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.

even with 6% pensions contributions and student loan repayments, a salary of £52k takes home £2,650. Take away £243 for childcare vouchers and your still on more than £2,300. You'd have to be paying AVCs into your pension to get it down that low.

Yes, it's not startlingly more than £1750 a month, and some of the difference might go on childcare, but at the end of it all you do end up with a decent pension and you're probably paying a mortgage so you'll eventually own your own house.

I'd rather be happy in what I've got than worrying about what others get.

Incidentally, I love how the classic Daily Mail trick of treating HB and CTB as if it were income you could choose to spend on something else has become so commonplace. It's much more informative to look at how much people have after housing costs, and that's usually a far more sobering thought.

Yes, I could have lived in an empty shell for a year, had nothing at all! That would have been more fitting for people like us.

I know Eleanor you could buy a Laura Ashley one for that, but who is the idiot, somebody who buys that sort of tat or us for funding it ?
If people on benefits were just given food and fuel vouchers you'd save them from themselves.

What's funny is people are so desperate to benefit bash, the OP is gone and they are picking on someone who has paid all that back in taxes since!!
Maybe we should go back to workhouses and gruel

oh, I see it also involves a company car. Still, you have to look at what you're also getting there. I bet the company car tax is far lower than it'd cost you to buy the equivalent car yourself.

D'you know what spikey grow up. What is this frenzy of hatred I am in?

No one has any reason to shop at Brighthouse, if that is a decision you make then so be it.

And seriously piss off with your "karma" and I hope your "family end up homeless". You sound spiteful and nasty.

Well maybe my husband doesn't earn as much as i think he did then, no student loans he's too old lol
I know the figure that hit our account was £2,300. and i know what was expected for that money.

As are you.

Car boot sales. Yep, could have balanced a wardrobe on my head to take it home I spose. Was no freecycle then, had no internet then.
I don't even know why I'm angry. People don't have a clue.

mamatomany - yep. you are right. Again i will say, i dont think anyone would disagree with you. In fact i doubt the OP would even disagree with you. BUT ITS NOT HER FAULT!!!!

again i shall say:The govt are the ones than have set the current BASIC standard of living, people having a go at the OP is just stupid

and again that the BASIC standard of living should include a roof over your head, and clothes and food, and heat and a bed etc... The costs of these things, notiabily RENT, is what has driven up the BASIC standard.

actually i do want nicer things....i wont buy cheap stuff that then breaks quickly. its a false economy.

i will either save,and do without in meantime... or

go to local heart foundation electrical/furniture shop. huge tv's for £40. they had a massive american style fridge once for £150

leather sofas for £150 for the pair. all good names/brands

would rather do that than buy cheap and have it collapse/break within the year

'If people on benefits were just given food and fuel vouchers you'd save them from themselves'

fuck right off

op....have you called CSA about your ex maintenence

if it was in the past, maybe the tax rate was higher, mamatomany. I don't know. You can have a look at the figures yourself.

However, I really do think its better for everyone to be pleased at what you do have and not to worry at what other people 'get'. Indeed, I think it can only be a good thing if its enough to live on. After all, just because I don't need to claim anything right now, who's to say I won't need to in the future.

I don't understand why people hate those who go to Brighthouse. Is it because they think people on benefits should either have no furniture, or broken, donated stuff? Because broken wardrobes might be OK but for cookers etc it wouldn't work.

Altinkum she said I have no right to want a nice home after being homeless. That is sick. So why have you picked up on what I posted in response?

yeah, but the thing is, treating HB as income in this way means that people end up looking like extravagant scroungers just because they live in areas where housing is very expensive, when in reality they're actually living off fairly meagre sums.

at this thread

So someone who is quite posibly moved halfway across the country by dv services is still meant to hang onto ehr job? I worked with someone moved from Scotland to the SE becuase her DH would kill her if he found her; she could commute I suppose.

Cap is set at £26k as an absolute maximum (so not an 'everybody will get' at all)- OP will definitely experience a dpownshift in HB a few times over the next few eyars, satrting very soon. People with a disability will be protected to an extent but only from cap, not HB changes.

rants about people get too much etc belong in politics not taken out on potentially vulnerable individuals asking for advice, that smacks of nasty bullying and in no way has any link to the supportive aim of MN as a webssite.

OMG I have just checked out the link for the Brighthouse wardrobe.
Beyond belief, hang your clothes on a rail, with a sheet thrown over (as I do), save the cash yourself each week, then buy a wardrobe!

Anyway don't worry. I'm working poor now and have broken furniture, can't afford a winter coat for oldest DS even though he's grown out of the old one. So it's all good in the hood.
My point is, just because I'm working now and still can't have everything, doesn't mean I want other parents and children to have less.