I’m not missing something here am I? Universal credit, renting and saving for a deposit.

[tiredconfusedhungry]

Keeping it a bit vague. I’m separated, STBXH and I were looking at figures last night and we’re not going to come out with much to put towards a deposit. We’re looking at around £15k each, I’d need a deposit of around £60k - £70k and that’s to buy a 2 bed house.

We’re in the South East and house prices here are high, rent is high. We’re already in the ‘cheaper’ part, moving further away from where we are puts us in prime commuting land and would be more expensive.

Anyway, it’s likely I will end up renting and saving for a bigger deposit. I did a calculation on entitled to (based on no savings) and I could get some help with rent, which is great. It means I could save some money each month and then hopefully buy after about 4 years.

But now I’ve looked into it further, if you have more than £16k in savings you aren’t entitled to any help. Which I do understand, but it then means that after all essential bills and costs are covered, I’d have about £200 left a month. Which doesn’t go far with 2 kids and certainly wouldn’t leave me anything to save.

So essentially I’m never going to be able to save a deposit am I?

Can you switch to interest-only in the short term, until you've paid ex-DH for buying out the equity, and hopefully increased your wages? Sometimes a mortgage company would prefer that, rather than their customer getting in to financial difficulty. Can your parents act as guarantors?

Do you think PIP should be means-tested?

I didn’t say anything about tax payers money lol. She said ‘even for a two bed’ implying she’d need a 3 bed. Get down off your high horse lol

Is working f/t not an option for (assuming more than one) adult?

Ooooohh, more suggestions of benefit fraud. No wonder the benefits bill is growing; so many claimants must be taking MN advice 😂

Yes they do get them topped up. I don’t think you understand UC. It is made up of elements. If someone’s rent element is £1200 and standard element is roughly £400, and their wage deduction is £1500, they will still get a £100 uc top up. Many single people working full time get a UC top up

I get where some people are coming from when they say ‘why should the tax payer pay for your house’ but people don’t seem to realise the tax payer is paying the landlord’s mortgages for them. Maybe start moaning any that

Everyone on UC is going to be having a review, so they would be caught doing this anyway. It’s called deprivation of capital

How did Brexit get rid of the European workforce, when more Europeans applied and stayed here than were estimated to be here as part of the workforce in the first place? You realise that this wonderful European (or any other imported) workforce actually costs the country more, than getting rid of a large number of the jobs that nobody wants to do would? Say there's a job in a nursing home, which no British person wants because they would make little or no more than their benefits pay them - so the owner brings in a migrant worker and their family, who is on low wages but gets free education for their children, can likely access benefits and social housing if brought in on an essential worker visa - that job is costing us two lots of benefits. Migration is a ponzi scheme, because the vast majority of migrant workers are net recipients, and when both the domestic and migrant population are not contributors, the actual contributors find ways to contribute less.

But the tax payer isn't "paying the landlord's mortgage for them".

The tax payer is paying the rent of people who cannot afford to pay their own rent without benefit help.

Many, many renters pay their own rent without help from the state.

Landlords pay tax on the rent they receive from their tenants.

The only way to stop tax payers "paying the landlord's mortgage" - albeit very indirectly, would be to stop allowing people on benefits to rent from private landlords. This would surely increase homelessness and reliance on B&Bs (or is that also counted as "private landlord") and give less choices to those who need tax payer assistance with their rent. In fact, I think the law was changed at some point to stop landlords discriminating against those on benefits in order to improve things for those that needed tax payer assistance to pay their rent.

In any case, in OP situation, she would be able to afford to buy in her local area a property of a reasonable size to house her family, and she will have a deposit too. This is despite her being a low earner and choosing not to improve her earnings at this time. So it's a moot point really. OP doesn't need tax payer help as she is in a position to fund secure, owned accommodation for herself.

Why would OP get more than 50/50? She has already stated that DC will be 50/50 with exDH.

OP drives. The taxpayer shouldn't be required to fund OP to buy in a specific place just because public transport will be better for DC. People who buy properties buy what they can afford at the time, not what they might need in future. Taxpayers only fund separate rooms for DC of different sexes in social or rented accommodation, not for those who buy, we just have to make do.

Taxpayers can't be expected to fund what OP might possibly need in future (we don't know sexes of DC). In any event, if OP and exDH are 50/50 and both have a 2 bed property, DC can each have a room in one parent's property.

Sorry, where is somebody earning £1500 per month and paying £1200 rent? DC brings home £1600 and rent is £500, with no entitlement to UC.

Most places have rent of at least £1000 a month now. They’re very lucky to pay £500 are they in social housing? The average in Plymouth is £1000, so that’s including one bedroom properties and the larger properties to average it out. London will be much higher. Their wages obviously depend on the minimum wage or their qualifications if they have them

No, they live in a city centre two-bed flat and pay half of rent (total rent is £1000) and half of bills, which comes to over half their wages. Slightly over min wage, but only on 30 hour contract (some months more, some less).

Rightmove shows rooms in Plymouth from around £500, and 2-bed flats from £800.

I said the average is £1000 the £500 you are looking at are shared houses

If having to drive her children to and from school affects her ability to do her job, then it’s quite reasonable to make choices about where to live based on that. If she has to give up work, she’ll need to claim more for them to live.

And it might not work for her children to buy a 2-bed, which might be why she’s looking at a more expensive property.

People don’t only make choices based on what they can afford, or rather affordability isn’t just what someone has in the bank.

And I don’t think anyone is suggested the taxpayer (a group which includes OP remember) ought to buy anyone anything, only that it’s a pretty hapless situation where UC will either top up OP’s salary enough to save for a deposit, or almost inevitably pay a private landlord’s mortgage/pension. I don’t think either of those are ideal for taxpayers, but that’s the unfortunate dichotomy many people are in.

We are also in a housing crisis, extremely hard to get the first property you want, so chances are you will end up with a more expensive one. Resulting in a top up from UC. People don’t seem to understand how UC works and that it is an in work benefit to top up people’s wages when minimum wage isn’t enough. Plymouth is a much cheaper area than many others

op I hear you. We’ve been renting for 17 years and have paid out over £300,000 in rent. It’s painful and seems never ending. We can afford the mortgage (it’s the same as the rent if not less) we’ve got a substantial deposit. We just can’t borrow what we need due to the 5 x issue.

you’ve talked about your parents. Could you move back there whilst you save?
people say move to a cheaper area, my area was cheaper. Now we are priced out. How many times do you keep moving kids out of schools and friends catchments? What happens to the people in the cheaper area priced out?

Good question - ChatGPT gave me this estimate.

• In 2022–23, the UK government spent approximately £23.4 billion on Housing Benefit (DWP, 2023).
• Around 30% of claimants are in the private rented sector (Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2022).
• That means roughly £7 billion–£8 billion per year may be going to private landlords.

I'm in the same bind as you. Renting but trying to save for a mortgage but can't due to UC limits. I can't even apply for first time buyer schemes as we don't qualify.

The only way we're going to do it is via inheritance - and I know not everyone can rely on that too.

Most of the responses here aren't useful but I'm sure you'll work something out either now or in the future

Ha! dont go there! I am homeless and cannot get even emergency help. once I try to fill in the form which asks if you are homeless and then asks whether or not I am a refugeeetcetc so I tick British National and it says we are unable to proceed with your application.

I am going round and round. Every charity for the homeless says contact the council.

I know the situation is worse in Ireland but bloody hell