Sad for my friends £125k lottery win.

[Sogfree]

£125k win on the postcode lottery.

Single mum to 3 children (all primary age). Works as a TA, so receiving benefits to top up her income.

She would like to use her winnings for a deposit on a house. But due to the benefits rules not being allowed to pay a mortgage, she can't buy a property.

So she's going to spaff the entire lot as quick as she can, and the government will continue to pay rent to a multi property owner and make them richer.

The only asset she'll get to keep is a newer car - not anything fancy as she knows she won't be able to afford the insurance/fuel once the winnings run out.

Her one chance of breaking free of a life on benefits and she's got to throw it away. It feels wrong.

Part of the issue is £125k in a lot of the country won't buy you a house.
Its a decent deposit but if you can't fund the mortgage for the rest, then there is little you can do with it, other than using it for everyday living expenses.

So many people are absolutely stuck. Little hope of ever being free of the benefits systems.

So many jobs are NMW or very little more than it, in my head NMW should be the most basic of manual jobs, no offence but things like cleaner, and bin collectors. Very little / no responsibility but more and more jobs seem to be NMW.
I even know young people in pubs working anti social hours, handling cash on NMW. Surely the people who are the face of your business and are trusted with cash, are worth a little more than the cleaner?

But OP friend is free now of the benefit system her win meant she’s not entitled to help with housing or top ups UC. So failing to see why your saying she’s stuck she has to use her winnings now to fund her housing and life. We have no idea which part of the country this is and on a full time wage I cannot see why you couldn’t pay a mortgage with 125k deposit. Why would anyone feel sorry for someone having to fund themselves.

UC & NMW isn't going to leave anyone with much spare cash. UC won't pay any housing element if you own your own house.

Therefore the friend would be unlikely to be able to fund a mortgage on UC.
Depending on her job unlikely to be able to earn enough to get out of UC.

Therefore what should be a life changing sum isn't actually going to be life changing in any way.

I'm sorry if you can't see something sad about that.
People play lottery and stuff because it provides hope, hope of getting out of grinding poverty.
Except here is a decent sum of money thats unlikely to be able to remove the friend from poverty, in either short or long term. If she spends it too quickly she'll be accused of deprivation of assets. And end up in a worse position than she was before winning.

That is sad that she chooses to spend it all to continue to get rent paid. She could put most it down as a huge deposit so her mortgage will probably be a lot less than rent anyway. Working as a TA shows steady income so there should be no problem getting a mortgage.

But if shes reliant on UC top ups, where is the money coming from to pay the mortgage?
She'll lose any housing element, they don't pay towards mortgages (even if its cheaper than renting). She'd probably also struggle to find money for any repairs or maintenance work.

The issue is primarily that far too many people in full-time work are reliant on top ups and wages are too low.

£125k sounds loads but its not really. Lots of people will earn that in a year or two.
She'll end up using for everyday expenses then end up back on benefits in a few years. Sad but true.

She will still be able to get UC, maybe not for mortgage payments, but the other advantages. Your friend could realise the opportunity of owning her own home, mortgage will be paid off eventually so rent free and an asset to pass down to DC.

Sorry, I can't get my head around squandering so much money just to continue to get UC and rent paid. Aim higher, use the money to train, get higher level TA/pastoral role. It's an unexpected gift, a lot of money, build on it, self pride and motivation 💪

Why doesn't she move somewhere where she can buy a house for £125k ?

That might involve moving from family and friends and support network, along with unsettling kids moving them schools etc.
Finding a new job if commute is too far.

And for what?
What is the real benefit to owning your own house?
To those who aren't within the benefits system its security and an investment to leave to your kids. One less thing to worry about in retirement.

If your situation is always going to be a struggle. If she can't afford day to day living for her and kids on her wages. And always going to be reliant on benefits to make ends meet.
Why take on the liability that is a house with repairs costs, insurance etc

She is a carer for her mum.

Depending where she lives, it is possible for her to buy a house or a flat near where she lives.

The freedom that money could have given her and her family. Has she so little imagination of what she could have made from that money.
Whilst we have a good benefit system in place, I sometimes think there is a certain type of person who would rather be shackled by the rules than actually go out and make more money for themselves and unfortunately they teach their children to think small and never do anything that puts their benefit money in jeopardy and thinking they are the clever ones.

Why did she play the Postcode Lottery if she wasn’t going to do anything significant with the money if she did win

I would advise her to not waste any money on gambling

I think she is going to get a shock if she goes to sign onto benefits after blasting through so much money. Pretty sure if you have had money they calculate how long that money should last you and only after the amount of weeks they have calculated do you become eligible to claim benefits again

It's a searing indictment of the benefits system if someone can win £125k and still be more concerned about her benefits. For most working people that is a life-changing sum of money.

It's more of an indictment that someone whos been to college working full-time in a Classroom Assistant role isn't earning enough to live on.

I think thats the real issue. Far far too many jobs even jobs that require college qualifications are little above the NMW.

It makes you wonder why even bother going to college.

Prior to NMW being a thing there was arguments that it would cause wages to stagnate and thats exactly what it has done. Far too many people are reliant on top-up benefits. Possibly not helped by their being so many people living alone or single parent families.

But TA jobs aren't usually 37 hours a week and they are usually term time only so they fall well short of being a full time job. That's why they are so sought after, because lots of people want all the holidays off. But you can't expect 13 weeks holiday a year and the same annual salary as someone who only gets 5 weeks holiday

Has she been to collage? OP said she only had a few GCSEs and didn’t even have a maths one. She’s not a typical collage educated woman with a full time job. She works term time only, has few GCSEs and is a single parent and carer, it’s not at all surprising she needs a benefits top up.

TAs in Scotland have have some sort of college certificate. I'm surprised England isn't the same.

But there are loads of low paid work, carers nursery workers who are all low paid and being propped up by the benefits system.
That's a massive issue in my mind.