to expect to have more disposable income than single mums claiming benefits

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i no longer know why me and dh bother, he works full time and i work part time so that i can juggle the child care.

i know of 3 single mums who stay near me who seem to have more money than i can dream of, out every weekend, always shopping and 2 of them manage to run cars.

i know the benefit system is needed by some people but it seems to be a complete joke these days, the wasters in this country are leading the life of reilly while the rest of us are left to slog our guts out to pay for there existence.

no doubt i will get flamed for this post but i have been out xmas shopping today trying to work to a budget then i stand next to these people at the school gates and hear about all the grants they are entitled to so they can buy xmas presents, one of them has even cut back the last 2 months and managed to save £800, it would take me bloody months to save that up.

ok rant over, deep down i am glad i am not one of these people and i do actually work for what i have but it still pisses me of.

Yes, Lucky, we only have the op to go bym of course....however, I just stated that OP didn't say that she thinks all single mums claim benefit...she just had a rant about those that she believes do....

I'm sorry but your post is aimed at single parents why?
I have to say, as an ex single parent (who worked full time), I do find the tiresome assumptions of other people increasingly trying. I have to tell you now, that I never had handouts, in fact I earned 5.50 too much for handouts, the CSA wouldn't help me either, because I wasn't claiming benefit (I believe this has changed., I was left (yes left) with a mortgage that was (quite a bit) more than two thirds of my salary, struggling to cough up enough for childcare, which I had to do because if I quit my job, I wouldn't be entitled to benefits. I fell so far behind with my gas, I was cut off and spent 2 years in a damp cold house with no central heating and a small toddler. All whilst Jack the Lad (my ex) ran around buying himself games consoles etc.
So PLEASE don't lecture me about the luxuries of being a single parent. As far as I am concerned there aren't any!

Well you have the choice. Take the £200 drop in income if you think it would be a better life for your family.

don't think anyone was slagging those people in particular....lucky

Those in particular being 3 single mums!

kerala I choose to be on benifits so i can be home for my children. Maybe i should work but i didn't have children to have someone else bring them up. Its not my fault that my ex was an abusive bastard and that i became a single Mum.

When my DH was made redundant he was entitled to a grand total of about £53 a week - I apparently earned too much at £125 a week for him to be entitled to anything more. We still had the mortgage, bills etc to pay. It was horrendous and not something I'd like to repeat.

i never said they were 3nomore i said i wasnt going to start slagging them off. in other words im not going to join her rant because i dont know their situation, im just trying to put another perspective on it.

ranting...don't think op had a go at you personally or single mums generally, she just ranted about some single mums she knows that seem to be better off on the benefit system then her and her family despite her and her dh working....
why are people always so eager to make things about their own personal circumstances, just because 1 thing matched?
And that was a general question, not aimed at anyone , really....but I know I can do that soemtimes...go off on a tangent, and when clearly reading and thinking realising that there was no reason to feel attacked, lol! Human nature?

myself and DH always worked, when we had the kids i carried on working whilst DH was SAHD, then i did my back in and need a few ops on it and it will never get any better.
we have three kids who have autism i also have a DH who is going to die from his brain tumour, we live on benefits and have done for 7 years, what choice do we have in the matter. to people who don't know our situation they probably think we have the life of riley, but i don't know anyone who would like to swop places with us.

Well according to entitled to, you are better off than them. A single non working mother with two children will get her rent and council tax paid, income support of £59 pounds per week, and child tax credit of roughly £80 per week, and child benefit of £30.10 per week

So roughly £170 a week to spend on everything that isn't rent or council tax.

Someone who has two children and a partner who works 40 hours at £6 will get £240 a week before tax, £108.44 in tax credits, and the same £30.10 in child benefit. Would probably be around £340 after tax. The have to finance rent and council tax as well as everything else ....

...which brings us down to that naughty little onion, British Housing Costs.

If both families are living in a £70 per week housing association house, with £1000 council tax per year, then the working family is significantly better off - by roughly £60/£70 a week.

HOWEVER if you are in London, the single non working mother gets her council tax and rent paid for, but the working family's housing costs will be MUCH higher.

In my area, you are better off working. MUCH better off. In London, I can see why people complain ... but this is not the fault of the single mothers. They cannot help the cost of housing in the South East.

But who would you have to feel superior to if it wasn't for these benefit claiming single mothers?

If it's such a 'life of reilly' then why don't more people give up work and claim?

What you need to look at though is these people are not living the life of riley, they don't own there houses as they won't have a morgage unlike alot of others.

I have a friend who left a violent relationship, she has 2 firls, she left her dh because her life was awful, when with him she was a sahm , they owned a house, had a morgage & some money, she walked out went into a rented property & onto benefits, she got all her rent paid & had no council tax BUT she was getting £55 income support & about £75 child tax credits a week with about £120 a month child benefit, she had bills, school things to pay for, debts, she did have a car but her parents had to help her out, she struggle alot, i know i sat with her many a time filling in forms whilst she cried thinking about how she was going to cope.

things like christmas for her were awful to even think about.

I am sorry to say but £800 saved over 2 months would not be possible unless having another source of income.

fair enough lucky, wasn't having a go....

Tortoise I would say you are working with 4 children to care for.

Blimey you lot type fast

And actually,why does it matter to the the OP what other people have or don't have?

If someone on benefits gets a grant, it is deducted from their benefit payments. It isn't just free money!

Mind your own business. Run your own life how you see fit and leave others alone to run theirs. And remember that what someone says in public may not be the way it works in private - someone who can't afford to pay for Christmas may be too embarrassed to announce it at the school gates and might pretend they are doing fine or even better.

Good point by TheclosetPagan
"The other thing is that if someone is living on benefits it is often hard to find work that pays enough to make it worthwhile them going into employment - the benefit trap."
This is true for my dh and I...and I really hope people don't class us as wasters.
There are apparently plentiful jobs in our area...if we are prepared to both do shift work through an agency. Which basically means either we hardly see the kids or we hardly see each other, spend most of one salary on childcare, to let someone else lok after the kids we chose to have because we wanted children (or is that wrong?), and find we are actually spending more on prescriptions/opticians/dental fees, travel etc than we can afford.

Yes, we can afford luxuries! What a crime, it is too, because we can afford to have the odd dvd or video game when we don't smoke, drink, own a car, or buy any item of clothing (besides winter coat) that costs over £15. Oh, and we daren't move out to a house with the third bedroom we so desperately need because if we did, somehow, manage to find work that was actualy worthwhile we wouldn't be able to afford the rent.
Can i please stop now?

My post 3andnomore, was really about the fact that it's aimed primarily at 'single mums' not single couples or single people. Of course I did get a bit carried away. I am rather touchy about the whole single mum thing. Especially the way everyone seems to think that if you are a single mum you a) must be a chain smoking Vicky Pollard alike and b)your poncing off your country.
Personally, I think it suits the government for people to think that way, because then you are not asking about why the Super rich are paying less tax than you.

seeker..I would think it pisses her off that other people seem to have more, despite not actively doing anything for it, whilest they work?

Sorry should have been you're poncing, not your!

It does really bug me when people lie to defraud the system though. Including claiming singly when they have a partner they 'claim' is not living with them.

oh, yes, all single mothers should be punished by living in abject poverty and forced to do community service.

god forbid they have any quality of life, much less more disposable income than a rat.

want to swap their life for yours then?

oh but this place is full of wasters, terrorists, immigrants, etc.

here we go again.

[rolls eyes]

Ah but that's it "seem". She doesn't know.