Universal credit and saving for a house deposit

[Musereader]

I am a single parent with one child, i could not cope without tax credits as my rent, council tax and childcare costs are more than my montly wage so i rely on the tc to cover the bills and food.

I do work in national goverment on the lowest rung in a call centre and have been looking through the releases we get and i am horrified to find out that you cannot claim UC if you have more than £16k in savings. Between £16k and £6k in savings does mean a reduction in UC. This is not the case in tc

A house in my area ranges from £150 to 200k so a 10% deposit is £15k minimum.

Basically as soon as i save any amount of money that looks like a reasonable deposit i have to use savings to pay childcare because my UC would reduce.

So aibu to hope that the goverment does do a uturn on UC roll out which may mean that i never have to go on UC and be subject to these silly savings rules

Being as concise as possible - new and merry are goady fuckers

Bezm, the problem though is that we are in such a state "people in need" covers far too many people.

As an adult working full time in a job at above living wage with just two children I should not be entitled to housing benefit. It is a means tested benefit amd yet i am. The government - even with all the cuts they have already imposed - believes I need support. Sadly they are right.

It is ridiculous that even working at lower management level, full time, we are below what is needed to survive at base level.

I've obeyed all the rules, worked hard, worked up yet I have more chance of catching a unicorn than I do of saving a deposit or ever owning a house which means it is quite likely I will, forever, be a drain on the state.

When I had my dc I got no support. My earnings were enough to get by. Sadly rent rises, increases in the costs of food and utilities and hey Presto, I'm a succubus.

This country is broken and no amount of blaming working poor is going to change that.

While I agree in principle that it is cheaper to pay a mortgage than rent, you do have to agree that it sounds wrong to save /own a property while needing financial support from the state.
Benefits are there to cover living costs, not to accumulate capital.

Eh? You can't afford to pay your rent without your UC but you can save for a house so effectively the tax payer is saving your deposit for you.

This is ridiculous. You sang be serious? I am hiding out on the basis this is a wind up.

I find it disappointing that a full time civil servant such as the OP doesn't earn a sufficiently decent wage to not need benefits. Why haven't successive governments paid their staff adequately?

People saying benefits are not for buying houses. Tell that to all the landlords whose mortgages are paid by benefits. It makes sense to enable people to become homeowners as they will be less benefit dependent later in life. Their children stand a chance of an inheritance to set them up in life rather than needing state help. Etc. I'm studying social policy at the moment and the short term view applied is astounding. People would much rather give a man a fish every day (after making him beg) than teach him to fish and give him a one off cheque for a rod.

Drcoconut - really don’t forget the begging. The begging is crucial. With added humiliation.

Wondering if the gfs know you can get that loan from the gov to make your deposit up to 25%? Great policy imo but bet that boils your piss too

I’m going to get flamed from all sides here, I know it!

But OP, you knew when creating this post you were really trying to cause a bun fight. There’s no way you couldn’t have known that this wouldn’t go awry, only last night I was reading how UC isn’t paid to those who have a claim in any month 5 weeks long, because that 5th week is treated as extra income, that would make the very most vulnerable unable to meet their essential expenses, then you come here talking about the unfairness of not being able to save a deposit whilst on benefits. That’s gonna be like a fire up most people’s arses. There are a lot of working families entitled to nothing without access to enough to pay their bills.

However, I don’t disagree with what you are doing. There are people who I know who are on benefits, their kids partake in 3-4 after school activities each week, they go for nights out, and have foreign holidays. Because you have money left over at the end of the month doesn’t make you any less entitled to the money.

As far as I can see, you are using the money to invest into your future. It means that when you have your deposit, providing you have adequate earnings for a mortgage, you won’t ever receive housing benefit again and with the lower payments for a mortgage who knows, you may not need benefits anymore in a few years time.

I do think you started this thread with the intention of being a wind up, but I had to comment in case you were genuine and getting a pretty rough time.

I am shocked at the number of people that appear to be horrified at someone who receives benefits saving to better themselves. They've said there would be no treats etc and living frugally to save for a deposit on a house. Yet it would be ok for someone to receive benefits and smoke and drink, buy clothes and go out. Surely it's up to you when you receive benefits how you spend them. In an ideal world I am sure she would sooner be paid a better salary by the government who are essentially paying her the low wage in the first place.

She works full time but is in a low paid role.

Dammed if you do dammed if you don't.

bun fight

^ Yep.

