£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?

@FlatteredFool I've written to our MP saying that UC needs to be reviewed in line with the increases in basic living costs. Even though he's a Tory I know he's very well aware of the difficulties many people have here

I really feel for all families affected by this, couldn’t be a worse time, given price increases, fuel on the rise, huge increase in energy costs. I really can’t see how families that are already struggling are going to manage.

These threads are so pointless.

Some people on UC manage just fine. Others claim they are struggling significantly.

Each situation is totally different. Some have debts to pay. Some accrued through carelessness, some through by fault.

Some will have to pay quite a bit more over their HB allocation. Because they live in a more expensive area, so every % increase is slot more in ££. Some because they want a nicer place in a mixer area ose to good schools, so do so as a choice. Others will opt to go for not so nice area and house but have more disposable income.

Some will have 1 or even 2 cars. Some will have a surely no option but to do so, others will do for the convenience.

On and on which add to do many different reasons why some struggle and some don't.

@JasonMomoasgirlfriend

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

Oh my god, that hadn't occurred to any of us Thank you, game changer 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

@GetDrunkWithMe

Well you should be making sure you get what maintenance you should be getting, via csa. That's not the governments fault. The £20 was temporary. Everyone knew this. Yes UC is ridiculously low, but I don't know why everyone's still complaining when it's been explained over a million times.

Same applies to you, nobody had thought of that

@GetDrunkWithMe done all that, chased every Avenue. Do continue to tell the mums doing their best where they're going wrong
I've read some tripe on here before but my God this is some of the worst

So you'll point out the CSA comment but not the bit about contacting your MPs and actually trying to do something about the £20 being removed, says it all.

@GetDrunkWithMe

So you'll point out the CSA comment but not the bit about contacting your MPs and actually trying to do something about the £20 being removed, says it all.

I literally said I've done that. I said I've tried all of those avenues

The point is this situation is different for everybody in it. There isn't a black and white resolution because there are so many variables in every case.
Sorry for ranting on your post OP, I'm just surprised that there are so many hard of thinking or hard of comprehending people commenting.
Good luck to everyone that's doing their best, particularly with the odds so bloody stacked against them 💪🏻

@JasonMomoasgirlfriend

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

Maybe you should have a long hard look at yourself. Disgusting comment when you don’t know the circumstances. Some people like you are just disgusting for your vile comments

The benefit cap is £20k a year so you were getting at least that and you are complaining. That is the equivalent wage of someone earning £25k per year before tax. You do realise that this is money many people are paying in tax to provide you with £20k per year, tax free and without having to earn it?

Also, millions of people in work didn't get £20 per week extra wage from their employers, yet they were also subject to rising prices. Everyone is suffering. Be grateful there is a welfare state, even if it is imperfect.

I bet you really are a lonely apple ^^

@lonelyapple

The benefit cap is £20k a year so you were getting at least that and you are complaining. That is the equivalent wage of someone earning £25k per year before tax. You do realise that this is money many people are paying in tax to provide you with £20k per year, tax free and without having to earn it?

Also, millions of people in work didn't get £20 per week extra wage from their employers, yet they were also subject to rising prices. Everyone is suffering. Be grateful there is a welfare state, even if it is imperfect.

£25000 a year is nowhere near enough to raise a family in a lot of areas of the UK, especially if you're paying for additional things like childcare.

Your comments are incredibly ignorant.

Without having to earn it!!!! Oh my goodness all the village idiots are out today!! The op works love so off you pop with your stupid comments

@FlatteredFool My point was that the government were claiming they were giving extra help but actually it was taken straight back via the benefit cap so I didn't actually get it.
The government were aiming to give working people on top up benefits whose income may have been affected by Covid due to reduced hours, some extra financial support. That’s why it was UC and working tax credits only and not income support JSA or child tax credits.
The fact that some UC claimants who did not work, but were under the benefit cap amount received the £20 was unavoidable due the way the UC computer systems work.
Am not saying I agree with the above, just trying to explain the governments logic.

