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

Wow! Would you mind sharing your monthly total? I don’t begrudge it at all, I’m glad you’re not suffering financially and I know that having a child with SEN is very very hard.

My take home is 1600p/m, DH’s is £2,300p/m, nursery is ~£600p/m (30 free hours have kicked in only recently before it was 1200), mortgage is 1,400 and due to rise quite significantly, plus bills/car/food and all the rest. We are entitled to nothing not even CB as it would be taxed and not worth claiming. I’m pregnant and going on mat leave in March, and we will be starting the nursery payment rollercoaster again in March 2024.

Won't be long now till we get the my sisters next door neighbours dog sitters aunt gets eleventy billion per week UC cos she can't move her left pinky and they holiday every 2 weeks in dubai and they replace their ferrari motability car every month

I think when people talk about benefits being low, it’s people who don’t work, either with or without kids, or no kids and are on disability benefits.

Ive worked part time for years and have always received around £540 for 2 children, my full rent plus around £300 personal allowance which makes up my total universal credit. They then deducted around £150-200 depending on my (low) earnings that month.

I now only have one dependant, work more hours and so will get less. I’ve never felt hard done by. But obviously have no savings, property and get into debt when unexpected things happen like a washing machine breaks.

There's a reason people on universal credit are struggling and it's not because they are all irresponsible people incapable of budgeting. It's because trying to survive on that amount is hard. Essentially £1,200 needs to cover all bills, rent, food, clothes, emergencies (e.g appliances breaking down, travel to hospital if needed, cars breaking down etc.), travel, any over the counter medicine (children's calpol, teething powders, headlice treatments etc. Included), cleaning products, personal hygeine products (nappies, sanitsry towels, toothpaste, soap, deoderant etc.) and whatever other expenses that might crop up in the month. There will be months when a parent can't afford to buy their child calpol because they've had to pay to fix the car or else they wouldn't be able to get to work and would be penalised for that too....so £800 really isn't all that generous when all it's doing is allowing a parent to just about survive. There is a reason people are trapped in abusive relationships, there is a reason foodbanks are struggling to keep up with the demand, there is a reason children are going to school hungry and coming home to cold houses.

@Cuppasoupmonster
My take home is 1600p/m, DH’s is £2,300p/m…We are entitled to nothing not even CB as it would be taxed and not worth claiming

You are entitled to child benefit with those incomes though.

Nursery costs are temporary. When your children are grown up, you will have 2 incomes to enjoy, plus you have assets in the form of a house.

When a single mum's children are grown up, she will have to survive on one income, with no financial security.

You are far, far better off than a single mum on UC.

But that’s the case for most people, benefits or not - a huge unexpected bill is pretty devastating. I’m just saying in the context of your ‘average’ earner, £800p/m in top ups for a lower earner is pretty generous.

Yabu those online calculators are mostly wrong, some by a hell of a lot!
Do a manual calculation and see what the actual entitlement is.

I wouldn't want to live on that budget and I don't think it's fair for another young family either.

In your scenario the mother is working yet still won't be able to afford holidays, activities for the children, things like personal tuition, the more expensive school trips, days out. How is that fair? She's working, her ex is contributing, yet she still needs to live in a cheaper area and count every penny? No that is not fair. She needs a fair wage.

My rent is £365 a month. 3 bed house.

Council house in North Wales.

Private houses on the same street rent for £550.

When I lived in Glasgow the rent was £287 for a 2 bed flat (housing association)

Just to add I live in Devon now and it’s £545 lol

Well that's not fair either. Instead of blaming each other, would it not be more productive to challenge the system? It's not a race to the bottom after all.

Because those things are luxuries that lower earners have never been able to afford. I don’t think, once rent is paid, £1,400 is ‘watching every penny’. When I was on the minimum wage and rented a room in a house share, I couldn’t have those things either.

Or you could be a single mum who earns just enough that you get £100 in benefits and are covering a mortgage on your own. Yes you get child maintenance but it's the bare minimum and is expected to cover everything, from school uniform to rugby boots to haircuts. You can't increase your hours because you can't afford the childcare. You can't go into rented because it's more than your mortgage per month. And at some point you have to sell or buy out your ex who has made a profit in the intervening years on the property you've kept up together. So yabu for generalising to the extent you have... as there are plenty of us that don't fit into what you've described in terms of entitlements.

Scotland council house £395/month for a 3-bed.

OP - I’m astounded by the figures I kid you not. Ironically I was busting my arse trying to land an £80k job last year, turns out I don’t need it.

I don’t know what the future holds, my health is precarious and I may not be able to continue working 5 years from now. But for now I’m making hay.

ItWillCauseAWar. No you don't.
Universal credit is very easy to work out.
Housing allowance.
Personal allowance.
Child allowance.
Work allowance
Wages minus work allowance minus 55p per £.

@Chillisquid there’s no cap with disability within the family. You don’t have to believe me - no skin off my nose at all.

But for now I’m making hay.

Suuuuuure.

I agree.

I also agreed with the above.

Let the benefits bashing commence (again)!

Just out of curiosity how do you calculate uc entitlement?

im not clued up on this but interested to see how it works

Totally goady, OP, and you know it. You have no idea. Your OP is faux naive and patronising.

I don’t believe any of your calculations as you’re so very wrong with ‘the minimum child maintenance is £280’. The minimum is £0 is father doesn’t work/ is self employed etc.

Also why are you singling out single mums to pick on? If you think everyone else is so much better off than you why don’t you try and live the life for a bit rather than being a cunt about it

It's single people with no DC earning minimum wage I feel sorry for.

If people are claiming they can't get by with an additional £9600 p/y plus child maintanence, how do single people on min wage with no benefit entitlements cope?