AIBU about people moaning about UC!

[Lemoncurdkid]

NC for this and sure I’ll get the backlash. I’m also aware there have been other threads. I’m hoping that people will help me see the other POV.

I’m not a stranger to claiming benefits but have never claimed UC.

I seem to see so many articles on how UC have ruined my life. This article annoyed me...

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/money/8014429/universal-credit-campaign-poverty-nicola-mclean-mum/amp/

This lady was claiming over £1600 a month in UC. That’s how much I earn monthly on a full time wage and I earn £26k a year. I don’t pay a pension either otherwise it would be £100 less.

I’m comparing my life to others on UC and there doesn’t seem to be reason to complain. Maybe that’s my issue, not to compare!

Along with UC there are many other benefits you can claim for which most don’t speak about. For example, free childcare, free travel, free dentist etc.
I know a lot of people who work 16 hours or who are unemployed, they may struggle but they are not in debt and they seem to live a much happier life than mine. Once again I’m comparing, but I’m struggling, living off credit cards after our bills are paid.

I guess my complaint isn’t that they are entitled to UC, but why complain about it? Shouldn’t we be grateful that we have this option in the UK. Rather than declaring poverty. A person on UC (depending on their circumstances) can actually ‘earn’ more money than a person working full time?

I work pt and also a carer to my disabled dd who is 18. Why shouldn't I get extra help considering myself and millions of other carers save the government billions of pounds every year and get little back. Uc is a disaster and making millions of family's struggle and end up in debt because of it.

Adam Nichol You do NOT get a 'portion' of your UC allowance to be paid back over 6 months. You get 100% of your projected UC allowance , which is paid back over 12 months (16 months from some point on 2020).

For a single person without Children, this repayment of the advance for the 5 week wait, could absolutely ruin them. With Children, it could still leave them in hardship. If they happen to owe old debts to a gas/elec company for example, they will definitely be unable to live on UC.

Would you like me to post calculations to illustrate this??

These threads always go the same way. Those who respond to say you are unreasonable are either those punished for the actions of those who played the system or who are selective with the information they share. I've read many threads over the years of posters who describe how hard done by they are by the benefit system and can't afford to buy food for the rest of the month, but shortly after will post to moan about something that happened whilst they were on holiday abroad or a disabled person saying they should be entitled because they can't get out of the house who will later post how they got hard done by having to share the cost of a restaurant meal when they only had a starter.

The reality is claimants that get on peoplev nerves like OP are not the terminally ill, or those who got made redundant for the third time in a year or who had a serious accident leaving them disabled for life. They are those who ask their boss to reduce their working hours from 40 to 24 when their partner is already not working, looking after 2 kids then deciding to have another one and then another because when all costs taking into account, they are no worse off that way.

Those who claim sickness through depression and stress, who do get better once they stop work but don't wa t to work again because well work is stressful and depressing and so hope to continue to reçoive sickness benefits even though their daily activities that they are not delibitated by stress or depression.

Or how about those who claimed full tax credits even after recieving inheritance of multiple hundred thousands pounds but still claimed because well....they could, and let's not mention the company dire tors paying themsleves nothing but living off the funds of the company to allow them to claim maximum benefits, or those who didn't declare their self employment earning working casjlh in hands, those who get top tax credits despite getting over £1000 a month child maintenance and therefore manage very well indeed. And that's not mentioning couples who know exactly how to tick the right boxes to justify their are not in a couple despite being very much so.

All the above are people who do well on benefits by playing the system or because the system is ill conceived. UC is an administrative disaster but something had to be done before it became unsustainable with more and more people getting wiser as to use it as a, way to avoid supporting themselves fully whilst still enjoying the same or better lifestyle than those who do.

Yes Kiki but it does not work everyone and is not appropriate for everyone.

When a person is claiming J.S.A and it ends they can get help with travel for the first month and uniform/clothing they will get a fianl 2 week payment and they may then have to borrow from others/use savings (hopefully) to survive the month if they are a single person.

Many of the people on U.C are coming directly from another benefit or working on a low wage so their expenses are very limited and fixed, which means they have no money but their final payment which is for 2 weeks (if they are advised correctly)and that they are compelled by circumstance to borrow money to survive. immediately putting them into debt which makes no sense...and that's if everything goes well which invariably does not happen...

I still struggle to budget on a monthly wage. That issue isn’t exclusive to someone on UC.

I guess my complaint isn’t that they are entitled to UC, but why complain about it? Shouldn’t we be grateful that we have this option in the UK. Rather than declaring poverty. A person on UC (depending on their circumstances) can actually ‘earn’ more money than a person working full time?

I don't understand why people on a low wage continually complain about people on UC. They could just work harder and get a better paid job, and earn more money. Instead of complaining about it.

For a single person without Children, this repayment of the advance for the 5 week wait, could absolutely ruin them.

How is this worse than normal work??

1. I get a new job. I work 4 weeks before I get paid. My costs in those 4 weeks need to be reclaimed from my first wage.

1. I go on UC. I get full payment straight away. I don't lose the full routine payment when it is due [lets leave aside processing issues and just talk policy here] - I get most of it with a deduction to repay what I got up front.

To my mind, scenario 1 has far more potential to be ruinous.

BabyonBoard, your estimation about your lowly cleaner friend on UC is wrong. If her Children are teenagers, she is expected to work 35 hours a week at minimum wage, or be sanctioned. Are you sure she's on UC and not on the old system??

You may well lose your 'good friend' and classroom cleaner when she has to take a 35 hour a week job or risk massive sanctions to her top ups.. honestly, anyone with a child over 13 on UC has to be working 35 hours or be intensively searching for full time work. Or be sanctioned.

