What is your household income, how much is benefits, and how are you coping?

Bills are 200 a month. For

council tax
gas
electric
water
tv license
WiFi

as the basic ? Obv area depending but most peoples council tax is £200 a month

I'm a single mum to a teen. Self employed, £65k income plus £450pcm for child maintenance.

I own a house with no mortgage or debt. I'm really lucky to have £750 per week left after bills.

I feel very grateful

But that shouldn’t be the aim.

Cost of living has put a lot of people into poverty. Me included. I was able to manage just. But that meant no luxuries or holidays or alcohol or meals out. Now with cost of living I can’t do the basics. I didn’t consider myself poor even with my frugal lifestyle but now I see the precarious position I’m in.
Im
not entitled to any benefits since youngest went to uni and I’m not sick enough or disabled enough to be on benefits even though I have a serious life limiting condition. It’s difficult to see where else I could cut.

I don't necessarily disagree with the spirit of what you are saying but 'need' isn't exactly well defined in your statement. For lots of people, if they had less money given to them in benefits, they would be poorer but they would survive (because they do have jobs, just not very well paid jobs). I am not saying 'survival' is what we should be aiming for as a society but for some people, benefits just give them a better standard of living than they would have without them. Society sets the floor for what is an acceptable level of income and tops up people who don't reach it. That floor may change for various practical or political reasons; it's not really about absolute need in many cases.

The welfare bill is huge because so many people actually need the extra “ hand outs”.

Our income over the last year after tax was just over 100k.
Mortgage has been paid off and children are over 18.

Zero benefits obviously, we have just had to enjoy being HRT on PAYE for many years. Chucked loads of extra money in to pensions. DH decided to semi retire early in the last few months income will be 70k.

The original posters mistake was going out with someone who already has children. Plus £500 for 3 kids a month isn’t exactly generous is it.

No benefits here except child benefit. I'm disabled but apparently not enough for PIP 🤷

I work part time because of my health, DH works full time. Household income is approx £3000 per month.

Don’t you pay water/sewerage bills?

Aren’t you eligible for the full 30 hours of free childcare?

Salary 35k. I work 30 hours a week. Two primary age children age 10 and 7. Take home £2250, child benefit £170 and UC - my childcare bill has just dropped so I think next month it’ll be £180ish. Mortgage and bills £1700. No maintenance from exh. My mum paid for us to go to Cornwall for a week over the summer. It’s a penny pinching exercise at the moment. I don’t see how it’s going to get easier for me either, my childcare bill is only £54 a month now and I am already seeing the kids eat more and want more expensive things as they get older. My eldest is nearly in adult size shoes.

According to Chat GPT -

Here’s a breakdown of what is known about how much the UK spends on social security / “benefits” and what shares go to things like pensions, working-age benefits, disability, housing etc. (Caveats and approximations included.)

📚 Source & context

• The “Benefit Expenditure & Caseload tables” from gov.uk forecast that in 2025/26, £316.1 billion will be spent on social security in Great Britain. GOV.UK
• Of that, £174.9 billion is for pensioners’ benefits, which is about 55% of social security spending. GOV.UK
• The remaining £141.2 billion is for working-age & children welfare (including Universal Credit, housing benefits, etc.). GOV.UK

So overall, you can think of social security / benefits spending roughly splitting as ~55% for pensioners and ~45% for working-age/children in the current forecast.

⚖️ What this implies (percentages)
Let me rephrase those into approximate percentages of the total social security / benefit bill:

• Pensioner benefits: ~ 55%
• Working-age / children welfare: ~ 45%
• Within that ~45%, disability / health benefits = ~ (75.3 / 316.1) ≈ 24% of the total
• Housing benefits = ~ (35.3 / 316.1) ≈ 11.2% of the total

• Pensions / pensioner-oriented benefits: ~ 55%
• Disability / health / condition-based benefits: ~ 24%
• Housing benefits: ~ 11%
• Other working-age / child / welfare support (including Universal Credit, child benefit) = remainder (~ 10%)
• These are approximate and assume the forecast figures hold.

