benefits - can anyone advise?

[namechangerrr]

hi i am a regulare but have name changed for this. i was wondering if anyone would e able to help me here. i have seen on the news about benfits being cut/capped but cant seem to find any exact figures.

was wondering if anyone could be able to help me and see if my benefit will be capped or cut, so that i can be prepared for this.

i recieve weekly:
£135 child tax credit
£48 cb
£65 incone support
£145 hb
£12 ctb

i no this seems like a huge amount when written like this but in reality it isnt. once i have paid gas, elec, water rates (£28 per week!), tv licence etc there is not much left for food/nappies.

i would be very grateful if anyone could help. i am not intending to be on benefit forever and i do want to better myself for myself and my children.

quite. I would have worked more hours. I am capable of working more hours. It just would have left me £70 per month worse off. Actually more than that as i would have extra petrol costs too.

It went aganist my moral judgement, but i had to go with the more money option. I am skint. I cannot afford to lose £70.

also all this ' nice furniture' crap. I wouldnt mind betting that they just mean something from ikea or argos or flatpacked something that looks ok but cost about £30.

I brought my DD a wardrobe when i moved out into my own house ( after the army quarter) i thought it was a 'nice ' one. It cost £90 from argos.

Please dont patronise us mums who chose to take lower paid work and get assistance. Some of this jobs are vitally important to the country and I am proud of how I cope and I am entitled if I choose to save up for nice things.

I teach my kids to want more from life.

Off to wash my MG and go shoe shopping

Well when you bear in mind that £2,300 is £52k and a senior management role requiring a degree, an MBA and frequent 7am til 9/10pm days plus overnight stays you wonder where it all went wrong v's £1,600 to sit on your arse, you really do.

Especially when of the difference between those figures 50% goes on childcare.

Right, for the last time. I don't know where you got the idea I wanted brand new furniture because of a sense of entitlement. I HAD to use Brighthouse, because you can pay £5 weekly. If you begrudge even that, you are saying we weren't entitled to any furniture at all, surely. Which is bull. You might think me and my children are shit, I don't.
I said I wanted a decent home, which I WAS entitled to after being homeless. If you had to live in one room with a toddler, baby, drug using abusive partner and a shared bathroom with an alcoholic who used to vom regularly, you want want something better aswell.

mamatomany, i didn't want to write down my own household income, but you've hit the nail on the head on what i was thinking with your calculations ;)

Now don't call me back to this shithole of a thread again (sorry OP)

£52k is more than £2,300 a month after tax.

redderthanred they may well mean ikea flatpack or argos etc but my point is that there are huge numbers of families out there who don't even have that.

They have what was left behind by the previous tenant/owner; what was passed onto them from friends/relatives or picked up at boot sales. Hell for years I had a rail with a sheet slung over it until I could afford a proper wardrobe.

I can't think of a single person who I know who doesn't want to replace (or own in the first place) a wardrobe/shelves/carpets etc.

IME that is how the vast majority of people live - without what they would like. For someone to say they are "entitled to a nice house" is inevitably going to piss people off, especially when combined with being called "vile" "scum" and "heartless".

No onder those in need get a bad press

Brighthouse charge £3000 for something you can get for £600 if you had disposable cash. Hardly a purchase one would make unless desperate.

Damsel - it isn't after company car tax and pension, it's exactly £2,300.

As for "that no-one whose sole income is benefits should receive more than an equivalent family in the lowest paid work."
The problem is they are receiving net not far off the highest earners nevermind the lowest. If i had to work fo minimum wage i would refuse, you'd be crazy to wear out your bones v's benefits you really would.

OH. MY. GOD.
You are all of those things. You haven't even read the thread properly,yet still judge .
Karma will sort you out.

altinkum - i think either min wage will have to rise quite a lot, else a combination of tapering of benefits when you go back to work.

You are absolutley right, someone who is working should not be worse off than someone on benefits. i dont think anyone would disagree at all.

However, the person on benefits still needs to have a roof over their head, and be able to eat, have clothes, have heat and hot water, and a good BASIC standard of living.

The govt are the ones than have set the current BASIC standard of living, people having a go at the OP is just stupid.

She doesn't get it wubbzy. She's in a frenzy of hatred at the moment, maybe try later

Yep...

Once we've finished tearing each other to shreads, the population count will be significantly reduced and the deficit therefore taken care of

havent read all came to this far to late,but was a similar thread on another board,i posted that i also sp with 3 dc's total about £240 a week "in hand"i have n o housing rent or morgage to pay so if you wanted to be really funny about things as council or DWP dont have to pay housing i probably save them £800-£1000 a month,so take it away from my money and i really dont cost that much on benefits

when people go on about there take home pay many do fail to mention there ctc on top etc,

and also ive known a few ladies that just do the minimum 16hrs aweek and they have been lots better of financially

what im trying to say that the bottom line is the huge majority will do whatever makes them better of whether working or benefit,because i for one would not go out to work for 60hrs a week as a sp with all child care etc it would involve if i could live on benefit till things were more workable

By the way,I have none of that furniture anymore,it was all crap!!! Fell apart!! I now have the landlords furniture, wardrobes, everything. And I still don't begrudge people, because I'm not a spiteful, self important bastard

£2300 net a month isnt £52k gross a year.

agree with frgr.

Spikeycow I mentioned nice furniture generically, you followed up saying you were entitled to a nice home and attacking me. I have disagreed.

I don't know why you have accused me of thinking your children are shit - I have quite clearly said (now repeatedly) that you and anyone else in your situation ought to have a warm home, clothes and food.

I don't believe anyone should be living on the breadline and insinuating that I do to support your misguided argument is pathetic. Saying that you wish me and my family end up homeless and with nothing is even more so. Calling my vile scum is absurd.

"The govt are the ones than have set the current BASIC standard of living, people having a go at the OP is just stupid."

That's true but the gap between working and not working should be massive and i'm not suggesting the non working one goes down but the working one should be going up, massively.

Not likely to happen anytime soon though is it.