....to think that going on UC would be better than going back after maternity leave?

[TheDelorean81]

Long time lurker but this is my first post so please be nice to me :)

Basically I don’t know what to do. My little boy is two months old and I’ve starting to look at what will happen when I go back to work next spring. After costing up childcare in the area I’m in I’d basically be paying to go back! We’d lose my entire income from the family pot.

My partner works different shifts each week so finding a different job to work around his so we can share childcare is out of the question.

My question is this. Would I be unreasonable to go on Universal Credit for a year (ish) until the free childcare element kicks in and I can afford it? Or until my partner can find a better job to support us? Or until I can find a better job that works? My family and my partners family are all saying I should (they’re all very high earners and reckon I’m should make use some of their taxes....not sure what to say to that!), but I just feel that it’s not what benefits are there for?

But in the same vein I’m struggling to see another option.

Anyone else here with personal experience?

if a child is left to cry for 30 seconds it's abuse'

Who said that @LisaSimpsonsbff I can't see it anywhere

Why don’t you answer my question first?

@Passthecherrycoke you said "unless you're now saying you're not too unwell to work" doesn't apply to me. I haven't said this anywhere.

Please explain how I'm not putting my child first.

@LisaSimpsonsbff to be honest most of the abuse I've seen on this thread is directed towards the OP and those who dare to claim UC.

I'm gonna be a SAHP for the next year, while I completely retrain for a new job

In reality what will happen is you’ll have yet another baby, decide you should stay home for that one too and rinse and repeat.

I am a SAHM...because we can fund it ourselves. This is total BS that you can decide to stay home whilst so many mothers have to leave their children and go to work to fund your lifestyle.

You go for it OP, but I was a lone parent on benefits a few years even before UC & I got threatened with a sanction & had to wait a week a decision for not walking a preschool child & toddler in a pushchair 4 miles in heavy snow after waiting an hour as the buses had been called off. It's really not easy.

“If only I could work instead of having a chronic illness and using walking aids. hmm“

Was that you or not?

Your post stated, "unless you're now saying you're not too unwell to work" which I didn't say so your following question doesn't apply.

How am I not putting my child first?

@Waxonwaxoff0, I don't think people understand the changes in the benefits system over the last few years & UC as it is now & that just because you have a partner working it means you don't to need to meet requirements or attend dwp.

Right. So the reason you don’t work is:

A) you want to put your child first

Or

B) you have chronic pain and waking aids and therefore are not physically able to

Which is it?

@MildGreenFairie I'm not sure what UC is like to be honest, I get working tax credits as a single parent and I haven't been switched over yet. I've heard that UC is more generous to working couples than working single parents, don't know how true that is.

@Passthecherrycoke
You seem to have confused yourself.
There are two separate points.

1. I don't work.
2. I put my child first.

The two are not related.

How do I not put my child first?

Wow well done OP for convincing more people to vote Conservatives next week

I don't know how some people have so much energy to be so bitter about somebody on a low income getting a bit of help from the state.

I’m not bitter. I made a choice not to bring my children to in a low income household because, as a PP said, there clear evidence that that isn’t the best thing for them.

@SarahH12 conservatives have been in power for a long time now, and it's under their government that I'm able to claim what I can

@Waxonwaxoff0 - the level of salary is irrelevant. It’s the blatant claiming tax payer funded benefits when they could work but have decided they don’t want to.

@Passthecherrycoke yes, and I didn't have a baby thinking I was going to be divorced 10 months later, but shit happens in life. It's easy to look down from your high horse when you haven't experienced it.

Essentially you are saying that people earning minimum wage shouldn't have children. Disgusting elitist attitude.

I didn’t say that. I said I’m not bitter

@Parker231 people need to go and moan to the DWP then, not the OP. She's not the one who decides what benefits she's entitled to, they are.

You literally said you wouldn't bring a child into a low income household.

You didn’t make a decision not to work so you could put your child first, you have no choice but to not work.

Again, two separate points.

1. I do not work.

Other point:

I put my child first. I do not have to stay home to put my child first.

Now can you explain how I'm not putting them first?

Not again, no

So you're talking out of your arse.

I'll enjoy putting my child first with my ap parenting and being over invested.
You enjoy your envy.