Do Universal Credit rules require work when you have young children?

[Chezza1990]

Does anyone know if there are any rules with having to have a job when you receive universal credit and have children? To put it into context I have 3 children aged 4 and under, my partner is self employed and im currently employed, however im struggling to maintain a healthy work life balance.

The lifestyle expected for a SAHM now and what is considered 'basic' is massively different to what SAHMs in the 70s, 80s and even 90s expected. If my SAHM expected a drive her own car, pay for many activities, treats, clubs and school holiday outings, regular hair and nail appointments, baby sensory, soft play, takeaways, regular meals and coffees out and holidays and weekends away she would have not been able to be a SAHM either.
My dad had a fairly average managerial job and they could afford for her to sAH but it was a pretty basic no-frills lifestyle.

Absolutely no need to be so rude.

No I've never known anyone in my friends and family who have been on benefits. All of us are highly educated with excellent jobs so earn very well indeed.

@Katypp Very well said. When I had young children people only went to a beauty salon for a very special occasion, we rarely went out for coffee, we met at each others houses instead, most of us had hand me down furniture and no one expected their first house to look like something off Instagram. No internet, no streaming, no mobiles, SAHMs rarely had their own car.

However much you try to justify it you're never going to succeed in convincing me and others that the state should fund your lifestyle choice to stay at home and not work

If you wanted that lifestyle you should have not had children while still a teenager, married someone who earned more, or do what my children and their friends did, which was to wait till they were over 30 to have children so they could save up enough money to be able to fund one parent to not work for whatever length of time was right for their family.

Highly educated people can end up on benefits. The person you are responding to does work - part time. They said so on other posts

Thank you, my husband also has a degree and a white collar job. I got pregnant with my eldest at 15 not the most financially sensible thing to do but what are other 15 year olds doing? Taking drugs or playing video games all day. I wonder if that poster was perfect at 15.

I don’t think she understands not everyone gets the same amount of uc we only get a small amount she has probably seen a screenshot of someones large claim and decided that’s what every uc claimant gets. Dosent know enough to realise they will have numerous disabled children but has worked herself into a frenzy about scroungers having coffees and living in instagram designed houses.

How much do you see as enough?

Enough that the woman who wants state benefits to fund her stay at home lifestyle would be able to have that lifestyle paid for by her husband, not the state.

I have a friend with disabled kids who is entitled to Uc because her kids get DLA. Her husband works full time and they pay a huge amount out in rent - everyone's circumstances are different and childcare is also a factor

No, the person I'm responding to is @Choosos who stays at home while her husband works. She has never said that she herself works. She also tries to justify getting UC by saying she views it as a tax rebate.

She has said she works part time on this thread as far as I'm aware. More than once

I'd be very interested to see where she has said this, because I looked through her comments and she has never said that at present she is working.

Yes, I was perfect at 15. So were my siblings, parents and children. Perfect in that we were doing what all 15 year olds should be doing, which is working very hard at school, in order to try to get the best qualifications possible, not having babies.

There is a girl who left my school at 14. She was pregnant and she was more or less forced too. She's now a councillor and the deputy of the council that I live in. I don't align with her politics but she's much better off than I am and I'm much more qualified than she is

Pretty sure some of my friends at school were also having sex at 14. They just didn't get pregnant

Which is how much?

It’s the part where ‘they deserve to have more than one child should they choose’ that I absolutely disagree with. I deserved to have more than one too, I would have loved to, but I wanted to provide for my child not to rely on the state to do what is and should be my job because I am responsible for the lives I create.

No one ‘deserves to have a child’ - that’s what women campaigning for NHS fertility are told! I’ve seen that comment on Mumsnet multiple times. Children are a lifestyle choice, children should be prepared for and all eventualities planned for.

I don’t disagree that the jobs you’ve listed are of utmost importance, but you enter those professions knowing that the wages are not great. Having a valuable, but low paid profession, doesn’t take away the responsibility of family financial planning. If you have one child, where you are struggling to cover the cost of uniform, food, days out, etc etc then why is it a good idea to add another child to the mix? Why do they ‘deserve’ it? How is not entitled and grabby to just think ‘ah well the government will supplement me, I’ll have as many as I want’? It should never be an option to rely on the state to support the decisions you have actively made.

I have no kids. My mum had me at 19 when she was halfway through uni. She was married btw. She had my brother when she was 29. She worked all her life apart from an 8 year break when I was about 7 because she felt like she was never seeing me and she was being badly bullied at work too. 39 years of working full time

I personally wish that Uc had been around when I was young - because my mum might not have struggled quite so much.

Lots of women get pregnant by accident - despite using contraception

Presume that's some sort of joke question? Not sure if you understand that different families have different lifestyles? Because that question is like asking how long is a piece of string.

Of course it is not possible to say how much extra a man should earn so that his wife doesn't need to work. It depends on the lifestyle that the family lives, what they spend their money on, how much they saved and planned before having children, when she's planning to eventually go back to work. Some wives buy designer clothes, bags, shoes, have nails, lashes etc done, spend a lot on their children's clothes and activities, go out to lunch often, run an expensive car, have expensive hobbies etc, and others don't.

The fact remains that if the couple choose to have one parent staying at home that lifestyle choice should be funded by the couple, not by the expectation that benefits will provide for them.

Is that including people with disabled kids who get DLA and Uc?

People who unfortunately have disabled children are obviously in a completely different situation and rightly should be treated differently and looked upon differently when it comes to benefits.

Excellent post.

Right. So according to you women with kids and a working husband should not get a UC top up even if they are entitled to it? Also please don't use the word unfortunately around disabled people. I'm disabled. There's nothing about me that's unfortunate. Hth

Benefits bashing post

Lots of people get pregnant without their kids being prepared for. Even if they are using contraception. No wonder people don't post on benefits threads. They just get lectures from people who think they are better than them

I disagree. It was a post advocating financial responsibility, something which some people on this thread are sorely lacking.

We live in a country and age in which safe abortion is available to all women, and has been for over 50 years. There is no need for any woman or girl to continue with a pregnancy which she does not want.

Wow. My mum was the first person to get an abortion at 17 in Scotland after her partner battered her and she was pressured to get rid of that baby by her family. Im only here because she went through that - she almost died on the operating table and had to be brought back. You don't need to tell me.