£20 per week Universal credit changes

[FlatteredFool]

I've been worrying about the £20 a week extra stopping for a while although I can't say I noticed an increase in the amount I was given. Today I've looked at the breakdown of the benefit and discovered that the extra was taken off me anyway due to the benefit cap. If I didn't get child maintenance, not that he pays the right amount, then I'd be scraping by at best. The benefit cap takes £380 a month off. During the top up times it was £460. So the actual amount I get hasn't changed. How can the government say they are helping when they aren't at all?

Wow the comments on here “your rent is paid, your council tax is paid” the absolute ignorance of some women on here!! Disgusting. No the rent and council tax is not paid, it is helped with not fully paid. How lovely it must be up there above all us lowly universal credit peasants. I work and I work hard I still pay rent and a lot of council tax. Get off your high horses!

People on full UC still have to pay money towards their rent and CT, well in London they do, and this isn't because of a spare bedroom.

gardeninggirl68

“Tesco/Asda/etc prices are the same all over“

They aren’t. Tesco Express/Metro (whatever it is) prices are a good 10 per cent. higher than the superstore. So I don’t shop there. I have that choice because I drive. Non-drivers on the adjacent estate don’t have that choice. The superstore is 4 miles away, off the M55. The nearest Asda/Morrison’s/Aldi/Lidl etc. are similar distances. The only other option is a Co-Op Local, with similarly higher prices.

Yes, there are some bus routes (though services are restricted atm due to driver shortage). I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t be able to manage a weekly shop for a family on the bus or to carry bags of shopping distances with arthritis.

Why should it be paid in full?

Do people not actually understand how much it would cost to cover council tax and rents?
It's just unfeasible to think if could be covered
Unless you're happy to pay a hell of a lot more in tax to cover it of course
Personally I think taxes will need to increase, there's just no way we can continue on the levels we pay at the moment but want more/better services or reduce the countries debt.
The Tories are trying to get more people to work and it may be a short term shit show but will benefit everyone long term

Nobody is suggesting rent and council tax should be paid in full.

Good

A lot of people on uc are in employment. Yes lots aren’t and people know how to play the system and they’re the ones that give everyone else claiming a bad name. It’s seen as shameful to claim benefits because we are seen as scrounges who don’t work and want money for nothing. This is not the case for most people and I, like lots of others work and claim as a top up. Stop making everyone feel like rubbish for claiming what we are entitled to to help us make ends meet.

I don’t get universal credit for various reasons (on the old system) so didn’t get the extra £20 but I can’t help but see how badly some families are going to be affected by the £20 cut. The rise in heating and food costs are going to leave many (and not just those entitled to benefits) having to make unpalatable decisions.

My Mother was brought up during the war (yes, I’m fairly old) and taught me well. I am the master of the Mumsnet chicken, however even I am struggling to make a week’s grocery money last a week and the extra jumpers and blankets are out already. I fear winter will be unkind to many.

Standard Tory government for you.... taking from the poor instead of the rich!

Why can't they tax the richest few a bit more (and they won't even notice the difference) rather than taking from the poorest who really will notice the difference?!

Ignorant and disgusting comments on here. I despair.

Some people on UC have a mortgage and get no help at all so stfu about housing benefit being paid. Council tax whilst reduced is also still payable.

If fathers are self employed they get away with playing the system and the CMS dont do anything - but don't let that get in the way slating single mothers ffs.

@Heckythump1

Standard Tory government for you.... taking from the poor instead of the rich!

Why can't they tax the richest few a bit more (and they won't even notice the difference) rather than taking from the poorest who really will notice the difference?!

This.

I still cannot believe they had EOTHO while voting to not feed kids.

Then. When forced to U-Turn a private company was allowed to siphon off profit by providing shameful packages.

With all that going on I cannot get upset about small UC increases when benefits have been cut over the past decade or so.

FYI - I’ve no skin in this game, never needed to claim benefits, but am aware if ‘life’ happened to me I’d rather have a decent safety net.

I’m not on UC but think the uplift should be left. The bit that annoys me is how they say just work an extra 2 hrs to get £20 on minimum wage on UC. No you don’t, you need to work nearly 6 hrs if you are on UC. Once you loose the 63p in every pound, pay tax and NI it’s nearer 6 hours extra you would need to work, not 2. The govt is clueless

We are lucky enough never to have needed universal credit.

One bit of me thinks - well people were always told it was only temporary so they can hardly be surprised when it goes away. They should have just saved it up for emergencies... but taht's the easy view the government want me to have.

The other part of me thinks - if I was in receipt of it I'd be utterly gutted at having it taken away. I know some people like the OP hit the benefit cap for whatever reason but for others they'll have adapted their spending to fit the exta and now have to cut it back again just as prices seem to be going up on everything.

