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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think I would be better off on benefits

320 replies

parno · 15/07/2012 21:04

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.

OP posts:
DeliaRose · 15/07/2012 23:07

I don't usually get involved in these, but the last comment

"there is not a chance in hell that you would be better off on unemployment benefits."

When I was a working single mother I had the job centre lady/benefits person (official title I can't remember) come to do a home check... to make sure I wasn't in fact married to a millionaire, or something, natch... I was informed that I would in fact be better of if I were to stop working.

So, yeah.

KatherineKavanagh · 15/07/2012 23:10

socknickingpixie that's it,wipe the floor with the op and her claims.....Grin

Serendipity30 · 15/07/2012 23:12

Socknickingpixie well said Smile

Serendipity30 · 15/07/2012 23:12

DeliaRose Really then try it.

AKE2012 · 15/07/2012 23:16

I am not better off on benefits & i hope i am not on them for much longer. Its horrible being on benefits. I know some people choose to be but i dont see why you would want to.

NowThenWreck · 15/07/2012 23:16

ProPerformer

"NowThenWreck hubby's job is well paid enough to live on, not for luxury..... But I was more meaning if I was a single parent.... Even FT with my job and the cost of local nursaries I'd only have about £40 a week! (term time only job) "

If you were a lone parent and were left with £40 a week, you would get that topped up with Child Tax Credit. You may also get some tax credits towards the childcare cost.
You would, however, also be responsible for 100% of the rent/mortgage, Gas bill, water bill, cost of holidays, school uniform, food, and council tax though so I don't recommend it!

DeliaRose · 15/07/2012 23:17

sheera Hmm £10 a week apparently, so not really worth it, I quite enjoyed my job. As it happens I'm in a situation now where I can't afford to work. I have a working DH and three children and can't get a job that pays enough to cover childcare + cut to tax credits, so I suppose I am 'trying it'?

NowThenWreck · 15/07/2012 23:18

Are you married watermargin? Because that person who is "better off than you" is probably paying for all of the above and more.
I imagine your partner chips in somewhat to your families living costs?

carernotasaint · 15/07/2012 23:19

no life on benefits doesn't make you a millionaire. but it doesn't make you poverty-stricken and starving either.

Watermargin 32 people have died after being found fit for work when they wernt.
ESA contributory has now been limited to one year. So someone with cancer .......well tough shit if you dont get better within 12 months.
Watermargin your comments are a bloody good example of my post upthread.

Socknickingpixie · 15/07/2012 23:26

sorry but she did it wrong they often do there only really admin staff and the actual calculations get worked out else where or perhaps she didnt take into acc the tax credit premium for working and the hb one or work ass costs deductions.
its possible in therory that you may be better off working lower hours as long as you dont go below 16 but you wont be better off compleatly not working. its possible that she worked out that you were only going to be £25 pw better off (thats the lowest possible ammount you could be due to the working disregard) and you both agreed that paying £20 pw school dinners made it not worth the £5 pw better off you would be.
or its possible that this was under the old system befor working tax credits were introduced to replace the old working top up i forget what it was called or befor hb disregarded childcare costs.

if your not at least £25 pw better off than you would be if unemployed then you are not reciving all the things you are entitled to at the correct rate

Original poster
parno · 15/07/2012 23:26

The Local Authority where I live does still have school clothing grants,possibly the last one in the country by the sounds of it.

Don't wipe the floor with me, wipe the floor with the benefit calculator. That is where I got my figures from. I am not talking about low income working I am talking about being on JSA so there are no disregards, more than likely to include passported benefits.

Both calculations - working and non working included mtce. So if I disregarded it from one calculation I would have to disregard it from the other therefore leaving me with effectively the same amount of income coming into the house.

It's been fun but off to bed now. Good night.

OP posts:
KatherineKavanagh · 15/07/2012 23:29

Yes but you make the benefit calculation look more by including it! Making it more inflammatory

Serendipity30 · 15/07/2012 23:32

AKE2012 you are seriously giving me the heebie jeebies.

watermargin · 15/07/2012 23:32

have you ever thought carer that maybe people with cancer would be better off if the benefits weren't so generous for people who can work but choose not to?

nowthenwreck no, I'm not married. I'm a single parent.

AKE2012 · 15/07/2012 23:35

Our council do free school meals & clothing grants. You can get them if u claim CTC so its not jus the unemployed who get handouts. Although those working hav already paid with their taxes. I will say it b4 someone else does. You dont get much more free on benefits.

KatherineKavanagh · 15/07/2012 23:36

water do you honestly think the government would pass on any savings from those claimants who 'choose not to work' onto cancer patients??

AKE2012 · 15/07/2012 23:36

@shera why am i giving you the heebie jeebies?

Original poster
parno · 15/07/2012 23:40

I included mtce because the calculator prompted me to, not because I was trying to over inflate the figures!! The figures I gave are exactly what the on line calculator gave me.

Tax credits were formally known as Family credit.

OP posts:
watermargin · 15/07/2012 23:41

katherine - but they should, really shouldn't they? the point is it isn't a bottomless pit. benefits for certain sections of society are generous. we can sit here and argue otherwise, but £300-500 p/w, when you aren't working, is a lot of money, it's certainly comparable to what many people employed in FT work get and is actually more than many people earn.

and as such it does introduce a blase attitude with "well, we can't afford childcare costs for two children so we'll claim benefits" without thinking "can we afford DC2 yet?"

that is wrong. if people are not getting the healthcare they should get and if cancer patients are being shortchanged, that is wrong, I am not saying we should see people starve but what I am saying is that there is a bit of a gap between "starving" and "taking home £300 p/w."

ok, provide the basics - food and shelter - beyond that people need to take some responsibility themselves, imo :) sorry if people don't like it, it isn't an attack on anyone personally but I think it's about time people realised the benefits system in this country is very generous.

youjusthaventearnedityetbaby · 15/07/2012 23:41

YABU.
You are assuming OP that all lone parents do not contribute towards school trips.
I do. I budget for it. My DS has never been offered a free packed lunch on a school trip.
My area does not have school clothing grants.
Do you like your job?
If you don't like your job you could always resign and be so much better off?
It's fabulous being a single mum isn't it? Your confidence is shattered left right and centre. Then you get made to feel even more inadequate by another single mum.
Thanks for that!

carernotasaint · 15/07/2012 23:43

The people Who can work but choose not to?
This has got absolutely fucking nothing to do with people who are ill.
People dont choose to be ill you know.
How would you like it if the system turned around and said to you Well you chose to have your kids, you made that lifestyle choice so you dont get any Child Benefit. Funny how Child Benefit isnt seen in the same light!
And people with cancer and disabled people would be much better off if the gutter press didnt print absolute crap about them e. g. the initimation that DLA is an out of work benefit when its NOT.
Disability hate crime has increased ten fold since this Gov. got into power . That is NOT a coincidence.

KatherineKavanagh · 15/07/2012 23:44

water have the government stated where any of the cuts savings they have made actually gone?

KatherineKavanagh · 15/07/2012 23:45

carer it's threads like these that don't help....

watermargin · 15/07/2012 23:46

ohfor goodness sake - I didn't mention ill people. I would happily pay more tax if I thought it supported those who were genuinely ill.

Some people are more than capable of getting a job but choose not to. I know them, I work alongside them (not my colleagues! the people I work with in my line of work.) No, they aren't all scroungers and scum, but they aren't all saints and martyrs either and plenty of them are very savvy at playing the system. and not a cancer patient amongst them!

carernotasaint · 15/07/2012 23:46

At least the attitude shown by Watermargin on this thread backs up my first post on it beautifully.