Is receiving £30k pa on benefits “living in poverty”?!

Loads do. Not everyone goes to university to study hard, make useful connections, gain useful work experience and secure a good job at the end of the degree.

Plenty goes to uni when they shouldn't. Either due to lack of academic ability, wrong temperament for the environment (the ones that spend more time in the counsellor's office than the lecture room). Or those who go there for the student lifestyle or because it's expected by everyone around them that they'll go, often taking a largely useless degree with no practical elements for any specific job.

Either way, if any of these people pass, it's often gaining only a so-so level of qualification, meaning they're not sought after by employers but overqualified for many jobs. These are the ones who struggle to find work of any kind. They're possibly also not looking too hard because that's their mindset, having gone to university mainly to avoid getting a job for 3 years, in some cases. Or have a huge sense of entitlement about what job they ought to have, because they went to uni and think it makes them special. Eventually they'll end up in something minimum wage after being unemployed for a while and their parents getting pissed off with supporting them.

Edited to delete a bit because I cross posted with someone with more accurate information

I don't think it's benefits bashing to question a system in which people who can't work due to illness can have an additional three children, despite already having three, and be given money to do so.

Many people would love to have big families but accept they cannot afford to do so. Others sadly find themselves falling ill and unable to work after already having children. That isn't the case here.

Minimum wage is nearly 25k now. Repayment threshold is 21k. So yes you will be paying something if you are FT minimum wage.

No. Poverty is defined as a household income less than 60% median household income which google tells me is 36700. So around 22k household income is the poverty line.

If you worked over 40hrs a week
plan 1 threshold is £26,065 so not masses over

I’m sure there will be plenty more benefits bashing threads when COL increases again!

Isn’t there a benefit cap? Either way, this family must have a lot of children, and disabilities to claim this much, so I’m not jealous of them.
also rents have risen dramatically, including social rents which is shocking really.

I support 99% of PIP claims. Especially for physical health issues. But I feel very occasionally the PIP given is not needed.

I know a recent graduate who received max maintenance loan (and for extra for being autistic), DSA and PIP for autism. The PIP is for "help socialising". And he has so much from sfe, he put loads into savings. Now he uses his pip to half pay for driving lessons and half give to his parents.

Another person I know another young adult on PIP just works part time at a desk job and uses PIP to go gallivanting around the UK and exploring lots of it. Good on him for having fun, but surely he can work FT and then travel?

With UC I know many families who have no ambition, don't care about school, don't push their kids at school and just claim whatever they can and have no real ambition to improve their situation.

In my previous role (LA) most had degrees but the job is currently advertised with a salary of £26,000 - £29,000.

I work full time and don’t earn 30k , I wish !

how could you have minimum wage job with student loan?

That’s £15k each then so you both must be working part time

We know that educated women have less children. In many parts of the country having DC is the only real joy they will experience. There are many children growing up in 'rough' areas that go to schools in special measures. Maybe if the government put more effort into properly funding and improving education outcomes for these children would be improved. Plus so many low skilled jobs have been replaced by technology so it is vital that these people are given an education if we expect them to work.

Of course there are rich people on benefits because some benefits aren't means tested. I regularly help older people to claim Attendance Allowance. Some live in massive houses and have hundreds of thousands in the bank and still want to claim AA. I personally think it's wrong and it should be means tested but that's unlikely to happen.

It depends on the number of people that £30,000pa has to support and what abasic rent for an adequate home would be for a family that size. If an adequate home is going to cost £2000pcm leaving £500pcm to cover all bills food and other expenses for 5 people then that would indeed be poverty. The same amount of money to support just a single parent and once child in an area where rent is only £600pcm would not be

But many of us might in an ideal world have liked to have more children, but we limited our family size so we could give the children we have a good life. Surely everyone’s children are their pride and joy - doesn’t mean we should all be able to have six and not to have to work!

Also if it's a single parent family they will lose any child maintenence too.

But you can disincentivise them from having more children by reducing the benefits available, so they can choose to have more kids but are required to consider whether they can actually afford to support them rather than just knowing the state will provide.

You ain't paying any student loan back on £25k

The ‘ever depleting purse’ of public money while billionaires get ever richer…

They may have no choice depending on where they live. If you look at say, Kent, minimum rental for 3 bedrooms is around £1k -per month, and living within a few miles of any towns nearer £1300 - £1600 per month. Many of these are apartments. Greater Manchester area starts at £1k per month.

The closer you get to the greater London area the more rents go up e.g. Brentwood a 3 bedroom home starts at £1800 per month, Dartford around £2k, Croydon £1.8 - 2k. If a family has 2 children of different sexes they need that 3rd bedroom once they get to a certain age.

And bear in mind that they may have been renting that home then the main earner loses their job for whatever reason - finding a new place that accepts benefits is really hard due to the conditions on most Buy to Let properties. And don't even think of suggesting Housing Association or Council housing - there can be years and years of waiting for that in some areas.

They probably can't just up and move, they may have support networks where they live now, or children in special schools, or other health needs.

We do know she’s been unemployed for ten years and the youngest child is three, so she had at least one (and likely more, given the oldest is 20) since she stopped working. Given the age range, it would presumably also have been apparent that the older children had disabilities before she and her DH decided to have the younger ones. If you can’t manage the children you have alongside a job, why go on to have more?

I have heard of children with cancer being denied. Utterly stupid. Yes I am aware that they will try not to award it and yes my child has SEN.

I largely agree with you, provided the money is actually spent on the children - often in these cases it is not, and the children are still turning up to school hungry and their teacher (who may well earn less than £30K net - because remember we are talking here about a £30K NET income not gross) is buying them breakfast.

@previouslyknownaswhy does she get PIP?