To think I can go on benefits instead of returning to work?

[UniversalCreditOrNo]

NC for this.

Let me start off by saying this....up until
February last year, I have never not been in work. I got my first job at 13, was working full time and living alone at age 21 (before which I worked 25 hours a week alongside my studies) and it was only last year when I decided to go travelling that I ever found myself without employment. I got pregnant at the end of my travels, and here is where I find myself.

My daughter is now 6 months old. In 3 months time, I’m supposed to go back to work. How do people afford to do it? Childcare is £56 a day where I am. On my current minimum wage job that’s a take home of around £30 a week....before tax and NI.

My partner is on around £20k and I can rely on family for 1 day a week childcare. So here’s my AIBU. Can I go on benefits, instead of going back to work? Is that a thing people can do?!

I don’t know how it works. My area is universal credit....is there even such a category for this? It’s not jobseekers as I wouldn’t be looking for work, and it’s not like I’m signed off with illness or disability.

My partner is convinced we can because he doesn’t earn a lot and ‘this is precisely what the benefits system is for’. However....his mum is a serial benefits user....everything from being a stay at home single mum until her youngest was 15, until now where she’s signed off for an injury from 3 years ago she still claims is affecting her work ability All I can think of is the stigma behind choosing to go on benefits, but right now I can’t see another option.

Yes in many case people are claiming more in childcare through Uc or tax credits ( especially if they have a few kids) than they even earn.

Funny how all those posters decrying OP for wondering if there is any possibility of a benefits top up as they are on a low income, seem all too happy to accept the 15 hours of free childcare themselves even though they might be earning as much as 40k a year.

Also, funny how the government does not provide that kind of help before the age of 3 for most people. You’d almost think that they expect most children would be looked after by their parents for the first couple of years, which suggests that it’s an ideal (which I’m sure that most wealthy politicians take for granted for their own children).

The whole system stinks, when combined with our poor housing policies and planning.

Im amazed at reading replies at people receiving £800+ a month from UC. I get less than £500 off UC a month and that is all i an entitled to due to working PT and i am on my own with my child. Does what you are entitled to change depending on what area you live in or something? Please dont laugh.. i genuinely do not gave a clue!!

imatinkabella it would change and be more if housing costs and childcare costs are more. Also I'd the hourly rate of pay was higher or lower.

They would be be receiving the same percentages but of a larger no. Ie a 400 rent vs a 1400 rent.

@flirtygirl i got told by the woman who is assigned to me at UC that if i claimed Housing benefit then i would only be allowed to earn about £240 a month. UC is all so confusing, its hard to understand due to most of the benefits being wrapped into one apart from Housing!

I'm not sure you'd be entitled to benefits but you might want to check it out. I think what you need to figure out is whether you can all live off your partner's salary. If you can't then you can either 'play' the system and pretend that you're single and get some benefits OR you can try to find a work situation that suits you.

Either way there may be a few years of financial hardship as being on benefits isn't the party people suggest it is. Even leaving out the moral question about whether you should do it, it's a lot to consider.

Personally I prefer the idea of working through the hardship and there are flexible working options out there.

This thread is getting worse. people now suggesting "playing the system" ! That is not what op is advocating at all.

@Shayisgreat

You should be ashamed of yourself

Disgusting.

??? Wha? Did you read the whole post?

I put some fictional numbers into entitled to.com (earning 0 and partner earning 20k, one child £600 rent) and it suggested entitlement of £520 a month.

I wouldn't dream of working lots of hours to be left with £30. I suggest being open to retail/hospitality/ care where you can work evenings/nights/ weekends around your partner.

I decided there was no way I was going to try to work in a fairly stressful job, droppibg baby off for long days at bursery to earn say £1600 a month - only to give £1000 of it to childcare and be left with £600. I would rather earn the £600 working unsociable hours with no child care.

A number of years ago I did Fri, Sat, Sun evenings in a shop and although I only earned £400 a month no childcare needed and minimal deductions as below the tax threshold. Now I work three night shifts in care and we manage with just a few days a month help from grandparents.

Try to find something over the evenings, nights, weekends and the day of childcare that your family are offering. With little in the way of deductions you might be pleasantly surprised.

Why should the tax payer fund your choice to have a child? Didnt you think of any of this before you had a child?

You wouodnt be eligible. The best you could hope for is universal credit and they wouod exoect you to look for work. If you do not look for work or log the hours you have been looking, you work coach will stop your allowance.

Looking at sunnis calculations, shays benefit fraud suggestion would be counterproductive.

£500 top up for a couple on top of a £20k salary, but iamtink, an actual lone parent with a pt nmw salary only gets the same. I hope the housing costs are vastly different to explain that. Because otherwise it seriously takes the piss that a working lone parent is expected to live on substantially less than a couple where one doesn't want to work.

