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.

If it helps the reason we aren’t earning enough is due to his working hours. Due to our childcare he misses out on the biggest earning times. This is because we have 3 DC at two different settings.

As your dc gets older the pressure will increase for you to work more hours op. Also I am assuming you are not in a full service Universal Credit area as you will be required to move over to UC in time. The tax credits are more generous - it is not a situation that will continue indefinitely and if you were living alone with your dc and entirely responsible for all household expenses, replacement of broken items, energy bills, etc. etc. etc. So it is naive to state that TC are 'too' generous without acknowledging the impact your current living situation is having on your cost of living. I work in an advice charity and believe me families single or two parent, are struggling to live on benefits even when they are working as well.

I'm a single parent who is doing ok financially, now, btu that's basically because my kids are old enough to abandon leave at home alone while I work. The big problem with posts like this, although it may seem like harmless discussion to you, is that it perpetuates that mean spirited begrudgery towards lone parents. Their need is extreme while their child(ren) is/are small but it pays to treat lone parents with respect and dignity. Demonising them and making them feel 'less than' is not good for anybody.

If you are in a couple and earning tax credits you need to work-
Usually at least 24 hours between you (with one of you working at least 16 hours)
That's taken from the tax credits website.

WTC is paid on a sliding scale depending on how many DC up until a cut off point. I don't know the exact figures but as someone who has managed on a low household income (but just over the threshold to receive any HB) things are very tight.

If you are earning more than the cut off point for TC and still claiming to be skint I would guess that the outgoings are too much.

I'm not aiming that at anyone in particular but I am thinking of Jane who has just bought the latest range rover and fully refurbished her 5 bed detached while buying her DC all the latest tech and going out for an evening meal 4 nights of the week. Ohhhhhhhh she's so broke she says.

Meanwhile Debra is actually skint as a struggling single mum fleeing DV who goes without eating so her children are well fed.

There are too many complicated situations in this world relying on benefits is not the life of Riley the media would have you believe.

Throw

Again, the conversation regarding more help for those who are a couple in work, does not need to be based on single people or couples not in work receiving less money.

My husband earns £36k, we have three children and we are entitled to absolutely no top up benefits at all. Which is fine but if you’re on less, your money is topped up to more than our income. Which shouldn’t be the case

@throwaway I agree but I can assure you I have no car, no clothes (except for my 5yo wardrobe), no meals out. I’m honestly not Jane. I also promise you that we have no luxury outgoings like the gym etc. All outgoings are bills and food.

@throwaway I didn’t know that, but 24hrs is still not acceptable for a family with two parents.

Threads like this fuel the rhetoric that single parents are sitting on their arse, with their hand out waiting for the taxpayer to fund their kids.

I'm a single working parent. I get around £100 p/w wages and £200 p/w CTC/WTC/CB.

On paper it seems like a huge amount but when you take into account I am solely responsible for rent, council tax, water rates, gas, electric, phone bill x 3 (my kids are older), uniforms x 3 (I go to college), shoes for work/school/college x 3, clothes x 3, food, school trips, Netflix (because it's cheaper than a telly licence) and all the other "Mam, on Monday I need...." it doesn't go far enough.

There is no family to house me free of charge, no ex partner to go to when the kid's shoes split or they outgrow their only coat, no-one to buy kit for school trips for them but me. It's hard and lately it seems to be getting harder. My food shop seems to go up every week despite buying the same things. I'm running out of things I can cut back on.

I don't like the idea that people will read threads like this and assume all single mothers are rolling in the taxpayers cash.

I’ll bite. I’m a lone parent to two. I get income support, tax credits child benefit and housing and council tax relief.
Between me and a friend, we recently worked out that inclusive of my disability money I should more than be able to get by- but unfortunately the circumstances I am in, I still struggle, because I need specialist equipment, care for my dc that I’m unable to provide. I’m sucks because when you see it on paper, it looks like we have plenty. We don’t.

Don’t get me wrong, I am eternally thankful to be able to be provided for the way we are, but your circumstances alone are not the norm.

It sucks, not I’m sucks 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Thanks for that luv.
Speaking as one of the many full time working single parents who don't get a fraction of what you are on, and are largely viewed as a drain on the taxpayer because we all get tarred with the same brush.
Fuck off with your hand wringing, and your goady post.

I take home £630 pm from work (20 hours) and dh draws min wage from business.
We get £360 pm tax credits, (no childcare) plus £82 pm for cb

I wouldn't be better off if divorced as I'd have a house paid for so no entitlement to hb. Might save a bit from single occupancy with council tax.

