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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be really really pissed off with the benefit system?

188 replies

Inshock73 · 05/01/2016 16:35

I just want to have a rant really....

I've worked since I was 15 (part time) and full time since I was 18, that's 24 years, I've paid hundreds of thousands in income tax and now find myself with a much wanted first baby at 42 and in a tricky financial position. I was on a contract in my last employment and that was terminated when I went on maternity leave (all legal and above board) and I've been on SMP. My SMP has now stopped so I've enquired as to whether I can get any financial help so I can be at home with her until she's one, which is another four months. Basically no I can't because my partner is considered to be earning enough, he earns the national average. I'm so angry! I know several people who are lying to the benefits agency, living with partners and claiming they're not! How is this benefits system fair? I don't believe you pay in to get out, I'm only looking for help for just a few months until I go back to full time work and start paying income tax again!

Rant over.

OP posts:

EddieVeddersfoxymop · 05/01/2016 18:30

Support, not spurt. Fucks sake.

EddieVeddersfoxymop · 05/01/2016 18:30

Need! Not feed. Fucking iPad and no edit button! I'll just leave now.

futureme · 05/01/2016 18:33

Oh newlife is that the case?! I need to find out more about this. My husband is self employed but accounts are straight forward enough (doesn't need to buy in anything) so we don't have any accountant.

We've discussed me working for him doing Admin/book keeping before but we thought it wasn't worth declaring it nless he became a Ltd company. And that not worth it unless he earnt a lot more than he does.

We hadn't thought about splitting the total wage as we didn't think e earnt more than one persons worth if that makes any sense. At the time we wanted to declare an OK income to remortgage.

How do I find out what I'd need to earnn to be eligible for tax credits? When he was unemployed we were entitled to free school meals etc but that was household income of avouyt 16000 which were above nnow he's self employed.

Shutthatdoor · 05/01/2016 18:36

OP, have just seen your dh are self employed.
For Gods sake get him to employ you as his Book keeper, then you are both working and can both claim tax credits.

Only if you actually do them. If you don't surely that's illegal and if it isn't if should be!

futureme · 05/01/2016 18:36

Our household income for tax credits would still be the same if he employed me wouldn't it?

ElderlyKoreanLady · 05/01/2016 18:37

How on earth have you had jobs good enough to have paid hundreds of thousands in tax, but only have saved enough to supplement 6 months SMP? Poor personal budget management isn't a fault of the benefits system.

DawnOfTheDoggers · 05/01/2016 18:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NewLife4Me · 05/01/2016 18:49

Shutthatdoor

Of course, goes without saying. I couldn't sleep at night if I told them lies and certainly wouldn't want to be done for fraud.
I keep time sheets and have had other roles that have made up hours too.

OP, you don't need to earn a huge amount to be a Ltd Company, do look into it. My dh used to be self employed but since starting the company we have been far better off as the benefits increase. I don't mean welfare benefits btw, business and tax benefits.

A good accountant is worth their weight and you could still save money by preparing the books yourself and submitting to the accountant. If you sart a Ltd company you could also be employed as Secretary, this doesn't involve much but can add up to a few more hours.

MammaTJ · 05/01/2016 19:01

Your DP earns around twice what my DP earns and we get a little top up in the form of tax credits. No help with rent or CT.

I'm currently unemployed, due to things going wrong for me at uni and am unable to claim JSA.

Sorry, can't muster too much sympathy for someone so much better off than me.

Oldsu · 05/01/2016 19:01

24 years??????? is that all???????

I have worked for 45 years (last 20 in high paid job) if I lost my job apart from 6 months cont based JSA I would get nothing, zilch, nada.

That's because DH gets a state pension plus a small private pension(which would be nowhere near the 'average salary' ) , I have no problem with that at all.

Income based benefits are for people/households who have a low income, if your DHs income is too high you don't qualify - I really don't understand your rant

Lurkedforever1 · 05/01/2016 19:07

I understand ops rant. I suspect she's always bought in to the urban myth that benefit claimants are raking it in and have a great standard of living. And like so many who are ignorant enough to believe it, when she's come to applying herself she's met the harsh reality that there's little available.

kormachameleon · 05/01/2016 19:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NanaNina · 05/01/2016 19:44

I think the consensus is that OP is not on - can't believe her rant. Does she realise that for many people on JSA they only get around £70 a week (if they have no other income and no earning partner) and are expected to spend 35 hours a week looking for jobs and travel up to 90 mins for a job and 90 mins back, and pay the travel costs themselves.

