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'm a lone parent. I earn 1050 part time and receive 650 in uc. I dont have a mortgage/rent so its doable.

How much help people receive from benefits depends largely on their rent. People with kids who work and have their full social housing rent covered by the Uc rent element can do pretty well out of Uc. However if your are private renting and your rent exceeds the local authority housing allowance, then you need to cover that extra rent yourself from the rest of your benefit. I have a client currently who gets £499 UC rent element yet her rent is £715 a month soon to rise to £800. So she gets £334 standard UC element and £499 rent element so a total of £833 UC but come the new year will need to pay £800 of that in rent. The UC may go up once she has had an assessment to assess her work capability ( currently too ill to work ) but this can take months and in the meantime she is left with £33 a month to survive on after rent paid. She has looked for cheaper rent but there is very little around and people don't want to rent to those on benefits. She is not a priority for social housing and our area has huge waiting lists. What are people like her supposed to do. She relies on food parcels already.

Universal Credit payment summary (monthly)
Standard allowance £334.91
Housing £1,533.00
Children £754.58
Total before adjustments £2,622.49
Taken off for earned income (your salary) £179.30
Taken off for unearned income (benefits and savings) £0.00
Total adjustments £179.30
Total payment for the month £2,443.19

Plus MW salary + Child benefit.

MW at 16 hours per week. That is for a single parent with one child.

That is a huge amount of UC but mostly accounting for rent obviously. I have no idea how the government are affording to pay these kinds of amounts to so many families but at the end of the day most of this money is just going to pay the mortgages of buy to let landlords isn't it. It just infuriates me the way these landlords are getting richer on tax payers money. How has it been allowed to get to this stage where little social housing is being built yet people are claiming huge amounts in benefits to be paid for extortionate private rents ? Why are more people no up in arms about this and why are the government so short sighted ?

That is my point. This is not a fictitious exercise as it is someone I know. It is a huge amount and it is unaffordable for the rest of us. At some point, the system will break. Denying that someone who rents in a nice neighborhood in London and has children is better off than someone who works full-time on minimum wage or medium wage is disingenuous.

@Babyroobs Landlords are tax payers too btw.
And quite simply it’s a case of the government does not want responsibility for house and it’s citizens. That is why no social housing is being built. The council properties had an army of maintenance workers, who basically did fuck all all day. They weren’t maintained to a pretty good standard in the kitchens were shit. The bathrooms were shit and people got fed up of paying more or less, the same as private rents for substandard properties.

At some point, the system will break. Denying that someone who rents in a nice neighborhood in London and has children is better off than someone who works full-time on minimum wage or medium wage is disingenuous.

Not everyone lives in London and frankly there are more people on benefits in shitty run down housing both social and private than there are in luxury areas like your friend. I have 200 single parents on my caseload struggling on benefits to your 1 friend so does that mean we ignore them?
You friends situation is the exception not the rule.

This is very very true! Its not just bathroom and kitchens the Council houses are in a shit hole even upon viewing them a lot of the times. Where is all the rent going? At least SOME LL do their repairs and maintain the houses in general but the Council are really horrendous. There was a story recently about someone dying due to damp/poor conditions it's not the first time.

@Babyroobs it's the GOV at fault. All that guilty built is student accommodation where I live. It is not really down to private LL. That's just passing the book....

Disregarding the rent, a single parent (1 child) working 16 hours per week at minimum wage receives 1,260 pounds after housing costs. . Are you saying that 1,260 (after housing costs) is not enough for a parent and a child?

I'll join in with the laughter there! I think it sounds frighteningly low.

There's always the option to work more than 16 hours. Up to 85% of childcare costs paid.

Really. So what amount do you think the government should pay? For example, a single parent with one child. 1,000 plus housing, 2,000 plus housing, 3,000 plus housing? Not many people on full-time jobs receive that.

@Babyroobs on UC you have to pay your childcare costs upfront and the more hours you work the less in childcare you get back. If you only have 1 wage 4 weeks is a long time to wait for childcare costs back. Not to mention UC are forever making mistakes as it's faffing around each month uploading a proof of receipt showing a breakdown of each week. This was pointed out to you some pages back.

Really. So what amount do you think the government should pay? For example, a single parent with one child. 1,000 plus housing, 2,000 plus housing, 3,000 plus housing? Not many people on full-time jobs receive that.

Don't be silly now with £3000 on top of high housing costs.

Aside from the housing cost it's obviously very little to live on. At least I couldn't manage, even if I discarded (disruptive and not easily done) what some people might consider non essential costs.

People also get 15 hours of term time funding sometimes from aged 2 for many lone parents. You do not have to pay up front for that as it's paid by the local authority. People starting work can also get help from the flexible fund for the first months payment of childcare fees.

I just want to know a value that would be considered adequate after housing costs. I had to rely on UC for a short period so I am happy it exists.

£2400 a month is a lot, it's a lot more than a lot of childless people who work full time earn.

We get more in UC than DH earns:

Standard allowance

£525.72

You get a standard amount each month. You said you're in a couple

Housing

£516.71

Need help understanding your housing?

You said per month the total rent for your property is £516.71.

Children

£779.16

You get support for 3 children

Disabled children

£547.77

You said that you have 2 disabled children

Carer

£337.62

You said that Xxx is caring for someone.

You said that xxx is caring for someone.

Total entitlement before deductions

£2,706.98

What we take off (deductions)

Take-home pay

minus‑ £691.09

Earnings employer

£1,600.53

The amount we'll use to work out your Universal Credit is £1,600.53

Xxx

The amount we'll use to work out your Universal Credit is £0.00

The total take-home pay for xxx and xxx this period is £1,600.53

The first £344.00 of your take-home pay doesn't affect your Universal Credit monthly amount. Every £1.00 you earn in take-home pay over this amount reduces your Universal Credit by 55 pence.

Other benefits

We take money off your payment

As this is an average of other benefits that you're continuing to claim

Xxx:

Carer's Allowance

minus‑ £302.03

Advance Payments

minus‑ £78.86

Need help understanding advance repayments?

We take £78.86 off your payment to pay back your advances

Total deductions

minus‑ £1,071.98

Your total payment for this month is

£1,635.00

Yes but you only get that much because of 2 disabled children and carers element. Your amount really isn't representative of the elements most families would get.

The £650 from UC is in effect net so 20% tax and NI has already been paid on it.

@Babyroobs thanks. My child is school age now, what is flexible fund? I've never heard of this. All the mums I know do pay childcare costs upfront because as far as I was aware this was the only way.

Exactly. Considering the average salary in the UK in 2021 was 38,000, you need three taxpayers (tax plus national insurance 8k) to pay for that single household. As I said, it is unsustainable. More debt, fewer services.

@Babyroobs