To think you shouldn't be better off a single parent living with family than being in a working couple? **Title edited by MNHQ**

[CallingAllLovers]

In a nutshell, I'm working 17 hours a week and getting £700 take home salary, plus £82 something Child Benefit. I have one DC.

On top of this, I get about £800 it so in tax credits.

I'm now separated from my husband so living with family.

I'm far better off financially than I was when both myself and H worked and ran a home together.

I have a friend who's really struggling, her DH and her both work full time with one DC. Another friend in a similar situation with two DC.

I was incredibly panicked when leaving H, I often kept staying when things were really tough due to being petrified of how skint I would be.

But it's not the case.

I did wonder why the money I get was so high, then I was told tax credits don't care about your bills/outgoings, just your childcare.

AIBU to think I shouldn't be better off than someone working full time, or a hard working couple working full time?

I realise this thread sounds really goady, but I'm not trying to be.

It just seems like people are penalised for working more/having a partner.

@willowmay another one not paying attention. Regardless of ‘my limited experience’ it’s one you are willing to disregard to prove your point.

Tbh I get similar but have 4 dc but would give anything to be skint again and have my exh not have cheated again and still be with us.
On paper I look like in ok but I pay for EVERYTHING for my dc and I'm in reality just getting by.
I would change it in a heartbeat.

@mrjohnreese just to update you on my last thread 😂. My other surrounding boroughs still offer TTO. My partner also met with the accountant and his last years earnings were SHOCKINGLY low after expenses. His expenses aren’t taxable so on the plus side the tax will be lower. We haven’t been able to save for tax so that’s going to be a killer. I also mentioned in this thread that for our childcare fees they include the expenses as earnings.

I would be better off single. DP currently claims CA for my disability, but if I were single then that loss would be made up for in disability premium on IS.
Money works out pretty much the same for me whether I'm with DP or not. Plus, rather than the CA being "his", the IS would just have that added on to my IS so really I'd practically gain money, since I wouldn't be sharing my PIP and stuff like that with a partner.

you don’t get free childcare hours for 2 year olds.

You don't have to be a single parent to get this.

OP when you claimed and it asked about housing costs, did you put however much you spend on food etc? You said in a previous post you do have housing costs because you do your own food shopping and run errands, but that doesn’t officially count as housing costs. Just wondering if that’s why it’s high, housing costs mean rent/mortgage.

There are lots of top ups that single parent families rightly get to make life a bit easier

There is only one bit of assistance a single parent family would be entitled to that a couple with exactly the same household income wouldn’t be and that is single person council tax discount which is given because there is one adult in the house instead of two.

Yes there is a lone parent premium for housing benefit but there is also a couple premium and the couple premium is higher.

Yes a couple earning 700 a month would be entitled to the two year childcare funding because it’s based on household income NOT couple status, you can also get it if a child was a LAC or has a disability.

And yes the couple household on the same income as the lone parent would be entitled to the same top ups because again they are income based not based on couple status the only difference between the two households would be a lone parent household is required to work 16 hours to get wtc a couple has to work 24 with one doing at least 16 of those.

Unless your going into the territory of widows benefit which would be ridiculous your bonkers if you think lone parents are having shed loads of support chucked at them.

cantankerious like it or not it is a fact that your household is eligible for exactly the same benefit support as every single other household in the country,that being the means tested system that is used to assess all working age benefits and the disability need related system that is used to assess an impact of a disability. If your household income drops to the level needed then you get the money if it doesn’t you don’t because, well guess what you already have the money coming in!

Also you’ve said you earn enough to be able to afford to work part time, but you don’t actually, because you’re claiming tax credits. If you earned enough to be able to afford to be part time, you wouldn’t be claiming anything?

Sus. If your talking about the op, she does work part time which isn’t highly likely to be why she qualifies for the tax credits she does.

A fair amount of her tax credits are going to be childcare element which if we want the majority of lone parents in work (which gingerbread claim is what happens now) that’s going to happen. (But before you get all excited cantankerious A couple household on the same wage with the same cc costs would be entitled to the same childcare element assuming they work the correct hours)

I came back to respond to camels posts however sock has already said it.

Those tops ups don’t take into account amount of children, the additional costs of an adult the additional costs of work or the fact that mortgage owners cannot get housing benefit if they fall on hard times.

Hi everyone,

Just letting you know that we have edited the thread title at OP's request as OP felt the previous title wasn't clear enough

@needsasock do you genuinely think 24hrs a week between a couple is ok?
Proving the point that single parents and families are forced to work such little hours just to receive these benefits. If they worked FT they wouldn’t be able to support their families.
That’s 1 1/2 days each per week. Yet a family who work 80+ hrs a week between them are roughly in the same situation financially.

