to be shocked at universal credit amount?

[oddsocksmatchifsamethickness]

I've just become a single mum of one, husband gone. So obviously I want to bring my earnings up. I'm self-employed and will be doing so. But I put in a calculation for UC to see if I could get help while I sought new contracts. I'm self-employed. I earned 1K this month and did the calculation and it says I will get another 650 a month from UC.

Can that be right? It seems a lot, it would take my income up to a wage of 28K/year, but I only work 20 hours a week.

Is this what people get?

I think UC is better for working parents. If you can try and see if there’s something part time you could do. You’d get £340 ish work allowance before they reduce your UC. I know someone who used to deliver newspapers for a local shop with her dc in a buggy twice a day, mon to fri. Exercise and no childcare costs. She got about £80 a week.

If you are getting by on the £750 you’d have a much nicer life with an additional £300+ quid a month.

Exactly this. The work allowances for working people if you have kids or have limited capability for work due to illness are generous to allow it to make work pay. So if you have the rent element on a claim you can earn up to £344 a month without anything being deducted from your total UC amount and that figure is a whopping £573 if you ahve a mortgage. I fail to see why anyone wouldn't take advantage of doing some kind of part time work when they can be so much better off. Obviously if you can't work due to caring repsonsibilities or an illness so bad that you can't work at all then this is different. UC is woeful for that group of people.

If only more people would claim it - the amount of unclaimed universal credit is huge. Glad you think this is a lot for a single mother; you're lucky, there's no way I'd survive on that by myself with a child.

@Babyroobs £573 for a mortgage is that repayable ?

It’s a work allowance before the taper rate kicks in when you have children. For example I get 1600 wages. 1600- 573 is 1027. They multiply the 1027 by 55% which equals 564.85 and remove that amount from entitlement.

Unfortunately this country’s economy is increasingly supported by a shrinking number of net contributors while those who don’t work or choose to work less than full time hours are paid for by those full time net contributors. This upside down pyramid is in serious danger of collapse. This culture of dependency will cause its own own crash.

UC doesn't work on capping wages at £565 nor any amount, your friend has a mortgage and unfortunately it's seen as a luxury on UC and she won't get the rent element

So people needing to claim UC don't get any mortgage help?

Though might this be because of mortgage insurance? I think we're covered against unemployment, but obviously for a limited amount of time, not indefinitely.

So people needing to claim UC don't get any mortgage help?

Though might this be because of mortgage insurance? I think we're covered against unemployment, but obviously for a limited amount of time, not indefinitely.

I think it stems back from people buying houses with housing benefit

Oh I see! I hadn't heard of that. I thought it was because compulsory mortgage insurance would possibly cover you.

People do not specific help with a mortgage but if they have kids on the claim or they or their partner on the claim have limited capability for work due to illness or disability then they get a work allowance on the claim meaning that the first £573 of their earnings is completely disregarded when they work out the deduction for earnings. For people without this work allowance say for example a couple with no kids, then each pound they earn reduces their total Uc entitlement by 55p. For a couple with kids then the first £573 of earnings are completely disregarded before each pound of earnings reduces their total Uc by 55p. This work allowance makes a big difference and is higher for people with mortgages than people who claim help with rent. Even a couple living with parents and no mortgage would still get this £573 work allowance.

@palygold what compulsory mortgage insurance?

So many people have no mortgage insurance, that's why they come unstuck. It is expensive.

I wondered this too. I have life insurance and buildings insurance. My mortgage provider , Santander, did say they recommend everyone has income protection insurance as well but it’s not compulsory.

Thanks for the information.

Sorry, I thought it was compulsory but perhaps I'm thinking of buildings insurance

Buildings insurance was for me
They recommended life insurance but I can't get it so..

You add back taxes / NI payments etc, although prob closer to 24k

I never said anything about capping wages, what I said was that UC have said that she needs £565 per month to survive, so if she earns more than that, they won't give her any top-up money but if she only earns £500, they'll top it up to the quoted £565, this is coming straight from UC and has been the case for the last 2 months, it's not an estimate, it's the live figure they're working with for her.
Yes, my friend has a mortgage, she was working a decent NHS job for almost 20yrs before she was made redundant and her health issues crept up on her, so when she took on the mortgage 18yrs ago, she was easily able to pay it, but where on earth does someone trying to keep s roof over their head become a 'luxury'? When the DWP pay rent for people, especially those in privately rented properties, they're paying 'someone's' mortgage, clearly not the claimant's but how does this make someone who's paid into a mortgage for almost 2 decades any less deserving of help to keep a roof over their head?

@Babyroobs
So many people have no mortgage insurance, that's why they come unstuck. It is expensive.

I completely agree, when I took my mortgage out, the mortgage protection insurance was almost as much each month as my mortgage payment and I couldn't afford to pay that much, plus I had (what was then thought to be) a safe, 'job for life' in the NHS, which I ended up being made redundant from almost 12yrs ago and found myself struggling to make my mortgage payments. Fortunately, I was able to extend the term of my mortgage but that just means you end up having to pay more and more interest to the bank, whereas a little help from deep would have helped enormously, in exactly the same way as I've said above about my friend.

DWP, not deep, sorry, it was a typo I didn't pick up

Family of five.

Disabled adult three children I can claim for. Carers allowance deducted. No working adult. Rent £600.
We get £1654.

We are not surviving.

How can you get that much?
The system is screwed and unfair

😂😂😂😂😂 good one

That’s a useful website! Thanks.

I hate these threads. It just turns into an attack on people who claim benefits. No one on benefits is living in a mansion and taking three holidays a year at the tax payers expense. Most people on benefits are struggling in the same way a lot of lower end income people are struggling. This person is not because her outgoings are unusually low. The system is working for her. Unfortunately a lot of people suffer at the hands of the system. And then get to be judged by middle class people who have no concept of being poor and struggling. STOP BLAMING DOWN. BLAME UP. And just maybe we might live in a fairer society.

When DP left I applied for tax credits and was similarly surprised at how much I was entitled to. It allowed me to continue to pay the mortgage and remain in our home while my DC were small. Since then I have increased my hours at work and my DC are older and not requiring childcare so much plus had pay rises etc and now my TC amount is very small and will probably stop all together very soon. Benefits are there to help you through the tough times, which could happen to any one of us. No one here is immune to falling on hard times.

I don't understand so this may be my mistake. Why will UC not give your friend any top up money of your friend earns over £565? Is that because she has a mortgage?

But is she earns £500 they will give her £565?

This is the same struggle but slightly different reasons of how generations of families are on benefits or single mums are not working full time. It's a no brainer isn't it??

I think the GOV have ALWAYS paid rents, the private rents are not like years and years ago where they would pay the vast majority of high rent it's capped.

I think if you took your mortgage before all these rule changes you should get a big chunk of help.... but everyone's mortgage differs in price so it is difficult perhaps they should have a limit? To what they would be on UC.