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)

Would the Government be taking money iff disabled people/carers if the general welfare budget wasn't being so exploited by others? The fact is it's unsustainable. If more people worked rather than claiming benefits, the government would not be needing to make across the board cuts, and working people would probably be happier knowing the system was there to support those who really need it rather than those who find 101 reasons why they can't work.

Ah anecdote, you know its not the plural of data right? You know how few people are in the OPs position long term?

Love your empathy btw, just makes you a stand out character and not one who is hoisting your judgey pants at all.

Helena sorry I didn't mean to offend and yes I probably didn't think properly before I wrote that and for that I apologise.

However I have already made it blatantly clear that I would happily pay more for services such as care so don't know why you think I would complain at this?

Usually you can do qualifications while in those no experience jobs. Those help to raise your wages and also more options in life too.

Apart from OP's useless exDH, the biggest factor in this is our completely screwed housing market. It's awful that whole parts of the country, including much of the countryside, becomes a no-go area for people of average earnings.

It's crap that public transport is so dire, particularly dire in rural areas. It's crap that where rural people used to be able to walk along lanes to catch buses a mile away it's now too dangerous due to the volume of high speed traffic and lack of pavements.

I was bought up in a poor part of the country, with the nearest bus over a mile away, but the difference then was we had a proper, maintained footpath across the fields to enable us to use it safely. And it was safe because lots of people used it. As less and less people used the path, the remaining users felt more unsafe, and now the path is muddy for most of the year.

It's really tough being stuck in the countryside with no money. OP, does your council not have a scheme to help with deposits for when you do find that mythical DSS accepted home in the town? If you research that, or ask Shelter for advice, you'd have a chance of living in a place with lower transport costs and a chance of work. And your 'cheaper' house isn't cheaper when you have to heat it with oil and it's not insulated.

Agree with PP who said you really need to push the school transport thing with your youngest child/ren. Unless you've refused a nearer school, the local authority should be funding this.

Now it comes back to your ex First, how can there not be any money to support your children if there was the extra money when together. He really needs to be investigated. Hope he does.

Can see both sides of this. Have to say that I would have loved, and still would, a 3 bed property. Even now, with adult and teen dcs we live in a 2 bed flat. We both work. Adult DDS share a room. We have converted a glorified cupboard which Ds sleeps in. It is NOT a bedroom by any stretch of the imagination and his clothes and stuff are stored in everyone else's rooms. But it holds a bed and a bookshelf and under bed storage. Dh and I both work full time but can't afford a 3 bed property or £900 a month rent.

" If more people worked rather than claiming benefits, the government would not be needing to make across the board cuts"

The proportion of benefits paid to the out of work is actually a very small amount of the benefits budget. About 60 % of it goes to pensioners, more if you count pensioners on HB. Further the largest percentage of the rest is paid to peple who are in work.

You need to get support from ex. I suspect, as you're dodging all the questions about him, you feel too proud to ask him. They're his kids too. I do feel for you, I truly do, but he's the solution here. You said his mum helped you with the deposit. Chat with her and get him to get his act together.
Wish you the best

Reynard -
Unabridged, Kamikaze, Tanka.

That's more than I get working full time. Sorry but I don't see how you can complain, you're being given a large sum of money every month for nothing. And you want to complain you're not being given enough?

The benefit cap works by totalling up all the relevant benefits incl HB. Whatever is over the cap is deducted from the HB. No other benefit is reduced but obviously you have to use that benefit income to pay the shortfall in your rent. So YES finding a property with a lower rent will help.

Is that not because many 'people in work' are working the fewest hours they can get away with, rather than taking on more hours due to the 16-24 hours tax credit benefit?

OP good luck with the job hunting and whatever budgeting/sacrifices you have to have.
I think if you had kept the numbers out of it you would have had a much kinder reception.

I really hope your ex dh steps up and starts paying you decent support for your children, that could make a huge difference to you.

Well done for keeping your cool on this thread.

Queen most people don't come from a background with that much money. Many disabilities cost a lot of money. Accessing work whire living with disabilities can cost more than they would earn for some, why should they be out of pocket because they want the opportunity to work like everyone else?

Op I would also like to say well done for not losing your shit.

I would have been calling everyone smelly cunts by now. Which recent thread was that where the op lost her shit and said something to that effect?

"people in work' are working the fewest hours they can get away with, rather than taking on more hours due to the 16-24 hours tax credit benefit?"

Again with the prejudices.

No this is not the case because it includes HB, and CTC its not the case. Only 11% of households qualify for WTCs.

Ditto for keeping your cool.
Good luck, I hope you find a solution that works for your family

But if we were all smelly cunts we could all go and douche.

Firsttheworst with the abysmal marriage success rate no doubt at least a couple of females on this thread shall find themselves in a similar situation one day! Perhaps they will recall their shitty responses to you.

Good luck for yourself & your children in the future, hope things improve.

the credit crunch threads is good for any specific money saving advice and properly supportive. I agree, I'd have flounced. It certainly could happen to anyone you never know what's round the corner.

I work with someone who gets full disability benefits including a car and free taxis and earns the same as me

I know someone who is worth ten million quid, worked full time, six-figure salary who claimed DLA too. He had a high-earning wife as well. The thing is, his family was entitled to it, and DLA often acts as a passport to services which have since been cut by said person and his cronies

Nice one dreamfoil.

"Would the Government be taking money iff disabled people/carers if the general welfare budget wasn't being so exploited by others"

Yes they would be.

Because it's done for ideological reasons not fiscal ones. The Tories believe in self sufficiency, a smaller state, and families stepping up to carry more of the financial and social burden of caring for the disabled and elderly.

If it was a requirement to reduce spending across the board they wouldn't be proposing huge pay increases for mp's, continuing paying the winter fuel allowance to rich pensioners, cutting taxes for high earners, reducing inheritance tax, funding trident, and paying out tens of thousands through 'help to buy' for people buying homes costing half a million or more.