Benefits

[Shasha17]

Posting for traffic!

I am an expat and just really don't understand benefits at all and have no idea of how much people get (I moved pretty much right after uni and my kids were born abroad so never really was entitled to them).

One of my good friends here is planning to move back to the UK with her two children. She has been living abroad for a few years but is British. She wants to claim benefits until she gets herself sorted with a job and we have just used a gov.uk benefits calculator and it tells her she can get almost £1700 a month 😳 This can't be right, can it? It seems like a awful lot more than we were expecting! She filled in her details accurately (twice!) and this is what it came up with. Is this an average sort of amount? I always assumed benefits like like, a third of this maximum!

(Please be kind, she's leaving due to a very sensitive situation and needs to leave urgently so doesn't have time to find work etc first. But will get started with the job search when she's safely back.).

Op. For rentals your friend would need references and usually a deposit and a months rent up front so that's something to think about. Also a lot of places won't take people only on benefits.

We get some tax credits but it's always less than what the calculator says, we phoned up the last time as it was a significant difference and all they could say was that the calculator is an estimate only so it might not actually be that.

*It’s so hard people manage to have big fuck off tv’s, sky television, mobile phones and smoke like troopers.

I’m generalising of course, but this was frequently the situation with the people on benefits that I came across in my law enforcement career.*

Did it never occur to you that a great many of the people you saw with these tinsel luxuries were acquiring funds illegally, and THAT is why you tended to see them as part of your "law enforcement career "?

They used to teach a bit of critical thinking in the Met years ago. Perhaps they don't anymore. Also, a mobile phone is hardly a sign of wealth. The rickshaw drivers in Calcutta have mobile phones...!

@2020isnotbehaving

Water bills? Not in Uk cheap nothing same price anyone often higher if forced use pre paid meter for gas and electric that will cut you if run out credit.

@fournonblondes

I can’t believe people who live abroad for years can come back and get benefits. Anyway enjoy while last because this pretty sure is unsustainable.

Yeah this. ^ Shouldn't be allowed.

@LittleDandelionClock why did you pull the face at me saying people on benefit in UK dont get cheap/free water rates or any other bills? Please explain I’m
Disabled and live on benefits I must be doing something WRONG because I pay full price everything. Please explain how I’m wrong. (Stupid thing not let me quote myself)

A lot of pensioners would be thrilled with £1700 a month

It probably is true. And why the general public is so turned off the by welfare state when they have to work to earn that amount.

the absolute blueprint for these arseholes who come on here and passive aggressively berate anyone who’s not on a 6 figure income in a settled marriage for their poor life choices. Usually those posters are unemployed themselves, they are dependent on their husband. They forget he could meet someone else tomorrow and then they would be in need of the benefits they think are far too generous. Although they find out how little they will really get and are then up in arms about that, insisting they deserve more because they are superior beings.

[quote 2020isnotbehaving]@LittleDandelionClock why did you pull the face at me saying people on benefit in UK dont get cheap/free water rates or any other bills? Please explain I’m
Disabled and live on benefits I must be doing something WRONG because I pay full price everything. Please explain how I’m wrong. (Stupid thing not let me quote myself)[/quote]
I mentioned to you earlier in this thread that there is actually a reduction in water/ sewage rates for people on certain benefits or with a low income.

It's called Social Tariff, you need to apply to your Water Company . Similarly your gas/elec suppliers .. apply for Warm Home discount, £140 a year, can be credited to you.

Thank you never heard of social tariff for water I will defo check.

@sst1234

It probably is true. And why the general public is so turned off the by welfare state when they have to work to earn that amount.

Agreed. You shouldn't be able to pay nothing in whilst living abroad for years and then turn up and claim money workers have been paying in during that time. Welfare state is a joke sometimes.

You shouldn't be able to pay nothing in whilst living abroad for years and then turn up and claim money workers have been paying in during that time. Welfare state is a joke sometimes

So we leave our citizens abroad? In dire circumstances? Being abused, or on the streets because things didn’t turn out the way they hoped?

I’d suggest your friend phones DWP and explains her situation and see what they say. I’ve had dealings with them over the years for different things and found them really helpful each time.

As your friend has already done, checking rents for different areas is available online. There were changes in the law in the last 2-3 years so tenants shouldn’t pay so many upfront charges. This info is available online.

@Nonamenoplacetogo

I returned from abroad a few years ago- I could not apply for child benefit etc until I had a job, had been back for 6 months (I think!) and had passed the habitual residence test. It’s a long slog but good luck to your friend. The best advice would be to get a job (anything) ASAP once she is back

Child benefit has slightly different rules.

To a PP - Why would a British Citizen returning to the UK not deserve benefits? What a bizarre attitude. Let's just abandon them eh?

I'd be wary of trusting DWP advisers as they have been known to give out incorrect advice - and usually aimed at putting off potential claimants.

@thereisonlyoneofme

A lot of pensioners would be thrilled with £1700 a month

The 1700 includes money for children. State pension (perhaos with pension credit top up) is £180pw (780pm) Rent say 700pm for somewhere in the south east, paid by housing benefit) takes up to 1480 - not far off the 1700 and no children involved.

@MadameGazellee I'm so sorry to hear about your friend, I hope she makes it back to the UK safely and is able to rebuild her life. Having great support in you and your DH will I'm sure mean the world to her. Having read you post a bit late in the day to offer anything new all I would say is if you had started with have a friend living abroad in a desperate abusive situation needing help to return to the UK and having looked at the benefits system you think she'll be entitled to x,y,z and is that correct you might have found yourself with very different reply's. You focused on how much she could claim rather than her circumstances so in fairness to some of those whose comments were unhelpful, I don't think things came across as they should have done. As a long term expat I'm also well aware of a lack of understanding from others who have no knowledge of what it's like to live away from wherever home is and how it's perceived we all live charmed lives without a care in the world when the reality can be quite different so again some of the responses are understandable.