Self-employed LP here - and the salary figures I supply to Tax Credits and Council Tax Support are less expenses. However, you can't include Capital expenditure (eg: equipment or machinery). My expenses are very, very low - far less than if I had to travel to work, etc.

I can't claim HB as I own and pay a mortgage. Sometimes I do wonder how I make it each month, but I do.

This may be outdated info but I took it from the which website.

cantankerous I appreciate that as I have had the same train of thought about HB. As in, my friend doesn't work and gets full rent paid whereas I have to work however many hours to get an equal amount of rent paid due to being £1 over the threshold of qualifying for HB or whatever it is. Essentially I have £1 more disposable Income then her but have lost out time with my child for it and had to go to work travel etc etc etc.

Anyway... If this chart is right it's because the deem you to earn just above what they expect you to be able to live on

squeezy I know I used extremes and I wasn't aiming at you. If you don't want to answer its fine but could it be that one of your larger outgoings is a mortgage on a nice house. The reason I use that example is that in my situation a mortgage will unlikely ever be obtainable. When your monthly is say £1000 and your standard outgoings are £998 I view a mortgage as a luxury. In reality a mortgage on a 2/3 bed in a rougher but OK part of my city would probably be less then my private rent but hey ho.

cantankerous just wondering was your third child born before or after the two child benefit cap? I imagine there are others just as worse off since that came in.

That chart is very odd. If you earn £25000 with 1 child you get £495 but with 2 children it shoots up to over £3000. How do they work it out??

Yy @MyRelationshipIsWeird .

I work 35-37 hours a week and take home under 1k. I'm lucky OH earns enough to actually cover everything,it also means we earn too much for anything except CB.
We only have one child.
If he was to leave or die or whatever,I would need benefits to just get by.
But hey ho,I guess I'm just not working hard enough..

hmm it was from this website -
www.which.co.uk/money/tax/tax-credits-and-benefits/tax-credits/working-tax-credits-the-basics-aknll6d5q96g

If you want to check validity I have a DC jumping on me so just had a quick read through. I agree it's odd but may be outdated?

Squeezy while you've said your situation is complicated, from the information you have given it seems you and your partner have earnings of @ £60k? Now I appreciate there's tax etc but that's true for anyone working! If your DP has skills that generate @£35k would he not be better off working for another company rather than being self employed? It doesn't make sense that he's working all hours as you say but only taking home £150 pw because "expenses" are £18k a year .

Sure it's an undercover tory mp behind this thread.

Two non-working people on disability should not have more disposable income than a matching working family

Why? You can’t possibly think outside the box a bit and think about the needs of people,with disabilities? The equipment they may need to purchase and maintain? The need for careers? The need for respite? You realise the cost of having someone with a disability having to be solely reliant on care? What if family members just refuse to help?

Two non-working people on disability should not have more disposable income than a matching working family

Oh yes they should. As they are incapable of working in the first place they can't take overtime or boost income with an extra job.
You are not more deserving because you work. If you have dc you can choose whether to work or not. Unless of course you have free childcare and make a profit, or on that much money the childcare doesn't dent your salary.
Being disabled isn't a life choice for a particular lifestyle.
Double income family, most definitely is.

hogfather my partners income is very low. His expenses are 18k a year but that is still classed as his earnings. He clears, after expenses about £150 a week and he is working all hours. Our situation is very complicated and can’t explain it in too much depth as I would out myself. But yes you’re right it is comparing apples and pears but that’s the same as every individual case.

So he needs to set up a limited company so his expenses are properly disregarded.

That’s your issue. Not single parents.

Oh god, what a load of tripe... fantastic that you can stay at home and choose to work part time and take the tax credits.

I’m a single parent as well and I know that sometimes it’s impossible to survive even with TC, especially if you have to pay for your accomodation yourself or live in a expensive area.

I know two women who waxed lyrical about deciding to live of benefits, tax credits and child maintenance so they could focus on their children while they were growing up. Now their kids have left the home, they are both so poor it’s unreal, no money for heating or petrol, not even enough money to pay a deposit to rent a room in a shared house. They cannot even get proper jobs as they have not developed a career path that would allow them to have a good enough salary to survive on their own.

Benefits and tax credits are a safety net not a way of life! And that attitude of yours is making us, single mothers, look as lazy arses when in fact many of us work hard and long hours to provide for our families and still manage to raise well rounded successful kids.

As in, my friend doesn't work and gets full rent paid whereas I have to work however many hours to get an equal amount of rent paid due to being £1 over the threshold of qualifying for HB or whatever it is. Essentially I have £1 more disposable Income then her but have lost out time with my child for it and had to go to work travel etc etc etc.

No, you won’t have just £1 more disposable income than her; There’s a tapered withdrawal rate.