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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that a 23k benefits cap will drive some families in the SE

987 replies

Minifingers9 · 28/05/2015 11:14

... Into destitution?

I live in a pretty unappealing and comparatively cheap part of greater London but you can't get a 3 bedroom rental for under £1400 a month.
If we lost our jobs we wouldn't be able to live on 23k a year as a family of 5. Not when 15k of it was going on rent.
Why don't they have regional benefit caps?

OP posts:
candlesandlight · 28/05/2015 16:16

I have found this to be a really interesting debate. But now I must go to work , would really like someone who doesn't agree with a benefit cap of 23k , gross equivalent 30k , to explain why I should work a 40 hour week for a salary of 12k and pay tax,so someone can get 23 or even 26k net, and I have paid my own mortgage.

Stitchintime1 · 28/05/2015 16:16

But - I'm joining in with Eatup now - apparently if you are working, you aren't hit by the benefit cap.

TheCrimsonQueen · 28/05/2015 16:18

candlesandlight - well said

Stitchintime1 · 28/05/2015 16:19

You might be exempt from the cap if:

you work enough hours to qualify for Working Tax Credit, even if you don't get it
you've reached the age for getting Pension Credit - although you may not be exempt if you're in a mixed-age couple
you or your partner get certain benefits for sickness or disability
you or your partner had been in employment for at least 50 weeks out of the 52 weeks before your last day of work
you or your partner get War Widows or Widowers Pension.
More about who is exempt from the Benefit Cap

This is what it said on the CAB website. I don't know how many hours you need to work to get WTC.

But, I think our nurses and street cleaners are safe from the benefit cap. It's for non workers and, by the look of it, people who haven't worked recently.

Babyroobs · 28/05/2015 16:20

Candles - If the £12k you are earning is your sole income and you have kids are you not getting heavily topped up with tax credits?

candlesandlight · 28/05/2015 16:22

Bathrooms ,my husband also works full time. But I am still paying tax on a 40 hr week to subsidise others .

Tonberry · 28/05/2015 16:23

Under Universal Credit self employed people will have to make minimum wage every week.

That'll be me fucked then. I'm self employed working from home and make between £3 and £6 an hour. As things stand it's mpossible to make more for at least the next two and a half years.

Stitchintime1 · 28/05/2015 16:24

The OP's point about losing jobs is still valid but only if you see being without any work as a temporary state. Which is what I guess the benefit system was designed to help with. You'd have a grim few months etc and then hopefully all would be well.

Babyroobs · 28/05/2015 16:25

Candles - If the Tory's put the personal tax limit up to 12.5k like they say they will then you will pay no tax. I guess at the moment on your salary you pay very little tax.

RagingJellyBean · 28/05/2015 16:26

Candles you can't have the attitude that you're subsiding others.

Would you feel like if something unforeseeable happened to your husband (lost his job, left etc) that you were subsidising yourself should you be in receipt of benefits?

Stitchintime1 · 28/05/2015 16:28

Is it rent/housing benefit that makes the amounts so high?

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 28/05/2015 16:30

Candles
How are you earning 12k pa working 40 hr weeks. Surely that is below NMW?

Stitchintime1 · 28/05/2015 16:30

There was a story about how Enfield Council is looking at building social housing. Because really people shouldn't be allowed to charge what they like. Yes, in the private sector. But if you are taking housing benefit via your tenants, it shouldn't be pegged at market rate.

RagingJellyBean · 28/05/2015 16:34

Chaz, works out at £6.25 per hour. Not sure what the NMW is atm?

LotusLight · 28/05/2015 16:34

I certainly agree with this

"Would really like someone who doesn't agree with a benefit cap of 23k , gross equivalent 30k , to explain why I should work a 40 hour week for a salary of 12k and pay tax,so someone can get 23 or even 26k net, and I have paid my own mortgage

Also why have I had to move hundreds of miles from family for work when those on benefits don't and secondly why I have never been able to afford to live near work and in central London for 30 years and have always commuted in like most workers whereas those on benefits do? Also why do those who aren't on benefits share rooms, share properties and the like whereas a single mother with a baby gets a place all to herself?

RagingJellyBean · 28/05/2015 16:40

Lotus you sound very right-wing.

Not everyone on benefits is living a life of luxury or are inconvenienced as you seem to think? After this cap, a lot of people will have to move to be able to afford to live within their means - that's life.
A single mother & a baby get a place to themselves because that is the prerogative of the council/HA's. They apply for it, and are deemed entitled to a house/flat/bedsit. Some single mothers are in hostels, or in mother & child units.

Try not to tar everyone with the same brush

Babyroobs · 28/05/2015 16:41

Lotus I have to agree, my 22 year old niece has had to move back in with my ds in her already overcrowded home after leaving Uni whilst girls she went to school with who got pregnant at 18 and have never worked a day in their lives have been given council flats.

DinosaursRoar · 28/05/2015 16:41

Look OP - I get it, you like where you live, you feel part of the community, you like that you have a relatively short commute and so get more time together as a family that's not 'wasted' on trains commuting in from further. It's all lovely, and right now, you can afford to buy a place big enough for your family.

The 'cost' to all this is that your housing is so much higher than it would be if you lived further out of London and commuted in for the same size property. Now, right now, that choice works for your family, from now on though, you will have to factor in the fact that benefits will not plug the shortfall if you/your DH loses their job.

You are in a position where you could move to a cheaper property outside of London and use the money you are saving in mortgage payments to commute in (this would mean of course if you did lose your job, you'd also lose the train fair cost and then would be able to live off the capped benefits). If this doesn't appeal to you, then you need to prepare for the downside of your choice - so save in order to afford a period out of work/take out insurance policies to cover the shortfall.

You are aware that it could be an issue for you, you have the opportunity to take action, it is a choice not to.

Newbrummie · 28/05/2015 16:49

As a nearly 40 year old single mother with savings and a degree I can reassure babyroobs' niece she will have a far better quality of life than the 18 year old with a baby and council flat, it's really not that much fun

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 28/05/2015 16:50

Raging
NMW is currently 6.50 ph going up to 6.70 in October. Not a fortune by anyone's standards but more than Candles is getting unless she is under 21 as the rate is lower then?

SunnyBaudelaire · 28/05/2015 16:53

Babyroobs your niece's friends are not going to have enviable lives you know?

Babyroobs · 28/05/2015 16:55

I guess it's too early to know what course their lives will take, they are still young and still time to get qualifications and a career.

SillyStuffBiting · 28/05/2015 16:57

You're paying less than £350 a year in tax candles and for a shit wage.

Focus on improving your own situation rather than working yourself into a froth.

Stitchintime1 · 28/05/2015 16:57

I think the odds are her life is going to be pretty grim.

Stitchintime1 · 28/05/2015 16:58

Grim by my standards that is. Mustn't judge.

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