Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

benefits - can anyone advise?

667 replies

namechangerrr · 21/10/2010 22:20

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.

OP posts:
LeninGhoul · 22/10/2010 10:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Appletrees · 22/10/2010 10:12

"The fact is, any one of the people who look down on you could lose their job, home, high earning husband, health, and end up on benefits."

I'm not looking down. I'm just Shock at how much she gets. I'm a bit jealous actually.

I don't have a job and I don't get anything.

We've scrimped and saved to plan for the future so if my husband lost his job we wouldn't get anything either. What an incentive to blow it all on plasma TVs to make ourselves eligible.

EleanorHauntedHandbasket · 22/10/2010 10:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

spikeycow · 22/10/2010 10:13

No, sorry. I had a toddler and a baby. I was living in temporary hostels meaning no freezer, no washing machine, so had to use laundrettes. I have never been crap with money, ever. You are wrong

islandhopper · 22/10/2010 10:14

I am also with ilove on this, and take my hat off to her for working so hard with 4 children to support on her own. Well done - I'm sure your children are/will be very proud of you.

While clearly the most vulnerable in our society should obviously be supported fully, I think it's appalling that long-term benefits for fit and able-bodied people can be substantially higher than the salaries many full-time workers earn - they clearly incentivise people NOT to work.

I personally know 2 fit, able-bodied, well-educated single/childless people (unrelated to each other) who have each spent over 10 years on benefits because they said it was not worth them working as they could never earn the same as they get in benefits. Need I say more.

spikeycow · 22/10/2010 10:16

How is Brighthouse not compulsory? I never would have been able to afford beds, wardrobes without them when I got a permanent place. The £130 a week I got went on food, bills, and laundrette. That's it. I'm very surprised people think it could pay for anything else.

EleanorHauntedHandbasket · 22/10/2010 10:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GypsyMoth · 22/10/2010 10:22

spikey,you would!!

its called...social fund loan,or saving,or secondhand from paper/ebay/freecycle

its doable with ut resorting to brighthouse.....those places are for the chavvy ones who give the rest of us a bad name

my friend has 3 dc,her husband works hard,but they struggle

i am on benefits,but i often feed her kids for her (in the guise of i'll have them here for tea/the day as we have a house with garden and sky,and they have a small flat with no garden and no sky...just 4 channels......yes,its wrong,wrong,wrong!!!)

GMajor7DeadlySins · 22/10/2010 10:22

OK fair enough, and I do apologise for what in hindsight was an insensitive post.

However, the op must have known that brazenly listing her benefits in this way is somewhat of a kick in the gnashers for some. It's bound to attract criticism and the op would know this otherwise why post in aibu?

spikeycow · 22/10/2010 10:24

Not a sucker. When people don't have savings to use what are they meant to do? What are they meant to sit on? I'm not sitting on a cardboard box for anyone, benefits or not.

tribble00 · 22/10/2010 10:24

namechangerrr: Sorry but I can't help you with the logistics of the changes. Try not to worry and continue with your plans for employment in the long term. I don't think the changes will be coming in until 2013 anyway.

Hopefully the govt can eventually come up with a more simplified system as I can understand the anger about how the system seems unfair.

They really need to start from scratch with the idea that the welfare system is a basic safety net.

Then they need change the tax system to provide tax breaks for low income earners as the the 20% bracket is crazy. Also tax breaks for families to assist with child related expenses. Tax breaks for carers. Maybe even tax breaks for people who have high rental costs. Surely offering tax breaks would be fairer in the long run as then people who need extra money are able to hold on to their earnings rather than having to claim back of their taxes as 'welfare'?

Unfortunately the system needs to be changed at a time of low unemployment. To change it now seems cruel.

Appletrees · 22/10/2010 10:25

I'm doing charity shops and freecycle at the moment for furnishing a house, as well as proper shops. Because we can't afford new, because we are still saving for the future.

GypsyMoth · 22/10/2010 10:27

you create savings!! a tenner a week put away.....a few pound coins,in a jar put away somewhere....

i'm without a washing machine.....mine has broken. we have a brighthouse here.......i'm putting money away weekly and using the launderette!!! with 5 dc.....its a case of going without for a while

but i know i'll have it here soon....so i manage,and hanwash some stuff as i go along

spikeycow · 22/10/2010 10:28

Saving. So you have an empty house while you save then. And the social fund never lend the amount you ask for, always less. When i did get my permanent place, social fund sorted out wardrobes, fridge, and carpets. My dad had to buy me a cooker, stupid scrounger that I was. So what about beds and seats? What would you have done? Saved up?

EleanorHauntedHandbasket · 22/10/2010 10:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

witcheseve · 22/10/2010 10:30

It's actually £1755 per month net.

You are under the limit for the cap which is £2166 per month 26K per yr or is it 25K so should be OK.

spikeycow · 22/10/2010 10:33

I sat on mattresses for a while. Then I got sick of it. But you are better than me, whatever. And much cleverer for not using Brighthouse. Well done

GypsyMoth · 22/10/2010 10:36

this is where the 'sense of entitlement ' comes in

Appletrees · 22/10/2010 10:37

We've been sharing beds and sleeping on the floor. Blimey people are precious.

GypsyMoth · 22/10/2010 10:37

notice how brighthouse only flog the branded,modern up to date items???

the chav 'must haves'......no dralon sofas in there!!!!

LeninGhoul · 22/10/2010 10:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

spikeycow · 22/10/2010 10:40

Mmm, maybe I did feel entitled to a nice home after living in hostels for 5 years and being moved from pillar to post.
Have any of you been homeless (I think someone I "know" is on this thread so may have been).

Hammy02 · 22/10/2010 10:41

Benefits need massively overhauling. You shouldn't be dependent on ANY hand-outs, unless you are ill/disabled or have fallen on hard-times. That is what the welfare state was designed for.

LeninGhoul · 22/10/2010 10:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GypsyMoth · 22/10/2010 10:42

yes i was....and i got a community care grant to cover my basics,which is the right of the homeless moving into a home!!!!!

you got one too i assume????

i was in a hostel for a year with my dc