How can it be right that you can get so much money on benefits?!?!

People on UC can apply for up to 100% council tax support.
Regarding commuting - ppl on UC that I know have Freedom passes so I assumed anyone on UC has them. Turns out it's the case only if they are disabled. But they save a lot of money by just not going to work anyway, while commuting is not optional for working peoole and eats up a lot of their taxable income.
Saving for deposit and getting a mortgage free home takes decades if you don't get "help" from the family and you can't stop working during that period, and waiting for social housing takes just a few years. So I'm not surprised by the current situation.

People on UC can apply for up to 100% council tax support.
Regarding commuting - ppl on UC that I know have Freedom passes so I assumed anyone on UC has them. Turns out it's the case only if they are disabled. But they save a lot of money by just not going to work anyway, while commuting is not optional for working peoole and eats up a lot of their taxable income.
Saving for deposit and getting a mortgage free home takes decades if you don't get "help" from the family and you can't stop working during that period, and waiting for social housing takes just a few years. So I'm not surprised by the current situation.

You see people getting £2k or so a month. But a lot of of that is rent and /or childcare.

This is true.

But its important to recognise that someone earning £50k may also have to pay rent & childcare out of their post-tax pay, and may be left with less disposable income from working full time, than the benefit claimant working only a couple of days a week.

Of course this feels grossly unfair. The big issue is that wages are too low, while housing and childcare costs are too high.

People on UC can apply for up to 100% council tax support.
Regarding commuting - ppl on UC that I know have Freedom passes so I assumed anyone on UC has them. Turns out it's the case only if they are disabled. But they save a lot of money by just not going to work anyway, while commuting is not optional for working peoole and eats up a lot of their taxable income.
Saving for deposit and getting a mortgage free home takes decades if you don't get "help" from the family and you can't stop working during that period, and waiting for social housing takes just a few years. So I'm not surprised by the current situation.

People on UC can apply for up to 100% council tax support.
Regarding commuting - ppl on UC that I know have Freedom passes so I assumed anyone on UC has them. Turns out it's the case only if they are disabled. But they save a lot of money by just not going to work anyway, while commuting is not optional for working peoole and eats up a lot of their taxable income.
Saving for deposit and getting a mortgage free home takes decades if you don't get "help" from the family and you can't stop working during that period, and waiting for social housing takes just a few years. So I'm not surprised by the current situation.

But the uc claimant still has to pay CT, commuting and pension out if the take home, so if that is included its not comparable, where as the working person has the income, a pension and hopefully a mortgage free home in the long term. I would always choose to work and have a pension and mortgage, thinking of the future.

You don't need to work 30 hours a week to claim UC. Some of us don't need to work and qualify

They found the scenario where the most possible money was given out on universal credit and it amounts to a disposable monthly income of £239 per person per month to cover food, utilities, clothes, travel and all essentials after childcare and housing - does anyone think that is overly generous?!!

I cant believe that the Daily Mail are able to print such misinformation.

This fictional couple are earning the equivalent of 7.8 hours a week on minimum wage each, yet have 3 children in full-time childcare of which universal credit pays 85% so they are paying £4,650 a year to childcare on top of the £31,000 paid by UC.
Once all the housing amount goes to rent in the most expensive area in the country and the 31,000 plus the £4.6k they have to put in themselves to pay childcare they have a total of £14,350k (after the 15% cost of childcare has been paid for)a year or £1,195 a month to pay for food, council tax, water, electricity and gas, internet, clothes, travel, medicine etc for a family of 5 - they are scraping by and would unlikely be able to afford holidays, to run a car, days out, soft play - not a life i think many would be envious of.

I don't understand where that article gets it numbers from.
How can you only been earning 10k a year when to qualify for UC you have to be working 30hrs a week - which would be 30hrs a week at minimum wage. The more you earn the more benefits taper off. I have been on benefits are have worked my way up to being a high rate tax payer. I had very little when I was on benefits and was working pretty much full time.

Why just have one more child?

Life is so super easy on benefits you could have quite a few kids.

If you stick around MN long enough you'll see everyone on benefits has fancy cars, multiple long haul holidays, all the latest tech....

You, too, could be living the dream.

We have been asked to move out of rental twice in 3 years. Privately renting doesn't give you housing security either. And your friend will get her own home from council after a while and will live there stress-free.
Without having to work, saving for deposit for 10 years and then paying mortgage for 30 more years withought opportunity to stop doing so.

That's how much take home will have a working family on 70K combined after proudly paying their own way:
-25K rent
-14K income tax and pensions
-2K council tax
-1.5K commuting each

26K take home left with 2 parents working full time.The whole 2.5K a year more than 2 ppl having all their time to themselves.
And if it's a single parent earning 70K - it's even less - more like 21K due to higher income tax band.
That's why people are motivated to not work.

My friend rents and claims UC towards her rent. She doesn't earn enough to get a mortgage.

She was settled in a house as the owner was working abroad long term. He retired and wanted move back into his house, so she was given notice to leave.

She couldn't find anything else to rent locally and ended up moving to a less desirable area a few miles away as that's all she could find. She didn't feel as safe there and had the hassle of driving her children to school rather than walking. She didn't want to move schools and disrupt their education.

Another house came up locally and she was happy to move back here. She's been settled in that one for a couple of years now, but the owners told her earlier this month that they want to sell the house with vacant possession at some point next year and have given her notice of their intentions to give her time to find something else.

She's now frantically looking for something else and at the moment, there's nothing suitable for rent in our village. She's hoping new properties might come onto the market in the new year.

While you see all the posts about how great it is having your rent paid, she's struggling with the upheaval and cost following all her moves and the uncertainty of taking on a new tenancy next year and wondering how long she will actually live there.