AIBU for wondering how many people on here will be affected by the £500pw benefits cap next year?

[lostgal]

I'm just wondering if there are really people/households who actually receive more than £500 per week in benefits who will actually be affected?

If so, how big an impact will this be on your life?

No, I am not a troll, just genuinely curious to see how common it is and how badly it is likely to affect vulnerable people in our society?

People are likely to lose council tax benefit too - even if they are well under the cap.

£500pw is a lot of money. It might affect some people who have found themselves needing benefits for understandable reasons, but there has to be a limit somewhere.

And it wouldn't have a massive affect on anyone if they only had one or two children, except in very expensive areas. People need to realise that having lots of children is a risk they take that is their own responsibilty. If you want to be able to fall back on the state if hard times hit, then you have to be reasonable about how much you can get. You can't make a descison to have four children and then complain when a very normal thing like redundancy happens because you aren't being given enough money to support the family you chose to have.

I fully support the safety net that is the welfare state, but putting a cap on benefits is the only way to ensure that it doesn't continue to be a lifestyle choice.

I (roughly) get
£280 CTC
£63 DLA for DS
£60 CB
£59 Carers
£85 Income Support
£80 housing benefit
£20 Council Tax benefit
£647 a week

That is for a family of 6, 1 dc severley disabled, no parents working as I am a student and dp cares for the 2 little dc's.
We are in a council house which costs the govt half as much as the 3 bed hb rate. If we were to lose £147 a week then we would seriously struggle, especially as I have to pay for my course.

Thankyou olgaga just read your link and saw this

Notes to editors:

1. The benefit cap will not apply to households where a person, their partner, any children they are responsible for and who live with them, qualify for Working Tax Credit or receive any of the following benefits:

Disability Living Allowance Personal Independence Payment Attendance Allowance Constant Attendance Allowance Employment and Support Allowance, if paid with the support component War Widows or Widower's Pension Industrial Injuries Benefit

This is a huge relief for thousands of households with disabled children who have had to give up work to provide care for them and have then missed out on the chance to be in better paid work.
You are also exempt if you get WTC as that is rewarding workers.

I think the government are taking the piss with this. How am I supposed to afford my fags on less than £500 a week?I will have to cancel Sky and the plasma screen TV will have to go back to Brighthouse. It costs me £30 a night to feed my kids, Dominos pizzas don't come cheap you know. Nor do nights out clubbing. Some of those politicians need to release how the other half lives!

Do people seriously get over £500 a week in benefits?????

Unbelieveable!

Oh here we go...

Read the thread!

The cap on its own is pretty meaningless as very few people (though some will be adversely affected) are getting that amount but it is a very smart move for the Government as it gets the voters tutting and sucking their teeth about benefit scroungers luxuriating on £500 a week benefits while 'hard working families' are struggling.

Meanwhile the real work - 'Universal Benefits', cutting help to the young, HB caps restricting housing choice and opportunities (not to mention encouraging the ghettoisation of the poor) welfare to work and a myriad other schemes continues with slightly better PR as a result.

Yawn....I do wonder if you benefit bashing, plasma screen welding people are just utterly stupid or plain ignorant.

Exactly. There are 3 examples on this thread of 'normal' benefit situations/amounts. None of them come to £500.

As a family, we would not receive anything except for CB, even if only DH worked. His income is LESS than £500 net per week, and the CB would not make it up to that amount. We have mortgage, bills etc to pay too. Our bills are smaller because we don't live in a big house (think small flat). We won't be able to have a 2 bed flat even until this baby is at least 5 and we have saved for a big enough deposit to move, as the max mortgage we'd get between us wouldn't get us anywhere. So when he's old enough to need his own room, we'll be moving into the living room and will get a sofa bed. Even when we get a 2 bed flat, that'll be the max we can afford, ever - so if we have two dcs and they're opposite sexes, we'll be resigned to the sofa bed for ever pretty much. That's how WORKING families cope. £26000 net per year is a pretty decent wage for most people....

Why don't you receive child tax credit?

YANBU. £500 a week is a lot of money I dont understand how anyone can say otherwise. I dont know who it would affect unfairly other than blended families. The only thing i can think is that a large proportion of this is hb, in which case I don't think its unreasonable to expect those who are over the £500 limit (and my understanding it is only those who are not receiving wtc, i.e. not working 16+ hours that are affected by this) to move somewhere cheaper.

Isn't this what everyone else (those working 16+ hours) does, live within their mean?

Is this one of these MN conundrums where £500 benefits cap is restrictive and unfair, but eqully if £500 is your take home pay you should just be grateful you earn that much!

It's not nearly as straightforward as a limit that won't affect anyone getting less than £500 per week, though. Frothy posted an interesting link that got hidden at the bottom of page 2.

If DS wasn't disabled then we would 'lose' about £200 per week, DLA, CA and the disabled element of CTC. That would put us as a large family just under the £500 cap.
If you are lucky enough to live in affordable housing then you should be ok, unfortunately there isn't much affordable housing. Even HA rents can be double a council houses rent which would push us over the £500 cap

titty even if you work 16+ hours a week but on low income you can get hb?

and how exactly will moving fuuther away from jobs and increased travel costs help?

and how do those on housing benefit and low incomes afford first months rent and deposit up front? as well as moving costs?

and even if they move somewhere cheaper then there HB would be less, but they would still have to pay same top up rent as LHA would be less in cheaper areas as well?

I top up my HB by £126 each month. I live in the SE where you could probably rent a shed with the local housing allowance.

The whole £500 cap is a red herring. Most non working families do not get £500 a month. It's a good soundbite though and gets everyone jumping up and down about lazy benefit scroungers.

It only works as a good sound bite because most people don't think it's right that anyone is given that much money in benefits. And because there is a perception, often true, that you recieve more money with each child you have.

As has been said, the majority don't get that much, so where's the problem?

I am interested in how the "bedroom tax" as they are calling it is going to work. What if a family has a child at university, they are away half the year but still need their bedroom in the holidays, I know you aren't allowed to claim benefits as such for children at uni so does that mean they will they lose their bedroom entitlement too?

Over 18 they wouldn't count I don't think?

Why does someone at university need their own room all year round in the family home, mrsscoob? Why can't they sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge / bunk bed with a younger sibling?

Yes that was what I was thinking but if someone is renting a 3 bedroom house has say an 8 year old in one room and a child of 19 who spends part of the time at uni in the other then does that then wouldn't be able to claim full rent even though the 19 year old would still need a bedroom. Seems unfair.

I don't claim housing benefit I was just wondering out of interest. I have a son at uni he has been at home since June, the thought of him having to sleep on the sofa (oh the smell in my lounge )or share a room with his 5 year old brother fills me will horror!!!

He would not be included.