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.

"a sliding scale whereby larger corporations should have their minimum wage set higher than small or new businesses. This should happen with employer's national insurance contributions as well."

What silliness.

The employees of the small employer are just as costly as the employees of the multinational. They have the same entitlements to healthcare and pensions too.

Having employees means obligations.

And also, some areas where employment tends to be concentrated have much higher costs of living.

Sorry, not read the whole thing... it is epic!

I am a single mum. I claim benefits. I can NOT work as I can only earn £20 before they take money OFF me for going out the house.

I am not able to get full-time work as I have a young child who needs caring for.

I have a £550 overdraft - I am at £-530 at present; I have Christmas to find money for yet (never mind the food for the week and money for the electric.)

Yes, clearly you are much better off on benefits.

Wake up and smell the bloody roses will you - uou don't know how good you have it.

It wasn't eloquence susiebuiscuit just copying and pasting from oneparentfamilies.org

and still, No one has answered my question re child poverty stats who's in the 'single parents what loaded proveliged lives they lead' camp. Apart from the people who gave anecdotal evidence of people they know what are comitting benifits fraud which is a different kettle of fish entirely, and a person living with a partner and claiming to be single isn't actually a single parent 'y know , they are just posing as one and are actually a two parent family with two people to share the childcare,bills ect ect so can't actually count as 'rich single parents' more as 'cohabiting couple committing fraud'

YOU not uou (obviously!)

wow LFBAH 'Wake up and smell the bloody roses will you - uou don't know how good you have it'.

So people shouldn't pass judgment on mums claiming benefits but you can pass judgment on those who work? Okay!

I just want to make an observation, not a complaint, going back to Colditz's figures. A single mother of one would have £218 a week left after rent and council tax if she worked 16 hours a week. I work 37 hours a week in a professional public sector job, we currently rent a 2 bedroom house privately and I don't have nearly that amount left after rent and council tax. We're not entitled to state help other than CTC and I support my DH, who's a SAHD, as well as myself and DS. DH is trying to find suitable work to supplement, but as there is no childcare locally available at the moment this is proving difficult.

Having said that, I wouldn't swap with that single mum because I am very glad to be happily married and have help with DS. But it still seems a strange paradox IMO.

A single mother of two would have that figure.

And your husband could as easily get full time work as that single mother.

Can I ask, are you in a high housing cost area? Because I think working people who are have far more cause for complaint, as they may be genuinely worse off because of the cost of housing.

Ah OK, missed that. But no DH can't get full time work because there is zero childcare available until the middle of next year.
Like I said, I'm not complaining just observing, but I clearly should have found your post again to double check the figures - sorry. I'm not begrudging that single mum her money, because god knows I know that amount is difficult to live on and I doubt anyone could manage on much less.

But twinklemegan are you in one of those shitey situations where you would be entitiled to state help if you worked 16 hours too rather than 37? If the single mum of one worked 37 hours also would she also be in the same position as you of being worse off because of earing too much to get state help? also are you taking into account that the single mum would be paying childcare out of her £218 where as your partner is doing the childcare?

Well I didn't think so, but the cheapest rent we could find was £500 a month and that's 45 miles away from my work so I have to commute every day on the train. So as you can imagine we have absolutely no disposable income. However, I am genuinely not complaining because we moved to this area by choice, but I wouldn't say it's a traditionally high cost area although it is becoming so. There is a very limited rental market though which makes things more difficult.

No it's ok, I did post a LOT of figures ... but if there is no childcare, that also means there is no childcare for that single mum, right?

The thing is I (and most of us here) haven't always been a single mum, I was part of a low earning duel income couple, and I hated that other people seemed to be having just as good a time as us without working ... but the fact is, it was easier then than it is now.

When I work again, I will defend single mums to the hilt, because every issue with childcare, they have it too, with the add on that they are the ONLY person who can stay off when baby is sick, the ONLY one to do pick ups and drop offs, and the ONLY one to do all the chores when they get home, the ONLY one to do the homework, the washing, the lines for the school play etc - the work load really is doubled. There are only so many hours in the day. When you work and have one staying home, you have a lot of the donkey work done for you ... when it's just you on your own, there's no donkey

'Well I didn't think so, but the cheapest rent we could find was £500 a month and that's 45 miles away from my work so I have to commute every day on the train. So as you can imagine we have absolutely no disposable income. However, I am genuinely not complaining because we moved to this area by choice, but I wouldn't say it's a traditionally high cost area although it is becoming so. There is a very limited rental market though which makes things more difficult. '

That pretty much sums up the problems of coming off benefits in a nutshell.

And the problems of being a working poor as well.

Yet NO ONE in government seems truly, genuinely interested in doing something about high housing costs in this country or about tenancy laws.

Because the middle classes and upper classes aer getting very rich from it.

Also something to take into account is that plenty of the single mums on benifits are struggling with the problems of living in a high cost area too, if they can't get council accomodation, which is difficult because demand outstrips availability, she will have to privately rent, if she lives in a high housing cost area her HB won't cover the cost of renting, and she will have to make up the difference from her IS/CTC (and also find a landlord who takes on HB people how often do you see 'no DSS' in rental adverts)

SB - we would certainly be better off if we each worked 16 hours a week rather than me working full time. But things don't work that way - for one thing there is no part time work in my career and my husband's old career involved long periods working away from home interspersed with periods of unemployment - not ideal for arranging childcare as you might imagine.

I haven't worked out how we would be financially if I packed in my job and we both found part time jobs locally (which would be minimum wage) but I think we would both go mad which wouldn't exactly improve our lives!

So much of this is down to lifestyle choices and expectations and to be frank as we can just about afford the basics I don't think we should get state help. But there do seem to be a lot of anomalies in the system.

childcare around here is almost impossible to find. when i was on benefit i still paid for my dd to do one day at her private nursery just to keep the place open, that's how desperate it was. i paid this out of my benefit. i also went to college while i was looking for another job.

SB - tbh I'm amazed ANYONE on benefits manages to rent privately. No pets, no DSS, no bl**dy children fgs!!

There are blips, it's not always fair.

Nightowl - before we moved we were doing the same with a private nursery while DH looked for work. Even so there was no guarantee of being able to increase the days when DH found a job, so in the end the job he found fell through. It's cr*p isn't it?

'SB - tbh I'm amazed ANYONE on benefits manages to rent privately. No pets, no DSS, no bl**dy children fgs!! '

On top of getting a 2 month eviction notice at any time after your 6 months are up.

The only way round here to rent privately on benefits it to have a guarentuer (sp) who owns their own house ... who will promise to pay the rent if the tenant doesn't.

How many peole could you approach to ask to promise to pay your rent if you don't ? I couldn't ask anyone!