To think the benefit cap is going to plunge families into poverty

[Firsttheworst]

Next month the benefit cap comes in. It sets out the maximum that can be claimed in a week across all benefits. This doesn't include disability or wtc. Its aimed purely at women (mostly) claiming income support. You can only claim income support if you have a child under 5 and don't work.

The benefit cap is in the government owns words designed to get IS claimants out to work. The cap is currently £500 and will be reduced to £384 a week.

This includes, housing benefit, CT benefit, tax credits, income support. So all in total cannot be more than £384 a week. Over a 30 day month that comes to £1645.

From that £1645 I need to pay

rent £900 a month (no I can't move, its impossible to rent on benefits as it is, not giving this house up and its below market rent as it is)

CT - £60 a month

Electricity £80

Oil £80

Diesel £ 120 (rural don't drive anywhere other than school runs and supermarket/town once or twice a week)

Car insurance £49

Car tax £19.99

Phone/internet £40 (thats a basic mobile and broadband)

House insurance £13

TV licence £11

That leaves 272 a month to pay for food, clothes, car breakdown, school trips, birthdays, miscellaneous and god knows what else. For one adult and 3 children.

AIBU to think that the government have just decided that if they starve us out for long enough we'll be forced to go out and find a job? Like I said rural area so jobs are rarer than hens teeth and believe me i'm looking. It is pure discrimination against single mothers with small children (i doubt many men claim income support)

There are plenty of jobs, the government tells us so.
Net migration is 327,000 this year, that is 327,000 extra people than last year.
Granted some will be pensioners, some children, but most will be working age.
Daily, these companies keep crying out for all this labour, they cant recruit they say.
Why are there no jobs?
Are we being lied to?

MummyoflittledragonMon 10-Oct-16 16:46:39
Apparently a fair number of families don't work and she says everyone seems to be on disability and they are all carers for each other. One woman left her walking stick and sauntered out. Then came rushing back, retrieved her stick and left limping. So the system is massively abused.

1. It is perfectly possible as well as perfectly legal to be disabled and to care for somebody else.
2. The DWP's own figures for fraud are 0.04%. So no it isn't massively abused. 3)Your friend in the post office had no idea why the person with the stick was claiming, it may actually have been for a mental health problem, the stick may have been temporary ( I use one on occasion but not all of the time). Not that it's any of her business to talk about the benefits of all and sundry.

Randy, I don't recall claiming about my taxes educating your children when I was able to work. Your heart may struggle to bleed, but that has nothing to do with the tax you pay and where you think it goes, more to do with the fact that you are unaware of how many people on benefits are unable to function and how many people on disability benefits are dying due to government cutbacks. And before you say it's different for those on disability benefits, some of us have lost them and are having to go through the rigmarole of reclaiming/appeal, or waiting six months to try again, and then feeling sick every time we pick up the 'phone so not getting it done. In the meantime, can't afford the heating.

You can't see why working families might be annoyed about someone complaining about the benefits cap?

I've already said, mine + DH wage - childcare = approx what the benefits cap will be. Plus the OP would get passported benefits, in particular NHS costs, with me having a couple of chronic health conditions (prescription costs, hospital visits) wear glasses, need frequent dental treatment as a result of health conditions, that would be worth quite a bit to us!

If DH or I want more money to spend, we need to either work more hours or reduce our outgoings.

The OP is expecting the government to give her more money. That's why I'm annoyed.

Anyway, did OP and ex live in a rented house, or own their home. Seems odd that OP would move out of a rental big enough for their children, only to have to find another one, or the ex to find a smaller rental?

Having said this the government really do need to make fathers pay their share to support their families

Absolutely. There should be a system in place where, if mothers are made to go back to work and come off benefits, then absent fathers should not be allowed to get out of paying child support because they are 'not earning enough' or don't have a job.

Are we being lied to?
Yes. We're being lied to, not all benefit claimants are workshy scroungers, but the press lie regularly about that.
As for jobs, they are often in concentrated areas, if people can't afford to live in those areas or commute to those areas then there are problems filling the spaces available. If you live rurally, you have to include the cost of transport when working out your income, often a lot more than grabbing the tube. A weekly fare to the city is £28 per week, that's quite a lot. It also means shift work can be difficult/inaccessible as in many places the last bus is around eight or nine o' clock at night.

Cronically

You have the choice to do the same as the OP, or you could change your circumstances to gain extra money.
The pt job I've gone for is certainly not a career move and is entry level.
I have no transport costs, uniform, food or any other work related costs as the money was more important.
I could have gone for better job and had tons of expenses and come out with less.
I'm sorry about the cost of your prescriptions and it does seem a shame to do all that work to not have enough money.
That's not the fault of people on benefit though.