I can see the argument that we can't keep spending extra for ever but also see how upsetting it must be for individuals and families affected. Horrible dilemma and the irony for the government is that if they'd never given it they'd never have been criticised for taking it away as they'd always planned.

The rich definitely need to be taxed more and corporate companies not paying tax...isn't Amazon/Starbucks etc all dodging tax here (legally). That kind of stuff is what needs to be targeted too.
How many offshore accounts were leaked in the pandora papers?!

I wrote to my MP about it and just got a big standard template reply about all the things the government are doing for us.

*bog standard

I live in Cornwall and costs of local transport to work is expensive, fuel gas and electricity costs have increased. Many of the own brands have disappeared during lockdown and choice of many items is limited. When budgeting for food many people aren't near to the cheaper supermarkets. Every time you see complaints about the upgrade being withdrawn you see comments about single parents etc. I look at it differently, have costs reduced since the upgrade was made? If people are in work and their wages increase as Boris says then there will be people who are no longer entitled to UC

I worked in a business that employed carers and many staff struggled financially.

My Mother was brought up during the war (yes, I’m fairly old) and taught me well. I am the master of the Mumsnet chicken, however even I am struggling to make a week’s grocery money last a week and the extra jumpers and blankets are out already. I fear winter will be unkind to many.“

Me too (mum born in October 1939, not ideal timing). We have a good income and have never received benefits. With our youngest at university though and eligible only for the lowest maintenance loan (because of our good income), there’s nothing spare at the end of the month. We are not profligate in any way.
I heard a statistic on radio 4 a week or so ago that made me go to iPlayer later and listen again because I couldn’t quite believe what I’d heard. When the welfare state was set up, benefit levels, that were felt to be the minimum people needed to survive on, were set at 20% of the median income. It’s now 12%.

I would very much like to know whether some of those on this thread who seemingly lack the imagination to picture themselves in the positions of others less fortunate than themselves believe they could survive on that paltry amount.

(Anticipating the of course they could, people should live within their means, responses.
Repeat, 12% of median income. No, you could not).

@gardeninggirl68 Your rent and council tax isn’t paid in full. It depends on where you live. There are parts of the SE where rents and council tax are so high that UC covers only a portion of it.

I don’t claim UC myself but know from others who do.

*Your rent is paid?
Same with council tax?
Tesco/Asda/etc prices are the same all over
As are gas/elec/water

What's so much higher that it's so much worse for you?*

@gardeninggirl68

You clearly have NO idea how UC works or how little people get.

I have a client who lost her job in the pandemic and has to claim.
She receives £946 a month now the uplift has been removed.

Her rent is £750.
So after paying that she has less than £200 a month for everything.
She pays her council tax (yes she has the single person discount) but she still has to pay it.
She has sold everything she possibly can, buys the cheapest food possible, doesn't have sky/an iPhone/car (sold the latter two)..

She's currently looking for a job, but no luck as of yet - despite applying for over 200 in the past 2 months.

Your disdain for those less fortunate is quite ugly.

@JasonMomoasgirlfriend

Maybe you need to ensure the father pays the correct amount for the children he chose to have.

Oh yeah, because that's something the mother can force him to do, even when the feckless wasters avoid the government agency set up to collect the maintenance.

I going to moan about not getting it anymore (whilst doing my best to keep our heads above water) as this last year has really shat on us as a family. I know I'm not in a unique situation but in the last year my husband's long standing health condition has become so bad that he cannot work. I am his carer now. Our youngest child has been discovered to have a disability too. We've gone from a family on a decent income with a token amount of UC , to a family that are coping on UC alone. My husband is fighting to get his pip entitlement sorted as apparently when you can't even put your socks on independently you're still not disabled enough for it. That £85 pm has been a lifeline for us. It's meant we can eat and pay our energy bill.

I'm sorry that some didn't get the uplift , but I'm sick of comments like some of those in this thread bitching about it. We very much need(ed) it as things have become a great shitting mess for us in the last 18 months.

Shop prices aren't the same all over. Sainsbury's in my village is around 20 per item more expensive than in the small town 5 miles away.

The comments 'Why don't you ensure the father pays for the children you chose to have?' are so naive it is laughable. Why don't men WANT to pay for the DC? Why do they WANT their DC to go without? Why do women have to be the ones to ensure it?

My ex has never paid me a penny since we split up in 2014. The man would rather die than hand me cash to support his DC. The fact that posters can't think a thought and get to the end of the endless possibilities about why their thought might not work for some people is very worrying.

You've only just noticed that you didn't get the extra £80 a month which would suggest that you didn't need it, surely?