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.

I have reported your post Yummumof3.

I honestly don't understand the viewpoint of some people. If they are pleased the OP has what she needs and is entitled to, to care for her family, why don't you think we shouldn't all be entitled to it if we all need it? Why are you suprised at the criticism? She's basically worried about having her money cut when a lot of people work more and earn less. Why shouldn't people say, you're lucky, in effect (financially anyway). It's nice that she has good intentions, but they're a bit meaningless until they're carried out. After reading the OP I am starting to have pretty bad intentions tbh.

oh my word, i cannot believe some of you mumsnetters can be so nasty! i am sat here feeling very :) at this thread. wish i didnt ask for any advise now. i posted in aibu as i thought i might get the quickest reply if anyone knew.

well i have given my incomings will now give my outgoings and you can all see that im not living a millionaires lifestyle!

outgoings weekly:
£175 - rent (i have too pay some! its not all free!)
£12 - council tax
£28 - water rates
£22 - electric prepayment metre
no central heating/instant hot water so no gas
£5.00 - tvlicence (old 21inch big tv/ not plasma!!)
£10 - currently saving for a cooker and washing machine
£10 - internet subscription (took out contract when with exh, and cannot cancel for 2 years :( have tried. includes dongle and internet.)
£14 - bus fair to get dd to school 2 hours away(onlyone she could get into)
£10 - nappies (2dcs in nappies)
£10 - toiletries - wetwipes, tampons etc
£02.50 - credit for mobile (£10 a month so i am not cut off from family)
£20 - catalogue debt ( that we hadwhen with exh in my name but mostly his debt)

that leaves around £80 to cover food,clothes and christmas/birthdays etc. i am hardly forking out for plasma screens. i agree it hasnt left us begging in the street, but i am so so greatful. without this help we would still be with my ex and probably not even alive now. life is not a bag of roses, we dont have carpet,central heating,instant hot water, washing machine or cooker. but we are safe and i am so thankful. in a few mothes i hope to be employed and earning enough to provide my dcs with carpet in their bedroom etc.

very :( at this thread, wrong emoticon

I have experinced both sides of this arguement so I feel very able to say ...

A large number of people claiming benefits don't deserve it, don't need it and shouldn't be handed ludicrous amounts of money

..... OP, from an outsiders point of view, I feel you get a hell of a lot of money. What are your reasons for not working, are you unable ?

My DH was self employed, his work dried up, we lived on benefits for 4 months - it was the most degrading thing I have ever done as it just goes against the grain but needs must ! We raked it in for doing naff all - we received £700 a month housing benefit, £130ish council tax benefit, around £700 child tax credits, £185 child benefit (3 children), £480 job seekers allowance along with free school dinners, coupons for fruit/veg/DD3's formula - this is all I can recall off the top of my head but it was a complete joke how much we just got handed to us. That's £2195 a month

After 4 months, I found a job and now work full time while DH looks after DD's and I bring home £1310 a month

My BIL has been working the system for 10 years +, they have 4 children and live a life of riley foreign holiday, designer clothes blardy blardy blah. It's all a joke !!!!

only 4 channels, how terrible lol.

What I want to know is why, why there is no system in place that, when a partnership ends, the non-resident partner basically walks away financially.

To the point where, now, the lone parent's benefits do not take any maintenancy she/he receives into account.

That's right, people: the lone parent claims what he/she is entitled do and any maintenance is not taken into account.

Why?

Because there is no system in place that consistently compels the non-resident parent to pay and keep paying.

Why is this?

Why are we not first and foremost compelling non-resident parents to pay up^ and keep paying up and instead it is now automatically assumed that when a partnership splits, the lone parent will go on benefits?

That's the problem I had.

If these non-resident parents were made to pay and realised there is no shirking of their financial responsibility onto the state, then we wouldn't have so many lone parents and children who have to rely on benefits.

NO ONE should be able to abscond financial responsibility for their offspring.

i agree expat. my exh is earning quite a good wage but i dont recieve any maintenance for my dcs. hardly suprising though really even wen welived with him he wouldnt ever buy apacket of nappies without causing a fuss. half the time i was too scared to ask :(

I am not blaming the op at all. Where?

This is about the benefits given, not her particular circumstances.

What stands out for me in her last post is the appalling school situation and the fact that she has no carpets, washing machine or cooker. As she is living in a rented place then not having a cooker makes it unliveable I would have thought. I don't know why she hasn't got a grant for that.

He should be forced to pay. It should be taken directly out of his wages before they even go into his account.

If he goes onto benefits to avoid paying, ever single penny of cash should go towards his kids - he should be given a food card to buy food and his other needs paid directly to the source.

If he quits work and doesn't go on the dole so as to get out of paying, he should go to jail.

We don't have carpets. We can't afford them.

They're not an essential the way a cooker is.

I thought child maintenance doesn't count anyway towards benefits? I read that on another thread.

Whilst I agree expat, surely the pwc is also financially responsible? Why should only one work to provide? Childcare is more widely available then ever now, having children does not render anybody incapable of working (obv not those with disabled children where childcare for their needs is not available).

It doesn't count, Appletrees.

Because it's to cover the family in case he stops paying.

Hence, why there should be a system in place that forces him to pay, either by taking the maintenance directly off his wages before his packet is paid, like tax and NI, by ensuring if he goes on benefits he gets no cash and by throwing him in jail should be try to avoid paying by not working and not claiming (getting money in some other fashion).

That way, any maintenance a family receives can be taken into consideration when it comes to benefits calculations AND in some cases may not need benefits at all.

Of course the OP should claim whatever she is legitimately permitted to and I am not going to slate her for doing so.

But seriously I am gobsmacked at the amounts.

MN is full of posts about woman trying to do food shopping for a family of 4 on £50; people who can't afford winter clothes and the like.

OP can you really not see that £80 a week after all your liabilities are covered is good going?

And I am truely at those who think they are "entitled" to nice furniture. Are people serious???

Ok. I agree with you about he should pay up; but it isn't really salient wrt the benefits entitlement. I feel for people like tsc and Ilove, I really do.

apple i did recieve a grant of £650, which i was very pleased about. this was spent on - £400 deposit to landlord.
£250 on secondhand beds x2 for dcs and cot plus warm bedding and some cheap supermarkets clothes for them. uniform for my daughter. and one electric halogen heater brand new for £14.99 as it is freezing and damp in here.

What kind of system do we have that allows someone to decide they will wait until 2013 before they get a job.

Sorry but it is all wrong.

'Whilst I agree expat, surely the pwc is also financially responsible? Why should only one work to provide?'

Well, Happy, because the pwc is alone. The non-resident parent is not there to swap childcare with.

Childcare is not more readily available, particularly outside of larger towns and cities. It is expensive for the low-skilled, whose job opportunities also usually include shift work for which childcare is not available.

That's why.