AIBU to think I would be better off on benefits

[parno]

I know I am going to get flamed and I promise I am not a Daily Mail reader, just really cross and a trifle pissed off......however.......

I have just read letter from DD's school advising that this coming school year they will be setting a budget for school trips - £30 pr yr. Parents whose kids are on free school meals do not have to contribute a bean, plus get packed lunches provided when off on trips. It got me thinking. I work full time and earn just over £20k. Get a little bit of maintenance for 2 DC plus a bit of CTC to put towards childcare. However I went on line and filled in the Direct Gov benefits caluculator (not much on tv until Wallander comes on).

It told me very proudly that I would be entitled to over £415 approx per week or £1800 approx pcmonth. That doesn't take into account Council Tax Benefit, free schol meals, money towards uniforms either. I take home about £1300 pcm but have to pay rent and CT out of that. I would effectively be about

I just don't understand why I have spent the last 13 yrs working F/T in order to amke ends meet, missing out spending time with my DC and generally meeting my arse on the way back round every single day.

Have I got this wrong? Is my maths really roobash? Am I turning into Katie Hopkins? Please shout at me and stop me being so right wing.

watermargin Don't forget to sell your house as well then you won't have to pay any care costs at a later date either.

i know you wernt parno and its not actually your fault that the calculator works the way it does,i have a sneeking thought that they do it intentionally to encourage convos like this because it all contributes to class bashing

if you sell your house and give the money to the children so you're penniless and jobless what happens then?

I believe thats called deprivation of capital.

sorry but i hjave to say this

but will nobody think of the children

there was apsolutly no point in that but ive always wanted to do it

accuracy you live in a shoe

I absolutely don't think that anybody's benefits should add up to more than anybody's full time working wage plus tax credits/child benefit etc. Equal would be fine but it should never pay not to work. For that system to work childcare for workers would have to be free but I think that would be a very good thing!

However, I'm not convinced that it is possible to be better off on benefits.

I'll admit to not knowing many people on (unemployment) benefits but the two people I do know are really struggling.

One is a single woman with no children. She is a homeowner so has a mortgage and therefore no council help with housing. She is on JSA only and says she gets £70 a week. For everything!

The other is a single mum with three children. I think she's on approximately £18000 which is certainly manageable but hardly a walk in the park. And I doubt many working mums of three are on less than that when you add everything up.

isn't deprivation of capital just for care fees, what about social security

No i think that rule is used for benefits too.

i am on jsa till next month when i start back to work, at the moment i get £71 a week jsa, housing benefit which is £50 a month short on my rent, and council tax benefit so after rent shortage i live on £59 a week to pay all my bills, clothes and food, i have just roughly worked out how much i will have to live on 40 hours a week work and if i dont get wtc i will be £20 a week better off than i am now but i will be working , paying tax and so much happier than being stuck at home on my own deciding wether i can eat this week or put the heating on

does the 1300 include your ctc and maintenance?

ok this is all a week

71 income support
165 c tax credit
45 c benefit
25 ctb
30 school dinners
170 hb allowance (i do not get this as im morgage free,but this figure is to show local allowance for property)

so basic amount for mum and three dcs a week (no SN for any)

then

80 a week maintanance (first payment should be next week,fingers crossed)
help towards school trips
perscriptions,dentist
40 every other year school uniform x 3
help through local council if grants avaliable,longg list for home improvements,owner occuppier NOT as easy as it sounds
120 a year from energy supplier (but wont get this year as child over 5)
healthy start voucher approx£3.20 dont get anymore as mine are over 5 yrs old

so i do believe the ops figures

also if lone parent recieves maintanance swells the benefit figures

and yes i do think some claimants are level pegging with some workers

and these figures are a personal fact not of a benefit calculator

Katherine how is it an inaccuracy - IS is a benefit given to lone parents with children under school age, I think I know how old my own child is (3 weeks) so another five years before I need to start thinking about getting a job.

Benefits for childless people are stingy and not fun at all but with a child or two - its lucrative enough.

What people forget is: Child benefit is taken off income support as 'money you already have coming in'. So the figures above are inaccurate with regards to what you actually get in your hand. HB is also taken off as 'money we pay out for you'. Again, not actually in hand. Same with free school dinners, a form is filled in and sent to the council, nobody actually exchanges cash.
Having been on benefits with three disabled dcs, very recently, I can assure you that I did not get £500 a week.

Hold benefit is NOT taken off

water income support is NOT a lone parent benefit, many other people claim it for other reasons.

*child

I'm pretty sure if you only earn £250 a week you would be entitled to housing benefit, have you tried claiming that OP? When I did the entitled to calculation on a similar wage it told me I would get HB.

my figures

child benefit is cash
so is is
so is tax credit

roughly £280-290 cash weekly

maintanance on top (if i actually see it)

You do not lose your child benefit. HOWEVER, the amount you receive is taken off what you receive from DWP as it is counted as 'money you already have coming in. So, for example, if the benefits calculator quotes you 185 pw. DWP would give you 145 pw. (figures pulled from thin air as an example) because you already have the 40 quid coming in.

I could be bitter and twisted about all of you receiving 15 hrs a week childcare from 3 yrs.
All of you regardless of income.
Some of us had to work for that you know.
Yet I hear people moaning its not enough all the time.
The ones moaning are not on benefits btw.

It's ok to be entitled as long as you have more money than benefit scum though isn't it?

And FYI op if you think selling you house so you don't have to pay for your care, you do realise that as an grown up, elderly woman, you will be given £20 pocket money a week for the rest of your life don't you?

It's such fun being poor.

i am on benifits two children 3 n 6 i get full rent (80 a week) paid council tax. but money wise i get 210 a week. which at a figure sounds alot. but when it come down to it, it doesnt go far at all, after food bills, then theres need for clothes school stuff. some weeks i have to rob peter to pay paul. i recieve no child mainternace, and have to pay back the council 80 a month for a loan that i HAD to get out because i had NOTHING when i moved from a fully furnished privet rent into a council place.

not every one is living it up on benifits, i would not envuy it. you really are scrapping by, not to mention the gut wrenching non excisting self worth you have.

the day i get a job i will cry with happness.

Not all jobs give you the sense of the satisfaction that is being raved on about in this thread. Esp if you have to fit your hours around your partners

I worked 6pm-10pm when dd1 was born and I can quite honestly say I hated it. I did all the housework, errands, childcare, cooking, 'entertaining' dd1 (playgroups etc) And then when dd1 went to bed, I went to work.

My sense of 'self worth' was pretty low at that point in my life.

If you have a wage that can afford FT childcare, so someone else looks after your child, then life would be easier and work could be fulfilling. But not everyone can afford that. And there is a distinction between the sense of 'self worth' of those who can and those that can't.

Not benefit related I know, but I thought I would add a counter argument to the comments that all work is wonderful and rewarding.

Why so bitter mrs dv

you dont' know who the ones moaning are, they might be on benefits and they might be paying, or they might just be pointing out a few facts

and yes, i think it's ok to feel entitled to have more money than someone who doesn't work, why not, you're working for it

Parno, your benefits figures don't look right to me. I will also point out that you are currently receiving child tax credit and child benefit which are both benefits.

We are currently on benefits - per month approx:

child benefit 130
child tax credit 430
JSA 400
Council tax benefit 80
Mortgage assistance 80

So that is - 1120 or £280 a week for 4 people.