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.

I did a calculation for a couple today where one of them had over £30K net income and they still had an entitlement.

I wouldn’t advise anyone to go on benefits. Universal credit is behind a lot of food bank usage and the government may cut benefits further. You are better off sucking up the high childcare costs until your kid goes to school when retaining your job will prove financially beneficial again.

@iamtinkabella Thats what ive always been told, sorry my mistake though its actually £287 per month you are allowed to earn if you claim housing.

That's the work allowance you're quoting. It's an amount you can earn if you have children or LCW before UC starts to take income into account. So you get £287 without any reduction in UC. Then for amounts over £287 your UC will be reduced by what's called the taper rate which is 63% of that amount.
So say you earn £500. £287 of that is not counted. £213 of it is subject to the 63% deduction. Which means £134.19 will be taken off your UC amount.

If you don't claim housing you can get £503 before the taper rate kicks in.

Christ there are some nasty people on here. Personally I'd have no issue with the OP staying home for a couple of years, even if some of my tax money went to support that. And I had to go back to work sooner than I wanted after having DS.

I also love the way so many here think people's jobs are so flexible and people can change hours as they please and it's so easy to get a job that works around somebody elses hours. Maybe if your DP works Mon-Fri, 9-5. Mine doesn't. He doesn't work set hours either. Could be 8-5, 9-6, 10-8, 9-8, 10-9. Occasionally he finishes at 4, or has to work until 10. He usually works weekends and often gets very little notice of his hours or his hours are changed at short notice, or he gets asked to stay late at short notice. Don't know how I'd have worked evenings round that. Working nights - well I'd need a car and a. I can't drive and b. we can't afford a second car.

The birthrate in the UK is close to the level where it will cease to maintain the current population (2.1%).

I thought it was around 1.8 now, so already below replacement level. It's one reason we're looking at such a crisis in pensions.

@ActualHornist I'm not at work at the moment....my income comes from maternity pay which ends in a few months - hence the need to work out where I'll next get income from :)

Whatever you do I would caution staying out of the workforce for any extended length of time.

I’m fine but husband was made redundant a few years ago and became a SAHD - it worked for us as a family. He’s been looking for work now for about six months, applied for upwards of 100 roles and been knocked back for every single one - including the one he did a trial for. He’s got plenty of transferable skills but certainly here they don’t want to give him the opportunity.

I thought it was around 1.8 now, so already below replacement level. It's one reason we're looking at such a crisis in pensions.

One reason why we actually need immigrants.

Accio regards "why don't you randomly become a childminder?" I agree! Jesus, these aren't artisan cupcakes, it's people's children. I mean if it was that easy/straightforward/unregulated why aren't we all bloody doing it?

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz exactly!
And particularly after the OP made her barbed comment about ‘leaving children with strangers’ - No way would I leave my precious children with someone who spouts that sort of shit

While I think it's not right that someone can't earn enough on full time hours to live on, I think you've been massively hypocritical in your OP, slating your MIL for being on benefits, when you want to do the same.
It's possible and feasible to work around each other, is it easy? Not at all, but you chose to have a child and these are the concequences. Work around your partner, evenings, weekends, nights if you can maybe do one the night before you can rely on family for childcare so you can sleep a bit after.
If single parents are expected to do it, and what's more manage to then I see no reason why a couple can't and shouldn't.
Work around your partner, see if you have any entitlement after both wages taken into consideration - you might, but living on any benefit isn't the party it's made out to be. It's unreliable and as you can see from this thread, it also makes you the lowest of the low in some people's eyes. I'm sorry but I think you need to accept responsibility for having a child and find something that fits round your partner if you can't live on his wage alone. If you split up you'd have to by the time your DD is 3 and increase every so often - you currently have the benefit of two adults willing to care for a child, use it.

Surely you'd get assistance for your child care through tax credits.Complete one of those benefits calculators or go to your can.

the thing is, it could all go to shit for any of you, any time.

i went back to work when my DD was 5 months, her dad and i did opposite shifts. then later i worked my way up into a good career, lots of travel, paying my taxes.

and my child was miserable. and then, my health went completely to shit and these days i survive on disability benefits in what is laughably described as a ‘studio apartment’, which obviously is actually a bedsit, not unlike the one i lived in in my 20s before i had any children.

spend time with your children. claim benefits, or don’t. but there is surely no pleasure to be taken from moral superiority because you had it harder/different yourself. it’s like the Four Yorkshireman sketch only everyone’s in Boden.

this is not how i envisaged my life turning out. it could happen to any of you, and some of the more condescending posters here would do well to remember that. god forbid any of you should get run over by a bus, right?

I SAH for 17 years, as having 5 children and a shift working husband, this was just easier. We did get some tax credits which was more than my minimum wage job which had no flexibility.

It is lovely being home with DC and not worrying about sickness etc. However this is replaced by worries about long term employability and long term, should a relationship break down, you would probably be forced to work longer hours in a low paid job.

I found that better paid jobs were more flexible and brought more work life balance. Hence I used the time SAH to study for a degree and train as a health professional. I now work part time in a fairly flexible role and it is really rewarding.

My advice would be to check what you are entitled to, and enjoy the time with DC if you can, but upskill, keep a hand in somewhere because you never know what is round the corner.

Well yes exwife. Just like op, or any other sahp with a spouse could become a single parent at any time. When instead of being mothers that don't want to leave their children with strangers, prioritising their families, 'getting back' what they've paid in, working hard raising their dc, only claiming what they're entitled to and so forth, they'll become benefit scrounging single parents, sat around on their arses and living off the taxpayer like ops mil. Quite possibly even if they're working single parents. Or even if they're financially independent.

I don't think it helps that historically the benefits given to two parent families where one chose not to work were misleadingly called working tax credits. Whereas the single parents got income support or were 'on the dole'. Or received the mythical lone parent benefits. Former sahp = good. Lone parent = benefits scrounger.

Belle89- you sound inspirational.

Is there much money in dog grooming? If you don’t mind my asking?

The only assistance you would get is child benefit based on your dp income of 20k.
When my ds was young I worked 2 nightshifts a week so i could look after him.

My dp income was also around 20k.
I looked many times to see if we was entitled to anything but we over the threshold for everything based on do income.

Your daughter is way too young to be separated from you. Do whatever you can to stay at home with her. If you are entitled to benefits then go for it, until she is at least 2 years old Another option would be for your partner to find a better paid job. Do not let people shame you for being on benefits. Do what you can for your child, she needs you.

I strongly disagree with children being in nurseries at such a young age and in most cases mothers do not have to go back to work. There are bebefits that helps mothers to stay at home with their babies. Some people are just too ashame or afraid of being talked down to like they are doing to you.

And it's really not your problem that some people chose to go back to work after their mat leave rather than staying at home with their child. They made that choice and shouldn't be complaining about paying tax.

@8BumbleBee8 benefits are usually only available to single mothers, not those who are living with a working partner, unless the partner is on an extremely low wage.

8abumblebee - well that’s hundreds of thousands of children screwed then by having parents who work!

(Joking)

@8BumbleBee8

Your daughter is way too young to be separated from you

What qualifies you to say this? I have teacher, GP, nurse and nanny friends who all went back to work before their children were 2 so wondering where you're getting your information from? What a giant sweeping statement, solely designed to make you sound like mother superior for staying with your child. Load of nonsense.

Should you just give us your bank details so we can all just pop in a few quid each month to fund your choice?

ReginaPhalangee agreed .