New £23k Benefit Cap.

[legotits]

AIBU to ask if anyone still supports this?

Which families is this targeted at?

Anyone who will be affected, is it even feasible to not be pushed into debt?

Yep, that's why we have foodbanks

Exactly, portia. Do posters really believe that as a single mother in receipt of benefits, I'm jetting off on holiday, visiting theme parks and having nights out?! Put The Daily Fail down and read The Beano instead. Less fictional

Remember the children will get free school meals. So children only need fed breakfast and evening meal and at weekends. I could manage on this. But then I was brought up in poverty so learned how to manage on very little money. But the family will be poor.

becca

Becca and I think I misunderstood your post too. I am sorry you are having such a hard time. I was there last year and without my partner I don't know how I would have coped. Not entitled to any help, but couldn't manage on my own. I am so sorry you have no one to help you.

Yes maternity allowance is only 26 weeks. But a mother with a 4 month old baby should not have to go back to work yet. I am a bit taken aback that on mums net others are saying to a woman with a 4 month old baby, just to go back to work.

Why shouldn't they have to go back to work? Going back to work that soon is very normal. My child was 18 weeks when I returned!

I am with everyone who thinks that benefits should never pay more than a full-time job. Dh and I work 72 hours a week between us and we can't afford music lessons for our dc, and struggle with paying for school meals, both of which we might get for free if we live separately and I only work 16 hours a week if at all. I have never been able to afford to be a stay-at-home-parent, although I would love to be one. I would absolutely love it.

We are also in a situation where we cannot afford a house with enough space for us to have a dining table set up permanently (we have a fold up one) to eat together as a family or anywhere to store a bicycle or two, and so we are having to look at moving a couple of hundred miles away to a cheaper area.

Living off the taxes of other people's earnings should not be a lifestyle choice. It should be a last resort.

Well I don't earn 23k from working full time (I am on 18k) so I agree with this. You should not get more for not working otherwise where's the incentive?

Correct and not Channel 5 or the daily vile info re single parents can be found here

mobile.gingerbread.org.uk/news/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=48

Something needs to be done about rents. Family's have already become homeless because of the cap. So now more people will be homeless. and when they have stopped cutting out of work benefits they will start cutting in work benefits.

brasty it's ok. I get defensive about it, because I'm on my own (no family/RL support) and, frankly, frightened.

We'll start again!

If it's for new claimants only I agree,but not for people who already have a load of kids as it's the kids who will suffer for the parents choices.
I say this as a single mum on benefits,i did not plan to be in this position,but I don't think it's fair to keep on having children and expecting the government to pay,I chose to get sterilized while having a c section on dd2 as had split up with dp while pregnant and knew I would have to rely on benefits for a few years because of our situation.
Feel bad that it's ended up this way and do feel guilty that I need to claim.
A woman I know has been on benefits for 20 years and had 5 chilldren and planning number 6 as she doesn't want to go out to work.

It's a difficult one. Should a person not working be paid more than a working person? Certainly we are talking more than a teacher, or nurse. Think about benefits being raised above average earning? More than a dr? Less than a Porter? IT is a question of where we draw the line I think.

ghost it will make it worse as its housing benefits they cut to reduce income.

I'm confused about LHA as well - wasn't that supposed to do away with everyone getting different amounts? Reducing it will mean different amounts again

Yes totally understand you being frightened. DPs family all live in the countryside. We were lucky enough to be able to plan where we lived so that I knew if I got worse, and ended up not being able to walk at all, we could easily adapt our house and all our services are very close by (we live just off a small high street in a town). But not everyone can do that level of advanced planning.

If on jsa no disability extras in Dover would receive for lone parent one child

£1254.50 per month = £15,054 per annum

Basic living costs =

Rent 600
C tax 77
Gas 70
Elec 43
TV licence 12.12
broadband 27.09
housekeeping 400
transport 65
clothes 50
Total monthly
1344.21

See the problem? That's a £90 shortfall every month and doesn't include any 'extras' (haircuts, birthdays, Christmas, extra costs during school holidays, unexpected issues like a broken washer eg, school trips etc)

If that same lp was working would get £1676 per month so the worker IS better off! Don't believe the spin.

Graphista, people do live on that amount - 1 adult and 1 child, so they do not spend that amount on things such as gas and electricity. It is doable, and it is foolish to claim it is not, because people do do it. But it is tight.

Do posters really believe that as a single mother in receipt of benefits, I'm jetting off on holiday, visiting theme parks and having nights out?! Put The Daily Fail down and read The Beano instead. Less fictional

I agree with your point in general but there are circumstances that annoy me. My DHs ex wife, for example. Youngest child is in junior school. She chooses not to work and yet still gets paid £470 every 4 weeks in child tax credits even though the income support has stopped because her youngest is over 5 (or is it 3 now?) and the govt thinks she should work. She regularly buys designer clothes for the children, goes on nights out, takes the children to theme parks most months, goes abroad five times a year.
Why is that allowed when there are single parents that really can't afford a basic standard of living? It frustrates me because she's the kind of person that gives struggling single parents a bad name.

There are also big differences in costs dependent on age. A 2 year old does not cost much if you are not working and thus have no childcare, whereas a 15 year old boy costs a lot on food alone.

A 15 year old doesn't need nappies though in most cases.

True. My 13 year old eats more in food that my 2 month old costs me in nappies though by quite a long way.

I think the cap should take into account how many children are in the family otherwise its children who are going to suffer.

I don't think it's fair that a family with one child are capped at the same amount as a family with 10 children.

Perhaps for future claimants you might be able to lower the cap as people would have advance warning but I don't think it's fair to penalise children who are already here.

I hope they do go after WTC next, sixteen hours for a single adult or 24 hours for a couple is nothing and people play the system working the bare minimum (to gain the most money and get round the cap) and never taking responsibility for themselves or their family. Shameful behaviour.

A 15 year old doesn't need nappies though in most cases.

You can get a pack of 60 nappies in Lidl or Aldi for £4. Good quality too.

four. Is she getting child support from your DH? When a child turns five, the parent will usually be moved from income support to JSA.

becca yes I know it's the rent that suffers which is why people have become homeless. The people on benefits dont choose the rents. And it's so unfair for the kids