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

Well done for declaring your income OP, as you say it's enough to live on, no great luxuries though.

£5 CSA well that's disgusting for a start

Those who have less than that a month, I don't think that's the OPs fault yes the system sucks for low paid workers, I don't know what the answer is as employers say they can't pay more

When I was on lone parent benefits I didn't have £900 a month after rent. But as said it's not a competition. And I only had one child.

The idea that it's enough for food, bills, clothing and a few extras is fine - until you have debts, or childcare with no income (e.g. I was studying with the hope of increasing my employability) or need to run a car because you live rurally, or rent which is above the LHA allowance (60% are, and most of the cheapest places are either rural so inaccessible without a car, retirement properties or the landlord rents to students only), the mortgage issue as mentioned above, if you have your own large appliances (or car again) you need to maintain.

"Embarassed?" "All that money"? £225.53 week??

But it's not £225.53/week is it? It's more like £450/week when you add on the Council Tax & Housing Benefits.

If I earn £30,000/year, which is what £450/week is before tax, then I don't say I actually earn £10k/year, because that's what I have left after paying my rent.

Basic stuff, come on.

So I guess as far as family goes I'm in a similar boat to the OP with 2 children.

My take home pay is around £1100 a month and I get £300 ish in tax credits. Of that I pay £650 in rent for 3 bedrooms (pretty average where I am, had to move due to my old area being too expensive) and £140 council tax.

This leaves me with just over £600 a month available.

DH isn't working at the moment due to health issues - signed off sick but not getting any sick pay, not even ssp for some convoluted reason to do with his hours and contract. He is available for childcare at least though which would otherwise extend our out goings considerably even if we were entitled to the 70% or so tax credits will pay.

My petrol to work costs around £50 a month.

It's a bloody struggle.

I don't wish you any less money OP - I don't think you're rolling in it in any way. I wish I got paid more for the long hours and demanding care work I do though!

Arsenic, sorry but i think its a lot of money which some people would be out of the house a long time to go and earn. Its all relative and maybe its not a lot to you. £225.53 doesn't cover much in the way of bills but in a lower paid job of which i have had plenty of over the years, it would take a good few hours of work to achieve after tax and NI.

It's not really more than everyone else is it. It's still a struggle. And one the absent father is half responsible for.

900 a month when winter utilities are 40 a week brings it down a few hundred. I know you live a frugal lifestyle but after that you still have things like TV licence to pay for and insurance etc. That probably brings it down to around 600 monthly. Even if you only spent 30 a week on food that would bring it down to 400 and once you take out transport costs and clothing you all you are really not left with much at all for things like school trips, treats, birthday presents etc. I see why you have done it. It's not an aibu but it isn't a lavish lifestyle

I (like a lot of single parents) get nothing in child maintenance. I was getting the princely sum of £10 a fortnight but now it's nothing. This isn't unusual.

The idea that it's enough for food, bills, clothing and a few extras is fine - until you have debts, or childcare with no income (e.g. I was studying with the hope of increasing my employability) or need to run a car because you live rurally, or rent which is above the LHA allowance (60% are, and most of the cheapest places are either rural so inaccessible without a car, retirement properties or the landlord rents to students only), the mortgage issue as mentioned above, if you have your own large appliances (or car again) you need to maintain. Agreed, never mind times like your kids birthdays and Christmas. Even things like paying for internet (which to be fair kids do need while they're at school) or if your PC breaks (something kids also need to do their work as they get older) or god forbid you might actually want a little holiday somewhere or a trip out to the millions of places kids meither to go to.

Sorry, OP, im not being rude, its just an eye opener. Hope things work out for you.

The fact that it is not unusual is one of the reasons it is so disgusting. What is wrong with all these absent parents?!

Still, £900 a month for doing absolutely nothing is a laugh. The system is all wrong.

OP I'm glad that you realise that you are getting a generous sum of money from tax payers and that this is a short term solution. No one will begrudge you that, especially after fleeing from your violent, skinflint exP who needs a kick in the crotch or indeed a bullet between the eyes.

I think people get annoyed when they see people 'earning' this amount in benefits for YEARS on end with no real incentive to find work. Benefits should be for people in your situation, to help you get back on your feet. No one should have any issue with that because there but for the grace of God...

Wish I got that much for not going to work! Blimey.

Basic stuff, come on.

No not 'basic stuff come on' Aga. If she moves into, low paid work, she'' still get top-ups and so she should. Many of the people posting to say they are working and their earnings are about the same as this income will also be getting a certain amount of top-up, and so they should.

Top-ups are needed because rents are high, wages are low, food is expensive.