Why should the tax payer subsidise working parents who earn over the threshold for tax credits?
You need to cut your cloth accordingly, as I said, like generations before.
A child comes along with free childcare in the form of a parent/ two.
I personally think it's wrong that sp get little choice in returning to work, they don't have another household income.
Lifestyle choices shouldn't be funded full stop.
Gosh nobody gave money t those who couldn't afford to live/ pay mortgage when interest rates rocketed, you found a way or lost your home.
We didn't go expecting others who may be worse off than us to fund our lifestyle.
We downsized, took more work, or went off grid, moved and had a small holding, moved in with family.
Just a few examples of how we managed but folk today think they have a right to everything.

@gillybeanz the cloth has turned into a thread and there’s nothing more that can be cut! That’s the issue.
You should have said why should the tax payer subsidise parents who choose to work 16-24. In reality the tax payer subsidises their life, not vice versus.

*versa

*Penguin In all fairness, the house will be left for me and her other grandchildren. She wants it as a 'safe place' for us all and I can't see my sisters taking that away from me, ever.

If we ever needed this house, they'd want it to be there as a safety net*

We'll look forward to the cf sister thread. The one who expects to live rent free or continue living in a house the others actually want their share of.

My childcare alone could cover my rent and bills. If I left my partner I wouldn’t have the childcare costs any more. P.s. I would have to quit my job to be entitled to all these benefits.

As a single parent who isn't working, unless you or your child are disabled and getting PIP/DLA, the maximum you can get in benefits is £384 pw (more in London). That's all of them added together, except for council tax reduction.

That may be plenty where you live, but in a lot of areas where rents are high, it goes nowhere. I'm 50 miles from London, but it's almost impossible to find a 3-bed property here for less than £1,200 a month.

Even people on means-tested benefits have to pay some council tax in my county. It's reduced to 20%, but we have the highest council tax in the country, so that's easily £40 a month.

My partner recently moved in and as such I don't now get any working tax credits because the threshold for a couple is lower than that for a single person.

It's nothing to do with the threshold, it's because the household income is higher because of your partner's income.

Squeezy

I'm not saying that mc families aren't feeling the pinch.
I'm one of those 16 - 24 hour working parents. I'm contracted to do 20 hours, we all are for the business needs.
It's not possible to fit another job in with it and I do it rather than sit at home doing nothing.
I see poverty everyday and it isn't always just down to finances, the lack of education and the issues of generations of people trapped.
I'm not saying this is a high proportion but it exists.
People who have no choices to change their lives. because they live their life in pain.

The question of should people have to change their lifestyle, plans, etc
is something else, and they shouldn't have to.
But surely, it's better to change and be better off than stay as you are and flounder.

When I was a single parent of my DD1 who was at nursery, her childcare fees were over £900 a month, my mortgage was over £200 a month (low I know), council tax £120 a month, bills, travel, food, clothing all adding to the cost. I didn't get housing benefit and only got 75% of my childcare covered. My wages barely covered the shortfall plus my bills.

By the time she went to school I had a lot of debt just from trying to hold down a job. Tax credits have never covered the costs of childcare 100% and if you are a single parent with the costs of a home to run and everything else then it's a struggle.

You made your post saying you get £800 a month in tax credits but how much of your actual wage goes to cover your child care costs that the tax credits don't cover?

I think your post is goady and will be used as an excuse for others to beat people with.

I may get slated for this but maybe the issues are the restrictions from the government.
These restrictions encourage families to either work 24hrs between them or it encourages them to falsely claim as single parents. They receive all the benefits that a single parent receives and also the benefits of OH payslip.

They receive all the benefits that a single parent receives

Just to point out, there is no such thing as 'single parent benefits'. As said ad nauseum on this thread, single parents receive the same benefits as couples.

squeezycheeky - you have an overinflated idea of what benefits single parents get. I can assure you I don't get half those things on your list. I get a 25% single occupancy discount. I pay the other 75%.

I work and earn £18k and get £60 a month in child ta credits. That is it.

With this, I run a house. I pay all my bills and my rent.

This post is causing so much damage to single parents. I can assure you I was better off before my husband left.

I am also fairly sure you are going to be hit with a huge overpayment surprise in the next year or so. The only catch I can think s because you are living with a grandparent, they have taken her lack of income into account. But if you are not paying rent, then you are unintentionally committing fraud. The job centre should have asked you this so it is their failing. Once they find out though, they will claim the money back. I would suggest putting in a savings account and not touching it.

p.s. those of you are think you would be better off single - nothing stopping you leaving your partners and claiming the riches of a single parent life!