£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?

@Helendee

At least you get to keep some of the maintenance payment, when I was a single parent in the mid-nineties every penny received in maintenance was deducted from your income support as it was then known.

Yes, I remember that. My ex left his job purposely so he wouldn't have to pay me then said he'd give me a pound a week (never did) which automatically came off my IS. It was really hard!

[quote JasonMomoasgirlfriend]@iamtheoneandonlyyy yeh sorry I didn't actually know this. I thought if there's a process in place it would be followed. So apologies to the way I have worded previous posts.[/quote]
I appreciate that, thank you. It's a terrible system

Just to clarify: no I'm not currently working for reasons I won't bother going in to in any detail except to say ongoing domestic abuse and the needs of dc as a result of that. Hopefully I'll be back working in the next 6-12 months. Before needing to be on UC I was a health care professional and have several extra qualifications in my field. Sadly, circumstances meant I had to give that up.

I'm not moaning that I didn't get the extra, I just find it contemptible that the government claim to be helping but what they are giving is being deducted from families like mine.

@JasonMomoasgirlfriend

I did *@Maverickess* but the bit I don't get is why they aren't enforcing it. What's to gain from taking no action?

I wish I knew!

They told me that there was no point chasing him basically, as it wasn't in anyone's involved best interests or similar (was a few years ago now).

I can only assume the pursuit of these debts and all that's involved would cost more than the tax credits I had instead, so it's the cheapest option.
The system is slow and clunky at best and maybe it's just not worth it on a wider scale to spend more money chasing these clowns than just paying an amount to a single parent.
The annoying thing is, if he'd paid his share, I wouldn't have needed tax credits for most of my parenthood. I'd have still been entitled to it though because even the government acknowledge that the system doesn't work to make absent parents pay and therefore maintenance isn't counted in many benefits entitlement (I think, I've never been in the position to test that!)

He moved job and address fairly regularly, the only time I got anything at all was when he claimed benefits.

Is why is lie when they say they want to help domestic abuse and stop murders. They cut money so can't survive without abuser and even less chance of safe home cos even less landlords will accept benefits.

Just to be clear that the benefit cap doesn't apply to people to women fleeing domestic abuse.

See below from government.uk

1. Benefit cap

Housing support for exempt accommodation will be excluded from the calculation of the benefit cap for victims for domestic violence and abuse.

Examples of exempt accommodation include:

refuges
hostels
managed properties
The accommodation must be provided by a county council, housing association, registered charity or voluntary organisation and you must be provided with care, support or supervision

It does apply if you are not in exempt accommodation, which most fleeing DV are not.

@TurnUpTurnip

Cms don’t enforce anything, my ex didn’t pay child maintenance for 3 years because he wasn’t working or claiming benefits, child maintenance service told me they wouldn’t “enforce” Anything at all because he could be living off a partner 😑

Yes, same here. Not working and not claiming benefits => no maintenance => nothing to enforce. Independently wealthy, but the CMS is not interested and the court wasn't interested either - he's not required to pay child support out of capital resources.

@Maverickess yes it sounds like a vicious cycle. :(

what annoys the fuck out of me, is that a person can work full time at the likes of Tesco, and still need help from the Government!

@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?

How can the government say they are helping when they aren't at all?

The benefit cap (if you are outside London) is £20,000 and does not apply if you work. They government can say they are helping, because they are helping to the tune of £20k a year.

@JasonMomoasgirlfriend

So does that mean then that he doesn't claim anything to get out of paying for his kid(s)?

Most probably not entitled to claim because he's working, but working cash in hand and paying no tax and not on anybody's radar, so officially nothing to take CMS payments from. CMS don't care about his potential tax evasion so that goes uninvestigated.

Government agencies don't do their job properly because they have a budget and want to spend as little of it as possible in each individual case (they claim the budget they have isn't enough for the job they have to do, so it's impossible to give everyone what they're entitled to). Hence the people that work there not following the law, not doing their individual jobs properly because their bosses are telling them to do things a different way or leave that part off etc.

