To believe £780 month lone parent benefits income is adequate to live on.

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There's some myth busting required at last I think.

As a lone parent of two under 6, I receive a total of £780 a month in benefits:

Income Support, Child Tax Credit, Child Benefit, CSA (£5 a week).

I receive full housing benefit for a two bedroom house (£75 shortfall which has to come out of my income support, currently being paid via Housing Discretion Award) which doesnt go into mybank account, it gets paid direct to landlord, and £16 a month council tax shortfall also has to be paid out of income.

I'm on meters and gas and electric are around £20 a week each, some of which pays off accrued debt. Water is deducted directly from my income support via an 'attachment of earnings' type court order.

I don't have loans or credit cards, no landline, no satellite tele, no car, no travel expenses, no socialising costs, don't smoke, my Internet is paid for by someone else although I should have organised a bill swap ages ago and I run an old phone on £10 month contract. My other costs are regular swimming, yoga, wax salon, and I buy school uniform and children's clothing as and when required.

Childcare such as nursery (pre-school), morning and after school clubs are free to those on income support, school holiday clubs are heavily subsidised, as are school meals, dentistry, doctor's prescriptions, council run leisure centre swimming and gym classes, and many other recreation facilities.

My budgeting skills are atrocious but having recently done some sums, I actually have around £250 a month 'spare' from all benefits income. Although for the past year or two I've been constantly overdrawn by around £500 so whenever income is credited, I'm always 'one step forwards, two steps back' amd because of this will never get back in the black again.

So, with better budgeting (I don't buy a regular weekly food shop for instance, instead spend a fortune every few days buying dinners and sundries at the overpriced local Tesco Metro) I just don't understand how so many lone parents claim they can't afford to live on these same benefits.
Even if you have debts, there are features in place to reduce your debt payments to just £1 a week or even write them off altogether as a last resort.

Also, the father of my children earns thousands but fraudulently claims benefits, so he is only required to pay the minimum £2.50 a week per child direct from his benefits. Many lone mothers receive full child support which isn't deducted from their other benefits income, so can be receiving up to £800 a month on top of their benefits depending on what the chikdren's father earns. I have noticed that rarely will lone parents on benefits state this fact or include it in their income along with their complaint.

Yes, it is a struggle trying to support myself and two young children on £780 a month (but mostly because I can't get over this overdraft debt shackle) but on paper, budgeting well, it is entirely doable, and if you are frugal, you could even save a little too.

Why does the Daily Mail stereotype exist that single mothers are rolling in handouts, given the above figures? Just under £195 a week is an adequate income for one adult and two young children, surely..

780 plus rent paid for ( say min 400) so in working terms nearly £1200 take home pay after tax!! Yes I do think you should be able to live on that and have money a few extras!

I think that it's adequate to live on for a short time to tide you over. The minute you need a new sofa or you overspend I reckon you'd be stuffed.

There are a lot of unemployed in my area unfortunately our council prefers to pretend this area doesn't exist so all provisions are not local. They are focused on the more affluent areas so my local sports centre is 10 miles away.

Though I personally don't know how people cope just on income support and child benefit for 1 child, when they still have to pay quite a bit per week to their rent.

I think with the benefit system and my personal experience of speaking and going through the finances on people on benefits there is a massive difference between what people get, some people get 2k a month, don't have to pay any rent or council tax. Where other people get just income support and still have to contribute to their rent. (i know this depends on number of children, disabilities, carers allowance etc).

My DD was attending a council run nursery up until this month. I was receiving 70% of her childcare through WTC and HB included this as income. I have not heard about the 2 year funding and I work with Sure Start. The council are trying to remove subsidy for Sure Start nurseries. These will close if the plans go ahead because the places are more expensive than private nurseries. My DD's nursery was under used. There are dozens of empty places. So if that's the case then the message is not getting out there. My town is not affluent at all, with large pockets of deprivation and high unemployment. There are still no 'free' furnishing charities - you have to pay and the used goods are not cheap.

I'm sure it's doable for a very tiny minority of people. I don't for a second think that the op was asking a genuine question - I think she's encouraging this idea by many that benefits claimants live in the lap of luxury.

Excuse me though, I need to get to work so I can feed my goat.

1200 is a lot of money. Dont begrudge it but you can have a lot of extras on that here. I believe the op, same as other posts as the country varies. You can run a car, flat, phone etc on that here

Nursery provision was increased to take account of the free places for 2 year olds but it is at a nursery 5 miles away from me others are even further so accessing it isn't possible for many.

Revenger I have close links with surestart that seems very strange?

I'm confused as to the point you are trying to make. Are you saying that it's plenty or a struggle.

Without turning it into a working/ non working issue, if my sofa needed replacing or more crucially white goods or car.I'd be stuff too and it would have to go on credit card to pay off a bit at a time.

