AIBU To think universal credit are cf

[laura6032]

Just been looking into universal credit. Family's on low income would claim child tax and working tax credits, renew annually and thats it.

Now with universal credit your expected to sign a work commitment, and have meetings with a work coach to find better paid work. Like what, retail, catering and other industries have paid low wages historically.

Seems to me that this government is making low income Family's jump through hoops to get their benefits rather than go after the multi million pound employers that don't pay their employees a decent livable income.

Jus me or is this really fecking out of line. Is our government happy to subsidise low paying employers while making hard working families on low income have to hump hoops.

BoxsetsAndPopcorn
They are classes as low earners though, that doesnt mean they are all claiming benefits. Some will be.
You want more people to do these low paid jobs so others can go out an earn a higher salary? You really are so confusing

Imagine studying and training many years to be a nurse/social worker/teacher and having to retrain by age 28ish to have a family. (Average UK FTM age in 2015)

What I find interesting with these sort of threads is that the people who advocate benefit claimants having it too easy would never advocate ways to make pensioners (who cost more in pensions etc) work harder and longer to decrease their cost to tax payers.

There are inequalities in the system that need to be addressed (eg separated parents should get Tax Credits/Child Benefit depending on parental eligibility and number of days they have their kids) , self-employed NRP should not be able to use accounting tricks to minimise child maintenance payments for their kids etc)

I think that some people need reminding that you can't have a society where everyone is a banker on a 7 figure salary. There are people on low/minimum wages everywhere making their easier whether it's childminding, delivering your shopping or collecting their rubbish.

@ohreally.

Nothing wrong with working a min wage job but I’m sick and tired of couples doing 30 hours between them a week to maximise tax credits.

For previous posters who mentioned being a carer under UC - I claim carers allowance for caring for my DH. I have no work requirements at all, but I did have to go to the job centre for an initial meeting and registering. I think they call you in occasionally. DH on the other hand, had to go to ridiculous work capability assessments where some inexperienced assessor decides what you are capable of doing during an half hour assessment, and ignores all medical evidence! The system is completely flawed, with some support I could work part time but my earning potential is completely forgotten .

@hog

My DS father is abroad, can't even get CM.

And you can guarantee that if the debt was to the government payment would be enforced

Until 2010, child maintenance was deducted from benefits etc and single parents were forced to open a claim with the CSA to be allowed to claim any benefits. I do not believe there was more maintenance paid at that time when the Government had a vested interest in doing so. Indeed, £million’s is being written off with the change from CSA to CMS with press releases admitting the system will struggle to ever recover that money.

The Government doesn’t give a shit about the plight of single parents and their children.

Nothing wrong with working a min wage job but I’m sick and tired of couples doing 30 hours between them a week to maximise tax credits

Can you find me some statistics that show me this is the norm? What about families with caring responsibilities - disabled children elderly parents - shouldn’t they be allowed to work less?

I am currently struggling as a single mum of 3 and an only child with a sick mum. If I don’t help her, who will? Yet I still need to go to work to keep the roof over our heads and everything else. If it continues, I will have a breakdown. I am already at breaking point and in tears continually. UC wouldn’t cut me any slack at all.

I def think NRP have to pay more if can afford it. I only realised the costs of CM the other day on a mumsnet thread and its shockingly low. Why aren't they made to pay a share of childcare costs!

I'm not sure @Thehogfather 😕 @BoxsetsAndPopcorn has statistics,so must be correct surely!

Caz that was me.

I'm aware that the rules differ for carers doesn't mean I trust them to follow them.

Dh has been told by specialist his condition is lifelong and he won't get better.
All it takes is one jobsworth to decide they know better kick him off esa and we will be screwed.

From what I have gathered uc won't care they will just stop money until we can prove it all over again. It's scary stuff.