Same applies to all those now who's husband/partner works full time on minimum wage and claims tax credits to top up. You will have to, in addition to your husbands full time wage, look for
51 hours @ nmw between you if youngest over 3
60 hours between you if youngest over 5
70 hours between you if youngest over 13

And you will be sanctioned (£498 a month taken off you) if you do not do this, or intensively search for this.

We carers save the government £132 billion a year, the cost of a second NHS. In return we get £64.60 a week for providing what is often 24/7 care. We also get DLA for DS. This covers the raised costs of having a child with disabilities, as do disabled child elements of other benefits like UC for those who claim them, costs such as extra washing, heating, electricity, specialist toys or therapy items, treatments, food items for specific diets, extra clothing, extra shoes, and so on. If you begrudge someone getting an additional amount on their benefits payments due to disability or caring for someone with a disability then you are, frankly, a dick.

Adam Nichol - they lose a month. Because their last wage is taken into account. If you want me to post examples I will??

We bring in a total of 40k a year. I recently did an online calculator to see if I was entitled to anything and was told I was eligible for £600 on child tax credits.....but I wouldn’t dream of complaining after I received it. I am totally over the moon

you realise these dreadful, complaining and ungrateful people don't necessarily have £40k a year to fall back on, don't you?

I will also say that I am a single working parent with eligibility for tax credits and that all calculators indicate that once I am switched to UC I will be around £2k a year worse off. How is that reasonable or fair?

Because their last wage is taken into account

So they have already had income from their last job, and your complaint is that they need 2 incomes for that month?

@themachinestops - apologies, her youngest is 12 and yes I’m sure. Also, she is a ‘good’ friend, I’m not sure why you felt the need to highlight it. It’s the fact she is close to me that we can openly discuss such debates without getting into a slanging match - which seems the only ever outcome of a mumsnet thread.

Also, a side note when I claimed I didn’t ‘look for work’, I had a job lined up starting in sept (my teacher role). I had a summer of claiming and all I had to do was fill in an online box saying ‘I’d researched this job/ handed out cvs’... all lies. There was nothing intensive about it but quite frankly, If your youngest is 13 then you SHOULD be looking for at least 35 hours. There is no excuse not to work then

"They care for their love ones as they should"

Perhaps people should teach their loved ones as they should instead of handing them over to schools to do it?

I got paid early in Dec therefore no UC as the system thinks I have been paid too much

You also have no warning or notice how much money you will be getting until 5 days before it’s paid to you so makes budgeting very difficult

They care for their love ones as they should

You obviously have no idea what is involved in being a carer. Yes, I care for DS as I have no choice but to care for him however that care is over and above what a typical child his age needs. I presume few people with NT children are still wiping their 9yos arse for them, using a wrist strap in busy places, or walking the floor with them at 3am because they can't sleep?

Swingofthings as we save social services spending millions of pounds for private care to family members. Carers also save the NHS by stopping bed blocking. The list is endless and yes tax payers should cough up as one day it will be you who needs the care and it will be tax payers who pay it. Carers save 12 billion pounds a year so next time get your facts right.

Ok Adam.. lets post some comparisons on how UC can be unfair.

I lose my job on the 25th of January.
I claim UC on the 26th January, as instructed.
My last wage from work goes in on the 28th January.

So when I get my UC payment (say £317.82 for single person, plus rent of £350 a month = 667.82). It is due the 5th March (26 Jan + 5 weeks wait), It is ZERO because of my last wage being reported on the 28th which is in my first assessment period.

I wait until the 3rd April to receive ANY MONEY.

Could you pay your rent and live between the 28th January and the 3rd April on only the wage you received 28th Jan before you got made redundant??

Even IF you get advance payment (of 667) it has to be paid back by about £50 a month. Say I also have debts which they take £127 a month for. My payment on 3rd April will be only £490 because of debts and advance repayment.

So I will survive on a last wage from work on 28th Jan, an advance I will have to pay back, and £490 in April, of which 400 is for my rent.

This is the reality, and why evictions and food bank numbers are going crazy xx

I don’t understand how anyone could say that caring for someone isn’t saving the NHS or social care money. Deluded

Perhaps people should teach their loved ones as they should instead of handing them over to schools to do it?
I think you misunderstood my point. Some people will have no choice but to give up a well paid job to care for a loved one and need to claim benefits as a result. The alternative would indeed be much more costly. However, a mum at my DS school made a point a few times how she was saving thousands for the government by looking after her child when the reality is that it was her 4th child and she stopped working after her first and made it clear after number 2 that she would never go back and happy to be be a sahm.

So yes, in some instances it does save the government but it can't be made a generalisation for all people caring for loved ones.

themachinestops hypothetically then, if you claim on the 29th or 30th does that avoid the situation you've posted?

@EwItsAHooman, I don't now you and your circumstances. I'm not challenging your claim as a carer. My point is that you can't assume that your situation applies to all those who claim CA and that all have it hard as a carer and provide 35 hours of care beyond what they would normally provide.

Some carers deserve much more than what CA pays, others claim shamefully.

Sugarhunnyicedtea Yes!! That would solve the problem, but OF COURSE they don't tell people this..

So because of when someone claims Universal Credit, just ONE day out can lose people hundreds that they are entitled to..compared to someone who claimed one day later..

Fair system eh??!!

.. and loads of people lose out on up to £600 a year , and find it impossible to budget with varying amount, JUST due to the date they claim or the date they are paid..

2 people in the exact same job, exact same number of Children, exact same rent and wage - one can be HUNDREDS a year worse off than the other just due to the dates they claim or the dates they are paid..

There is a High Court case going on about this exact issue right now and how people lose out under UC unfairly. I hope they win.

swingofthings your othering was very clear. One day you may need care. I wonder who in your family you are expecting to give up work to do it ( as they should).