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)

OP is spending £160 a month on electricity and oil. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY POUNDS. I find this astonishing. We have managed to get our bill (two bed terraced, no double glazing, slum dwelling basically, but hey, that's all we can afford) down to £50 a month. We wear more clothes and go to bed early.

I feel upset by this post because dh works 48 hours a week and doesn't earn what the OP is 'earning' by not working. And I also work 25 hours a week just so we can get by. Dd has never had a new pair of school shoes in her life. We just can't afford the forty odd quid they cost each time, so we buy secondhand (and I hear a big hissy intake of breath from lots of people on this subject because we're brainwashed into buying brand new from Clarks each time in this country) but some of us just can't afford it.

She has £272 each month for everthing else and I feel that the welfare state has met it's obligations. She's not factoring in all the other stuff she's getting, such as free school meals (approx. £2 per child per school day, so about £40 per month per child), and the free prescriptions, and the free dental care etc etc. Add that all in and she's getting quite a lot - other people are having to pay for all of that out of their own pockets/by working. The welfare state was brought in to end child poverty, and by that they meant real grinding poverty. Grrrrr.

Canadian its heading that the government is going to squeeze the life out of bennefits until there is no more.

Absent parents need to pay but that doesn't absolve the resident parent from providing. Unless there is a bereavement then children have two parents neither of which should simply be able to opt out of supporting their children.

If the OP worked until the split there is obviously employment that fits in and within the locality. I'm guessing the worked since 16 is not quite true though ..... there would have been no need to quit a job simply because of a relationship split or half the workforce would be in trouble.

If benefits were less generous and had more conditions attached, then situations like this wouldn't arise as it wouldn't be an option. We have failed as a country when we started to let people chose not to work and pay them huge amounts. It's shameful.

The main problem is that men appear to feel that they can walk away from their responsibilities these days. Fathers should be supporting their kids not the state. A friend of mine has 4 kids and isn't married to their father and who has already left her a couple of times. He has his own company and hides what he earns and allows her no access to his money.
Women need to protect themselves and their kids. If he leaves again she will be in the same boat as the op. It's madness

The field if you are working 73 hours between you and can't afford school shoes you need to look at your outgoings!

Gold

The OP has more in benefit than my family earns.
Do you know, I don't care too hoots from a jealousy pov.
If we want more money we can change jobs, build the business up a bit more, and could tighten belt half a notch

LL don't take a negative view of hb ime, it is a condition not to accept it for many mortgage companies.
My last two tenants have been hb because we own the house, not dependant on mortgage.
I hope my next tenant will also receive hb fwiw they have always paid on time, in full and caused me no problems.

Also, I'm not a landlord yet, but will be in a few years. I wouldn't want someone with OP's attitude letting one of my properties...

(Nothing to do with her being on hb though!)

Thought the school shoes might elicit a comment. Sod everything else, but you simply must buy brand new school shoes.

I've been a single parent on benefits so I can comment from knowing what it's like - benefits are, and should always be, a stop gap. A helping hand when you need it. Enough to keep a roof over your head and food on the table. They are not there to keep you comfortable and in a nice life.
You rent is too high so move. Your car costs are extortionate! You do not need a car because you are rural. I'm sure there is still a bus and most shopping can be ordered online and delivered. Or walk to schools etc. If you can't walk then I go back to suggesting you move to somewhere cheaper and more accessible. Do not moan you can't afford to clothe your kids because you run a ridiculously expensive car.
Be grateful we have a benefit system. For someone who does not work you get a home, car, heating, food, clothes...... you haven't earnt it so start being a bit thankful.

This is exactly why they have to put a cap on benefits. Too many living beyond their means and hard working families scrapping along the bottom, working all hours god sends and getting NO help!
You need to move, accept that you'll have to downsize. Go into town. Lots of people would LOVE to be in the countryside.
In town you won't need a car. Walk, cycle, use buses if you have to.
And then you might find yourself a job and know what it's like for people who try to not rely on the state!

