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

sad we both work and our disposable income is less than 500 pcm - we8 have to eat from that too so I'd say you're doing ok op

do you have children??

I have been a single parent, but never claimed benefits. My now dh and I have been so strapped for cash that I had to make the dc's nappies go longer than I was comfortable with because I couldn't afford to buy more until 2 or 3 days time. Still didn't claim. Just worked harder.

I have worked myself stupid in a high pressure job, 70+ hours a week to earn promotions to earn more money to provide a higher standard of living for ourselves! to allow ourselves holidays etc.

I see how much I am taxed. And I can't help but be a teensy bit fed up with so many people who say "I am on benefits, I'm a single parent with 2 dc and I only get £900 to live on a month (after rent and ct) Poor poor me".

Well, don't have kids if you can't afford to keep them. That includes developing a skill set and an education before having children that will enable you to support yourself and them. And having a mutually supportive relationship (husband/wife/partner). Is also useful. Appreciably things go wrong, people are widowed, become sick - that is who the benefits system is for, and I have no issue with them receiving just and fair supportive payments. I do however have a problem with the growing mass who carelessly have kids and expect someone else to pay for them.

Receiving hb is not an "entitlement", nor is ct benefit, tax credits or child support. They are BENEFITS, privileges because we live in a western civilised society. But those that work and pay into the system are becoming increasingly fed up with the growing majority who bemoan how unfair it all is, whilst contributing squat.

your name makes a lot of sense :)

So would it be worth c 36k student loan for 200 extra per month.As a teacher?

Student loan is effectively extra tax, so the '£36k' , whilst potentially panic-inducing, isn't really relevant to the comparison.

Maybe we could get the benefits cap amount of earning tax free. Though i suspect min wage is well below this

I worry about proposals to take whole chunks of the workforce out of paying tax. It's a form of disenfranchisement; "You don't pay tax. Hard-working tax-payers should decide..." etc

Raise min wage well above benefits cap.

£26kpa? Can't see it happening.

your name makes a lot of sense

Billynomates7

well if that's the case dont have kids till you are fully self supporting,no benefits whatsoever then the population would be much much lower

in the real world (not on MN)alot of familys receieve benefits of one type or another and thats while working

I am baffled.
I am a lone parent and get no where near that.
Hundreds less

do you have two children though

that may be a factor

im on benefit and i get more than op but i have three children

yes i do find it baffling to imagine spending £45 more (plus child benefit so lets £60 and the rent is taken care of) on an extra child. no, i do not believe having another child in this house would cost me anywhere near that a week if i was not working. the heating is or isn't already on, as is the electricity etc so no 'extra' costs there unless you're talking about a spit of how water in the bath once a day. yes they'll eat but not that much and they'll need clothes (i used a lot of hand me downs personally and i only had one child) but not that many.

becoming a family, paying the costs of running a family home etc is the big leap, adding one more child to it doesn't cost £50+ more a week when you don't even have to pay rent.

you can also see why if you were strapped for cash, being pressured by the job centre to find a non existant job fitting around school hours and threatened with workfare or sanctions if you couldn't it might seem tempting to just have another child, be £50-60 a week better off and get the government off your back for another five years.

the basic family allowances should be a bit higher imo and then not increase regardless of how many children you choose to have.

even another adult doesn't merit £50-£60 more per week on an unemployment claim so how can a baby qualify you for that?

look at JSA - Single people, aged 25 or over £72.40
Couples and civil partnerships (both aged 18 or over) £113.70

a whole other adult in a household is worth only £40 to eat, pay utilities, clothe and transport themselves to the job centre and interview etc. do you really believe a small child needs a larger pay out than a grown adult who has been made redundant?

The honey the point is children are totally dependant on others to care for them.

Adults are allocated the bare minimum to survive, children thankfully are not.

they don't need paying to do it though surely? re: parents not care workers.

children absolutely do cost money but not on a per child, two costs twice as much as one basis. in the same way as we dictate that a couple does not get twice as much as a single person because their living costs are not doubled by being two because they share a household, bills, meals, cooking and heating costs etc.

re: cooking a pot of stew for me and my son does not cost twice as much as cooking one for myself. in fact the more you're cooking for the less 'per head' the cost.

you have just reminded me approx 14yrs ago children used to be on two differrent levels of Income Support

example under 11yrs £40 per wk

                over 11yrs £55 per wk

sorry then the rules changed and it was one flat rate,the higher from birth

Adults are allocated the bare minimum to survive, children thankfully are not.

Children's allowances were raised above starvation rations circa 2002, when support for children was moved to Tax Credits as part of the anti child poverty agenda. Adult allowances have been left at subsistence levels.

children absolutely do cost money but not on a per child, two costs twice as much as one basis.

Total entitlement will comprise an amount (element) per family plus an amount per child plus small amounts (premiums) for special circumstances such as disability of carer status. So it is not as simple as you might assume.

or^ carer status...

Tuition fees are not a tax. They go directly to the uni. It is a cost of a better chance of a job. And they should be repaid where possible.
Or if its a tax why are we charging people who want to learn/earn dis incentivising them to take tax to pay for ... I think you can guess?

The only thing i can see is in a situation like this where there arent many jobs to offer unemployed people/ much good training high benefits keeps people quiet because some people will have to be long-tetm unemployed.

TheHoneyBadger it is also worth remembering that Child Tax Credits are likely to remain in payment when a workless parent enters employment, although the amount might decrease. It is not a payment that depends on unemployment.

Tuition fees are not a tax. They go directly to the uni. It is a cost of a better chance of a job. And they should be repaid where possible.
Or if its a tax why are we charging people who want to learn/earn dis incentivising them to take tax to pay for ... I think you can guess?

In repayment they function as a graduate tax.

What am I supposed to be guessing?

exactly naty - realistically it's as if it's cheaper to pay benefits than to really try and create enough employment, in enough areas and in jobs that fit the skills of the people or to upskill people.

despite all the huffing and puffing it's a deliberate ploy in some ways to pay people off with benefits then waive the finger at them for needing them.