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

[goldfacegreen]

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..

Gold you have been on benefits for a long time and started under a very different system. Let me tell you what it was like for me when my oh walked out. We didn't qualify for any benefits it was just his wage. I had been doing a temp job but that ended and since I was planning on being a sahm it wasn't an issue, we were fine on the one wage. When he left he left me with nothing money wise so I had to apply for is, then ctc and It takes forever, can't apply at my local jc so it's a phone up job. It takes weeks if not months to sort out inthe meantime all I had was cb and that barely covered food and bus fares for the dc to attend school. It took from late september till january to get everything sorted out finance wise. Christmas was saved that year by a very luckily timed tax rebate. It was far from easy. No reduced gym classes in this area, no school uniform grants, getting free school bus passes takes time and again costs money. I never want to have to rely on benefits ever again as it was a living hell.

Those of you on this thread disparaging our benefits system, calling for "crackdowns" etc (new buzzword or what?) are welcome to come with me when I return to Uganda and see how it is when you don't have a welfare system.

I am a lone parent on benefits, I get by. I won't be on benefits forever and have worked prior to this since I was 16. In Uganda many people I know have lost their children, and no, not to social services, because they cannot afford healthcare or adequate food. A friend gave birth yesterday and both almost died because there are no ambulances. She is a first time mother who can't afford to buy nappies and there is nobody to pick up the slack. I will never ever have to worry about something so small as buying nappies for my son, thanks to our welfare system.

My stepdad is a higher rate tax payer and thinks himself lucky to earn enough to pay the higher rate. He chooses to focus on what he has rather than what others have.

I really am tired of all these smug shitbags who think that the poor should live at subsistence, outsider level, humbly grateful for a diet of bread and water and a sack to wrap themselves in, indefinitely. One day it could be you, you know.

YES, YES, and YES!

I will add that the correct terms for 'benefits' and 'welfare' are Social Security and National Insurance. Having been on benefits for ten years, I still haven't received as much as I paid into the nation's insurance, just as I haven't claimed on my contents insurance.

It's not a bloody savings scheme, it's a nationwide insurance policy FFS. And, how secure do you reckon life in the UK would be, if we had vast swathes of starving & destitute residents, with no prospect of income?

omuwalamulungi Such contrasts are something I am personally acutely aware of.
Which is why I am grateful for, as Garlic rightly corrects, the social security and national insurance our government maintains.
I was happy to pay my taxes before to contribute to this and will be happy to pay them again when I find work.

I just don't understand how so many lone parents claim they can't afford to live on these same benefits

^^ that is from your OP. The real reason you started this thread. I think exactly the same as Revenger If it was the case then that wouldn't have been said.

SP Exactly what I just came back to say.

"If I can manage so should they" Well no because everybody has different circumstances.

That's why it's an open ended question, SP. Im inviting views, which is exactly what has happened.
Along with Revenger, you've been determined to turn this into a benefits bashing thread from page 1, and it hasn't worked out that way for you. I'm sorry, but that isn't my intention. If that's what you pander for, perhaps you need to start your own bunfight elsewhere?

What exactly WAS your intention? Why did you imagine a seemingly boastful thread about how well off you are benefits was going to go? Waxing, Yoga? I think you knew exactly how incendiary it was going to be. It's fine by the way, I think some great points have been made on this thread and I hope that some of the haters are feeling a bit silly now. I do think you must have been aware how it was going to go though.

The only person who is consistently claiming that benefits are more than generous is you gold. Benefit bashing is when you state people receiving benefits don't deserve or need what they get.

omuwala I just cannot imagine what you have described. I know it is true but it is unimaginable to me having grown up here. You are right to point out what happens when people are left with no safety net. We don't know we're born in this country.

Omuwal Ive been telling people this for years. I firmly believe anyone who opposes the benefits system should go and live in a country which doesnt have one.

Where my friend comes from some parts are so bad, so poverty stricken, no help at all that they will kill you where you stand if it means eating for a few days.

But they never listen.

How the fuck have we tried to turn it into a benefit bashing thread? I'm on the basterds myself!

What we have done is point out that your intentions were not as you suddenly state. You wanted the bashers to turn up when you started it and they didn't straight away.

