnings are disregarded before earnings start reducing their total UC award. As a single person you would not get that either. Universal credit is one benefit that replaces six others, so it takes rent into account also. Also you as a single person would only get a one bedroom local housing allowance rate for rent ( assuming private renting) but someone with kids could potentially get a 3/ 4 bedroom rate depending on number of kids and their ages, so her rent element could be hugely higher than yours. Add this bigger rent element to all the other elements that can build up with having kids and childcare and you can see why someone would have a much bigger UC award than you ? People with disabled kids can get up to an extra £400 on their claim for a disabled child, this is in addition to the child element and if they are a carer they can get an additional £200 element for being a carer. Therefore some people's awards can be huge before deductions for earnings, it's all dependent on circumstances.

The words more fool you come to mind... why you wouldn't at least check you are entitled to some sort of help with childcare costs is beyond me.

Well I asked a question it wasn't in a shitty way it was judt a question as to why rent allowance is paid if as per that example aa a single parent she said her take home is 4k a month and I earn just below that with same rent figure and i can afford to pay the rent bills and have some left over each month. So if uc provides child element and child care why does she need help with rent when her wages are sufficient to cover rent.

I'm not being nasty I just don't understand 🤷

You earn 50k and have no children, you don’t need help to pay your rent. You posted a short reply that sounded shitty so someone gave you a shitty response.

I'm a single parent, 3 DC, renting and childcare costs, and I earn 51K a year. I'm entitled to approx £1,200 a month in UC. It's a bonkers systems where I'm basically almost over the limit for child benefit but am entitled to so much UC! However, saying that, my rent and childcare costs are extortionate, and I couldn't survive without UC, so it's not like I'm living the high life.

I don’t need a handhold in life thank you

Wow no need to be nasty I was just trying to understand be cause I earn 50k but as I don't have children I don't get any help but managde to pay my rent and bills. I understand the child element and childcare amounts given but rent allowance I didn't think was given.

From thay example the child element and childcare costs together (1.3k) cover the childcare amount in total (1.1k) with 200 left over so I wasn't really understanding then why with 4k from the job which would cover rent and bill and enough disposable ledt over why rent allowance is given. Doesn't make sense to me that's all.

What a strange comment. What figure would
you rather was plucked out of nowhere to be the cut off point then?

One of the best, and fairest, bits of UC is that there aren’t these arbitrary cliff edge limits associated with it (such as the 16 hour working week which only served to disincentivise working more). With UC, a person’s individual entitlements are totted up (personal allowance, child element, housing element etc) and then that overall figure is reduced according to their income. As is often trotted out, with UC it ‘pays to work’, meaning that an individual is never better off by working less or being solely reliant on benefits. What skews things massively in the current economic climate, however, is the sickening cost of childcare and private rents. And so those age-old stereotypes of benefits only being for the destitute are being increasingly eroded because the earnings thresholds at which benefits cease to be available are getting higher and higher.

I hope that’s helpful. Might I suggest that you stop pointing the finger at individuals, and take a moment to consider the structural
failings in our society that have led us here.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game 👊

Sorry but i dont why are you allowed to claim for rent when you have a job earning 4k a month.

Sorry but i dont why are you allowed to claim for rent when you have a job earning 4k a month.

4K take home pay, and I received £1,137 in UC.

This is from:

Standard allowance: £368.74
Rent allowance: £1300
Child element: £584.78
Childcare element: £862
Total UC allowance before deductions: £3115.52

Earnings £4K - £404 work allowance = £3596

£3595 x 0.55p taper rate = £1977.80 deduction from award

Total UC received: £1,137.72

Obviously if I didn't have £1.3K in rent and about £1.1K in childcare costs monthly, I wouldn't get anything at all.

4K take home pay, and I received £1,137 in UC.

This is from:

Standard allowance: £368.74
Rent allowance: £1300
Child element: £584.78
Childcare element: £862
Total UC allowance before deductions: £3115.52

Earnings £4K - £404 work allowance = £3596

£3595 x 0.55p taper rate = £1977.80 deduction from award

Total UC received: £1,137.72

Obviously if I didn't have £1.3K in rent and about £1.1K in childcare costs monthly, I wouldn't get anything at all.

I appreciate this but so many people claim benefits and also don’t work.

I was brought up by my family to work, had a paper round age 11 and worked in a cafe at weekends from 15. From there I’ve never not worked apart from maternity leave however I was still employed.

I know acquaintances who ‘play’ the system, but generally don’t work although they could as have school aged children and no disabilities x

Because I am entitled to claim should I automatically claim?

We haven’t struggled but that’s due to budgeting, planning and saving.

We are looking to put a claim in now, as with increased nursery costs and other bills increasing we are now struggling if are to many Ian the same lifestyle so I guess without it now we would find it hard to stay in the green. Although our claim hasn’t yet been improved. It is complicated to set up, and my DH has to attend an appointment at the Job Centre to prove identity etc.

It appears that from the comments on this thread I am silly to not have tried to claim, I thought there would be more comments from people being shocked at the thought we could with our joint income being £4000.

Just did the calculator again on entitled to again and it’s more than I thought
total a month we are entitled to is £1,140 not
including the 85% childcare we can claim back)
£460 universal credit a month
£500 a month towards our mortgage loan
£42.55 (child benefit we already get this)

I've just done the calculator with a 4k household income and we are only entitled to child benefit. How come you are entitled to so much more? Screenshot all your answers, not just the output.

So I used the Turn2us calculator which has better explanations than Entitled To and the Universal Credit sum comes from the childcare costs it is the ‘up to 85% childcare costs back’ element coming into play. Initially I thought that was on top of the universal credit award, but now I understand it’s not. I’m not sure what’ll happen with my Tax Free Childcare account if I claim Universal Credit. Or how the transition to this would work.
I would be better off on universal credit than tax-free childcare as that is capped at £500 every 3 months (£2,000) a year.
i have attached screenshots. Appears the SMI can be applied for as well if we wanted to and they included this in the overall reward. Again, seems complicated and when we sell house we would pay it back.

I know we are fortunate to be in the position we are in, and I was shocked that we were entitled to universal credit. I then felt angry that I hadn’t known as I thought it was 85% back on nursery fees which is a huge saving. My son had been attending for 3 years so I backdated that back. But I realise that was incorrect, as someone mentioned on here it might have only been since my second child was born last year that meant I was eligible.
I appreciate the benefits system but I believe it is for people with misfortune, as any of us can lose our jobs or get bad luck in our lives/ relationships breakdown/ loss of a partner. I know of people who seem to be very well off on benefits and don’t have the stress of working/ they have no incentive to go to work and earn a living.

Ah you're getting figures from the press? Okie dokie.

Thats the idea

but council tax relief - often called council tax benefit, doesn't come under the Universal Credit umbrella - as its a tax and its tax relief not a benefit

Housing benefit is only available in the main to state pensioners, though there are a few exceptions, and U.C has a housing element

U.C is 10 years late and still not everyone has been migrated onto this system.