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.

I would ask Mnhq to edit your title. It's just going to attract people bellowing on about benefits being the life of Riley, flat screen TV etc etc.

You have your figures wrong, if no dla/pip your benefits will be capped at £500 a week. I agree Xdh should pay maintenance but this part of your income is not coming from benefits.

Your initial post is wrong but the benefit bashers won't care about that. Shite like this is just misinformation feeding the daily mail type readers.

I'm afraid to say, I think you're being worryingly naive here, and I don't think it's going to be quite the life of luxury you anticipate.

You say you've been accepted on to a course - 3 years it seems from your OP. What sort of three year course is 'free', with free childcare for five children thrown in? I'm not doubting you, I'm just really interested to know if such a thing exists. You are confident that at the end of it you will be working - however, there are thousands of new graduates around who are unable to secure work, and most of them are childless, and able to mobilise around the country. You won't have that freedom. Also, you say you've been a SAHM all the time you've had the dcs, so maybe about eight years? So, by the time you qualify, you'll have been more than a decade out of the workplace, you'll find it near enough impossible to travel for work, you'll need to find flexible working hours and understanding employers, and hope to be in the running for jobs which earn you enough to cover childcare for five kids. It's not easy!

Sorry to sound negative, I have no reason to hope that you fall flat on your face! Just please don't peddle nonsense that life for a lone parent on benefits is a walk in the park.

And for these lovely daily mail type readers, just a reminder that carers allowance is £61.35 a week.

61.35 a week. For people that have had to give up work to care for a disabled loved one, this is how much you are worth to the government, who by the way, you are saving a fortune by providing this care.

THAT can be frothed over quite rightly in my book!

it wont be free childcare for 5,it free for the 2 babies.older ones will go to afterschool club til 4.30.its in hair and beauty.Will most likely do mobile,rent a chair,start my own business,who knows?

Im not peddling nonsense,if you read the thread you will see i was misinformed about the cap.Still,before the cap people on my position would of been on this much.Like others said i think its down to how much help you get (financially,practically and emotionally ) from your ex.

I dont have low housing costs my rent is 1200 a month.I would of thought that is relatively high.

I don’t know,what’s wrong with the way and the thread title?Im just being honest,i don’t think it comes across goady as a few people have said.

'too much' money is pretty definite.

It seems a strange choice of words as opposed to 'rather a lot' 'surprisingly generous' 'more than adequate' or similar.

'too much' for what anyway? For your needs? Politically?

As a PP says, it will attract both a DM crowd and goadiness accusations.

Are you the lady that dh wanted you to homeschool the dcs?

I don't get how you could afford nearly £2k in rent on exdh salary with 5 dcs?

Oh sorry i see its £1200, still a big chunk

OK, so you're getting about £1000 a month that goes straight to your landlord because you live somewhere very expensive. You're also getting about £1000 of what you say you will receive from your ex, rather than it being benefits. Those two should obviously be subtracted before you start claiming that's what you're getting from benefits! So what you will actually get from the state (rather than council to prevent them needing to rehouse you at greater expense) is about £1200 per month for you and 5 kids. That's less than my pay and I have two kids, and I'm quite far off being comfortable in income. I think you probably need to be a bit more sensible about this and not generalize from your very fortunate situation to other people who do not have rich (ex)husbands.

Well, irrelevant now then. But this does mean I was given wrong advice for 3 months re. Child Benefit. That's bloody irritating.

Woodlice the £1,200 paid by the gov is still benefit

So you believed someone who said you would receive £1239 (£286 x 52/12) per month housing benefit for rent of £1195 per month

I call bullshit

£500 per week in benefits will not go far with your rent at £1200! HB do not pay full rent anymore, they will only pay out what your bedroom entitlement is and this is based on DC's sharing.
My rent is £445 per month which is cheap for private rents around here. My HB is £98 per week so i have no choice but to top up. There is only me and DS living here, it's an old, cold house where you have to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom. We have a damp cellar and damp kitchen. We are not living in luxury, you are very lucky to get so much in maintenance from your ex.
I have only been out of work for one year, DS is disabled and it is difficult to get work to fit in with his school and lack of childcare. Very few private landlords round here will rent to anyone on benefits so i am trapped.

My first marriage ended in the early 90's when our dd was just 2. he was told to pay me £134 a month, which then came off any income support I had. He then decided that he shouldn't have to pay me anything so left work and sat on the dole until dd was 18... The CSA as it was then were hopeless and never even contacted me nor did I bother with them as it would have been a waste of time with him refusing to work ( you could pretty much do that then!)

On the other hand, I had all my rent (as I was living in rented accommodation then) paid and didn't need to find a job until she 12, although I did.

Swings and roundabouts I guess :(

And for these lovely daily mail type readers, just a reminder that carers allowance is £61.35 a week

Yes us who are caring for disabled family members, who can't work due to the level of care we provide, those of us who are saving the government several hundred at least per week by keeping disabled people out of institutions get paid this pittance. We are then by and large ridiculed and slated for claiming benefits. Yes benefit living is a stopgap, a safety net for those who have been dumped, lost their jobs. Unfortunately for us it is a lifestyle, not a choice as we didn't choose a disabled child but it is our lifestyle. We are trying to get qualifications to get a good enough job to support us all but like OP we will get slated again for free courses and free childcare.

OP £3000 per month way over the cap so I hope your exp will stump up maintenance so you can stay in your house as it is generally hb which is slashed first and whilst we can live on smart price food we can't live without a house

Lol that LHA will be more than the cost of a private rent.

Forgot the HB bedroom rate, I hope for you your children are above and below 10 and different sexes otherwise you will be seen as able to put them all in 1 room. I have a neighbour with 7 children all under 10 and if she claimed HB she would only get the 2/3 bed rate depending on bed size as our council will let 4 children share one room without it being overcrowded

I dont have low housing costs my rent is 1200 a month.I would of thought that is relatively high. For six people? Unless you are sharing a one/two bed then no, for much of the country it isn't high.

Its not under 10 anymore Debs. They aren't entitled to their own room till they are 16 now!!!

I was a lone parent with 5 children (one with a disability) and I didn't receive this much (inc. hb and ct benefit). This was 7 years ago.

Although I suspect the majority of this will be the hb and ct benefit, I wouldn't rely on this figure being exact.

It is very hard bringing up 5 on your own - good luck op.

Won't you need to pay for the after school clubs for the 3 older children? And free childcare for the younger two, through what scheme is this?

Its not under 10 anymore Debs. They aren't entitled to their own room till they are 16 now!!! Does that include if they are sharing with a parent? Please tell me that's not the case

Well they said as there are 6 people,5 children,2 boys 3 girls,we are entitled to a 4 bed house under Adur council.It was 236 a week not 286 (i might of mistyped i cant find the post).

Kelly elly i don’t know what world you live in but for a lot of the country 1200 a month is pretty high.Remember what the average salary is.Im not from round here,round here 1200 for a 4 bed house in the area i live in is reasonable but a lot of other places its high. (Up north and midlands,even south west is cheaper)

As i said before it will be 500pw i got it wrong.But it wont be long and i will get maintenance too so that will help,but even worst case scenario that stopped,we would still be ok with some clever budgeting.

Sorry not entitled to a 4 bed house, entitled to hb for a 4 bed house,it was 236 a week.