Please tell me the facts about benefits

[Lochroy]

I'm deliberately posting this in chat not AIBU because I'm NOT looking to start yet another thread on the rights and wrongs of benefits, eligibility etc. I've read loads and it's understandably a sensitive topic. I want to learn.

Things I'm particularly interested in are:
Thresholds for eligibility for UC and max support available?
How disability/carers benefits sit alongside UC and what they can be worth?
Threshold for free school meals?
Has there really been a change to help during Corona or not?

I know it's complex which is why I haven't found simple answers, so if anyone can share an idiots guide, that would be helpful, thanks!

Thanks @LonginesPrime I can see nothing is going to get past you!

The main question really is what's it worth? Or as I rephrased it, what should it deliver/what should be able to be paid for from it? In relation to the mass of recent media on free school meals I've seen people say it's not enough to live on and others say it's good we have a benefits system. There's a ton of opinions on this which is why I really, really didn't want this to be another thread the same, it's just for my interest.

Building on that was the point about an increase in UC during Coronavirus and if this was fair or not if people on UC hadn't had a change in income whereas others who have fallen through the government's various schemes have had nothing. Again the 'fairness' is hard to judge.

A very long time ago I studied a little social and welfare economics at university (e.g. should a free market system have a welfare state at all, is having a welfare state a sign of a failure of a free market economy or is a welfare state necessary and a core element to enable growth in a free market etc. etc.) so I think this has just spiked an interest, but from an academic, not emotional point of view.

Many thanks again for those taking the time to reply.

DWP person here. .. and also get UC despite earning £37500 a year. (No I didn't think I would be eligible either despite working in benefits for 25 years ! ) it's because I rent AnND have a child.

UC is generous to those in full time work. Less so for those out of work.

The permutations are endless especially where disabilities are involved so if you want to PM me with your particular circumstances, I will be happy to tell you your entitlement (if any) but please don't listen to people say you are not entitled unless they have the EXACT same circumstances/work/housing/kids/disabilities as you .

@disorganisedsecretsquirrel

DWP person here. .. and also get UC despite earning £37500 a year. (No I didn't think I would be eligible either despite working in benefits for 25 years ! ) it's because I rent AnND have a child.

UC is generous to those in full time work. Less so for those out of work.

The permutations are endless especially where disabilities are involved so if you want to PM me with your particular circumstances, I will be happy to tell you your entitlement (if any) but please don't listen to people say you are not entitled unless they have the EXACT same circumstances/work/housing/kids/disabilities as you .

OP doesn't need help, just sees all this as a 'point of interest'.

I've unfortunately had to go on a covid based Universal credit during my uni agap year after being laid off from my job and I as a single Individual with a low level disability get about 800 a month, not great but it will do.

@disorganisedsecretsquirrel That's very generous of you. I'm sorry to have mislead you and anyone else. I'm trying to learn more because I don't know much about it, but it's a topic almost everyone has an opinion on, I was trying to make my own, informed, thoughts. Apologies if I've missed the mark. I'm not looking to apply myself.

Well, I was on benefits for a time and can give you an example of what I used to get. I'm a single mother of one child.

Income support - £70pw
Child tax credit - £60pw
Child benefit - £20pw
Housing benefit - this is different for every area. For a 2 bedroom property in my area the maximum cap is £107pw. My property cost £98pw so was below the cap which meant I could get all my rent paid.

So after rent, I had £150pw for bills, food, clothing, travel and luxuries.

The recent increase in benefits is not for people receiving unemployment benefits. It was an increase for people who receive the working tax credit element of UC - so people who work but are on a low income. This is what I get currently.

But people on Uc who do not work have also received the increase.

I'm on UC and carer's allowance looking after disabled DC. The UC increase was very useful for us because my outgoings did increase because of their disabilities during lockdown. That said, it wasn't any disability benefits that changed but the UC, so query whether that was the right way round. But obviously everyone's experiences of lockdown are different, and I guess it does acknowledge the rise in food prices that everyone had to contend with (and that UC contributes to).

I do find that benefits handled by the local authority are often too tightly controlled to actually be useful (but our council is constantly strangling itself with its own bureaucracy, so it might just be in our area). For example, we receive direct payments from the disability team, but they're specified as only to be spent on certain things. Because of DD's disability, she couldn't actually use them for the specified things (she's more or less housebound for various MH/ASD reasons and her payments are only for social activities) so it was quite frustrating seeing the funds building up with her not able to use them because she's just not able to leave the house. Similarly during lockdown, they keep sending the money they know we can't use, and our new disability social worker said the other day that if we're not using the budget we'll lose it - lose what, exactly?! I think a lot of this was down to the previous social worker not returning my calls or emails and therefore not really engaging once he set up the payments, tbh. So there's an account with thousands of pounds in at the council that's been allocated for DD that she can't use, while some other department is probably telling people there's no money available for their needs.

I'm grateful that direct payments exist in theory at least, and I'm sure it will all get sorted for us and this new guy will be able to apply some common sense. But it does make me very glad that there isn't the same level of prescription as to how funds from UC and PIP, etc are spent by individual households!