Here is my total income as a lone parent on benefits.

[HereBeHubbubs]

Inspired by a thread which is glorifying us lone parents as 'rolling in it', I'm prepared to declare my benefits income. It's not gauche to do so, because it's your money after all (looks at taxpayers), and you should probably know that I am also grateful for this support, prepad to pay back into the pool when working again, and am not extravagant nor consider this a 'lifestyle choice'.

I don't have Sky, a plasma tele, holidays, credit or catalogue accounts, smoke, drink and rarely socialise due to childcare issues. I buy all our clothes from charity shops. I do however have a concession rate council leisure centre swim membership of £18 a month and a £10 rolling contract mobile phone, with a phone somebody gave me.

I am terrible at budgeting and have been living on a £500 overdraft for at least the last couple of years - I never have enough income to return the account into the black, so I'm generally always at least £400 overdrawn.

My utilities are on prepayment meters currently eating up old debt weekly and a not competitive tariff.

I'm currently looking for work and can't understand how people sit at home without good reason, because since my youngest started school, I have been going stir crazy and begun to feel quite down and despondent about not working.

Fortunes will change in the near future as doubtless I will find work, but meanwhile, when you break down the cost of my outgoings, hopefully you can see that lone parents really are not 'rolling in it'.
Especially the ones who receive little or no maintencance from their absent children's father.
Unimagined outgoings include things like termly Brownies subs, school snacks at £8 a month, school shoes every new term, birthday and Christmas presents, rent shortfall £75 a month, winter utilities alone are £40 a week each gas and electric.

Lone parent age 45, two children 5 and 7, private rented three bed (officially two as one leads off the bathroom) terrace Anglia region.'Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit don't enter my bank account, they're paid direct to recipients.

Weekly Income
5.00 CSA
72.40 JobSeekers Allowance
34.05 Child Benefit
114.08 Child Tax Credit

£225.53 week
£902.12 every month

Me too angeal

That's more than we have after childcare (paid by voucher), mortgage, council tax, utilities. No Sky, cheapest broadband we could find, don't smoke, not heavy drinkers, no gym memberships, one v old car, one being paid for (we do need two - work inaccessible on public transport).

We try to go abroad every other year though so I guess we aren't profligate.

By 'everything' I do include food.

What StripeyBanana said. The figures she has quoted puts you on roughly the average salary of a full time working person.

If you had loads more children you'd have lots more money, and more HB to get a bigger house. Whereas a working person earns what a working person earns, and has to plan the size of his/her family accordingly.

Why on earth do you receive only £5 per week in CSA for two children? Things like that are an absolute joke.

By the way- nobody (with children) needs to be poorer than the OP.

Everyone is entitled to rent a small house and get housing benefit. If people have chosen to take out a mortgage on a limited income then they need to accept that the consequence of that choice will be less disposable income. Just sayin'

My mum earns only 800-900pcm and she has to pay full rent and council tax. She would consider herself well off if she had 900 after rent/council tax. Its not your fault OP, just the system that's a bit screwed, there's no help for hard working people who struggle and it pisses me off

£900 after rent and council tax? That's more than I was expecting.
Maybe I should lose my job and have the joy of being at home very day with my children rather than working, missing my children and having a lot less than £900. (Mmmm ponders.....)

saucy

Also I assume your dc are allowed free school meals if you claim those benefits? so really the school snacks are a bit irrelivant, that would be what others may have spent on packed lunches I would personally feel like £8 wasn't a lot for a months school food, I know some people who only need to give their dc light lunch style teas after they have had a school dinner.

Rookie mistake: it's not 902 pounds a month, it's 959. I think you multiplied the weekly amount by 4, but on average there are are 4.25 weeks in a month.

£225 a week is not a pittance! It is enough to feed a family of 3 and to pay bills to heat a house ie the essentials. And it is more than a lot of people who don't qualify for tax credits, housing benefit etc have left after rent/mortgage & council tax, and also have to find (for example) essential costs like travelling to work out of it.

The problem isn't the benefits, it's the crap wages people are being paid! Benefits should be enough to cover food and bills - with a little bit to spend on childrens activities but Full Time work should allow us to pay rent/mortgage bills, holidays, nicer clothes and treats! Sadly it doesn't it today's capitalist society, it doesn't reward hard work!

The op is on jsa which means that she is expected to do a lot towards job hunting. Going to interview after interview is expensive on both looking good and travel. Some jobs you still need to send a physical application through the post which adds up in postal costs and printing costs for a cv.

I do think low pay is a completely different issue and employers refusing to pay a living wage shouldn't be used as a stick to beat people relying on benefits with. If people working full time are struggling then it is wages which are too low not benefits being too high.

Actually I've just caluclated 4.34 weeks per month on average, so I've been doing it wrong as well.

So that £900 a month is your money after both rent and council tax are paid, completely?
So you need to pay utilities (gas, elec, water), tv license & food from that?

My OH works full time at £7 an hour. That's £1070 after income tax.
Our mortgage is £550 a month and council tax is £120. So if you split that between us equally (it isn't split equally, I pay more but no relevant) that leaves him with £735.

I'm failing to see the point because you are receiving more money than my OH who is on £14,500 a year.
In fact, a rough calculation (using average rent in your general area) would put your benefits as comparable to a single person earning £22,000 a year.

Bloody hell OP - well done. That's brilliant.

I worked really hard and got less than that.

You're receiving a total package (£26k ish equivalent pa) of considerably more than say an entry grade civil servant working full time (£21k, outside London)... There are vast numbers of jobs that pay less than what you receive, and vast numbers of families supporting themselves on correspomdingly less disposeable income.

Sounds pretty generous to me.

How long have you been on JSA? Did you ever get income support, and if so, was that much different?

It can be bloody expensive going to work, I could offload my car and all the repair bills if I quit my jobs, petrol, childcare (top ups for me but 2 parent families aren't that lucky), office clothes and shoes re healing, whip rounds for colleagues occasions.....

But a total value benefits package of £26k pa equivalent can hardly be described as not a living wage or as a pittance jack365!! There are good prospect jobs out there that pay much less as I stated above!

crikey that is much more than my salary has ever been :(

£900 a month after rent and council tax.....you are having a laugh......I would love to have that much (and I have 3 children)......seriously to get a benefit package that adds up to a decent annual salary....no wonder so many people don't want to work....

interesting thread, i'm a single parent of one, my net monthly income is £1200 including my tax credits, no other benefits as I live with family but still have to pay rent and everything else out of that. So I would conclude that you are better off than you think you are.

HeeHiles that is spot on.
& jacks yes there are costs with getting a job but actually having a job means you have to cover the associated expense of having a job eg travel clothes etc plus bills, food etc quite often out of less than the OP. It is a bit shit all round really!

Please note I am not benefit bashing - I'm all for the welfare state and believe it s an essential part of our life and why I pay taxes.

I am however majorly pissed off by the gap in earning between those at the top and "the workers" and I feel this govt is hopelessly put of touch with real life.

sorry - think I may have derailed the thread slightly..