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.

Op

I receive £479 in child tax credits a month
Single mum, 2 children.
I was told this was the maximum.

What’s the breakdown of that £800?

Squeezy maybe you don't need to use childcare for 11 weeks of the year - but most working parents do need to use childcare for the holidays. So is that £1,000 pcm every month after you receive the 30 free hours during term time only.

Childminders and nurseries are businesses too with overheads - it was always in the Contracts that CMs were paid for their holidays and that fees were charged for the times that dc were absent.

@hatels I agree to an extent. I disagree in the short term as my nursery have lost £170 a month from me now. This takes effect in sep, the same time he receives his 30 hours. For the long term yes. They can’t sell my sons other hours.
But you are also proving my point. I’d be better off if I was entitled to the free childcare. Only offered to non working parents.

The key point here is you are living with family. So are getting significant financial support by not having to cover the expense of running a household.

You wouldn't find the amounts so generous if living in your own place

So much bollocks all on one thread. I'm just surprised nobody has mentioned the urban myth of the lone parent benefit yet.

squeezy simple solution if you think that's the case. Both of you quit work and live separately. You're also failing to acknowledge that whether they both work or both don't, the couple will have more money than the lone parent. And you're also ignoring the fact that a couple are entitled to have a sahp with no obligation to seek work to receive benefits, a lone parent would need to be actively seeking work with school age dc.

battleax has already explained with far more patience than this ignorant uninformed bull deserves.

@thehogfather I’ve been in both situations like I’ve already explained. I should quit my job and leave my partner? No thank you. Just because some play the system, I choose not to.

@thehogfather what’s makes you so informed??

You may have more money as a couple but you also have more outgoings and non subsidised rates.

Battleaxe

I suggest you master the art of milking it. Which is what these people have made their living.

She needed a basic knee op (she told me this because she used to endlessly tell me of her ‘troubles’

She cancelled the day before which meant she was pushed to the bottom of the waiting list (she cancelled because she didn’t want to be in a wheelchair for Christmas) causing irreversible damage to her leg.

I’m sure she’s told the DLA she can’t walk/move/feed herself yet we see her walk the mile into town/stand around on the school run quite frequently.

Benefits are there for people who blag them. That much is very clear to me. I’ve a number of friends who need them but haven’t gotten it in them to lie about their conditions. It’s bullshit.

And I was a single parent in exactly this position as DH didn’t live with me for a while and we are worse off than I was alone and he earns £36k a year.

The system is broken, it needs to be fixed for those who need it (actually need it)

suggest you master the art of milking it. Which is what these people have made their living.

She needed a basic knee op (she told me this because she used to endlessly tell me of her ‘troubles’

She cancelled the day before which meant she was pushed to the bottom of the waiting list (she cancelled because she didn’t want to be in a wheelchair for Christmas) causing irreversible damage to her leg.

She sounds unhinged, quite honestly.

Why would you want to milk that, and do yourself permenant damage just to get a small income and the kin of a mid range car?

She’s condemned herself to a very dull, narrow life.

LOAN of a mid range...^

Hi op, not sure why I’m still feeling so much rage for you 7 pages in but anyway. I suggest you move out and find a private rent (if you can even find somewhere to accept you!) and get a job with more hours and then you’ll feel just as poor as the rest of us!

What free childcare do single non working parents get over and above the 15/30 hours entitlement? And where are all these people who work full time but don't need childcare for the holidays (ie for a third of the year)?

I also don't understand how having an irreversibly damaged leg (whether caused by postponing an operation or not) is "milking" anything. So many questions...

@youvealwaysbeenthecaretaker they don’t get above the 15/30 but working parents are the entitled to it. I for one do not need the holidays. My council have always had the option of a TTO only position abs my neighbouring boroughs still offer the TTO position. This is not private but a government funded nursery.

Sorry for all my typos. Really can’t be bothered to proof read. Sorry.

Well fair enough if you can't be bothered but your errors make what you've written difficult to understand. Are you saying that working parents don't get the 15/30 hours? Also that actually you work term time only ie part time? Perhaps you missing out on over three months worth of earnings each year is why you struggle financially, if that is the case.

@youvealways I work TTO, definitely not part time and get a monthly wage every month.
I don’t know what you mean by can’t be bothered? Be bothered to do what?
Working parents, unless on low income and work part time, are not entitled to 15/30 hours before the term after their child’s third birthday. Then everyone is entitled to the 30hours. But like I said they’ve taken that support away by forcing us to pay AYR.

You don't work for over a quarter of the year. Therefore your monthly earnings are reduced by over a quarter. I would suggest that's maybe the reason you find yourself with insufficient money.

What childcare do single parents get over the 15/30 hours? If you mean the tax credit contribution, that's up to 70% but in practice unless you only have one child and are on ft mn it's quite drastically reduced from that - most people don't get anywhere near the 70%. And of course the same is available for ft and indeed pt working couples on low wages.

battleaxe

Yes she has, it’s very, very sad to watch.

She is obsessed with me, to the point that the police, RSPCA, social services And council have all told her not to bother making any more complaints.

She’s bonkers, sadly I think the thing she most needs, is a little job or something. Obviously not anything manual but she’d be amazing at answering the phones to annoyed people on a complaints line.

As it is, we just watch her slowly fade into a lesser and lesser version of herself, getting larger and larger, doing less and less despite being capable of far more simply because that gets her an easier ride with the DLA.

Yes it’s galling now but I’m well aware that as our lives get better, as the kids get older, the tables turn. It’s just hard to watch.
In a more fair society we would promote and support people doing what they can while offering a decent standard of living to everyone.

That’s not happening right now. We need to keep talking about why

@youvealways am I really that unclear? Like I’ve saud numerous times, I am not entitled to 15/30 hours for 2-3 yr olds. If you are in a low income you are! Therefore if I left my job I would be entitled to free childcare!!!
I’m on 26k a year which is averaged throughout the year.

Once again what did you mean by cannot be bothered?

squeezy tell me what subsidies I get as a lone working parent that you as a couple don't. If you know anything beyond £20 child benefit a week I receive I'd love to know what I'm missing out on. And then explain why your two incomes leave less disposable income paying for two adults than my one income does for one adult. Here's a hint, your outgoings aren't double a single person.

Then explain how if you and your dp, and I quit work how I'll be better off than you as a non working couple.

The part time and loads of top ups is also swayed in favour of a couple. A lone parent doing so has to do 16hrs to qualify, couples don't have to do 32 between them despite having far more time and freedom to work.

The only way a lone parent is better off than a working couple is in the case of a high earning nrp paying decent maintanence, and the reason that isn't included in benefit calculations is because too many nrps won't pay. Or the mail stereotype of 7 kids. And neither example is the norm. Anymore than the example of a couple claiming a shit load of top ups for a low wage, a sahp, huge savings and outright owning their property is the average to compare to a ft working lone parent just over the threshold to claim.

am not entitled to 15/30 hours for 2-3 yr olds. If you are in a low income you are! Therefore if I left my job I would be entitled to free childcare!!!

Wrong.

Those “free hours” are not means tested for 3 and 4 year olds.

@battleax I already said 3 (term after birthday)-4 is not means tested. 2-3 (before term before third birthday) is means tested!