The uplift has covered the rise in prices for utilities and food for most I know and they've not gone down in price but up.

But that’s not what it was brought in for, was it?

As I understood, it was brought in to cover the additional costs of lockdown, and to help with the fact some were losing money on furlough or through job losses. Those issues have gone away so it makes sense to remove it.

The question on whether UC was ever enough is a different one, as is whether it should be raised in order to deal with the other issues happening now. I’m still unclear what the overall cost to the treasury of the £20 raise is, but I’m willing to bet it is small in the scheme of things. I’d be happy to see more done to help families in crisis. However, wasn’t the whole thing about benefit levels that it shouldn’t be that benefits paid more than working? Unfortunately the government only went half way to solving the problem by reducing the benefit. What they should also have done it raised the minimum wage so that the government wasn’t subsidising companies, protecting profits by topping up benefits instead of forcing companies to pay a wage which people could afford to live on.

The benefit cap is £23000 a year in London, and £20000 a year outside London.

The uplift didn't apply to legacy benefits or to households subject to the benefit cap, because the cap remained in place.

@BoredZelda
My point exactly in my post.

All well and good them lowering the extra benefits but they need to raise the living and minimum wage to real times

Since April my council tax went up by £10 a month,rent by £11 a month,gas by £7,electric by £37,water by£12 and my food budget has crept up by £100 more a month.

I also now have £80 a month travel for one of my dc so over £250 a month but no wages have increased and will be going down soon with the national insurance increase.

Fuel was around £150 a month between us and is now around £200 so that's yet another £50. So altogether £300 a month more since April and we've just started the winter so my heating will either go up again or we will be cold.

We already shop to a strict list and no treats are added. How shit is that for a family where we BOTH work yet things are getting tighter all the time?

It's fucking depressing so imagine what it's like for those losing over £80 a month but with extra bills and inflation?

We both work full time and are currently both doing side jobs to try and earn some extra to cover Xmas ,an emergency fund that got wiped out during lockdown and for a repair my car needs but we don't have the money for.

It's the worst it's been since we were a one wage family 8 years ago so I really feel
For those that are scraping by

What a state for our country to get in

@JasonMomoasgirlfriend

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

Oh please do enlighten us how the OP can ensure this when the father obviously can't be arsed. Your comment is unhelpful and ignorant as are a lot of the comments on here.

To remove the £20 a week top up when everything is rising in price is imo bloody inhumane.
Wouldn't expect anything more though from Boris and his gang all having "the time of their life"
Makes my blood boil.

@Rooroobear

Without having to earn it!!!! Oh my goodness all the village idiots are out today!! The op works love so off you pop with your stupid comments

OP hasn't said she works? And if she does she isn't subject to the benefit cap?

@Thedogscollar Enforcement of non-payment of child maintenance.

The uplift wasn't put in place to cover the rising food or energy bills that's happening right now.

get Universal Credit and you and your partner earn £617 or more a month combined, after tax and National Insurance contributions.

So basically if you work 16 hours per week at minimum wage then the cap doesn't apply.

The cap also doesn't apply if someone is disabled and unable to work.

[quote JasonMomoasgirlfriend]@Thedogscollar Enforcement of non-payment of child maintenance.

The uplift wasn't put in place to cover the rising food or energy bills that's happening right now.[/quote]
Oh my good god 🤦🏻‍♀️I'll get the lads round and sort that out then
Ffs, this may come as a shock... we are all aware of all these things and they aren't working.

JasonMomoasgirlfriend

@Thedogscollar Enforcement of non-payment of child maintenance.

The uplift wasn't put in place to cover the rising food or energy bills that's happening right now.“

Aw, you’re all heart, aren’t you?

If people were struggling even with the £20 uplift, how do you imagine they’re going to manage now with rising costs?