Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you to help me work this out?

724 replies

Lulu2021 · 16/10/2021 13:25

My head is a mess as I'm going through some relationship difficulties with a young baby and I'm trying to make sense of my entitlement to financial help.

I've done a UC calculation a few times but it comes out with an amount that i think is an overestimate.

My details are;

  • FT salary of £47,126, net monthly income £2,516 after deductions.
  • 2 DC (ages 15 years and 6 months) - no childcare costs for eldest, costs of £700 pm for youngest when I go back to work from mat leave.
  • child maintenance of £120 pm for the eldest child only.
  • private rented property
  • no other benefits claimed
  • no significant savings

It's telling me I'd be entitled to in the region of £650 pm as a single parent. Does this sound right? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lulu2021 · 16/10/2021 17:30

@Babyroobs

Now I'm confused re student loan.

The calculation @QuestionableDanceMoves did for me further up thread was based on a take home of 2700 because apparently they disregard student loan deductions and class this as my take home income? So it wouldn't be changing when it's paid off?

OP posts:
Musereader · 16/10/2021 17:30

@Babyroobs

That isn't quite right, uc do not take off the student loan when doing the calculations so it will not affect the UC when it stops being paid

Babyroobs · 16/10/2021 17:31

@Lulu2021

There is no upper limit for UC entitlement.

See I hadn't realised this before today. I'd always assumed my salary would be way above the cut off.

It's always worth checking and pretty easy to do the calculation yourself if you know your local housing allowance if private renting.
Original poster
Lulu2021 · 16/10/2021 17:31

@Babyroobs

Sorry I'm assuming student loan payments are recovered directly from earnings ? i have never had to pay student loan as was fortunate to have gone to Uni in the long gone days when people received grants, so not exactly sure how they are recovered?

Yes recovered directly from my pre tax salary.

OP posts:
Original poster
Lulu2021 · 16/10/2021 17:31

[quote Musereader]@Babyroobs

That isn't quite right, uc do not take off the student loan when doing the calculations so it will not affect the UC when it stops being paid[/quote]

Yes. This is what I was wondering ...

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 16/10/2021 17:32

[quote Musereader]@Babyroobs

That isn't quite right, uc do not take off the student loan when doing the calculations so it will not affect the UC when it stops being paid[/quote]
Ok so how is student loan repayed?

ohtwatbollocks · 16/10/2021 17:32

I have two children, yearly income in the house is £28000 and get £26 a month in tax credit, I get child benefits and nothing else...

ivykaty44 · 16/10/2021 17:33

My partner and 1 have a combined annual income of £34000. We get £6.49 a week in child tax credits

yet if I put in for a couple earning £14k and the other £20k and paying no childcare but £800 a month in rent - you'd be entitled to £83 a week U.C. £366 per month

thats living in my postcode - have you done a calculation on your own postcode?

Babyroobs · 16/10/2021 17:33

UC take net pay figures supplied to HMRC and use these to calculate.

ivykaty44 · 16/10/2021 17:34

@ohtwatbollocks and have you done the calculation to see what you'd get on U.C?

Doorhandleghost · 16/10/2021 17:34

Student loan deductions are taken from your net pay (after tax pension etc). It’s the same as if your employer were paying another debt like your monthly credit card bill on your behalf, hence UC don’t discount it from your income in the calculation (debt is not factored in to benefits).

Pea22ches · 16/10/2021 17:35

@SuperstoreFan

Because it mainly depends on childcare costs and rent.

We have childcare costs and we rent.

It's will be because they are TWO or you able to bring in an income. This thread is ridiculous.
You saying we.... I'm assuming you have a partner. Honestly some of you who are sitting so smugly need to hope they don't find themselves a single parent... karma is real
Doorhandleghost · 16/10/2021 17:36

Confirmed in this FOI response from DWP….

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/439851/response/1071946/attach/2/FoI%204509%20reply.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1

Babyroobs · 16/10/2021 17:36

@Doorhandleghost

Student loan deductions are taken from your net pay (after tax pension etc). It’s the same as if your employer were paying another debt like your monthly credit card bill on your behalf, hence UC don’t discount it from your income in the calculation (debt is not factored in to benefits).
Ok so Uc should stay the same after the loan is paid off then ? Sorry for the misinformation op.
Original poster
Lulu2021 · 16/10/2021 17:37

@Doorhandleghost

Student loan deductions are taken from your net pay (after tax pension etc). It’s the same as if your employer were paying another debt like your monthly credit card bill on your behalf, hence UC don’t discount it from your income in the calculation (debt is not factored in to benefits).