Staff don't challenge it because
a) they want to keep their job and don't want to be seen as the trouble maker telling their bosses that what they're being asked to do isn't legal
b) they're going to be paid their wages whether they do what their bosses say or whether they kick up a fuss about things not being done properly and people take the option that's best for them ie an easy working life doing as they're told and getting along with bosses and colleagues
c) people don't assume their bosses or company is lying and go investigating, they believe what they're being told by their employer and presume the customer is lying
d) people who work in government agencies are people like everyone else and some percentage think all benefits claimants are scroungers so they're disinclined to go do anything extra (like sticking up for a client with their bosses) to help.

The government is providing families in need, who are not working or disabled, £20 000 a year. That is definitely helping.

It may not be sufficient, but that's a separate argument.

However, there is a welfare safety net in this country and its up to £20, 000.

@donttrustanyoneever

Is why is lie when they say they want to help domestic abuse and stop murders. They cut money so can't survive without abuser and even less chance of safe home cos even less landlords will accept benefits.

If you're homeless due to DV either because he's thrown you out or because you've left to avoid abuse, you'll be entitled to go down the homelessness route with local council who will help you find housing which may be through them or through private landlord that accepts benefit tenants. If you're disabled you'll be especially high priority for housing and also entitled to all sorts of benefits to live on once you've left him and you're single. Some of the benefits can be claimed even if you're working. The help is there but you need to engage with it.

The help may be the greatest or as good as it could be.

But there is help.

And saying that there is no help doesn't assist people to make decisions

Are some posters being deliberately obtuse
When I say helping, I mean the £20 a we help, not the welfare system as a whole.

But the government won a general election landslide less than two years ago including a platform of the current benefit system.

Therefore voters are arguably happy with the current system

That’s a very myopic way to look at it. People vote for candidates because on balance, that candidate represents them, whether that is personally or on party lines. It is rare that a party’s entire manifesto appeals to an individual, they are more likely to pick two or three things they are looking for and most likely it is for the two or three that the party or candidate shouts about most. Last time the most shouty things were Brexit, money for the NHS and immigration controls. Nothing about benefits in the manifesto, but they did claim they wouldn’t raise tax or NI.

It is also telling that with all the noise about the 20 quid, nobody is talking about the shameful proposed removal of support for disabled people. These are people the Tories have fucked over every time they are in power but nobody bats an eyelid at that.

Are people on UC getting 20k pa on average a year?

I suspect it’s much lower than that.

Judging by this link www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/benefits/universal-credit/how-much-is-universal-credit
a family of 4 will get £1028 a month but some housing and C/tax costs will come out of that depending on circumstances.

As a rich country folk should be able to have a basic standard of living at minimum. We know that’s not universal due to the number of food banks alone.

I think Labour provided a bit too much in benefit, but it seems to me that the past decades cuts have been too deep.

The government is providing families in need, who are not working or disabled, £20 000 a year. That is definitely helping.

Those on disability benefits are not subject to the cap. The fact you think they are, and that seems ok to you, shows how far removed you are from real life.

I think it's a real shame that this to be stopped. Living costs have gone up since the uplift started- fuel, food, gas and electric, council tax, water rates, childcare. That's your £20 a week wiped out.

People suggesting the op makes sure she gets the right maintenance. Have they never met an asshole before? They don't pay it.

Err my exact sentence said that families who are disabled or working are NOT subject to the cap.

Yes I get the worry.

Still, I wonder how the rest of us three million people with disabilities manageed.

We didn't get the twenty pound uplift.

Doesn't seem to make the news.

There is a court case in November had been postponed as we have been discriminated against and quite frankly shat on by the government. And no one noticed or even cared.

@drpaddington

I think it's a real shame that this to be stopped. Living costs have gone up since the uplift started- fuel, food, gas and electric, council tax, water rates, childcare. That's your £20 a week wiped out.

To maintain the £20 uplift would require one of the below: Doubling the National Insurance rise Putting 1.25% on every Income Tax band. Reducing the personal allowance by £1,600 Raising VAT by 2.5%

Which one of those would you choose and if you did would you rather the UC uplift was retained, or that money went into healthcare, social care, education, policing?