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.

"Mmm, maybe I did feel entitled to a nice home after living in hostels for 5 years and being moved from pillar to post"

Surely there were other choices though? You could have worked and privately rented.

I dont think anybody is "entitled" to a nice home - a roof over there heads and food but any extra luxuries like new sofas, tvs should only come via hard work not handed out on a plate.

er Lenin......the word chav was used,by me,to describe how i see the brighthouse target group

having been referred to as a benefit scrounger then i will happily use the term 'chav'!!!!

thankyou for trying to make me see the error of my ways and for trying to make me stop using this language

The £26K is net which is around the total benefit that a couple with 4 kids currently get depending on their rent. That's with no-one working. It's a huge amount, I know and I'm only just realising this.

OP sorry I didn't realise you are a single parent, in that case your benefit will be capped at £350 per week so it will affect you.

I really don't know how working people claiming CTC and or WTC will be affected. I would think they should be OK at similar levels as now. Although there are changes for higher earners.

It's only since all this publicity that I realise how poor we are and I work full-time. If I was renting I would have been better off on benefits all these years of being a single parent. I suppose in some ways I am much better off as I own my home.

Whatever HappyMummy. Another one without a clue. I'm off, as I don't like judgemental people and don't have the patience to deal with them. Don't feel too smug, I'm now doing an Msc and working full time so don't feel like you have a dumb "chav" to slaughter. You don't.

happymummy....privately rented is never an option when going from homeless....maybe from other standpoints,but not homeless

well not unless its with rent assistance scheme

give me an alternative word to describe them lenin if it causes offence!

Gmajor - apology accepted, thank you . And you are right, perhaps posting in AIBU is not the right place. However, I have posted in strange places before to get an immediate answer so perhaps this is it.

I do hope you do manage to sort it all out OP, it's a good idea to try and save up a little pot now I think.

It is a difficult situation to be in re: working vs benefits, obviously you've said you do want to get back in to work and I hope you do manag to find something.

I think people hve been put in a very awkward situation - my best friend is on benefits and hates it so went to the job centre to have a look at her options (before getting pregnant she was manager of a river island store, then at 8 months pregnant her partner fucked off to Spain with a woman he met on the Internet!)
anyway, the woman at the job centre told her not to bother as she would be around 4 grand a year worse off!

Yummum - have you read the full thread? She is not moaning about paying £28 a week. And there is not need to shout and insult the OP. Have you actually read the thread and seen what she has had to go through? She actually is quite hard done by. Her situation is desperate, money aside.

I think I need to leave this thread now. I am getting irrationally cross on behalf of the op and I need to write my dissertation.

Yummum - you sound like a charmer!

yumum....why on earth are you having another baby if you are so hard done by???

I'd rather people had what they were entitled to than not

I'd rather people who were working brought in a wage that meant that they didn't have to do two or more jobs to keep their heads above water

I am living in dreamland

ps gmajor - I am sorry as well for calling you a twat. That was uncalled for

Yes all those things and the pride of going to work, finishing on a Friday night, and feeling entitled to a well earned rest.

I do feel sorry for people caught in the benefits trap, it's hard to find jobs atm and this government need to make work pay for people on full benefits but if they do attempt it the danger is that they end up paying out just as much or more. No easy answers to anything.

I have been unemployed once or twice and even with a little one to take to nursery/pickup etc it can really grind you down after a while. However, so can getting up and rushing to work every morning.

nasty nasty thread....

Mn is not a nice place at the minute