(go and live for a bit anyway, im not into banishing people forever, but they should see the reality)

Slight thread hijack SPsMrLoverManSHABBA best of luck for tomorrow.

Seriously check the letter that gave you the DHF payments most are not 12 months most are 3 months and they tend not to tell you when it stops or that you need to reapply.

If your a 3 month one you could get into even more debt

Ah yes, that's the other problem with the current war on the poor. In a climate of deliberately fostered inequality, the crime rate's going to start creeping up. There's going to come a point whereupon a larger-than-before percentage of people who have nothing, whose children are crying with hunger, and who are constantly being told they are undeserving scum and their misery is all their own fault while bankers' bonuses continue to rise and more and more gated estates and 'executive homés' are built, and previously public spaces hire security companies to keep out those who look a bit skint, and large corporations make even more money by sacking paid staff and replacing them with serfs on workfare... these people will start to consider a bit of burglary or shoplifting to be natural justice.

The problem is, unless it has happened to you, there are far too many people who convince themselves that they will never be in a position to rely on benefits. And therefore they don't care about those who are and bury their head in the sand by convincing themselves that it is somehow the fault of the claimant, and that they could reverse their misfortune if they were so inclined. But for those of us in that position, we know just how close all of us are to needing to rely on the safety net.

My DSis has travelled. She saw one man stoned to death in the street for stealing. He was probably desperate and it pushed him to risk it. The way benefits bashers talk, you'd think they want the same here.

Op, all I (and I think others) have tried to do, is dispel the damaging fallacies you are perpetuating with this thread, that there are handouts galore just waiting to be thrown at every LP on benefits. You mention later in the thread that you realise much of the help you receive is not advertised as it should be. Why not mention this in your op?

Right from the start there has been confusion surrounding your op. Are you saying it's a struggle or adequate? You actually say both. Reading between the lines, I think you were stealth boating about how brilliant you are for 'managing' so well and going without to do this. I think you wanted a pat on the back from all the would be benefits bashers who'd say that you are a better class of claimant because you are able to manage so admirably. Now you are seeking work do you suddenly feel like you are better than your average scrounger? I think you're trying to mark yourself apart from the daily mail stereotype. Really, I'm pleased for you that you're doing ok given your situation if that is the case. However, as I've pointed out, the evidence is there to suggest you are not coping on benefits as well as you say.

I'd just like to wish SP the very best of luck for tomorrow too .

Revenger

What a lot of garbage, seriously .

'You want benefit bashes to turn up to this thread'
'You think you're a better class of scrounger'

Nothing you can do is going to turn this into a benefit bashing thread, you need to start your own one, I'm afraid, I'm not pandering to it.

I was being tongue in cheek. Sorry if that didn't come across .

So why did you start the thread? Are you struggling or not? You seem to dodge that question whenever it is asked.

What the actual fuck? Goldface are you on crack or something? How on earth can you accuse revenger or SP of bashing.

Also, please read my full replies. You only ever focus in on the last couple of lines as well as confusing me with other posters .

Because I do dizzy.I wouldn't post if it wasn't something well known!The fact is it is and it's done due to trying to feel equal and better about themselves.

I've no idea if I'm struggling or not, Revenger, that's the 'point' if any, of starting a thread declaring my benefits income. To invite views.

You have accused me all constantly a,ong with SP, of trying to rouse benefit bashers to the thread, suggesting the subject is controversial. Well of course it is. However, as I previously stated if I wanted a bunfight, I've been on the site enough years to know where and how to orchestrate one.

This isn't one.

If you have specific questions that I keep 'dodging' it may be because I've missed them. If you want to ask me questions, please list them, Iquite happy to answer :)

Zebra Because both of them have complained I wrote the OP specifically in order to attract BBs (may as well abbreviate it now it's used so much [big grin].

Invite views about what though? That benefits are too generous in the uk? That the DM stereotype doesn't exist? That if you can cope then why can't others?

I've found the whole thread highly confusing and it seems like you change your answer to suit whatever point you're trying to make.

Fwiw, I think it's an interesting topic. However, I still think the way you went about it and your op was suggestive of a motive other than a simple discussion on the topic. I just can't imagine working an op that was as 'loaded' as yours if I was hoping to invite unbiased views.