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AIBU?

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

786 replies

goldfacegreen · 13/01/2014 00:48

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..

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HereIsMee · 13/01/2014 01:42

When DS was younger and I was on benefits budgeting wasn't much of a problem. I tended to get exhausted dealing with ridiculous attitudes and often didn't have the energy to jump through hoops. I did the frugal thing like you do but spent a lot in childcare, treatments for myself that should have been free on the NHS, specialist shoes and glasses for DS and transport as I was determined to get off of benefits as I found it frustrating waiting for things that never came. I also subsidised DS's education as he was struggling. We only got cable when DS's dad was being a prat but it's a long story. At the time there was no child support either and when you got it it was counted as income.

Interestingly changing positions from unemployed to student to employee to self employed and then both employed and self employed means that I didn't always get benefits but people of always assume with lone parents that you do so get annoyed about what they think your circumstances are. Over the past few years I've watched all my emails get taken over and constantly hacked and my mail was repeatedly stolen whilst trying to start up and no one really lifted a finger not even the police because they didn't really understand that it was my sole income. They assume a magical payment that I really wouldn't be entitled to.