To think £800p/m is pretty generous?

[Cuppasoupmonster]

Off the back of the ‘trapped women’ thread, out of curiosity I used ‘Entitled To’ to find out what I could claim if I was a single mum of 2 primary aged kids with no savings and an ex who paid the minimum in maintenance. The hypothetical single mum earns 1,300 p/m and rents a property costing £900 p/m.

The calculator said the minimum she would be entitled to would be £800p/m, which in my view is about right. Yet I hear a lot that benefits are a pittance and had assumed that to be the case, but I was pleasantly surprised by the result.

Am I overlooking something? Not trying to be goady, I’m genuinely curious.

YABU = £800 isn’t enough in these circumstances
YANBU = £800 is about right or even generous

Your H earns under £50k so wouldn’t be taxed for CB.

your figures are talking about your take home as MORE money than in the example single mother.

the notional She doesn’t have the best part of your husband and his £3k per month coming in. She doesn’t own her own home so is at the mercy of a landlord who’s probably trying to put the rent up. Rent is more than a mortgage in many areas. And there is as others have pointed out the abject fear of whatever other shit life throws at you.

im not in the same situation I was when the Cameron govt came to power, but hearing the austerity they wanted to wage upon the poorly paid absolutely terrified me. I cried.

I see this same narrative as then now returning with people like you posting all over the place starting to stoke the demonisation of the powerless again.

well fuck you. Fuck you all. The problems our economy has started with those criminals in the city! Everyone knows that it was jobs for mates all over the place during covid. Billions were wasted, and then we get Liz’s madness that utterly broke the uk economy.

poor people can’t fix this mess. Poor people didn’t cause it. Rich people did and they’re fighting to keep as much of their wealth as they can. Poor people have got fuck all, and this debate stirs up hatred to try to take from them, because what are they going to do about it.

life on benefits isn’t easy. Low pay and benefits isn’t easy, the huge majority or recipients of housing benefits do work, but pay isn’t enough to cover the bills.

your thread is disingenuous.

you have zero fucking clue what it’s like to live in fear of a car tyre puncture or wondering how can you get to work on the little fuel you have.

I now live a life a million Miles from where I was 10 years ago, but I don’t forget what it was like. That fear is still something I recall very clearly.

Hi so, how much do you come out with in total?

Most claimants are working so it's not taking it off working people to give to those who aren't.

Even if they aren't chances are they've paid into the system previously before falling on hard times.

Benefits are a pittance for most people and are certainly not enough that people can be fed adequately and keep warm.

And this is all part of the reason partnering up with a family man and provider has worked and always will work, and why this should be encouraged.

you have zero fucking clue what it’s like to live in fear of a car tyre puncture or wondering how can you get to work on the little fuel you have.

Well I do because such unforeseen events have meant I am now already in my overdraft, 3 weeks from payday 🤷🏼‍♀️ living the high life and lording it over benefit claimants, me…

You have no idea what it's like to have to walk for an hour to work because you can't afford the bus fare.

You can definitely claim child benefit.
it’s done on individual income, not combined.
£50,000 works out £3,100 a month after tax, which you’re not reaching.
And even if you are liable for child benefit charge, still worth it as anything is more than nothing?

It does feel like nothing is ever enough for a small proportion of MN posters. If living on benefits gave you a very comfortable life, with money for holidays and treats and savings, then
nobody would work would they? They can’t seem to understand that benefits can’t let people live too comfortably otherwise there won’t be any taxpayers to provide them in the first place.

All the people on here who profess that they love working and they need it or would stare at a wall all day and their children would hate them being around the house all the time would still work, even if you gave them a million pounds a day in benefits.

We live on a similar amount for a family of 4, we manage ok, no holidays but we can afford to live a basic but happy life.

What we can't afford is like a previous poster said - when things go wrong like my car, it stays broken until I can scrape or borrow enough to get it fixed, that means I'm driving a car that probably shouldn't be on the road for at least a few weeks if not a few months.

Our Xbox broke 2 years ago, and with that our TV was useless (we would use the apps to watch TV via the Xbox), so for that time we've had no TV.

We got gifted some early inheritance recently which has ment we could get a little refurb TV, and a Preloved Xbox for Christmas, and fix my car. It feels like we're living rather luxuriously the last couple of weeks with not having to keep the food shop under X amount. It's given me a bit of a kick up the arse to get our income up more so that can hopefully become our norm.

No. It's a 9 month wait for a loan against your house and if you earn anything at all in those 9 months the wait starts again.

Its also only the interest paid so I got £123 for one month after waiting nearly 18 months on a mortgage of £800.

There are hundreds of thousands of UC claimants in this position and many/most lose their homes as there is no support available.

But carrying on ignoring facts as it doesn't fit your narrative.

For someone who started the thread claiming to have checked out on a whim how much she would be entitled to IF she were to get divorced, @Cuppasoupmonster is surprisingly well informed about UC etc.

I have about 3.5-4k a month including wages.