Though freecycle/ gumtree etc often have free stuff, though appreciate this is luck of the item you need being available.

Also working on the £1200 figure after tax. That's more than the national average salary! So the op should be able to manage.

A lot of single parents get stuck with a mortgage - this switches things up significantly compared to the position of an individual in an affordable rental, as the OP's is.

I was in this position for years, stuck with mortgage that would have been perfectly reasonable in work, but was crippling on benefits income. I've now managed to sell up (thanking the Lord I wasn't in negativity!) and relocated to a different, cheaper part of the country. My grim period is coming to an end at last.

Other lone parents don't manage to a achieve a long term private rental, moving costs are significant! Especially if you wind up having to move every other years like some poor souls I've met. The bedroom tax is introducing hardship all over the country for many families.

There is also the delay period to an initial claim. I haven't forgotten it took 3 months for my initial claim for IS to be processed. thankfully after years at work I had six months very frugal living costs saved, if I hadn't, (and many don't thanks to the high cost of divorce etc!) I'd have up been in real trouble, unable to feed my child with only child benefit coming in.

Just after unfaithful hubby has walked out, to take the OW for a carribean cruise is often a REALLY tough time for newly abandoned women. The existence of so many foodbanks demonstrates how the welfare state is failing many, many parents, singles and couples right now. Likewise many have awful credit card debts accrued before the relationship breakdown. It's also worth remembering that money trouble is a key CAUSE of marital splits.

However I don't think it's fair to expect the same standard of fancy lifestyle on benefits as you would have in a £50K a year job. Some people are just full of self-entitlement, bone idle and greedy iywkim and would moan they didn't have enough, even if they won the lottery. My kid expects to be clothed in Primark and accepts I can't always afford the latest consoles etc some of his friends have.

Learning to be content with what you do have is a fine art. To be fair my son is a lot more content with his ebaby bargain toys, and cheap clothes than many of his richer friends. Having to save for what he wants means he appreciates what he does have, when he gets finally gets it iyswim.

In my case I'd really appreciate it if DLA covered the cost of my child's therapies or if the state were able to provide him with an adequate education, as most families are able to take free state education for granted. Like many families the introduction of a disability has been the cause of our poverty.

Interesting topic for a first post dontcha think?

I'll check with my manager about the 2 year funding today, I'm just about to set off for my 1-2-1.

If anything, I think that education on budgeting needs to be available.

But as I pointed out, half the problem comes when agencies miscalculate your benefits. There can be huge overpayments which have to be paid back out of your benefits so you're constantly playing catch up. And the issue of never having the money available for large purchases.

I'm confused by the op too. Surely having £250 'spare' a month would mean no overdraft debt at all.

If youve just started revenger then yiu realky need to as its all we are pushing at the moment. Its all over surestart I am shocked your working with them and dont know about it as its all over all the LAs I have seen.

why don't you report the father of the children for fraud? He's stealing from the rest of us.

Annie my local surestart isn't pushing the 2year old funding but thats because they have no spare places. There isn't enough provision locally.

Revenger said they have lots of places but are just not telling anyone?

Must be nice to get so much for nothing.

Just reread revengers post it's her daughters council run nursery that has spaces the comment about surestart nursery was that the council was trying to cut the subsidy which would make it uneconomic

So 780 plus rent, council tax, childcare etc paid on your behalf is about 1500 tax free a month. Yep, don't think I would struggle on that. Why are you claiming a housing discretion award if you have a spare 250 a month? Can't you pay the extra out of that? Seems like you are rolling in cash. I earned 1500 after tax when I worked a full time demanding professional job.

I think this thread is perpetuating the myth that people on benefits have loads of cash as you seem to have tons of it.

You can get this at any nursery though privat, council, surestart or not. Most of our towns many nurseries had plenty of spaces but since Sept they are now all full

Objection

It may have already been said and I may have misunderstood but if you have a "spare" £250 of benefit money each month then surely that would pay off your overdraft in two months and then accrue savings?

I asked op that upthread, and she admitted its because she's bad with money.

All our nurseries were full before september. The provision in the borough is adequate but not in this local area and accessing the spaces there are is expensive on transport.

I'm really not impressed with this thread. It gives an impression of one case. Only one and when you go on and read further, she's still in overdraft each month.
As for the smug, I get this free, I get that free, well why don't you use the resources you so obviously have to help those less able instead of coming on here and saying yes, benefits are too much because I manage despite being overdrawn each month. And yes I've read the whole thing.

It has got teething issues Jack but more settings are opening or expanding behind the scenes and soon there will be places. Its been a panic as there have been such a large amount of extra places needed and it was impossible to do it quick enough unfortunately.