Exactly. They shouldn’t group that in. People just read “welfare” and not realise it includes pension.

By far the largest benefit is the state pension. About 70% of the total, I think I heard on the radio the other day.

10% of the UK has the highest tax burden in 70 years (under Tories and now Labour) - those on £70,000 + before tax (which is £3928 a month after tax/NI and student loan). 50% of UK households now pay no income tax. Not surprisingly the 90% are often more than happy the top 10% pay more tax but the result of the current system is that that top 10% have had imposed on them such a disincentive to work in case they lose their personal tax allowance or 30 free hours for 9 month year old or lower down income level lose child benefit that the system means those people work less and there is less available for the less well off. So it really is not working very well to tax those on £3928 net a month so very much.

I would certainly support a much much smaller welfare state.

I had no idea so many people were on some sort of handout. No wonder the welfare bill is so huge.

They can manage, they are able to pay for the essential stuff.... that is living for most people in the western world. People need to re frame how they are living IMO....
I think we have a section of people who want facebook to think they are loaded and happy all the time and doing loads of things, and then come on to forum anonymously and moan about how crippling their outgoings are to keep up with the pretence....

You've got £90k in salaries and "only £102" in child benefits yet can't manage??? Don't be ridiculous. How do you qualify for free nursery hours?

My husband and I retired a year ago, after 50 years of working, bringing up our family with no financial help or childcare at all. The mortgage was paid off after struggling to pay it every month, same with credit cards.

We now live on £1800 a month state pensions (that's £900 each) and my £400 a month PIP (from having had a life-changing illness). You can't manage, OP?? You must be having a laugh

You may be aware they're not the same thing, but you clearly haven't understood that I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT UNIVERSAL CREDIT AT ALL, SO YOUR POINTS ABOUT URBAN MYTHS RELATING TO UC IS TOTALLY AND UTTERLY IRRELEVANT AND THEY DON'T GET ANY MORE RELEVANT WITH REPETITION.

So, let's try again. While we're on the subject of credentials, I volunteer at an org supporting parents with DLA applications.

DLA for a child currently doesn't come with an hours requirement for a parent, and some DLA awards are a potential gateway to Carers Allowance as long as a person isn't working and earning too much- so essentially the opposite. It's not the parent's capacity that's taken into account, but the child's.

So, what you're talking about doing is creating an extra system for parents whose children receive middle or higher rate DLA but who don't qualify for UC now, relating to something other than the child's disability. It would differ in that way from current CA provisions because that's just an assessment of income once the DLA award has been made.

This means you're going to need to tell us how this additional parental assessment for kids who meet the DLA criteria otherwise would work, and also how you're going to build in recognition of the fact that disabled kids conditions aren't always linear or predictable so a parent who can hold down a job at one point might not be able to do so the year after because of changes to the child's disability. Again, note that if you're going to insist on making this about UC, and you shouldn't, a person receiving CA is generally themselves in the no work required group, even if the other adult in the home isn't. Therefore no, this would not work the same way as UC does now.

The one thing I do think could happen is to means test CA for a parent of a child with DLA based on the partner's income, which we don't now. Not to endorse that idea, only to point out it's a thing that could happen. But that's something very different to your proposal.

I'm retired, receive state pension and small occupational pension, no extras. My monthly income is £1,687.63, annual £20,251.56, which is fine as I live alone and my property is paid for.

Under £10k a year.

Only outgoings are rent for a shared room £380 pm) and bus pass at £31pw. And phone bill (cheap pay monthly-bought the phone cheap)

No other income. If I somehow get my pip back that will be an extra £60pw which will mean I can afford therapy.

