Fed up of my cousins comments about benefits and UC

So what?

Oh just ignore her. Raising DC alone and running a household on a single salary is nigh on impossible these days unless you're a high earner with flexible hours.
Even if you worked full time you'd still likely be entitled to help. Then you would get more child care paid for instead and the cost to the tax payer would be the same 🤷.

If I work Monday - Friday, it’s 10:06am on Wednesday before I actually get to keep any of the money I earn. It’s not exactly incentivising.

But op's benefits aren't taxed like state pension is. They would both get the same personal allowance yet state pension would be counted and benefits aren't.

There always is when UC is involved. Ffs people who earn nmw are still entitled to UC but let me guess, they should get higher paid jobs?! Ok so who then does the care work etc which is all minimum wage?

You've got absolutely nothing to feel bad about. Your family member is small-minded and ignorant and doesn't seem to understand that this is an example of state support functioning as it should - to enable you to parent your children AND work without being reduced to penury.

You don't owe them an explanation - maybe the next time they mention it ask them what they actually know about economics.

Only on his earnings, SP is not high enough to be taxed yet.

I agree with every word of this up to "entitlement as a boomer", being a boomer myself!

Exactly, more needs to be done to ensure absent fathers pay for their child's needs, rather than the taxpayer.

My mum always used to moan when I was younger that 'Dad is supporting another family', for a bit I thought he actually had another family, then realised she meant that he was supporting the costs of another family. Why should some people support their own family whilst some others don't even support their own family.

Absolutely, me too. I'm a high earner and like seeing the tax contribution on my payslip. I don't want kids growing up in poverty. People need to look at who's whipping people up to feel angry about single mothers claiming benefits, people seeking asylum, disabled people. Often it's the very wealthy, who want us punching down not up.

I get what you’re saying, but don’t forget some of us are funding all this and getting just a little bit fed up.

I agree with you too

Absolutely!
I used to work in a min wage job, but lived alone in a decent flat and had a nice life. No top ups.
Times have changed so much. People doing those vital jobs still deserve a nice life.

On MN, anyone in a NMW is told to up-skill, or move somewhere cheaper. We NEED people in the low paid jobs, and some people are not capable of more anyway. They deserve more than living in a grotty HMO and living off beans and toast, and being told they are not trying hard enough.

If only I'd known that he'd fuck off with someone else 7 years after DD was born I might have thought twice about having a child but, alas, the crystal ball failed to show me that part of my future.

Except that he'll be paying a whole lot of tax on a combination of state pension and earnings.

my husband at 72 is still working nearly full time. So he's working part-time and (if collecting his state pension), gets benefits as well.....not much different from the OP then is he?

Should OP put the five year old up for adoption then or simply have it shoved back up her vadge so it can be re-absorbed?

The person at fault here is the feckless, irresponsible man not the woman he ran out on or the child he abandoned. Men don't always advertise that they're feckless prior to a child coming along.

Yes because people are mind-readers and can tell the future.....🙄

Yep.
I thought this had been obvious during the pandemic.

All quickly forgotten though.

Bingo!

Our new head teacher is single Mum. It shouldn’t stop you striving to do as best you can for the future of your family. When mine were at primary I used a childminder. The kids loved her.

Learn to let the comments go over your head or just change the subject. My parents are constantly going on about benefits scroungers. I just change the subject.
When I first split up with my husband I had no help with childcare. Two primary age children. Tax credits helped me juggle parenting while I gradually moved my work from part time, to now when they are teens, full time work. Now I don't need them/qualify and I think that's how it should be. Help get people back on their feet so that they can support themselves. It should always be better to be working and benefits should be a bare minimum.

I hope your cousin won’t find herself in a position where she’ll have to rely on UC.
Because her dh has left her or died. Because she or her dh got ill/disabled etc….

The welfare system is there to support people when life goes bonkers. It happens.

What your cousin grumbles about - that even working full time, with two wages - it can be hard to be living ‘well’, this is an issue with low wages. The fact many of us dint get a living wage p. Blame companies making huge profits on the back of workers and customers. Blame the government. Punching down has never helped.

These are my thoughts too.

We need people in lower paid jobs as they're most frequently the jobs that keep the gears of society turning. Shop workers, delivery drivers, carers, learning support assistants/teaching assistants, cleaners, waste management workers, etc are all low paid but all essential to the running of vital day to day services. Wages need to be subsidised so that people can fill these roles and be able to afford to live. In an ideal world, a minimum wage job would be enough to support a family to live a respectable, poverty-free, lifestyle but we don't live in an ideal world and so top-ups are needed.

She’s right it’s not fair, but she’s only paying £5k tax herself and so is being heavily subsidised.