People on universal credit - how much do you get a month?

[VodkaCranberry2]

Just been approved for UC for me and my DP and my new baby however baby isn’t registered on there yet due to his birth not being registered yet (been told to wait 21 days because offices have not been taking appointments). We got an advance of £1,244. But won’t find out how much we get a month for 5 weeks. I’m just wondering if anyone else is getting it and what sort of figure we can expect to get?

Me - self employed, ending maternity this week
Partner - works in a supermarket

Thank you and sorry for posting here wasn’t sure which topic to post in.

Do people genuinely begrudge benefits going to those who need them?

Yep.
Universal credit is proof of this. Designed to force people into poverty, homelessness and foodbank usage. It was designed this way to appease the working voters who thought people on benefits got too much, had it too easy, pumped out kids to get houses. (Hence the 2 child limit now)
People watch benefit street, label all claimants scroungers, tell them too 'just get a job' etc etc.
I've been on MN for as long as I care to remember and has these discussions regularly. Benefit bashing posts are.common.

See they can't be against black people for being black, it's racist.
They can't be against trans people for being trans, it's transphobic.
They can't be against old folks, it's ageist.
But they can be against poor people, they can be against people being housed, people eating well, people having a television to watch.. that's all fine. They can begrudge a single parent scraping by on less than £1000 a month and insult them and 'other' them all they like.
But, it says far more about the person doing so than it does about the person just trying to get by.

monkey I'm about to get silly now- but I sniggered a little...

I'm a blind, black lesbian on benefits! I'm basically fucked, aren't I? 😂

But, it says far more about the person doing so than it does about the person just trying to get by.

Completely agree. I just find it all so tedious now and I actually feel sorry for the people who sit there getting all riled up about everything to do with benefits. And then, they’re that outraged about it all that they actually sit there watching Benefits Street to make themselves even more outraged .
It’s an awful programme and the people who watch it need to get a grip.

To be jealous or begrudging towards disabled people, people caring for disabled children or women escaping domestic violence.
Its quite sick actually.

It is. I actually fit in to two of those categories you mentioned but yet I had abuse thrown at me further up thread. People are so arrogant and up themselves.
And they’re actually quite thick too. They don’t realise that if you are able to work then you must put in 35 hours a week looking for work in order to get the money. You don’t just get to sit there doing nothing
I’m not able to work right now so I’m the absolute scum of society it would seem.

I get about £230 per month but strangely it changes, sometimes by quite a lot, each month. No idea why as my wages don't change.

@funinthesun19 me too. We can be scum together . We can watch our massive free TVs and our goats can be friends too.

I dont have a big TV by today's standards, it's only 32" which is tiny really.
I'll have a word with my job coach, must be due a free 50" colour telly for watching Rinder all day. 😝

I think mines only a 32inch as well. It's not even smart and I think I'm its 3rd owner. Dont have a goat either which is a shame. I love goats! And my garden is seriously overgrown so I could do with one to keep the weeds down

Mines not smart either. I've had it 6+ years and bought it when I had a really good job that I gave up when dd came along.

Time to petition BOJO. Free TVs and goats for all UC claimants. 👍

(I'm not sure where the whole Benefit claimants and goat thing comes from? I've sort of perpetuates it after seeing it on here and it making me laugh.)

You are officially “better off” working than on benefits (if you rent) and are in a minimum wage type job. However the difference is minimal. I claimed for a year when I became a single Mum but gradually upped my hours a lot to come off then. On a 40 hr ish week you’re have about an extra 30 quid a week for going to work for 40 hrs! So you’re working for less than a pound an hr essentially. I came off then because I wanted a better future which I have wrangled because I took that safety net away from myself. However I’ve got a strong personality and like work and get family network etc. There will still days when I wondered what the hell I was doing it all for when I was working flat out and totally poor.
Not everyone has the upbringing to believe they can push away from them. For them the incentive is zero. It’s a poverty trap. A honey pot they can’t escape from. It helped me out but I don’t believe it’s the right system for the greater good .

hfrdgftcsdg

What a long and irrelevant post.

Firstly,
On a 40 hr ish week you’re have about an extra 30 quid a week for going to work for 40 hrs
For every pound someone earns, UC reduces 63p meaning they will always be far better off working.
On 40hoir week of minimum wage a worker will get £348.8 a week multiplied by 52 and divided by 12 months gives a monthly figure of £1500 ish. With top ups dependant on circumstances they could be taking home £2000+ a month as opposed to £1000 without working.

As for the rest of your nonsense and upbringing and bollocks..
Think of this... If that job you got, they decided to hire the person they interviewed before you, how different would things have planned out? Why if you could only get a job where you couldn't easily up the hours? What if you took sick and couldn't work? Shame your upbringing didn't tach some out of the box thinking or empathy.