There is a general thing in life which we hate paying bills, i get that. But if we chose to let our daughter dance by paying for all the lessons, outfits etc etc we can hardly expect anyone else to see that as a 'bill', i mean it is, but that is why you work to pay for stuff like that right?
People seem to frame it around "I earn this and i pay for stuff and buy stuff and i have nothing left"
That really should be dealt with at school age, that total lack of any understanding of what is basically western life as a we know it..
I wouldn't care so much were it not for the fact having volunteered in a foodbank during covid I saw many, not all, but many people who were simply saving 400 quid a month so they could get the important stuff like Dry robes and lip filler....
That should not be the use for foodbanks, it should be people who literally have nothing whatsoever.

Also if people want to be seen driving around in white Land rovers and Audi's etc, if that really is your thing, don't moan about it when your doing it to give of a status, a fictionalised status whilst you'd come onto threads like these and anonymously moan about having a lack of money left...

Our household income is £110k. We get child benefit and 30 free nursery hours for our 4 year old.

We're doing fine day to day. We have more than enough to manage mortgage, bills, groceries, days out etc. We can afford a couple of holidays a year (one abroad) and nice birthdays and Christmases.

We need to do home renovations and it's hard to save the significant amount needed for that. We also want to privately educate our children for secondary and that will take a lot of financial planning (thankfully my career has very good progression and regular pay rises and bonuses).

We are very privileged and lucky. We work hard but we are also the beneficiaries of good educations and have had significant help from family, including financial and childcare. I would never complain about our circumstances, we have so much compared to many.

I’m fully aware they are not the same thing. Part of my job is checking benefits eligibility akdassisting in applying for eligible benefits for both systems (WHICH I KNOW ARE NOT THE SAME) - I know full well UC is means tested, and disability benefits are not and that they are two different systems.

Im not sure why you can’t see that. I made it perfectly clear in my last post.

Disability benefits should be just rested, just like UC is.

Your argument was that it would somehow encourage peopld to lower their working hours. It would not. It’s an urban legend that people on UC (which IS MEANS TESTED) simply lower their hours so they can claim more - it is baked into the MEANS TEST for Universal Credit.

If DISABILITY BENEFITS (not the same benefits system as UC which I pointed out in my last post is a DIFFERENT BENEFITS SUYSTEM) were means tested, things likd wirk capability wouod be taken into account. It wouod hh encourage peopld to just drop their hours as, JUST LIKE IN UC, there would be repercussions gof doing so.

Disability benefits should be means tested, just likd UC already is.

Anc his wouod ig eith? Exactly the aAnd way UC works - if you are married or gave a partner living with you, then grid unconditional is taken into account. Yoire treated as a household. It would wirk exactly the same way as UC.

Disability benefits should be means tested. If the household income is sufficient to cover the additional expenses that are created by the needs of the disabled person(s) then the household incomd should Hd expected to cover those costs.

Once again, I'm not talking about UC. Only disability benefits and carers allowance, which are not the same thing. You do not need to continue to mention UC because we both know we aren't referring to it.

How is this capability test for work (for a parent?) going to function when by definition many of the DC we're talking about are sufficiently affected that a parent would be able to claim Carers Allowance if their income were low enough? The state already recognises that someone providing sufficient care to a child in receipt of middle or higher rate DLA may be entirely unable to work or only able to work a little, hence the award automatically qualifying such a person for Carers if they meet the income criteria. So be specific about how you think this would work and save money.

One income 45k after tax which means we have to pay back some child benefit.
No other benefits.
We'd be financially better off if we both earnt 30k and would keep full child benefit. One of my children has additional needs which means they can't access holidays clubs or school consistently So I can't really work just a little bit self employed but peanuts really.

We keep life manageable focus on keeping everyone fed and the basics. It would be nice to be able to keep the full child benefit given we are a one income family with high support needs and there is definitely extra costs with having a child with additional needs. We have applied for dla but I don't know if we would be awarded it 🤷🏼‍♀️