....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?

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

I said I MADE A CHOICE NOT TO. You do realise I could jack in my job and claim UC too? Not just the OP. I MADE A CHOICE NOT TO

Awww had to go for the ad hominem attack, bless

You do realise low income households don't just consist of benefit claimants?
There are low income jobs.

You've shown your true envy with the vomiting comments there. @Passthecherrycoke

Envy for what?

You're envious that I can stay home and get paid to do so. If you weren't envious you wouldn't come with a low blow. You also wouldn't be so invested.

I’m not in the slightest bit envious. If I was on UC credit id be poor, and that would be awful

You chose not to go on UC because presumably you earn more going to work. So why are you so bothered by someone who is probably on a lower income than you, if you know your decision is best?

Focus on yourself.

I'm not poor @Passthecherrycoke

Didn’t think of this before you got pregnant no? 🙄

I've worked my entire adult life.

You've been working since 21 and now late 30's... So less than 20 years.

@Parker231 I resent the implantation that I'm going on benefits because I don't want to work.

If I go back to work I will literally be paying to work. My childcare will cost more than I earn.

The system is fucked....and so here I find myself. Entitled to benefits, which I have decided to claim, which for the next year will see me stay afloat and keep a roof over our head.

Whole lot of misplaced anger on this thread. If you chose to go back to work then good on you and good on you for having a job that means you can afford to do that. But if I want to stay afloat this is literally my best option.

@ItCouldHaveBeenMeCouldNotHaha I was once told that working whilst studying didn't count as a 'real job'...though if you're going to be pedantic I've worked in part time jobs since I was 14.

I've worked full time since I was 21. That's my whole adult life.

I say yes u r being unreasonable, they only reason u r able to even consider this is, because other people belive that even if they are worse off they still have the mindset that they will go back to work and put their child in childcare. Because its the right thing to do.

Also to everyone being all 'oh you should have saved for a baby. You should have worked this cost out.'

Not that it's anyone's business, but my contraception failed, and as a reasonably mature woman in my late thirties in a long term relationship....abortion didn't seem a reasonable answer.

Also....if everyone waited for the 'right time' to have a baby there wouldn't be any 🤷‍♀️

If every mother decided to do the same there wouldn't be money for the system to be in place. Im greteful for my mum who worked and instilled a work ethic

Long term endometriosis has me thinking I couldn't even have kids. So sue me for wanting to keep this one.

If every mother decided to do the same there wouldn't be money for the system to be in place. Im greteful for my mum who worked and instilled a work ethic

If every single mother only took one year out and went back to work there would be plenty in the system.

You are aware that most benefit claimants do work?

So r u saying every mother who says they will take a year out , actually only take a year and dont decide that actually they may as well take a few years out etc

Didnt you think of this before having a baby? Why should other people fund you?

@chicken2015 so SAHMs don't have a work ethic?

@chicken2015 That's not what you said.
You said if every mother decided to do the same.
OP has decided to take one year out.

What's fascinating is actually how angry people are that they work and others are at home with their dc's.
It must be envy. It's clear people feel threatened. The same way people feel when you have ff vs bf debate.
If you're so happy that you work and leave your DC then why are you spending so much time feeling bitter?

@chicken2015 my mom was a single SAHP to me and my sisters, working part time with top up on child tax credits. She then retrained when we got to school age and is now head teacher of a top private school.

You think those formative years of having a mother at home has made me have less of a work ethic than you? Was she setting a bad example to me? Because she used the state to raise me and my sisters, and used that time to literally forge a new career for herself?

I've worked since I was old enough to legally have a job. Taking a year out because I'm not willing to pay to work in a call centre and wish to retrain is not lack of work ethic! It's trying to keep a roof over my family's head.

It depends on why they r a SAHM, someone who decides to claim UC because they would rather that than work and potentially have to budget more or go without some things for a few years before child goes school etc , then would u say they have one?