to think i will have too much money on benefits.

[5toocoolforschool]

OK so dh and i have split up.He is staying with a friend and is finding somewhere else to live.We have 5 children.He is a relatively high earner and i have always been at home with the kids.

I have applied for everything i am entitled to (income support,child tax credits,child benefit,housing benefit, i will not have to pay any council tax- was not entitled to any of these before)

On top of this i will be receiving maintenance from Ex.

All in i will be receiving £3,300 per month!

That is only a couple of hundred less than dh gets paid.

I am porting this partly because i am sure i have missed something,should i not be getting maintenance from dh as well?Everywhere i have looked says i can.

Partly,i just think its bad.I mean i wont be claiming these forever,i have been accepted on a course (again which i wont have to pay for,which i will be given a grant for childcare)and after that i will be working again,so 3 years max.

But now i can see how easy it must be for someone to just see this as a lifestyle.

Ilove what was wrong with taking it out before the NRP was paid?

My issue isn't with the Op or anyone on benefits. Never has been, never will be. My issue is with the government. I have been pissed off with regards to the changes to child benefit, where a family with 100k can keep it if earned jointly. When I read that someone has £3300 in benefits, it made me wonder why we were considered rich that's all. My problem is not with anyone here, just this government. That's all.

That figure is huge, and for people who say well it includes rent, of course it should. The op has 5 kids, her choice, she has broken up with her partner and now the state keeps them in the manner in which they are accustomed to...

To earn that sort of money in a job we are probably talking about £55k, why would the OP do anything other than stay as she is

i think both the resident parent and non resident parents lifestyle would both dip

i doubt very much either will be living in luxury,now added is accomadation for the NRP that is not going to be cheap either

Remember there is a limit on how much savings you can have before getting any help.

in answer to me declaring babysitting of £40, its not my child doing it its me and as its income I tell the tax credits people so my benefits go down slightly, but as maintenance isnt counted as income if I got £250 a week maintenance my benefits wouldn't be affected

jacks I understand that. I know it was shit for a long time and I agree that was wrong.

I am saying the benefits should be paid out to the RP, end of. But the NRP maintenance should go 'into' the pot until is covers the benefits paid out to to the RP. End of each financial year make a payout to the RP of anything over the benefit level.

I think it's unfair that some only get benefits and some get benefits and maintenance. Why should the state fund unnecessary benefits?

Ilove what was wrong with taking it out before the NRP was paid?

sorry are you saying pay the Goverment before the NRP gets paid,like an attachment of earnings

sorry it's been a long and engrossing thread

I pmsl at the things some people get jealous of I really do

Handcream - yes 'breaking up' with her husband was obviously 100% her fault and totally one sided

ssd

ok i see it's for tax credit purposes

sorry but i wouldnt declare it,morally wrong but i wouldnt

and i dont think i would be the only one

So should benefits be such that they keep people poor?

They're a safety net not a punishment.

I would expect benefits to enable someone to have a basic but decent standard of living with incentives to look for work.

However saying they should be cut ignores the fact that living costs and childcare.costs are such that it is difficult to get a good enough job and childcare.

Childcare needs.to be subsidised and improved. Housing needs.to be affordable - which generally means rent control or social housing. House prices aren't coming down anytime soon.

You cannot escape the fact.that the state needs to step in because "pure capitalism" (which doesn't exist hence bank bailouts) doesn't work. Capitalism and socialism are economic theories not realities.

ilove yes, attachment of earnings.

Right so nrp pays say £400 a week and rp gets benefits of £300 a week but the government gets to sit on the extra for a full tax year? I can see that going down really well with everyone.

I am losing track of this. So no one at all can get more than 26k regardless of how many children they have and where in the country they are. And the 26k includes the rent?

ChippingInLatteLover

they could do that but the CSA has tried that and for less £££££ and with very poor results

i think it would be a nightmare to police and administer as many just give up their job or vanish (i have experience of this)or the real dodger is for them to go Self Employed then you stand pretty much £0 chance

basically if the CSA has had years to perfect a very similar system you suggest and are no more effective than when they started i cant see it working

Jacks there's nothing to stop the NRP paying more (over the CSA) directly to his family :)

If someone was regularly paying more, then anything over the benefit amount could 'go over' weekly.

But for asshats that pay for a few weeks, then change jobs, move away, piss about then no. Annual balance, realise the state has paid more than he's put in and nothing is due out.

I don't know. I really, really don't know what the 'right' answer is. What I do know is there are parents who are pushed to the brink because they can't get enough help from the state to live adequately or have space in the house for wheelchairs or get respite care. Yet some people are claiming the same in benefits whilst also getting maintenance and due to getting both are in a much better position and that doesn't sit right with me.

handcream

not quite,there are exemptions Disability being one but you have to be on a particular benefit eg DLA and it's probably you having to be on a certain tier of it,somebody with eperience of it will im sure add to the details

in general if your sole income is benefits and not working the benefit cap applys

im sure i will be corrected if wrong

In reality a family with five dc like the op would NOT be capped at £500
Tax credits and child benefit combined for five children is around £550 a week add on say £70 jsa and £300 a week rent.
Total benefits £920
Actual benefits received £620.50 under the current BENEFIT CAP you are NOT limited to £500 once your HB has been reduced to 50p you keep ALL rest. This will change under universal credit.

Sorry ignore that would be for ten children not five! But everything else is correct.

sorry how does your rent get reduced from £300 to 50p

MrsDV In my area of london it costs average £300 a week to rent an ordinary ex local authority house hence me living in the suburbs and missing London :(