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)

get a giffgaff goodybag for £10 a month, just saved you £30

Clearly the government doesn't think its enough to be living on or they wouldn't be topping up their wages with in work benefits would they?
I said earlier that DP brings in roughly £400 a week, and we're not entitled to in work benefits. We get child benefit, but no tax credits.

Importing cleaners?????
Is that like importing a car or goods?

People are so ungrateful at the fact that they get given thousands of pounds a year solely because they CHOSE to have lots of children that they cannot afford.
It makes me cross that people who are disabled etc get very little help and then see able bodied people moaning because their only going to have £19k per year after tax!
Absolute rubbish that there are no jobs - they are always hiring at supermarkets and fast food outlets and they have shift work that would accommodate around school hours.

In this situation, moaning about your lack of benefits is not the going to help you. You need to look at ways of helping yourself.

I might have one DC but my story isn't just my own. People all up and down this country are on similarly low incomes with 2+ kids

How does driving to school and shopping twice a wk costs £120 in diesel every mth?

There are people who will find it genuinely hard and genuinely can't do much to improve things for themselves. I really feel for those people.

Then there are people who find excuses as to why they can't possibly change a single thing in their life to at least try and help themselves. Saying you can't work just in case one my kids is ill falls under the latter.

eightbluebirds I see where you're coming from and I have 3 kids.

DD has a bus pass but needs driving to the bus stop (over a mile away) another DC is at a school in the town 6 miles the other way. There was no place in the village school for him so he had to stay at the school in town so he isn't entitled to a bus pass.

Thats 28 miles a day on school drop offs

There is no point people making suggestions, op isn't looking for help or ideas for how to help herself, she wants sympathy about how tough it is that her cash handouts are not as much as she wants.

rose. Clearly I didn't have the children when I was in this situation. I was married and working and with a husband who worked full time.

Hows the view from that high horse of yours?

Wow MN has really changed.

Of course it's difficult, bordering impossible, to move when you're not working. The 'you'll just have to, I'm afraid, that's what most people do!' tinkly phrasing of some posters is astonishing. Plus you have to listen to pie-in-the-sky criticism from some twerp blithering on about her "hubby's" job (not her DH's and NOT her own, I notice). There aren't enough eye rolls in the world.

I also think a lot of people are clueless about rural living.

Good luck to you. I hope things improve for you before the cuts really bite.

Get some budget apps op, work out how to save up the moving costs and move. £900 / month for rent is excessive.

As for the children's father not providing any income, have you registered hi name with the CSA or whatever they're called these days?

You are not listening op.
You need to make lifestyle changes OR get a job. What age are your kids?

user don't be an arse. It is hard for the OP, that doesn't mean it's not hard for other people as well.

I pay tax and I'm happy to do so to support people like the OP who need it. And 3 children is hardly excessive.

There is an issue with people getting low wages in this country and it is not down to the people on benefits and not working. It really bothers me that people on low incomes are being pitted against each other instead of seeing that the enemy is the Government that continually cuts away the benefits for people not able to work or with young families and that props up low wages with tax credits. The economic system that rewards greed and creates an ever wider gap between rich and poor.

Why is there not outrage and disgust about that It is like telling someone - 'sorry your life is not quite miserable enough yet I need you to suffer more because if I look down at you I won't think about the morally and actually bankrupt capitalist economy that has kept my wages low and my living expenses high...'

I have no sympathy for you. Sorry.
My Husband works 40 hours a week and brings home £1,900. I work part-time and bring home £420. We have 2 children, a mortgage, cars, etc...
My suggestion is that you get a job. This country caters to stay at home parents enough as it is and you are VERY lucky you get what you are already given.
I come from a country that gives you next to nothing! I find that people feel so entitled here. Over £1,500 a month for FREE and you complain. smh....

These absent parents who don't pay should be thrown in jail.

I think you need to speak to the CMS and get your children's father contributing, especially since you are staying in an expensive area to facilitate contact

That doesn't work either if the charming ex has learnt the 'no-profit from self employment' strategem from some cabal of slack dads somewhere.

Have you explained this to your children's father? You seem to want to keep them near them which is understandable but he needs to support his children more. Could he take them to school more to save on petrol costs? What things does he buy them? I would start giving things you need I.e uniform, school trips to him. It's not yours or the gov's sole responsibility to look after your kids. He really needs to step up.

Aye if you have three dc and your dh earns £400 you are entitled to tax credits. Approx £180 a week in tax credits.

What's your future work plan? I'm just thinking if you studying does the cap still apply? It could be a good opportunity to use the shit situation to your advantage. You need to look long term, it's not sustainable so something needs to give. I know with 3 kids it's that bit harder, ones always ill/ got an appointment/ needs something sorting out.

Being self employed with tax credits is tricky, you need 16 upwards reliable hours a week. They can't be flexible and you can't do more one week less the next. Zero hours is no good as tax credits can't keep up with the flexability

£384 a week in benefits equates to a salary pre tax of £24,768.00.

To start posting about it being poverty and starving people is just ridiculous.

User my dh earns around the 90k mark, I have no problem with the idea that the amount of tax he pays goes to the op. Someone else's tax is payed to me in terms of dla & ca.

Op, don't let people make you feel crappy. But I do agree with pp's that this is only going to get worse, so looking for ways of cutting costs & earning from home may help. I know that's not as simple as it sounds, and I don't doubt you have thought of this already.

It's great thanks - why can't you find Job near the children's school? That you could go to after drop off and leave to pick them up? That way you would also save half of your diesel costs each month by only making one trip! I don't believe for a second that there is no McDonald's or Tesco in the area!
I don't think you grasp how much of a slap in the face it is to someone who works every hour they can to hear the people who are taking a minimum of 20% of the wage moan that it's not enough.