I'm as stunned as you are and this has not been a long-term thing. This time last year after rent I had about £150/week for the 3 of us.

I hadn’t claimed UC because everyone said how awful it was and frankly I couldn’t do 5 weeks with nothing at all.

Right now I’m using that to build up a buffer and do essential house stuff (eg we had no carpets). In the future I will try and future-proof us as much as possible for when hard times hit. Eg when I become bed-bound and my child reaches adulthood.

Would I swap our disabilities for a decent partner and my previous career? You betcha.

All I can say is that if you are in any doubt whatsoever and/or you’ve disabilities within the family - for the love of god put a claim in because you never know. Even if you’re awarded 0, the claim stays open for 6 months so if you’re hit with bad luck it’s there and ready to go.

You are better off than your hypothetical example in the OP. I have done the working to show that.

Your situation with 2 DC:
Standard element £525.72 (assuming over 25)
Child element £244.58 x2
Childcare element £510
Total = £1524.88

Earnings minus work allowance
£3900 - £573 = £3327

Earnings x 0.55 = Deduction
£3327 x 0.55 = £1829.85

Total allowed - earnings deductions = total UC for month
£1524.88 - £1829.85 = £0

So you would have £3900 earnings per month and £145 CB per 4 weeks. Total £4045.

Hypothetical situation:
Standard element £334.91 (assuming over 25)
First child element £290 (as both your hypothetical children are primary age one is likely to have been born before 6/4/17)
Second child £244.58
Rent element £400 (in reality could be more or less)
Childcare element £510
Total £1779.49

Earnings minus work allowance
£1300 - £344 = £956

Earnings x 0.55 = Deduction
£956 x 0.55 = £525.80

Total allowed - earnings deductions = total UC for month
£1779.49 - £525.80 = £1253.69

So the single parent would have £1300 earnings per month, £1253.69 UC per month and £145 CB per 4 weeks. Total £2698.69.

Onthebreadliw
you get 2 k a month in benefits and 420 child benefit .. and your dh turned a job down as it was less than benefits.. is this a wind up ?

are you fucking serious?

So it's the fault of the single mum for choosing a feckless man - if she'd just made better choices?

What about the single parents that are single parents because their family man died. What about the single parents who have left an abusive relationship (see threads ad infinitim).

I fucking hate threads like this.

This is all good until your child turns 16 and goes on pip which gets paid to them.

You need to plan for long term. I've worked FT since DS was 13 because at some point the benefits will end. Once he turned 16 he went from £300p/m children's DLA (paid to me) to £600p/m PIP paid to him. The PIP is in place until he leaves school in 2024 then we lose the child disability element of UC and dependent child element as DS will have to claim for himself. I would not be able to survive working p/t without the UC disability elements.

Yes, our choices are our responsibility.

To a degree.

There but for the grace of god and all that

I speak from experience.

And obviously it's better to make better choices. Hindsight is 20/20. Thankfully now I have 20/20 my child won't make similarly bad choices. This is called breaking the cycle.

And that is why I said this on the advice thread

Who you partner up with is as important as anything else, more so.
Agreeing on parenting and work set ups and finances and house set ups should all be done with priority before you settle down and not left to chance.
Working towards a set up where you both contribute different things works very well and you don't have to earn the same as your partner to be as valuable to the family. There's no need to have equality as long as you have equity; both benefiting from the fruits of each other's labour.
If you want a family don't leave it to chance or to the last minute.

My ex was a family man and provider. Until he decided not to be.

He was disgusting that his dad refused to pay CM for his younger sister. He lost his job one day, had a new one lined up by the afternoon because he "had a family to pay for".
Then one day he just decided he'd had enough and left. He paid CM for the first couple of years. Then met his now wife and decided he shouldn't have to so stopped.

Not sure how any of that was my choice.

I do work full-time - and like I said, I’m carefully future-proofing.

You’ve got a mortgage so your home is an asset. You are paying £1400 for that asset. Those paying rent have nothing at the end of their tenancy, no assets to borrow money, no assets to leave their children, not able to downsize or move to a cheaper area.

Also, people should bear in mind that PIP was designed to bring the claimant’s standard of living up to those without disabilities. It’s not meant to replace other income, which is why it is discounted when calculations are made for, for example, housing benefit. It should be discounted here when people are talking about benefit income for the same reason. No one wants a disability or a disable child.

Why is it that a single person gets such a tiny amount whereas other benefits seem ( from above calculations) really quite generous .
From the above threads , it seems that people in receipt of some combs of benefits are pleasantly surprised at the amounts they get.
It is quite enligtening as Id assumed all people on benefits were struggling.
Due to low wages , it seems that the original concept of benefits as a temporary stop gap has altered. .. but now its a means of living ongoing . .. rather than a stop gap.
People should be supported to top up very low full time wages .
My issue is it shouldn't be to support a part time job lifestyle( unless reasons such as childcare exist, or things like caring responsibilities) as I do not think some should actively choose a part time lifestyle and expect other s to fund them ..by work full time
Work .