Working families £18k worse off than benefits claimants after budget

It’s not double. It’s a £500 cost of living payment.

No they aren't. I am certainly not on UC.

It's a gift from the government.

Whatever their social welfare payment is, they get double.

Because there are hundreds of jobs that only need filling during half terms and they super easy to get. Ditto childcare, arranging childcare for 1-2 weeks here and there is a doddle.

Do something else in those 16 week off?

How?

Her total income (wages, UC, child benefit and housing benefit) is £24K. Full time nmw plus child benefit would be just over £27K so she’s worse off.

I don’t know if you know how TAs are paid? She works 3.5 days a week, and 1.5 days in college but the monthly wage is so low because the annual amount is spread evenly over 12 months. School is closed for 16 weeks a year. So £800 is for a lot more hours than it seems during term time, if that makes sense? She’d never earn a full time wage as a TA over 12 months.

Childcare needs to be cheaper, they manage it in other countries
and absent fathers to pay
that would sort a lot out

We absolutely can't do this easily. There is a reason why successive governments haven't done this.

Fundamentally a lot of this comes down to the fact that building houses is expensive, ties up a lot of capital and is practically quite difficult to do in terms of planning, infrastructure etc.

Think about it this way. If you are the government right now, if you want to fund a load of social housing then you are going to have to borrow lots of money. Obviously there is a huge risk that the markets simply won't lend it to you, but if they do then it's going to come with interest attached of around 5% at the moment if you look at Bond rates.

The average house built as part of social housing currently costs the government £160k. So each and every year the government will be paying £8k a year in interest on the cost of the building the house whilst the average social housing rent is only £4k. Add on all the costs of maintaing the property and you will soon see that social housing is hugely expensive. Remember whilst making these interest payments the government wouldn't actually be repaying any of the original cost of the property but just servicing the debt.

Social housing is absolutely not always better deal for the state than private renting using other people's capital to pay for the properties.

If they can afford it and not rely on benefits to do it.

It is excellent that she is trying to improve her situation but I would also expect her to work full time once she’s received her qualifications as she is also receiving more than some full time working folks do at the moment

Isn't it better for the kids if one is part time? Why both full time?

My council told me today that HB accuracy forms will now be sent out to HB claimants once a year, pensioners, single ppl, families

Yes however they would still be contributing by paying tax and NI just like everyone else. And once the nursery days are over they will have their full wage. It’s ridiculous for parents to stay at home and claim when they can work and the taxpayer has had enough of it

Probably because she can’t attend college AND work 5 days a week. Once she has her L3 in July she will be able to work five days because she will be suitably qualified and there are more vacancies at that level.

With no qualifications the only work she’d get round here are part-time cleaning jobs, or 6 hours in a supermarket. Full-time jobs for unqualified people are like hen’s teeth. So what does she do? Be forced to work as a cleaner and not be able to improve her employment prospects or go to college one and a half days a week and get qualified so she can get a full-time job and give her children a better life? She’s not sitting on her backside.

The children’s was killed fighting in Ukraine.

My main takeaway from this is that we could easily wipe out a third of the benefits bill by building more social housing and abolishing Right To Buy. Which would also benefit people not on benefits by increasing rental availability.

Oh joy. Yet another benefits bashing thread. Can you not see that while you are busy falling for all the propaganda being used to distract us all from the real villains and turn us all against each other, it’s actually the people in parliament that are screwing you over and pilfering from you, not the single mum down the road on benefits.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/october2025

I will agree that everyone should be in full-time employment if they are able to work, the day that the number of jobs available matches the number of people seeking work.

Currently, it is not actually possible for everyone who wants a job to have one.

Its partly because of the expectation on women because women still are the default childcare, to run yourself ragged doing both that i chose not to have children.

Agreed

Kids aren’t in nursery all their lives

The question should be why isn’t she working full time then and where is the father of the children?

Well yes, of course, many people who rent can’t to afford to buy.

I actually now think there should be some kind of Government incentive to help people buy because it would probably be cheaper in the long term, and actually benefit the individual, rather than the landlord.

But it’s certainly not true of everyone who rents. I was actually shocked at the amount of comments along the lines of “but if you buy a property, you will be liable for repairs and upkeep” and “but you won’t be able to claim any benefits”.

It’s shocking how ingrained in people the mindset of claiming benefits and having other people pay for things is.

You realise two full time working parents end up claiming thousands in benefits for nursary fees anyway? It works out the same amount to have a parent at home

You should still work full time even if you have kids. It’s not the taxpayers responsibility to pay for people sitting at home for half the week. If your full time wage needs topping up because it’s not enough then is should be topped up to help

Thoroughly agree, @ElReverendoGreen . People want fairness in life, and currently the situation is not fair.

A huge problem of course is lack of “man” jobs. By that I mean physical jobs that pay a decent wage but do not require much education. There was mining, heavy industry, docks, even farming. A boy could leave school at 16 (or 15 if summer born) and be in a job on the Monday. That’s not the case today. The state has replaced men as provider for women. The state puts a roof over their head and pays their housekeeping. Men are in fact a hindrance as if they work they reduce benefits.