Top-ups are a subsidy to landlords and employers. Why should tenants and employees be vilified and ashamed?

There is no divide between the OP receiving 'all this money' now and she or others working hard next week and reciving nothing. Lots of low paid people are entitled to benefits, but they aren't the people profiting. Your

OP is seeing £225.23 per week. From that she co-pays rent and council tax, pays all utilities (maybe in a draughty poorly insulated house, maybe inefficient plumbing etc) food, travel, clothes, shoes, modest leisure, minor educational costs. There isn't much wriggle room there (as there isn't for lots of working people either). To ask her if she is embarrassed about 'all that money' was pretty low on the part of that poster.

giraffe no one needs to pay for a tv licence. A TV is not an essential. TVs are part of the problem, brainwashing people and dulling down people and keeping them busy all evening doing nothing.

I hope you find a job soon OP.

giraffe no one needs to pay for a tv licence. A TV is not an essential. TVs are part of the problem, brainwashing people and dulling down people and keeping them busy all evening doing nothing. Maybe for someone like the OP who is after all on her own with no partner, it might be nice to catch up on some shows on the 365 nights per year she is sitting in on her own. Also, children also like to watch TV. Are you suggesting that it's some kind of luxury? Sky is a luxury. Most households in the UK have a TV and it's a bit much to begrudge someone that.

I don't begrudge it to OP. But it is going to be a shock once she is earning again, how little money is left after paying for all the things that currently are dealt with off-stage, so to speak, or aren't needed currently- school lunches, prescriptions, council tax, childcare, work clothes, council tax, travel to work, etc etc.

There won't be 900 a month left all that easily.

I guess maybe people like the OP assume that people who work, or couples who both work, must automatically be bringing in more than you would get on benefits, as it is a logical assumption to make. They might not be aware that the reality for most working people is that wages are low and the cost of living is high.

OP if I were to give you advice, it would be to pay off that overdraft before you get back to work because things will be tighter once you do. Also, you will be on your own with things like rent, etc.

Well a TV licence is under £12 a month if you pay by direct debit, so I think that's something she can justify even when she's working, even for the sake of the kids and company for her in the evenings.

Also, she will be entitled to top up benefits when she works. A massive majority of benefits claimants are the working poor. I get child tax credits and housing benefit as a LP working full time.

I spent 2 years on benefits ....I am back in low paid work now.

I am significantly better off financially each month.

so don't all stress too much about how much the OP gets "for doing nothing", clearly trying to safeguard her children from a violent ex and deal with the issues it brings up doesn't count.

Arsenic, sorry but i think its a lot of money which some people would be out of the house a long time to go and earn. Its all relative and maybe its not a lot to you. £225.53 doesn't cover much in the way of bills but in a lower paid job of which i have had plenty of over the years, it would take a good few hours of work to achieve after tax and NI.

I'm not disparaging minimum-wage work tadla. Quite the opposite.

I have done it myself, not recently admittedly.

The point is, there is not a big divide between OOW benefits and fully-self sufficient working people. A lot of people on low incomes continue to get tax credits, child benefit, maybe some housing benefit. That is absolutely necessary. It is propping up the low wages of essential jobs. It is propping up a lot of BTL property portfolios. It is holding large chunks of the economy up.

If the OP finds a job next week and it happens to be PT and/or minimum wage she will continue to get substantial help alongside her wages. Good. How else do we run things?

The only other option is to let rents fall to levels that people can afford unaided and increase the minimum wage so that people don't need top-ups. Those ideas don't seem too popular.

So we have to accept that welfare dependency is a continuum that encompasses a LOT of people in work, including a fair few of the posters slating the OP and stop trying to do either/or comparisons.

Kelly I don't begrudge her the TV. I just don't get why so many people see it as a normal thing to have (nothing to do with people on benefits here either) I just actually don't get it.

To me TV is a monumental waste of time and a very clever and powerful capitalist tool to keep us wanting things, sell as 'ideal' lives and keep us busy doing nothing.

People on their own can do all sorts of things to occupy their evenings, they don't need to zonk in front of rubbish, and if you do want to occasionally watch something it is all online anyway, so no need for the TV licence as nothing has to be watched live. Children might like to watch tv, but it doesn't mean they have to. They will cope just fine without one.

Watching TV is not a productive thing to do, and yet it is what most people do every single night. If people swapped half of their daily tv watching for doing a physical activity or sport we would be a very different nation that's for sure. This is not the thread for that though, so I will say no more on the matter.

I'm a solicitor and spent 5 years at university and 2 years training on the job before qualifying. After housing costs and council tax my take home pay is less than £900.00 PCM. To me, it seems that you are better off than a lot of working parents.