KathArctic have you seen the Benefits tv programme based in Sunderland/newcastle where a few young teens couldn't 'wait to claim benefits when they were older'

Manumission

you really don't have any idea of who I know do you??

HA! I couldn't care less who you Know SuperCorleone

by twatty comments I suppose you're referring to my mum's struggles are you??

No, I meant your snide remarks about bedroom sharing and your assumption that OP's DC don't share (as I made clear).

But, as you mention it, your continued anecdotes about how an owner occupier with a guarantor and two spare bedrooms managed FORTY years ago, do seem a little bit off topic.

Are we being lied to?

No, unemployment is relatively low and in rural areas with few jobs immigration is almost non existent.

Sadly policies like these are popular. They get people to focus on what the poor are getting, when of course benefits were designed as a safety net to catch people like the OP.

Good attempt to bring immigration into this though.

Shall we have mumsnet bingo?

OP is getting more than i do for a job? Yup.
You're rent is too expensive move somewhere cheaper. Yup.
Its the fault of immigrants. yup
The father is feckless and should pay rather than the state ( like its that easy) HOUSE!

maybe they're off topic but she certainly had her struggles.

big split here obviously...

sarcasm obviously is REALLY your strong point!

nothing snide about my comments... perhaps they do share?!

dawndonna- the problem is that not all benefit claimants are work shy scroungers, indeed the vast vast majority are not. However all work shy scroungers are benefit claimants and trying to pretend that that group of people don't exist is pointless.

I think it's more than enough. Too much actually.

If you chose to live on benefits then you can't expect the best. If you want better go and work for it.

I earn less than that for a 40hr week.
DH is a teacher and earns less.

Why should you be able to rent somewhere costing £900 a month when people who work full time struggle to afford it.

Dawn-

When we hit rough patches I go out and clean. I don't see it as beneath me. I'm doing what needs to be done for our family to survive.

If rather ds saw me cleaning than sitting at home whining about my lot.

Every single one of these threads concludes with where is the other parent and why isn't he paying
So what's going to be done about this because there's millions of these sperm donors getting off Scot free. I cannot see how they get away with it - mine didn't and he lived 1200 miles away. Simple phone call.

I am here. I am reading, thread is moving very quickly.

Cooking dinner but will be back to answer questions

gilly you misunderstood me. I do have enough money, I wasn't complaining about that.

I am saying that if I wanted more money, it is my responsibility to do something about it.

The OP seems to be saying that if she doesn't have enough money, it's the government's fault.

Being pissed off that people think it is a god given right to live off of benefits full term because you think it is your right to choose that having children is a full time paid career pathway, is not the same as thinking we should not help people who actually need it. Or does the OP put herself in the same boat as those actually homeless onthe street who don't receive anything? Or carers who through no fault of their own end up giving up work for little thanks or money to look after someone else?

There is a limited amount of money in the pot and people like this are abusing it.

pisssssedofff - and more to the point why do people keep having children with such losers. I know they all say it was fine to begin with but one look at the relationships board will show you how many women are in crappy relationships that everyone except them can see are not going work and yet they go on to marry and have children with these men!

The OP isn't asking the government for more money at all.

She is saying that what she was previously capped at getting, with everything combined (including council tax reductions) is going to be very hard to live on.

The government's policy of capping benefits would suggest that it is the government's fault.

Now whether you think the benefits she got to stop her from living in penury are too high is a personal point.

But technically she's correct :)

It's not the fault of the government nor the responsibility of the tax payer. It's the responsibility of the children's FATHER to provide for his kids and at the moment he doesn't pay a penny! You are angry at the wrong people OP look a little closer to home.

My plan B had dickhead not paid child support was to give him his children and then I would go to work whilst he lived on benefits and I paid child support. That really ought to be considered as an option, if people genuinely want the best for their rather than a meal ticket, force the other parent to parent

Capping private rents would be the common sense answer.

I'm surprised tenants aren't RIOTING in reaction to the rises over the past decade.

User - I was young and stupid and whole family history of abuse that led me down that path but also enough self esteem and education to pull myself out the shit, I travel for work, I don't use having to live in a certain area for work as an excuse and that's all it is. I pay £375 per week in train fayre atm to earn £900 a week because I'm
Not bloody stupid

I don't think that's a bad amount of money to be taking home every month. I earn 30k a year and take home only a little more than that per month! Benefits should never pay more than working full time on minimum wage does (with key exceptions such as disability).