NRPs should be chased properly for money that they owe Why shouldnt they pay half of childcare

@ohreallyohreallyoh do you get any carers allowance or anything for your mum? UC don't care(pretty sure most of their employees have mindset like boxsets). You need to be a step ahead of them,and know what help your entitled to/need

Bluelonerose, this is why we ended up on UC. One crap assessment and DH was dumped off ESA, payments stop immediately. We applied for UC, no money for 6 weeks, we only got through as we have no housing costs, some savings and help from family. We went through Mandatory Reconsideration and they changed their mind and decided that he is eligible for ESA, but once you go on UC you can't go back. A month after we got the letter saying he was eligible to ESA for 12 months, we got another letter saying that he had to go for another assessment! I complained and got veiled threats about our money being stopped if he didn't go. I complained again and they realised their mistake. The system is just shit for people with disabilities and lifelong conditions.

I can’t afford to be on Carer’s Allowance as I have 3 children to support and a roof to keep over our heads. That’s assuming I would qualify - she is unwell, isn’t going to get better but is just about managing with some input. I think she will be in a home within the next 12 months. I keep wishing her dead. It is horrible but I have to prioritise the roof over our heads, obviously.

@ohreally

I don’t have statistics and I can’t be arsed to go and find any.im just talking about what I see happening under my nose.

At least the two child cap is in now.

Plenty of us higher tax payers slog our guts out so the odd appointment here and there to claim benefits shouldn’t be an issue.

Higher tax payers also have an entitlement to UC/Tax credits you know.

Due to the childcare element you can still be entitled earning up to 60k 3 kids, and childcare.

It's not all for the wicked poor.

I don’t have statistics and I can’t be arsed to go and find any.im just talking about what I see happening under my nose

Says it all.

Plenty of us higher tax payers slog our guts out so the odd appointment here and there to claim benefits shouldn’t be an issue

Plenty of us lower rate tax payers also slog our guts out. Some of us working more than one job. The odd appointment may well cause problems for some.

Well the typical right wing attitude is that its survival of the fittest. So stop helping the sick, disabled and vulnerable and let everyone else fight over scant resources fend for themselves. Nice.

Let's not forget that on a zero hour contract if you take time off to go to an appointment your wages will be docked.

I thought under Tony Blair tax credits went as high as £59k wages (as he wanted everyone in hock to and depending on the state for political left wing reasons) but that now it was at much lower income levels that being able to claim stopped.

This is really interesting.

I am very overeducated and trained to a high standard in a niche government field. I earned a very good city centre salary.

Then the government shut my unit down. I used the redundancy to downsize and relocate. I’m late 40’s with a 13 and 14 yo.

My choices.
Retrain. Can’t. Uni fees make it prohibitive.

I am over qualified for most entry level graduate jobs and below, but have no relevant experience for anything higher.

So i shotgun every job i could find, and eventually someone took a chance on me. Turns out i am fucking good at it- and because it is civil service, i probably save the government thousands in man hours per year.

The downside? It’s typical civil service salary of £19k. So i get tax credits.

What would they do with me? If they can find me a higher paid job i’d be delighted. But they’d lose an employee who probably saves them more per year than they pay me in tax credits.

Plus i like this job. It makes me happy. My old career was fucking stressful. Now i have a better work/life balance, one of my kids is g&t so i have time to support that.

Are there allowances or special cases for essential workers? The nursery nurses, pcso’s, street cleaners, all of whom we need, so they either need to make those jobs better paid, or let them have tc.

Plenty of us higher tax payers slog our guts out so the odd appointment here and there to claim benefits shouldn’t be an issue.
Plenty of us benefit scroungers slog our guts out too. You would neither know nor care. We can see how you got to be a higher rate payer though. I hope you're kinder to the people you work with.

Well people might just might be able to more hours if they weren't constantly getting hawked up to the job centre.
This government really are a bunch of muckin fuppets.

"Plenty of us lower rate tax payers also slog our guts out. Some of us working more than one job. The odd appointment may well cause problems for some."

This is likely the reason that the owner of Next doesnt like UC He said he was against it when he appeared on Question Time He was humming a different tune from his previous appearance probably because he realizes that employees having to pop down the JC during work time might cause a bit of a staffing problem especially in the run up to the busiest times in retail like Christmas.

And to the ppl on this thread banging on about the odd appointment .................you do realize that places like this are going to have more than one employee on UC right?