Amazing that you can get fined or worse for not having a TV license or for taking your kids out of school to see a sick granny but it's somehow fathers can get away with not paying to support their own children.

I understand the self-righteous glee that people like yourself will feel knowing non-working single mothers will now be punished for their fecklessness by being plunged into severe poverty

She is not being plunged into poverty, never mind severe. She will be financially in the same position as a lot of 2 earner families are.

By the way, reducing the rent WILL make her better off, because of the benefit cap. All benefit including HB will be reduced to the level of the cap. So if her rent reduces, her HB reduces, which means that she can claim more of the other benefits she's entitled to.

Also, I'm not a landlord yet, but will be in a few years. I wouldn't want someone with OP's attitude letting one of my properties..

Oh stop kicking her when she's down FGS.

There's nothing wrong with her 'attitude' she just sounds worried and realistic and a bit worn down by the jobhunt.

She also sounds numerate and determined and realistic. She'll do okay.

What happened to the idea that MN had a supportive ethos?

"and then you might find yourself a job and know what it's like for people who try to not rely on the state!"

You really are a poisonous smurf aren't you.

I bet you rely on the state for lots of things, I'd lay money that you aren't even a net contributor.

Some of the posters berating the OP are parents themselves.

Im not berating her and im the childfree by choice one.

On paper i should be the one berating her.

But in practice im not.

catch a bus

Actually, if you live rurally, there aren't buses. None you could rely on to get you where you need to be at the time you need to be there, and if you miss the one that gets you there an hour early (because you have to walk the children to school first and a tree fell down last night and the road's closed) then you will have to wait another 3 hours before the next bus is due, let alone arrives. And don't even think about trains. Most rural places round here don't have stations.

I had to give up my job when the ex left me. It was evening work I took to fit round his day job. No, he didn't continue to provide childcare - he moved away to be with OW. It isn't an uncommon situation.

So all in total cannot be more than £384 a week. Over a 30 day month that comes to £1645.

£1645 a month is the net equivalent of a £25,000 salary. That is alot of money. What do you think people who are working do?

Give up your expensive rental and go and live in shit like the rest of people working who cant afford the home they would like, me included.

YABVU.

*Manumission
*
I quite simply wouldn't willingly let to somebody who sits and moans about the hand they've dealt themselves! I can just imagine them phoning me every time a light bulb needed changing because they couldn't do it themselves.

Like many here, I haven't had it easy, but did I let that stop me?!? Hell no!

Gilly - I am so far from being jealous it is unreal! I am cross that all around me are massive cuts to services because the pot is going dry, I'm annoyed that carers receive very little and I find it criminal that people moan on here with a woe is me attitude about being capped to a 'wage' (very loose term!) which many working people can only dream of! I think it is also amazing you can say 'if I want more money I get a different job' is helerious as you are using this as an argument to support people who cannot be bothered to get any job at all!

Like many here, I haven't had it easy, but did I let that stop me?!? Hell no!

Oh Christ. You sound like the deathly dull 'bootstraps' chap lurking at the end of every saloon bar. Eurgh.

How do you know OP is 'sitting' doing anything anyway? She seems to be multi-tasking magnificently to me.

the OP already said that places accepting HB are rare in her area and that she's paying below market rate.

there would have been no need to quit a job simply because of a relationship split or half the workforce would be in trouble

Really? What about shift workers? Or anyone who needs out of hours childcare? What if you have an ill or disabled child? It requires two parents to work together to overcome these issues.

Yeah, let's all race to the bottom.

Your neighbour's misery will not improve your own lot in life, people.

Well needs in all of those scenarios the option to the co parent of those kids is pay up or you take the children. Honestly I recommend it as a bluff to all potential single mums, blokes tend to crap themselves and pay up.

But I'd have done it if he hadn't paid because somebody was going to pay child support to ensure my children didn't suffer and if it wasn't going to be him, it was going to be me.