Again...for the people who don't RTFT.

I have been to the job centre. I have spoken to a lovely lady who's told me all I'm entitled to. I will be going back to work part time whilst topping up my wages with UC....bringing me to just under what I am on now with SMP. Lovely lady also assured me that scenarios like this are absolutely what the system is there for....unlike a large number of responses on this thread.

And to those who picked up on me judging my MIL. Maybe it's just me, but I think there's a huge difference in going on benefits because you feel it's better for your child's wellbeing to be raised by their mother during those formative years (and ONLY those formative years....)....to just going on it until they're 15....well into their school years....because it's easier than going to work.

The injury she's now claiming keeps her out of work is very specific to a part of her body, and funny enough she has just been denied a sick note and is now filing for job seekers allowance until she can retire in 3 years. Maybe they finally clocked she's been living in Greece this whole time and getting the benefits sent out to her, or maybe they've realised there are plenty of jobs that don't require use of that particular appendage.

Her 5 grown children are all fed up of her....growing up she spent every penny of their child benefit and tax credits on herself and now with the sick note debacle they're feeling a tad resentful and realising that their childhood could have been so much more, had the money been spent where it should - on them. 3 have now gone no contact.

Forgive me for feeling like taking another year to raise my daughter is slightly different to this.

Beaverdam - That is absolute rubbish you are spouting ! if you knew anything about Universal credit you would know that there are no work commitments for anyone who is the main carer for a child under 3. Op would quite possibly get topped up with a few hundred pounds of Uc per month ( depending on rent etc) with no requirements to look for work until her child is 3.

No, you can't, why should the rest of us work while you get handouts to sit on your arse!!

I see Tory HQ are doing over time today.

@TrainspottingWelsh i think my coach told me that if i claimed houskng i would be just over £100 better off than what i am now. But that would mean working onky 1 day per week and i dont think id manage mentally.. i think i would ho crazy not working atleast PT. Possibly blame my prise there, but i need to atleast work PT knowing i am trying my upmost to provide for my baby

@Notthebradybunch oooooooh! did you think of that all by yourself?

Or did you take inspiration from the other 200 people who wrote that before you?

RTFT.

tink I still think it's disgusting. Lone parents like you should get the same as a couple with a sahp if they decide not to work till dc are school age and a damn site more where someone like you is working.

Yes op, as you might have guessed I do think there's a difference between a single parent not working and one with a partner choosing not to when it comes to deserving benefits. The former has far more responsibilities and less opportunity to share childcare. How surprising that you only decide 360 odd posts in to clarify it's only your mils particular scenario that you are judging. Although I'm still not seeing the difference, there's bloody loads of couples in that age range, some of whom would also be selfish parents, that had a sahp and a load of tax credits.

Back tracking now but who the hell sits on their ass all day with a child? Impossible!

42ZoyaDestroyer

Go to the entitledto website - it will give you an indication of how much you could get. If you are entitled to Universal Credit, you will be expected to be actively looking for work, and will need to attend the jobcentre 1 x week

This is incorrect. As the primary carer of a child under 1, op would have no work related requirements. For a child under 2 she would have some work related activities. Once the child is 3 then she will be required to look for work. www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/what-youll-need-to-do-on-universal-credit/claimant-commitment-what-group/ Scroll down to the 'if you're responsible for a child's section.

I'm glad you ignored the earlier posters op and got some decent advice. Universal credit gets a fair amount of stick but at least it recognises the benefits of keeping babies with their mothers.

@flirtygirl i got told by the woman who is assigned to me at UC that if i claimed Housing benefit then i would only be allowed to earn about £240 a month. UC is all so confusing, its hard to understand due to most of the benefits being wrapped into one apart from Housing! shock

Google work allowances. If you have children or eligible disabilities you will get a work allowance. (A certain amount of money you can earn without it being deducted from UC). The work allowance is £287 if you have housing costs and £503 if you don't.

And housing costs are usually part of UC too. Not housing benefit any more except in a few specified cases.

Bloody hell my typos are AWFUL. Bloody phone.
@Trainspottingwelsh i agree completely, but unfortunately but me and many other in a similar position it just doesnt sork like that. It is devastating for me knowing i am doing literally the most i can do to earn money to live yet i just about an able to pay my bills, then you have certain people whos partners are on a mich higher wage than me and they are still able to claim UC! HOW?! i honestly do not understand it.

Single parent here.

I work full time plus more because I have to - As I’m on my own, there’s no one else to provide for my kids.

In all honesty though if I was in your situation with a partner I would love to be a SAHM!

I’d maybe use some of the time to retrain in something that I could work around my child when they get to school age.

Ignore the shitty comments OP