Like your post kormachameeon

yorkshapudding · 05/01/2016 19:46

I don't understand why you would expect to receive housing and council tax benefit simply because you'd like to not work for four months. I also don't understand the relevance of you having worked all your adult life and "paid into the system". It's not like paying taxes and NI means you're 'owed' a favour from the state that you can cash in at a time of your choosing. By that logic, what about people who never have children and will therefore never claim SMP or child benefit, use state education, childcare vouchers etc? Should they be able to take off work for a few months, subsidised by the taxpayer, because they feel they've put more into the system than they've taken out? The point is that the benefits system is there to support the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. It's reasonable for those of us who have been lucky enough not to have to rely on the benefits system to keep paying into it anyway because a.) society has a duty to support those who cannot fully support themselves and b.) none of us ever know when we might find ourselves in need of that support. Having a baby and deciding you don't want to go back to work once your SMP has run out does not mean you're 'in need'. Wanting to be at home with your baby is a completely valid and understandable choice but it is a choice and not a 'need' that the rest of society has a duty to provide.

Babyroobs · 05/01/2016 19:50

The benefit system is there to support the poorest and most vulerable in society, yet if you have 3 kids you can still get child tax credits on an income of £38k!

Aspergallus · 05/01/2016 19:52

I think the OP has misunderstood the entitlement to leave with the entitlement to financial support.

OP it is really hard to take 12 months off without good planning no matter what you earn (unless you are very well off). I'm fortunate enough to earn a professional salary with some of the best pay conditions for mat leave you'll find in the UK. But that still means that on average, for 12 months mat leave, I can get about 40% of my usual take home pay monthly. Which can be difficult if you have commitments, mortgage etc, based on 100%. And I only get it spread across the 12 months by making special arrangements to average the entitlements rather than take them all in the first 5 months or so. Otherwise they'd run out and I'd find myself having to go back at 6 months.

So no matter what, taking the full 12 months takes planning, saving etc. I really can't see why someone on benefits should find it easier to take 12 months than someone who works. Benefits are about achieving parity aren't they, not making someone better off.

Aspergallus · 05/01/2016 19:57

But that said, I do sympathise with your position. Women are very poorly informed about this side of pregnancy planning and most people seem to have to work it out for themselves, usually with a first child.

minifingerz · 05/01/2016 20:02

I went back when my first was 5 weeks. Not from choice.

I totally sympathise OP. Wish we were more like the Nordic countries with generous support for new parents.

FannyTheChampionOfTheWorld · 05/01/2016 20:06

OP doesn't have a job TracyBarlow. She got the boot when she was up the duff, so she couldn't go back even if she wanted to.

NewLife, if OPs DH is on the national average, 26k, them distributing their income is not going to help them claim tax credits unless they split up. I agree it would be a good idea for him to pay her a wage, so they get two personal allowances instead of one, but if they have a household income of 26k and only one child they won't get child tax credits however they split it. They might get childcare tax credits if both parents working at least 16 hours a week, but again earnings don't matter. The financial advantage will come from the tax planning. You and DH are getting tax credits because your household income is low enough, it doesn't matter that he's paying you a wage too.

OP have you looked into contributions based JSA? £70 a week for six months, based on your contributions not your household income. I would've thought you'd be eligible based on what you've said.

CountTessa · 05/01/2016 20:20

Good lord, isn't this ridiculous. That here we are in 2016 saying that out children are not worth us looking after for a year. That's is a luxury to look after our own children. That's the craziness of this, not whether the benefits will support people in work or without work.

DyslexicScientist · 05/01/2016 20:22

Citizens wage would sort all this out and be much fairer.

scarlets · 05/01/2016 20:41

My only gripe with the benefits system is that disability benefits are too low for the genuinely disabled. I don't have an axe to grind - we don't claim disability - it's just that I know people with dibilitating conditions who scrape by, and it's tough to watch.

Other than that I think that the welfare state in this country is ok. I wouldn't favour the state subsidising 12months maternity leave, I'd find thst overly generous.

Needtobebetter · 05/01/2016 21:00

I'm just heading into the unpaid part of maternity leave and having to go back. We saved for a few years before we had DS1 and used half for me to be off for 9 months with him and half for our next child. DS2 will be 9 months in March which is when I have to return to work. It does seem unfair that there isn't something to help out to stretch maternity leave for a few more months but that money would have to come from somewhere. I'd love to be a SAHM but our finances won't allow and luckily we have family to look after our children so the sensible thing for our family is that I go back to work.

AyeAmarok · 05/01/2016 21:12

Eh... You've supposedly paid hundreds of thousands in tax, bur didn't think to save for your mat leave

MumOnTheRunCatchingUp · 05/01/2016 21:31

How much a week would you be looking for op?

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