To think dh is winding me up when he says some people on benefits are getting £500 a week?

[angelos02]

I'm pretty sure he's talking bullocks? Otherwise why the fuck would anyone do a minimum wage job?

A close friend recieves just under £800 a week not including child benefit. However she is disabled and has dc , one dd and disabled triplets ds. So that total includes two lots of carers allowance, income support with disability premiums and three lots of disability extra tax credits . Dla, pip and child benefit are not included in that figure.
My friend is married her dh recently stopped working to care for her and her dc, every day is a struggle for her and her family

so if you add on the DLA/PIP/CB their weekly income is well over 1k a week,that is a huge amount

is the struggle physical or financial,as if it's the latter i would be astonished

They will also receive LHA, which in my area is another £120 a week for a single person

Most of them will only recieve the single room allowence which in all the 4 counties (one very affluent) that I work in is only £65 a week this means that in all the counties unless they are very lucky they can't rent a room for less than 90 a week so end up using £25 from their JSA to pay it

The struggle is more physically and emotionally seasidesally. However all the dla and tax credits are spent of the dx disability needs. Ss and social services provide very little. Then there is petrol and parking for three to four medical appointments every week, approx £70. A few times a year she just had two appointments.
Also that amount covers rent , a four bed due to their children's needs.
They go on one mon- fri holiday a year in May half term that's what they can afford to give you an idea of their lifestyle. They are not really skint, they pay the bills but they are by no means rich.

seaside
I have 5 disabled children 4 are considered to be severely disabled and whilst I don't claim a penny for them they are all entitled to higher rate on both care and mobility.

The amount of money I would get for them would be a tiny drop in the ocean towards the additional costs related towards their disabilities.

I don't claim anything because I don't want to and to be quite frank I'm loaded in most people's views, I haemorrhage money sometimes faster than even I can get my head round in disability related costs and it's week in week out.

I have nothing at all other than sympathy and understanding towards a low income family with increased costs related to disability, there is a reason why even with all that lovely extra gov money they are considered poor by the gov. If they qualify for the money and don't also have additional none benefit income they are not rolling in it, they are skint.

usual of course she could pay for everything on £70 a week haven't you remembered about all these imaginary free bills people on benefits in the imaginary world get.

Sorry I meant Nhs and social services provide very little.

Most of them will only recieve the single room allowance
I know that but a lot of them don't and even young couples are entitled to the 1 bed self-contained rate.

You could pay all your bills and live the life of Riley on 70 quid a week then?
I never said that I could I was just trying to help the OP understand how these figures are calculated. Nothing more.

Why do people always try to read more into a simple factual statement than there is?

Yes usual you're also forgetting that lha is loads more than actual rent, so they get to keep the change. Everyone knows every area is simply bursting with private rentals under lha, with lls who accept hb. And of course all the large cash payments for household furniture/baby stuff.

Persian - lha is capped at the actual rent so a couple living in a shared house wouldn't get the rest of the one bed rate that they weren't saving on rent.

lha is loads more than actual rent, so they get to keep the change
It does not work like that any more.

The LHA rate is the maximum a claimant can claim not what they will receive.

I'm pretty sure that post was sarcastic Persian

Persian - lha is capped at the actual rent so a couple living in a shared house wouldn't get the rest of the one bed rate
I know that.

I never even said anything about a couple living in a shared house getting the rest of the one bed rate.

What I said was is a young couple can live in a one bedroomed flat.

That is all.

I'm pretty sure that post was sarcastic Persian
OK I didn't realise that.

It is been a long day and not a particularly good one.

I will be more on the ball tomorrow.

I think I and lurked may have both misread your posts too
Night

lurked and I

Sorry for being snappy too, night!!

practy - RE your staggeringly assumptive comment about "very wealthy people" referring to a "comfortable" wage - I am on 9 quid an hour and am barely scraping by. Nevertheless, 2k a month (whilst I would be delighted with it!) is not a high monthly income, and certainly not a high household income.

persian I was being sarcastic. Probably because I regularly come into contact with people living well below the breadline, in the cheapest housing available, and yet still having to top up the lha to pay the rent. Or people who are working and officially above the breadline, but because they are making up the shortfall are still living on breadline incomes. It wasn't aimed at you anyway

I can't believe anyone is being taken in by the OP.

She is on pretty much every benefits thread going and usually makes a snotty Daily Mail type comment very similar to this on this thread.

I don't understand why this thread is still here tbh. It's goady bullshit, designed to bring out the benefit bashers. And it's worked a treat.

Happy Angelos?

Brambly, taking into account tax, you'd have to have an income of around £30k to work and be comparable. The U.K. average wage is £26.5k.

So, yes, it is a comfortable income on the high side.

"median household disposable income for 2014/15 is £25,600"

This thread is utterly horrible and some people commenting are disgustingly entitled too. I just feel so sad that 4 yrs of Tory propaganda has resulted in a society where people hold such beliefs. It's clear that a 1 cap does not fit all when it comes to benefits and it's worth noting that there are different benefits for different reasons & some benefits are in place to help low earners and create an incentive to work rather than be trapped into a benefits system that rewards not working! I suppose that same people who moan about this are the same people who would complain if those people didn't work at all. To suggest that people are "deserving" of help is just horrible. Who made you judge and jury? How do you know each persons personal and financial state to form those opinions? Typical middle class twaddle! yes there will always be people abusing the system just like at the other end of the scale there will also be people abusing that system? Hiding money in tax havens, using loopholes to avoid tax etc... Same "scroungers" where is the outrage there??
I haven't long joined Mumsnet but already seeing the nastiness and bitterness that comes through on posts such as this one!

In my area lha for a 3 bed house is £950. Average rents for a 3 bed house is about £1250. Lha is capped until 2020 when rents for a 2 bed are projected to be £1600
Also - you can't access any council assistance to move into private rental if you are struggling to find a deposit/landlord unless you find a property that doesn't exceed lha rates. So that excludes everybody.
The solution to this is to move lower income people out of the city. In fact it's not just lower income people. I already moved out of the city I work in (public sector worker, necessary job) and can't even afford to live in a neighbouring town now. I will be moving into a one bedroom flat with my child just to afford to live here. Housing is fucked.

I just feel so sad that 4 yrs of Tory propaganda has resulted in a society where people hold such beliefs.

Yet you feel happy to negate the personal experiences of those who lived through 13 years of Labour's unfair welfare system, which was hugely unfair on a lot of lower waged people and caused observable social problems which also affected the lowest waged most? They couldn't possibly trust their own experience and must be sucked in by 'propaganda'. BTW, why 4 years? Why not 6 as per the start of the coalition?

To suggest that people are "deserving" of help is just horrible. Who made you judge and jury? How do you know each persons personal and financial state to form those opinions? Typical middle class twaddle!

Well, that's democracy for you. Isn't it a terrible bind isn't it. The electorate saw what Labour's out of control welfare state looked like and rejected it. As for 'middle class twaddle'. Most of what you've ticks the boxes of 'middle class twaddle' perfectly. Most of the working class people I know (genuine working class, who, er, work) felt the bitterest about Labour's benefit system as it was unfairest on them. Far from being 'unjudgemental' that system judged them the most as they were actually punished for trying to work and be independent and make their lives better rather than just being dependent captive Labour voters prepared to swap votes for benefits.

'Middle class twaddle' is generally exactly the sort of stuff you've just spouted coming from middle class, often southern Labour supporters who really cannot imagine why someone working class in Barnsley or Sunderland or Rochdale might want to work and stand on their own two feet with decent wages, prospects and self respect rather than taking a handout.