Mum on UC gets £3342 a month?! Is this right?

I work in one of the most expensive areas of the country outside of London and the SE. There are plenty of people working in my office, in the supermarket, cleaning the restaurants etc.

They’re not living in luxury two million pound flats. Or living next door to a Premier League footballer.

They’re living outside of the area and commuting in. Much like I do.

Probably paying child maintenance that doesn’t get factored into universal credit payments.

Why are you tarring all benefit claimants with the same brush? I know many, and they are on benefits due to disabilities. The ones that live alone are really struggling. What they get paid is not enough to have a life of luxury on. Having to count the pennies and also being disabled is shit. And then seeing the shit on threads like this that make them out to be rolling in money and faking the reasons they claim.
No one chooses to live like that.

exactly and having to work for it as well !

Yeah not cushy at all. In fact, so uncomfortable that millions choose to live this way.

No one with any sense falls for the lie any longer that energies claimants are somehow struggling and not the best looked after in society. In fact, the worst off are now the ones paying for this madness.

I believe unemployment in London is higher than national average anyway. London, though expensive, isn't short of people.

Ahhh that’s right. A job gives you stability, the ability to get a mortgage, save up for a pension, a career that will continue to pay you long after after a single mum’s benefits eventually stop. So people want to work because they know ultimately they are better off doing so. People also know deep down that living on benefits isn’t the cushy life they seem to think it is.

None of that would happen.

Salaries would have to rise in line with London living. Those who can afford to live there would have to pay more or commute further for services, which they clearly can afford to do. And things would rebalance themselves. If you don’t earn enough to live in London, you don’t have some kind of special right to do so. It’s an outright lie to pretend that everything would come to a standstill.

It’s not right. But it’s now the new normal. Have lots of kids, take zero responsibility for your life choices and expect the warning public to take from their own kids to give to you and your kids whom you could afford to have in the first place.

That’s why millions of high earning tax paying people are leaving this socialist mess of a country. Watch when they’re mostly gone, wonder what the benefits dependent will do then.

See my comment above yours. If we allowed that to happen and all low paid workers voted with their feet, then basic function in London would cease, schools would shut, shops would shut etc. Can you not see how we are all connected? Cold, hard market forces might seem like a great idea, until you can’t get your prescription because the pharmacy shut or your child has to stay off school because there are no staff to look after them at lunchtime.

£6,142 a month take home ie after tax equates to 100k a year salary before tax

What about the other woman? 5 kids and pregnant again? Lunacy.

It’s the landlords who benefit most. Rents are far higher than lower earners can afford without help these days.

Cost of living and salaries don’t match up.

Well perhaps that is proof that we do need more transparency. Salaries are much more public, and nobody seems to think there's anything wrong with telling people how to spend their earned money. It's public money, we should all get an informed opinion on it.

Lol at all the people saying, it’s housing, childcare, etc. She is clearing the equivalent of a 135k salary after tax and ni. That is disgusting. A person on that salary has to fund everything too AND for everyone else. They lose their entitlement to everything. The 100k salary thread is interesting. Higher earners are hated and told to cut their cloth. Get the equivalent of 135k in salary and benefit? What a struggle. The welfare state is eating itself and unsustainable.

Labour are just shit. Benefits before sorting out the country, exposing us to risk. The layabouts get better money and quality of life than military staff.

I think people are mixing up the families in the article.

I do wonder if these expensive years when kids are young and childcare is expensive that people should be supported via a pay back system

UC that’s used to pay for childcare could be paid back like student loans are
as a % of take home pay once the need no longer exists

This! I’m annoyed at taxpayers funding expensive rent costs.

This woman is irresponsible having a 5th child and expecting the tax payer to pay for it and support her. Most people in her position couldn’t dream of a 5th child and have to make hard choices or relocate to more affordable areas, or work harder for higher paid work.

Of course we should be angry. This disparity is unjust and unfair.

I remember when I was in Sixth Form and EMA was still a thing.

You’d have kids who were given brand new cars by their fathers for their birthdays. Their dads lived in huge houses and earned an absolute fortune but the kids still received £30 a week because it was calculated on household income and their parents were separated.

But someone with two parents who were married and low earners would receive absolutely nothing.