Benefits should cover necessities.

Not allow people to save for house deposits.

This nonsensical situation was created by the New Labour ridicolousness of the late 1990s. It beggars belief that people earning £35k or more are getting tax credits etc.

As a single parent a few years ago I earned £1200 a month. £400 mortgage, £100 council tax, £300 childcare, travel £90. The rest was utility bills, food, etc. I managed to save and considered myself to be in a relatively comfortable position. Well off - probably not. But certainly I never felt my DC or I went without. No doubt now I'd be entitled to benefits on top too...

For a start a few years ago most things cost a lot less - childcare for one has increased, let alone food, drink gas, electric.

By saying to someone you can't save it's the same as telling someone what they can spend money on. If Someone receiving benefits is told they can't save surely you should also tell everyone on benefits they can't drink, smoke, socialise or have a holiday as after all these aren't necessities either.

fatwedding your last post is hypocritical.

If you felt you were comfortable maybe you had too much money and gave some back .....

If you managed to save by the hell can't op?

I dont smoke, drink, game, gamble, go out, eat out, buy takeaways or drive a car.

Don't say that OP, that will upset all the daily fail readers out there.

People saying benefits are not for buying houses. Tell that to all the landlords whose mortgages are paid by benefits.

Brilliant 😂😂😂

Fatwedding I call bs that you didn’t claim the tc you would have undoubtedly been entitled to.

I’ll say it again I suppose all the gf would like us to hand in any leftover tax credits or whatever. Want to come with me op and anyone else? Shall we drop the cash off at the job centre - make a day if it? Will I get a fucking medal?

Pp studying social policy bet this whole thread gave you the rage.

Tax credits thresholds have actually fallen I think in the past ten years, they used to be far more generous in the past. I'm not really sure how anyone manages to save whilst needing benefits but obviously there are exceptions like people who get a fair amount of child maintainence which isn't taken into account or people who live in an area of the country where the cost of living is relatively cheap or who live with relatives. The threshold for one child without any childcare is 26k- I'm not sure how anyone would manage to save a house deposit and pay rent and bills on that with a child to support.

How is it hypocritical?!

I earned my money. Every penny. No benefits. No money from DCs dad. Only what I worked for. And I saved maybe £100 a month. Sometimes more, some less. Benefits shouldn't enable people to save £400 a month. Having a little left over if you're frugal yes. But not £400.

And I did also give what I could spare to charity thanks very much.

Call bs all you like Queen but you're quite wrong. I've never claimed tax credits. I did subsequently use childcare vouchers for a while to save tax but that's all.

I made a thread about this exact thing a while ago. We were on good salaries, saved up for deposit 16k+, dh lost job 1 month before dd was born, got new much lower paid job. Went to apply for child tax credit and was shocked to find that we couldn't get them as area had just update to UC. The explanation in the wording of the policy is that they considered allowing savings if ring fenced for a house but there's no guarantee that it will be used for that and the nature of the benefits is that people claiming tax credits will not have high enough salaries to get a mortgage anyway. Makes sense on one hand but what irks me the most is that they do allow large sums of cash if you are selling and buying another home??!! So if you are in the clearly better off position of already owning a home you get benefit? I have friends who claim both wtc and ctc (couples) and they own a home already. Clearly they are better off in capital than us so it does seem unfair.

Fatwedding your sims don’t add up unless your gas and electric was pennies.

Good to know you denied your child a better standard of living so you could sit around polishing your halo mind

Hi OP - It's great that you wish to save up and have your own home- would you consider a flat as a starting point? - it doesn't have to be a house ?

You didn't answer if you had considered/ looked into shared home ownership schemes

Help to buy Equity Loan/loan is also an option absolutely in those cases you would not need a 10 % deposit. There is also Help to buy ISA

Some housing associations offer a fair rent scheme that enables you to save for a deposit. If you do not meet the minimum wage for a house there are always flats too.

Gas and electric would have been £30 a month each, or thereabouts. I remember my bills were normally £90-100 a quarter. Not sure how that doesn't add up...

My child had a pretty good standard of living, fed, warm, clothes, happy. I guess I could have claimed benefits and blown the money on a £500 pram but I didn't think it was appropriate when I had a perfectly decent £100 one.

What i'm saying is you dont have to give up just because the threshold is 16 k 15k is still a sizeable sum.

Oh god so much bullshit on these kind of threads.

scrabbler3

Exactly.