....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?

The debate here is not about whether it pays to go back to work when childcare costs are high. OP although not said directly, has made it clear that ultimately, she much rather be at home with her baby whilst being able to study than working. I very much doubt that even if she was £100 better off a month, she would have gone back to her job.

If 12 months of tax payers money keeps a roof over my head and food in my family's belly during that time....I can only thank you all from the bottom of my heart

And if indeed, it turns out that you only claim for 12 months, because you'll be in a much better job after having trained in a year's time, I would totally agree with you. The problem is that you are probably a bit naive in thinking that this will happen. It might, but the more common scenario goes like this.

You start your course but realise that it's actually quite hard to study whilst looking after a baby ft, so in the end, it doesn't take 12 months but 24 months. During that time, your child has started some hours of childcare and after 2 years of them being stuck to you, having some hours for yourself is a real treat. You apply for jobs in your new field but are not getting the response you expect because they wanted trained people who also have experience, so even when you get interviews, you don't get the job. That and the fact that you are so attach to your child, you don't want them to go to after school and breakfast clubs, and you don't want to commute too far, and you want the holidays, so you are restricting the jobs you can apply for. Then there is the fact that you've been out of work for 3 years and it has become unfamiliar to you and quite scary. You are very happy as a sahm, spending quality time with your child, having a few hours for yourself, and you've adjusted to living on a reduced budget with tax credits. You love being a mum and wouldn't mind having another one, also a sibling for your child, and of course, that would mean more UC.

That's why people react the way they do, but it is rarely just a case of claiming for 12 months but in a very large majority of the case, it becomes claiming for many years as it becomes the norm.

If you do go on and act on your plans, then good on you and indeed, make the best of the 12 months.

Dontdisturbmenow's post lays the problem out neatly.

Dontdisturbmenow and where’s the father in this scenario pressumably also working and progressing in his career and very quickly ineligible for any UC at all.
I have a friend who split up with her husband briefly - he was actually an arsehole so the rest of this sentence isn’t as bad as it sounds - but then they couldn’t have afforded to get back together if they’d wanted to. Him on £22k and her on £24k
That’s what needs looking at. Financially they are both better off, emotionally and physically they are both absolutely fucked

@Dontdisturbmenow a very neat and tidy post - and not overly insulting which was a nice change - but also makes a lot of assumptions.

You have no idea what sector I'm going back to...so therefore you actually have no idea how easy it is to return to, or even how long my course takes (hint...it ain't three years). The reason I haven't before was because I hated the job. But I was good it at and it paid well....and I've stayed in contact with many people who still work in the industry. Therefore I have no worries about the difficulty in returning.

I don't overly appreciate the assumption that because I'm an attachment parent I virtually won't let her out my sight for the next three years. Not how it works at all....and in fact some other AP parents I know have some of the most independent children I've ever met.

I am not living in cloud cuckoo land thinking that UC is this glorious never ending money pot that will allow me to sit on my arse and do fuck all for the next three years. It's going to be hard, and the horror stories I've heard haven't filled me with confidence I'll even be able to do much as a play group with my son. I doubt I'll barely be able to keep my car running. But it'll be more in the family pot than me returning to work...meaning rent paid and food on the table....and so this is the deal for the next 12 months.

Going on benefits should never be a 'choice'

Years and years of this enablement and entitlement culture is what has driven people to vote for a Tory government which has in then had a knock on effect for genuine claimants and caused them to suffer

I don't overly appreciate the assumption that because I'm an attachment parent I virtually won't let her out my sight for the next three years.

That's the nice interpretation of what she wrote, it might also be a suggestion that AP is convenient pretext for not returning to work. Most people are pretty attached to their kids, regardless of what they call themselves.

It is your right to claim UC. This very British attitude of everyone contributing is rubbish. Do what’s best for your child.

Really common. Work in benefits and have also taken time off in similar way. Wasn't forever. Keep your brain active mentally. Maybe do any upskilling of qualifications whilst you can in evening courses, once a week with family childcare?

How much do you get if you both work?

Use betteroffcalculator.co.uk

Much more reliable than entitled to.

Thanks @Fireextinguished :) couple posts back I mentioned I'm about to do a course to renew my certification, allowing me to return to a sector of work I was in in my twenties. It was shit work but good money....I'm hoping 12 months out will be all I need before I can return to a different job and come off of UC :)

@Fireextinguished that's a fab calculator! Showed me exactly what I needed to see to break it all down...much better than entitled to and far easier and quicker to change scenarios too...thank you :) really useful.

Goodness, can't believe this is still going. I hope that your plans work out, OP. Working in a job that you loathe but which pays the bills is a sad reality for a lot of parents (and non-parents obviously) these days.

@ScreamedAtTheMichelangelo I know...I keep thinking the thread has died....then I get a notification and it's some-one who hasn't RTFT telling me to better myself and find a better paying job 🤷‍♀️

@ScreamedAtTheMichelangelo I know...I keep thinking the thread has died....then I get a notification and it's some-one who hasn't RTFT telling me to better myself and find a better paying job 🤷‍♀️

Not quite correct- being on benefits is the a lifestyle choice. If you’re able to work, you should. There isn’t an endless pot of money, benefits should go to the people most in need.

*isn’t a lifestyle choice

Yes there is an endless pot, there really is

If you have found a loophole to game the system and take money from your fellow taxpayers so you can live the lifestyle you want without working for it, I guess you can. But I wouldn't expect them to praise you for it.

"Gaming the system."

OP isn't gaming anything at all. She is doing everything legally, the DWP says she can claim these benefits, so she is. "Gaming the system" is somebody who is doing something illegal.

I just don't understand how someone can choose not to work when they are able to and need to financially.

I find your tone on recent posts very smug and actually quite goady. You clearly don’t think you are BU so why bloody bother asking and then getting arsey that some people think you are?!

Yep...very fucking goady....

Smug? Are you and I reading the same posts?

"I am not living in cloud cuckoo land thinking that UC is this glorious never ending money pot that will allow me to sit on my arse and do fuck all for the next three years. It's going to be hard, and the horror stories I've heard haven't filled me with confidence I'll even be able to do much as a play group with my son. I doubt I'll barely be able to keep my car running. But it'll be more in the family pot than me returning to work...meaning rent paid and food on the table....and so this is the deal for the next 12 months."

I've literally spelled out how absolutely shit it's going to be...about how the best way for me earn better money rather than sit on UC for until he's at school is to re-do my certification. And that's goady?!

@Inliverpool1 is there really?