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?

What about all the couples that could easily live on one wage but choose to put tiny babies in childcare from 7am until 6pm so they can afford naice holidays and keep up with the Joneses? Better parents? No. They are putting their own greed for material possessions first.

The minimum wage is £7.20 an hour so two full time workers in a couple will earn £26k a year before tax (if 7 hours a day) and £24k after tax/NI. The benefits cap in London is about £23k after tax as it were. So really the cap is about the same as working full time which is amazing - why bother to work when you can both sit at home and be handed this cash from hard working tax payers in couples where both work full time and pay a whole of one wage in child care

The cap is a "maximum". You have to tick all of the boxes to get £23k

If you don't then you don't get £23k, you get less. I don't know the stats but I strongly suspect not many families will be eligible for the full £23k.

So your comparison is incorrect.

"need an income to provide for your children" pretty bloody hard to EARN an income when

You're illiterate/mentally ill/learning disabled/severely physically disabled

Your child is sick/disabled

There's not enough jobs to go around!

The minimum wage is £7.20 an hour so two full time workers in a couple will earn £26k a year before tax (if 7 hours a day) and £24k after tax/NI. The benefits cap in London is about £23k after tax as it were. So really the cap is about the same as working full time which is amazing - why bother to work when you can both sit at home and be handed this cash from hard working tax payers in couples where both work full time and pay a whole of one wage in child care.

Me2017, Assuming it's a 2 child household, you forgot to add the £1,651 per year in CB onto their annual income, and also any WTC to which they'd be entitled.

Adding CB alone would make the annual income you calculated as £25k after tax.
(Obvs WTC would push it higher still).

Somebody on benefits with only 2 children would most likely not even make the amount of the cap (it's those families with more children that exceed it), so in fact - using your own figures, you have actually completely disproved your own point.

What about all the couples that could easily live on one wage but choose to put tiny babies in childcare from 7am until 6pm so they can afford naice holidays and keep up with the Joneses? Better parents? No. They are putting their own greed for material possessions first.

Jess, that's just as shitty & goady as the benefits bashing posts tbh.
Not nice.

Jess That comment is just as bad as the 'benefit bashing' posts.

This one will effect 88.000 households.
£2000 average each year.
So 88000x2000 = £176.000.000

They wouldn't even fit in Wembley Stadium so that many people punished.

Because if it's the money surely we would just ask the guy who owes us some.

Ops *Mango' beat me to it.

Minimum wage is £6.70 if you're under 25. When I worked I was on minimum wage, it sucked. Now I'm a kept woman by my husband! Shocker! Stop the press! Judge me!

Also, the cruelty of the cap is that it is done by reducing housing benefit. So calling it a cap makes it sound more fluffy when actually the government is taking away support for housing costs.

All the while they're reducing social housing.

And doing nothing to reduce private rents.

Also 'handed this cash' BELIEVE ME it is really NOT that simple! The hoops anyone claiming benefits has to jump through are ridiculous, the forms are deliberately designed to confuse, the 'assessors' for sick/disabled claimants have targets regarding REJECTING claims (they get bonuses for this), they are often not medically trained let alone qualified in the relevant area for the claimants they see, even the locations for claim interviews are deliberately chosen to deter people from making a claim (inaccessible, difficult to physically access in terms of code locked doors and then nobody answers the call entry buzzer etc).

Like the swipe at two parents working from a non working person

Maybe both want a career, maybe they don't buy into the theory that only one sex works, maybe they are being sensible in having a second income should anything happen to the first person? There are a million reasons why two adults work.

At least they are financially supporting their children, they are fulfilling a parenting basic. Who cares if they have holidays etc, showing children nice things come from hard work is not a bad lesson to learn.

HOW is illiteracy a red herring?!

I think hope Jess was being deliberately controversial to make a point, ie not nice when shoe on other foot.

Honestly, this thread has made me really fucking depressed. Everyone in the team working with my DS tells me I'm doing great, but to some posters on here, I'm just a feckless sponger.

Well you aren't a sponger and you are doing great.

My husband has received some awful judgments IRL about his lack of working. My wonderful, loving, kind husband who dreads the question 'what do yo do'? because sometimes people's faces drop and they look at him differently.

I work, I am a carer and I am studying. I still sometimes feel like a useless sponger. I have lots of children, you can imagine what people think before they even know the full circumstances and how we got here.

But you have to hold your head up high and leave those people to their opinions I guess.

My children aren't having a sub standard childhood.

Some of the views on this thread are pretty vile
And I doubt very much certain posters would have been so vocal pre brexit tbh
It seems now that some people think they have a political mandate for these views

I also very much doubt they would state these views without anonymity!

Graphista, I remember distinctly the day I got the letter saying I was in support group ESA, without needing to appeal or anything.

Up until then I'd started to feel like such a fraud - maybe I had munchausens or something - maybe it was all in my head.

It was such a relief to get the letter that meant I was believed I really was sick and not just a chancing, skiving twat.

(I was sick of course, still am, will be for the rest of my life - the consultant's letter, dr's letter, psychiatrist & psychologist's letters & my hospital records proved it obvs, but I still was made to feel like a cheating scumbag when I was jumping through all the 'assessment' hoops).

Jake you think disabled people being supported financially by the state to raise children is an insult to working people?
Are you for real? Do you think people chose to be disabled?
I am thankful one that my dh works hard to support me and our dc as I am disabled.
And two that I am married to a man who was happy his taxes supported others unable to work way before he had a disabled wife.

People with no skills, no education and no training can't really support themselves these days though, not enough to save up & get insurance and everything else that people expect so that they can ensure they provide for their children no matter what.

I've honestly had enough. I feel so depressed right now by the cruelty and judgement on this thread. Well done to all of you wanted to 'win' the war on the benefits 'scroungers'. As I said, live my for a week and then tell me how easy it is. Let's hope none of you get ill, have a child with a disability or a partner who suddenly decides to leave. Life is unpredictable.

Don't let the idiots get you down jess

I've honestly had enough. I feel so depressed right now by the cruelty and judgement on this thread

This^

However I am going to carry on fighting and supporting charities because I see that people who need welfare are vulnerable. They need support and they need a voice.

I'm seriously wondering how I can campaign about this because the Tories and their voters are horrid people. They don't see the "poor" as human. That's my conclusion.