Very helpful, didn't know this. Thank you!

OP posts:
Original poster
Lulu2021 · 16/10/2021 17:38

@Babyroobs
No worries at all! It's a minefield...
I've learned a lot from some very lovely and helpful posters on here though so feel I understand it a bit better now!

OP posts:
LittleBirdy1 · 16/10/2021 17:39

@Lulu2021 my dh takes home slightly more take home pay than you £2680 and we do still get £766 in universal credit. I have 3 dc and rent from a ha so low rent of £550 for 3 bed property but have no child care costs as I stay at home. I hope that information is of so help to you as a comparison.

To work out you UC manually
(1) Take home pay-£293
(2) Than add up all your allowances, single adult over 25, 1 child born before 2017, additional child, rent and child care.
(3) Deduct the answer of step one from the answer of step to and that will be your monthly payment.

You can find the allowances for step 2 by googling universal credit elements

Briony123 · 16/10/2021 17:39

[quote Lulu2021]@Briony123

I'm a tax payer too and I've never not worked, my whole life. What's your point? Anything constructive to add? [/quote]
Would you be happy if you didn't receive UC but then your taxes were funding a family earning £58k a year?
That is my point.

ivykaty44 · 16/10/2021 17:39

yet if I put in for a couple earning £14k and the other £20k and paying no childcare but £800 a month in rent - you'd be entitled to £83 a week U.C. £366 per month

if you then both started paying £100 a month into a work pension, thus taken from your wages - your U.C would increase to £96 per week or £416 a month.

As above the U.C. is calculated on your net income not your gross and the pension would be taken out before income tax and NI contributions

Musereader · 16/10/2021 17:39

@Babyroobs

The student loan is paid out of the pay, but uc still count it as part of the income paid to you. UC only deduct the tax and national insurance and pension from your gross pay, they do not use your actual net pay,

In my case the pay they use for me is about 30 higher than what I get as I pay student loan, union fees, and club memberships that are ignored by UC so the calculation given previously is correct as it uses a pay of 2700 rather than the 2500 op gets, it may still be out if there are other deductions on there that are ignored and counted as pay

ablutiions · 16/10/2021 17:41

@FlemCandango Yes, what you said. Some people on here are so self righteous. The benefits system is there as a safety net, and warranted in this case.

Yes,the father should pay up, and he's a bastard, and yes he should be pursued. But that should be done by the relevant authority in parallel with the OP getting the support for her and her kids that she's entitled to.

Seriously people, where is the fucking sisterhood on here? A vulnerable woman asking for help, and half of you shit on her from a great height. Take a good look at yourselves.

OP , good luck with it all.

SuperstoreFan · 16/10/2021 17:41

It's will be because they are TWO or you able to bring in an income. This thread is ridiculous.
You saying we.... I'm assuming you have a partner. Honestly some of you who are sitting so smugly need to hope they don't find themselves a single parent... karma is real

It doesn't matter if there are two of us, the OP is earning more than us two.

Babyroobs · 16/10/2021 17:42

[quote Musereader]@Babyroobs

The student loan is paid out of the pay, but uc still count it as part of the income paid to you. UC only deduct the tax and national insurance and pension from your gross pay, they do not use your actual net pay,

In my case the pay they use for me is about 30 higher than what I get as I pay student loan, union fees, and club memberships that are ignored by UC so the calculation given previously is correct as it uses a pay of 2700 rather than the 2500 op gets, it may still be out if there are other deductions on there that are ignored and counted as pay[/quote]
Thanks for the explanation. It is a mine field as op says.

TedMullins · 16/10/2021 17:42

I want to apologise for my earlier post OP. I was very surprised you would be entitled to anything but I think the real scandal here is that your salary isn’t enough for you to raise your kids alone. Just highlights how we desperately need cheaper/free childcare and regulated housing costs. That isn’t your fault, it’s the society we live in.

Original poster
Lulu2021 · 16/10/2021 17:44

@Briony123

If I didnt have a financial need to receive UC and hadn't fallen on difficult times, and my taxes went towards any family - particularly any single mother - who was struggling and needed it; then no, I'd have absolutely no issue with that whatsoever. Because I have compassion and a fucking heart.

OP posts: