To think saving on Universal Credit is extremely difficult?

Wouldn't you think with the daily benefits threads on here people would of learnt something by now its like just repeating yourself constantly. People just repeatedly assuming the wrong information and never actually listening

It is 100% true, you can deny it all you like. You'd probably claim that PIP is immune to fraud or something equally ridiculous. Go ahead if it makes you feel better to tell yourself that. Human nature I guess.

Sad when people can't update their knowledge and still think they're in a position to tell the rest of us a thing or two! Mind, the same poster had no idea that the DWP and HMRC are separate entities. Tragic really.

Wrong.

A person who works over 16 hours very much can get UC, it is simply tapered off depending on income. There are a hell of a lot of full time workers on NMW who get UC because their income is so low.

Try checking a benefit eligibility checker such Entitledto and you will see that.

Where on earth did you get the idea that people working over 16 hours a week don't get UC? Of course they get UC if they tick the necessary boxes e.g. living in rented accommodation, have children etc.

Oh dear yourself, sarcasm flies right over your head!

You are very out of date, that’s not how UC works anymore.

Omg that is so old and not true anymore it hasn't been like that for years

I do agree with you on this single people without dependants really do get screwed over. I have a few friends in this situation and it is unfair that their is no help

No it's because if that person works over 16hrs, they don't get UC. So rather than work eg. 5 full days and get more paid cash for working, they work fewer hours to claim the benefit. It's fcked up. Encouraging people to be on benefits instead of working.

Ummm most people on uc pay for the dentist. As for prescriptions get a pre payment thats what I did before getting a medical exemption

Oh dear

Not true actually - whether you receive benefits is very dependant on your personal situation.

I'm a single person with no children or dependants. I was foolish enough to buy a house on a mortgage when a half reasonable job earned enough money to pay that. I actually earn a small amount over minimum wage (local government, pays peanuts), they had to give us a pay rise this month or we would be earning on or below the new minimum. I am eligible to claim nothing via UC at all - all I can claim is the massive amount of a fraction over £100 a month PIP, which is significantly less than my disability costs me.

When people talk about "savings" at the poorer end of the income scale, they are talking about things like my 15 year old car with over 110,000 miles on the clock needing work done at it's last MoT - the car I need to get to work (full time). Or, as someone above said, a kettle that's given up the ghost after 10 years, or a fridge. Not things like a holiday, or a better car, or that height of indulgence a take-away twice a year.

I see @FirmGreyMember point and agree.

Being poor is expensive.

I have posted this before but I had a bit of a ding dong with my father about it a few years ago. He was saying that people on benefits are poor because they are shit with money as they use Brighthouse type companies (it still existed then), despite his own GRANDSON being on benefits due to a disability that means he is unable to work (agreed by DWP). So I said to him that if their washing machine broke, him and my mother would just buy a new one for (say) £500. A person on benefits doesnt have that money sitting there to be able to do that so they have to get a credit deal somewhere that will accept people on benefits , like Brighthouse did. They marked up their products massively so the £500 washing machine would be £750 then add a huge APR but, and its a big "but" the payments are £5 a week so affordable to a person on benefits. So in the end the person on benefits ends up paying £1500 for a washing machine that cost my well off father £500.

A couple of hundred quid in savings would have allowed that person to buy a cheap machine (google tells me that a new machine can be got for less than £200, delivered) instead of spending hundreds in interest just so their kids can have clean clothes.

If my fridge breaks and im not allowed to save to buy another one what will happen to my champagne and lurpak. Warm champagne is gross

You wouldn't like to know what I am saving for whilst on UC. Probably make some frith at the mouth.

Yes but people on uc have it better with certain things like prescriptions, if I went for a filling I would automatically be skint and I think if uc claimant and could save money working people would be even more frustrated. I know people on pip who can save and go on holidays etc. I know people on UC who can go abroad I think it depends on how you spend your money many people have top of the range phones nails done etc, takeaways if you are saying you don’t have phone contracts, subscriptions tv go the salon regularly for nails and hair and don’t have pets or holidays you just have enough to eat and heat pay your bills with nothing left over then that’s shit but everyone I know who gets UC are not worse off than me.

So if a person is disabled so on uc for life they can't save to buy a new fridge. Are only healthy people allowed fridges?

But they’re not really a safety net anymore are they? They have become the backbone of an economy where a living wage doesnt actually cover the cost of living. Almost half of UC claimants are in work.

for example a single parent working full time in Tesco will qualify for a universal credit top up because Tesco aren’t paying enough for them to eat, have their kid in childcare and keep a roof over their head. So the government tops up this shit wage to make it just about manageable, meanwhile Tesco reports profits of over 3 billion a year, not to mention all the grossly inflated salaries of their senior staff.

Benefits are no longer a stop gap. They are totally essential long term support for a huge amount of people and if that makes you angry direct that anger towards a failing government, unfettered private rents and big corporations paying criminally low wages.

Why are you asking me to send money to HMRC? Have they recruited you? 👀 Dodgy scammer.

You shouldn't be able to save on UC and it shouldn't be a lifestyle where saving is a consideration.

Yes yes I know I posted on a goady benefits post. I cant help it.

HMRC have a bank account they accept donations into. Try that. It's easily accessible online.

Gosh that statistical blip was an utter gift to the welfare retrenchment fans of MN. It's the equivalent of The Note to the austerity government in 2010!

Britain’s welfare bill exceeds income tax revenue. Labour’s answer? More cash

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/04/labour-welfare-bill-income-tax-revenue/

Not harsh realistic people need to stop wanting everything now and actually save for things. This is the reason people have no money cars on finance, mortgages they can't afford, expensive mobile phone contracts so they can get the newest iPhone. Days out, eating out being the norm rather then a treat once or twice a year, kids in multiple clubs. According to someone on here the other day she pays £200 to get her hair done and according to her thats a normal average amount.