Do you agree with these benefits?

[Sophieleigh26]

Do you think the amount people get in benefits (before deductions like earnings) is the right amount, or it should be more / less?

MONTHLY AMOUNT
Single & under 25 £265.31
Single & over 25 £334.91
Couple both under 25 £416.45
Couple over 25 £525.72

£244.58 extra allowance for children (up to 2 children)

A single parent not working (24) with one child (1) would receive £509.89 a month, before deductions (loans, debt etc)

obviously these are just summaries and there are different rules if you have children born before 2017, for example, or disabilities, childcare costs.

YABU - It seems ok / right
YANBU - It should be more / less

@MoCaine
Chimney??
Jumping on someone's post...
Really shouldn't judge others by your own thoughts...
At least have the balls to put it under your own name.

Considering that I am, as I stated, the appointee for my mums finances and deal with all things financial, yes, I do know what things cost her.

And you also state that disability benefits aren't what I think they are. Did you miss where I said I was the appointee for my mother? Do you know what that is? It is where I have responsibility for all her DWP benefits, they get paid into my account (I have a separate account for this, but in my name) and this account both receives all of her monthly benefits and pays out all of her monthly expenses, bills, rent etc. I could tell you down to the last penny what my mother receives in benefits monthly. So I not sure where you're getting that I don't know how much disability benefits are.

You do know that all disabilities are different though, surely? You say that it is expensive being disabled...it entirely depends on what your disability is and what care needs that disability requires. My mum doesn't require any of the adaptations that you have listed, she has a manual wheelchair and zimmer provided by the NHS occupational therapy service. Other than that, there isn't anything else she needs to pay for in regards to her disability. Every disability is different, which I'm surprised that you don't seem aware of and are just lumping everyone in together, being that you say you are disabled.

Ergo, you're saying hat disability benefits are generous based on one experience.. I know people who are in debt because of their disability. I've got a friend who had to crowfund for equipment for her child's disability equipment. So much stuff isn't available on the NHS.

Your moter's disability is her. Just because she supposedly gets a load of money that she doesn't need, doesn't mean it's the same for the rest of us.

Not sure how the vote is going to pan out given that options @Sophieleigh26 given that YANBU is for both it should be more or it should be less

Wrong. I did not say disability benefits are all generous, I was talking about my mums specific situation. If I did say that, please show me where. There are different amounts, higher rate, lower rate. There are mobility elements and care elements. One person may get all, one may get some. They are all different, as are peoples care needs. As I said.

Don't assume that everyone has the same care needs or other requirements that you do and that everyone on disability benefits are poor because of them. Its very disingenuous to pretend that they are. They're not. Just as everyone on disability benefits aren't raking it in. They aren't. They are all individual, as are peoples disabilities. But for people getting high rate everything on disability benefits, and not a lot of outgoings, which many folk don't, they are generous.

To add - there is also no "supposedly" about how much disability benefits can add up to. They are all published online on the gov website.

The 5 week wait should in theory be covered by the last payment of wages. The idea is that it mimics the way workers are paid, ie in arrears.

Four weeks would be ideal but the month is used to assess what the claimant's income and rent are for that period and then there's a week to do the physical process of getting the payment actioned.

The difficulty comes when people are in dispute with former employers and haven't received that last wages, or when they've delayed making a claim.

😂😂 this little anecdote has been doing the rounds on Twitter since forever!

Pray do tell what your recruiter neice does other than sit on her arse making the odd phone call ? @Crumpleton

My Niece worked
Pray@AuntSalli ....obviously didn't notice...or didn't want to, where I said worked...as in once worked...
But at least she was sitting on her arse on the end of the phone trying to give people the opportunity to find a job earning/paying tax contributions to those that couldn't be arsed.

@Crumpleton hardly a contribution to society though is it ? Same shit different bucket, same money circulating pointlessly.
Your niece had more in common with her candidate than she might like to admit to.

Assuming the cool story happened of course.

I can believe that @Crumpleton

I work in recruitment myself and have done for the last 3 years. Whilst it doesn't happen often I have spoken to people who told me that they were on UC and had only applied to please the job centre. They weren't actually interested in the position because it was too far to travel etc.

@AuntSalli..
Oh it happened...and as a pp pointed out still does...

Can't believe your attitude of how much someone contributes in tax it's better than nothing...
She made a choice to work and while it didn't pay brilliantly she was working and paying her way. It's a pity more didn't have that mind set.

Even if benefits are not going up in line with inflation (common...not even wages are), there seem to be a lot of extra benefits going round (at least in scotland) people on benefits get help with rent, childcare, extra help to buy healthy food, uniform money, free school meals or vouchers when kids on holiday, now a new Scottish child payment of £100 every 4 weeks per kid, a "double bridging payment in December" of nearly £300, extra money for energy costs. Tbh it does not feel like we are much better off working full time, because we qualify to zero help, so I can understand giving kids a more even start but for working parents, the constant stress, and being so time poor does not pay. Our wages are not going up in line wirh inflation, everything else is going up and it's just a constant rat race.

@oviraptor21 what you are forgetting is that the 5 week wait switch over to UC doesn't work in reality. Tax credits immediately stop so that leaves you with the same weekly expenses to pay from your last part time wage.

The biggest flaw on UC is that your childcare has to be paid upfront out of your own pocket and then you still have to wait 4 weeks to claim some of it back.

All of the above are also for people on low wages .

The amounts are fine to me. Want more money, get a job/better paying job. I’ve just gone up a band at work purely because I wanted more money, is that so difficult to understand? Why should I have to earn it but other people just expect a handout and get resentful when they consider it’s not enough.

There is a group not mentioned in the OP that are also just on £334 per month, and that is people are unfit for work, but might be fit at some point. Some people in this group are in it for years. Getting a job/better paid one is not an option.
Why do you think that is acceptable?

What do carers do? They can't get a job.

they don’t appear particularly generous but I guess looking at some peoples wages after their mortgage / rent / council tax have gone out will be left with a similar amount.

My parents worked until they were 40 and 48yrs old. After that they were both on disability benefits, my dad was on DLA etc due to a lung disease but my mums wasn’t as much as she got some sickness benefit but not the one that’s for people with more serious illness / disabilities. They never struggled on them, maybe because their mortgage was fairly low, or maybe as my mum was quite frugal but my mums got over 60k saved so they aren’t too bad. Once they got to pension age a small company pension was paid but most was disability benefits. This isn’t bashing them or anyone else on benefits, been there myself as I was a teenage mum, come full circle now as a higher tax payer.

They are too low, and an awful lot of claimants living in private rentals have to pay some of that to top up their rent, because local housing allowances are far too low and haven't gone up for some time.

And the benefit cap is far too low.

I think benefits need to be talked about in relation to how much someone would have to earn in salary to get the same take home ‘pay’. The equivalent pre tax and NI value of free school meals, any rent paid, council tax discounts and so on need to be taken into account.

@Littlebluedinosaur so you favour the race to the bottom then.
Wages and benefits both need to rise, but our government and its economic incompetence has well and truly put paid to that.

how can your parents be on means tested benefits and have 60k savings

Because some of it wasn’t means tested and they didn’t always have 60k in savings. They had under the threshold when they first started claiming. But all their benefits were above board, any savings disclosed.