That a single parent having her salary topped up to over £6k shows how unaffordable family life now is

Plus she’ll (validly) be on a waiting list as she’s now very overcrowded. So in time she’ll get a paid for three bedroom home in one of the world's most expensive cities.

If any of this is true; it won’t be just because she’s a single parent. I presume she’s a low paid worker who works part time to keep her earnings below the threshold for certain benefits. You can’t blame her for making the system work for her.
I’m also a single parent but earn enough that means I don’t get a penny in benefits (even child benefit). There is no allowance for the fact that I’m taxed as a household of one earner. So her marital status is not the issue here. It’s her earnings.

So....how would she live without a rent top up? Would you prefer slums? People on the streets? Workhouses? Children in care?

@Dorisbonson then we start getting to essential public sector workers being unable to live in London. Is that what we want? Do we want large scale relocation of families to remote parts of the country where kids have to rebuild friendships and start over from scratch?

I worked for many years doing benefits/ welfare related work.
I saw people who could have made claims years earlier, but didn’t want to/ didn’t know. People working on despite health issues. People trying their best, wanting to work. And people so unwell they needed and deserved support.
But also saw too many people basically gaming the system. People who had barely ever worked, will not get state pensions but will get all the advantages of pension credit.
I still remember doing a benefit check for someone with many children. Had to ask someone to look it over for me as the amount was staggering.
And these were the people who knew the system inside out.

As someone who was on the same benefit and who is getting not far off that a month I can tell you its not true. I dont qualify for any benefits apart from child benefit, and its something like 100/ month.

Absolutely this. Where is the vitriol against the dad that fathered these kids and then has probably buggered off and fathered some more with other women! He should be paying for all children he produced and we should crack down on that pronto.

The thing is, it is correct. I know people find it hard to grasp. To get that much she wouldn't have savings and wouldnt own a property

The government would have you believe those on over £100k should bear the brunt of supporting others- yet 'tops up' a single earner with 3 children to more than £100k.

Gone. That ship has sailed. Even the idea of thinking people should work seems to be foreign concept to many. I really dislike what our country has become.

@onitlikeacarbonnet the income levels are no different in most of Europe to this - even in expensive places, minimum wage in Sweden and Denmark although they don’t have a formal one was when we lived there very similar to here -

it is not wages, it is costs , be that house prices too high in many areas of Uk and hence huge mortgages or rents, privatised utilities with little controls -

"Housing not included as it goes to landlords"

People who earn £100k through work also have to give away their money to landlords

I find it so bewildering on thread after thread like this "oh but rent doesn't count because it doesn't end up in their pocket", seen similar for childcare

Yeah let's just ignore one of the biggest expenses that wage earners have to pay...

If those figures are right she's probably got at least one severely disabled child and/or pays a massive amount in rent.

Based on the quoted salary, 2 kids in good health and the max allowable for childcare she'd get around 670. If all four are old enough to beat the 2 child limit, and from the picture they're clearly not, it's just over £1k.

She may well technically get £6k a month total income but if rent and childcare are an insane £4k then she’s getting under £500 a week to feed and clothe her family and pay the bills, she’s hardly living the high life and I doubt she has much disposable cash.

The real obscenity is that the whole of her salary is probably equal to her rent.

Exactly this!! It's tge elephant in the room that no one's addressing, men need to be forced to pay for their own children, it's too easy for them to walk away and leave the mother of their kids to struggle. Why are single mums always blamed, and the father just abandons them, often going on to have more kids, that they then also leave? This is the issue that needs addressing.

This is so unfair.

RTFT

Have you read anything that anyone has said anywhere on this thread?

Or just farted out of your mouth?

@Christmascarrotjumper will do - I never understand people plastering themselves over media- surely she would realise a backlash and yep it may be that £2000 is council tax/rent allowance and£1800 is childcare allowance so isn’t actually ‘ disposable income’ as such. But it’s not going to sit well with couples/single mums getting say 3.2 k and having to pay mortgage, maybe childcare etc or they have maybe £25k in bank so can claim pretty much zilch etc apart from the funded hours. Peopke laugh when I vang on about how much fairer the system was when we lived in Denmark but it was - far far more social housing of good quality, cheapish fixed fee childcare available to all regardless of income - ( around a third of Uk price) no council tax - high personal tax but you got lots for it

I'm a single mum who worked herself out of the benefits system and became high rate tax payer. I can categorically say I have more money now than I did have and have no idea what you are talking about given I have been there on both sides of the coin.
Additionally these benefits don't last forever, one day they will just stop and if your on a lower income job that will hit you hard.

Why do people not ask why the taxpayer has to subsidise the wages companies pay their staff when those same companies are reporting £m’s/£b’s in profit?
Or that those same companies continue to increase prices for basic necessities like energy, water, food, fuel, etc. which also make living on what was once a decent income difficult.
Poverty is spreading while the ultra rich get even richer. That’s not the fault of this working mum. Direct the anger where it belongs.

Successive governments have allowed employers to rake in massive profits while paying a wage that doesn’t cover the basic costs of living.
No one should have to claim benefits if working full time

Once again the blame falls on the people at the bottom with no power.

CMS also needs to be overhauled to force non resident parents to properly support their children. If properly implemented, how much of the benefits bill could be saved? Not to mention how much the tax take could be increased from those deadbeats who declare less than they earn from self employment.

It's not fair to criticise the parent who is there looking after her kids and working full-time. The other parent may be paying to support as well as I understand maintenance payments don't impact on UC. And the other parent should be supporting those kids. It sounds as though she has chosen to have another child since one of her previous interviews. That isn't something I would have done in her position of living in a 1 bed flat with 3 existing children and relying on state benefits. But given that is where she is, I don't begrudge the state stepping in to make sure her kids are fed and housed.
If there was sufficient social housing then £2k a month wouldn't be going straight into the pockets of a landlord while a family lives in an overcrowded flat. I wish that is where the focus could shift to.

I would doubt that and if it's true, she hasn't been straight with them. Very few single moms are rich. The statistics consistently say so

I am a single mum with 4 children and claim UC. I do also work part time
when I had my children I was in a stable marriage with both of us working and had never claimed a penny. But my 3rd pregnancy resulted in twins then my marriage broke down due to my ex husband’s addiction and I was left trying to pick up the pieces. I’m having to sell my children’s home as I can’t afford to pay the mortgage as i get no help from their dad as he lost his job. I was left with all the family debts to try and pay. We will be moving into rented. I do already get help for 3 children due to the multiple pregnancy exemption. I hate having to rely on UC to live. Sometime I feel judged and stigmatised for that.
all that being said I do actually agree with a benefit cap. I feel a taper system would’ve fairer.

I earn £115k before tax and receive £5,700 p/m - that does include some pension contributions but it’s probably not far off.

The article in the Mirror is naive or deliberately being provocative.
Unemployed with 4 kids, another on the way. I don’t agree with lifting the 2 child cap. Out more money into sure start centres and other direct support.