Universal credit is proof of this. Designed to force people into poverty, homelessness and foodbank usage

The number of people I know on UC are not in poverty. They talk about it. Tjey may sometimes shop in charity shops. They may not be able to go on abroad holidays. But they are not in poverty, and in the words of one of them "i get more on UC than when i was looking at what i would get working". When we looked at applying it was more than triple what I get in a month. Just saying. Not judging. Not making anything up. Just repeating back. Obviously I'm not naive enough to think this applies to the entirety of the country. But of the 12 single parents and couples I am.freinds with who claim it, none of them are starving, and no they don't get family help. They chose to stay on it, from their own admissions, and if you don't like that as the truth then you have a problem with the way you see all this.

hfrd what?! Your post makes no sense 😂

So you declined top ups in income because you had the "work ethic" to overcome the want to have extra money to benefit your life.

I mean I know what I would call it, and it isn't "work ethic" 🤔

I work 40hours, am a single mum, I get a top up. You know what I use that top up for, so DS doesn't miss out on anything compared to his peers. So school trips, Clarks shoes, a subscription on his Amazon Kids tablet, trips to the cinema or zoo, UK camping holidays.

I also don't have a massive TV and a goat. I have a 32" non smart TV I am it's third owner 😬

MonkeyToesOfDoom

Ha, how uptight are you. Who would take advice from someone who gets their knickers in such a twist over an anonymous Internet forum. That did happen and those are the correct amounts that I received.

@funinthesun19 me too. We can be scum together grin. We can watch our massive free TVs and our goats can be friends too.

Yay! Can’t wait!

I dont have a big TV by today's standards, it's only 32" which is tiny really.
I'll have a word with my job coach, must be due a free 50" colour telly for watching Rinder all day. 😝

Yeah you might be due to get an upgrade!
They might throw a years supply of Sky TV in with it too.

I was definitely more than £30 per week better off when I was working full time
Even the 6 months at SSP I was more than £30 per week better off.

No, I didn’t “decline top ups” I worked more and more hours until I was earning too much to claim universal credits. I was on a minimum wage job and I had to do a mixture of days and nights to work 60/70 hour weeks. I did this because I didn’t want to be in the poverty trap of universal credits. I came off then and saved up for a house. Buying that house 4 years later eased my financial liabilities so it was worth the hard work.
As I eased up from 16 hrs (straight from maternity) to about 45 hours the difference was very, very minimal. So in essence I was working 45 hrs for a teeny bit less than had I worked 16 hours.

There was only one way out and that was to increase my wages. I had a shit job so I had to do that by increasing my hours.
This post isn’t to justify myself to all the nutters frothing at the mouth here but may be if interest to people who are expressing their surprise at the the random amounts being chucked out on here.

However I’ve got a strong personality and like work and get family network etc

The only thing even vaguely relevant is the last point, and that's luck. Lots of people like work and can't. Lots of people hate work but still go. Not sure what a "strong personality" even is 😂

I loved work. Genuinely loved getting there not knowing what that day would bring. (I'd hate an office job). I've also got a great family network.
I obviously have a weak personality then

they are not in poverty

Poverty is classed as anything below 60% of the average. The average is around £30k a year. So anyone with income below around £18k a year is in poverty.

You would be £121.5 a week better off working 40 hours on minimum wage.

I’ve had health issues restricting my ability to work my whole life and have currently found a mostly good balance of teaching part time and living very close to work so I don’t have the additional struggle of commuting. It’s finally (bar unforeseen health crisis’) manageable and ds is happy with where we live.

Yes I get uc top up but it is far cheaper for the state than me being on disability benefits unable to work at all which sadly from past experience is the most likely outcome if I went full time and tried to manage that on top of health problems and being a lone parent.

I’m pretty much the exact outcome they wanted from introducing tax credits which was getting people who would have been entirely on benefits into work.

I now cost the state about £600, minus the full council tax I pay (£150pm insanely) and the national insurance and tax I pay which is also at least £150pm. I’m also paying into a pension meaning hopefully I’ll also be cheaper as a pensioner due to not being entirely dependent on the state.

On a purely economic argument even it makes sense to offer me in work benefits that allow me to work as a disabled single parent. It is vastly cheaper for the state than the alternative

Not sure what a "strong personality" even is I think it means "I'm a dickhead."

Re the earlier post about working for an extra £30 a week and that being a disincentive to work. Others have already pointed that the difference between working and not working is much more. But there is a point where additional income is worth 37p for every pound. I think that is what the poster is referring to. But £30 a week is £120 a month. When your income is low I think that is a significant difference. It is to me anyway.

37p to a £1 x £8.21 × 40 hours is £121.50 a week.
Plus the nearly £300 a month work allowance if you get it.
It definitely pays to work.
But then why should even the people who work be able to buy big tv's on the tax payers dime..feel like we cant win sometimes.

Sorry the 300 a month work allowance is before they start deducting 63p to the £.
So the first 36hr week you keep all and the rest of the weeks you keep £121.50