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

I've just come off JSA but I was receiving the same as op and having to pay £300 a month mortgage out of that so had £156 per week to pay utilities, food, insurance, clothes and haircuts, school trips and activities for myself and 2 children -it was bloody hard!

I was fortunate that none of my appliances broke down and I had declared my car as off the road and was at the point of selling it which would have made job hunting nigh on impossible due to where I live and poor transport links

I could do so much with that disposable income! I work FT in London, have to pay travel costs, rent, CTax, bills, necessities and have about £100 per month disposable income.

Think I might quit work and get benefits!

it's just a sense of unfairness at a system

What system? The benefits or the wages system? Because that is the one that is unfair.

What is the alternative to not being able to provide a basic standard of living? It's going cold or hungry - wages need to go up, benefits are adequate which is where they should stay - cutting someone's basic living money can only bring misery to families.

Th

£5 a week CSA? Is that child support from their father? That disgusts me, unless you poked holes in a condom behind his back, he should be paying a lot more.

Saucy, I don't agree sorry. I think it depends on where you live. To buy around my area a mortgage on a 2-bed house would cost you around £650 p/month. To rent a 2-bed house would cost you £750 p/month.

It's actually cheaper to buy (if you can ever get enough of a bloody deposit) than it is to rent.

The trouble is, people can't afford to buy because of needing a huge deposit so instead they're giving their hard-earned money to someone else.

Apologies for de-railing OP. But I think you are not alone in having that much income, whether people are working or not. I imagine it makes tough reading for those who are out of the house for 40 hours a week and have less than that once their bills are all paid.

Good luck in finding work.

That's where the resentment creeps in and it isn't 'jealousy' it's just a sense of unfairness at a system.

the resentment comes from all sorts of directions. workers with less disposable income I would think is a deep well of it.

I'm glad the system is changing. It's long due an overhaul. I feel sorry for people struggling with transport costs to get to work and the stress of it all. Knowing they could collect the equivalent of £26K a year without stepping outside their front door. It's not right.

I agree that salaries are too low and haven't risen in line with the cost of living.

However, I also think the benefits system can be too generous to a point where what is intended as 'temporary safety net' becomes 'full-time lifestyle choice.'

It's a difficult one as no one should need to rely on foodbanks etc, but you can see why people (not the OP) may not bother looking for work. I am on slightly more than £26k but that's after 10 years in my job!

I love how people are saying 'we have less than that after we've paid our mortgage'.

Think about that - mortgage.

You own your own home (I get that the bank 'owns' it, but to all intents and purposes, you own your own home). How many people on benefits can say that? I bet they'd give their back teeth (and would love your level of income) if they could say that they own their own home.

Being on benefits isn't a punishment - and the race to the bottom (who's worse off) is peculiar to MN. Thank goodness.

equivalent of £26K a year without stepping outside their front door. It's not right

Yeah but if we were all earning £40k plus it wouldn't look so bad would it? That's where the average salary should be now - not languishing around the early £20k like it has done for years now!

And yes, if it's so easy, why doesn't everyone quit work and go on benefits.

I see a lot of people saying that's what they should do - so do it then. It's not as simple as that, and I suspect most folk know it.

I remember this thread where most posters were up in arms at an increase in wages because it would kill business

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a2069018-to-judge-an-employer-that-doesnt-pay-at-least-a-living-wage

What actually can be done? If wages are raised than companies won't be able to afford to employ as many staff. Therefore people will be made redundant and unemployment will rise.

I follow threads like this with a huge sense of embarrassment Due to my own ill health and that of DD1, I do receive rather a lot in benefits . In fact, it's more than I used to earn when working full time as a social worker.

I would much rather have good health for me and DD though - so am starting a (very) part time job next week - even though I'm not going to be better off financially. I'm really hoping though that I will be a lot better off in terms of my health.
What I am realising though is that life would be a lot simpler not trying to return to work - my benefits are going to stop while they change over and I have no idea how I'm going to manage the next few weeks as I don't have savings ( long story). But - I'm determined to do it.

To those who say the OP has more left than them after housing and council tax costs, I really do understand that - hence my embarrassment to post what my income is. But - much like the OP - I don't want to stay on benefits for ever! Good luck in your job search OP

Wish I got 900 a month after rent for doing nothing

I find it a bit annoying, I think the word is, that those of us who have a mortgage are almost vilified on some threads. Yes, we are paying for something that may possibly be ours one day and not lining a landlord's (social or otherwise) pockets, but it doesn't mean we can't equally worry about money. I never thought we would have a mortgage and I feel very lucky that we do. I have been in awful rented situations and was lucky to be able to get out of them and buy a house with my now husband. I feel for renters I really do, especially nowadays - I worry about my children - the city we live in is not geared to normal earners at all, and I just hope they can have a standard of living that keeps them afloat in the future, but really, don't get pissed off with us mortgage holders. We didn't do it to sneer at renters and disposable income is disposable income wherever you live.

*I love how people are saying 'we have less than that after we've paid our mortgage'.

Think about that - mortgage*

I see your point but OH is on minimum wage and I was on just £10 an hour and we bought a house last year.
Not in London or the South, which is where the problem is, but in the Midlands.
But we are not high earners AT ALL and we bought.
Having a mortgage doesn't automatically make you wealthy. We were just tight with our money and saved hard.
OH is 27 and I am 23. We bought our house for £121k with 10% deposit

I'm glad the system is changing. It's long due an overhaul. I feel sorry for people struggling with transport costs to get to work and the stress of it all. Knowing they could collect the equivalent of £26K a year without stepping outside their front door. It's not right.

What kind of person envies unemployment?

Unemployment is NOT fun.

It is boring, there are no opportunities for progression, no sociability, no decent pension, no esteem, no status, it leaves holes in CVs and damages careers.....

That's totally acceptable after your rent has been paid!

whois the OP is not saying it is unacceptable, she is saying it isn't lavish/luxurious/excessive. She's right. It isn't.

I don't think its too bad considering your rent and ct are being paid. Like another poster said you will not be living in the lap of luxury but benefits are there to tide you over and enable you to live....that is easily done with £900 a month disposable income.

I'm not the type to call benefit recipients, scroungers or any other lazy stereotype but I am not overflowing with sympathy for you.

The amount the op gives doesn't include all rent she has to top up £75 a month.