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?

Zombie thread! Why on Earth has someone resurrected it.

Benefit bashing.

@XenoBitch we couldn't get any help with our council tax, as dh was still getting sick pay!! Now he isn't they are being very slow in sorting it out.
The stress of it all is making me sick.

I used to live on around that when I was single. I had rent of £425 and I was running a car as I had a long commute each day that public transport didn't cover. I managed but it was very tight and I struggled with paying for car repairs, Christmas etc. Some weeks I had less than £5 to feed myself on so I would just buy pasta and cheese or porridge.

I couldn't have managed on that with a child and worked as well as childcare would have been impossible.

It would be better if employers were required to pay properly, yes. So your income would come from your employment - and be higher - rather than from the taxpayer. But the govt don’t like that idea.

But you are in work so this is their way of making sure you can work and have a decent income.

But I’d think that was still a fairly low income.

But people don’t want to pay a higher price for the goods and services these employers provide. We need a taxation system which allows those who need benefits to live a quality life and for services such as health and education to be properly funded

When benefit rates go up next year, more people will be eligible for UC. The increase in local housing allowance rates mean that there will be more help with housing costs, too.

I'd advise anyone who only just misses out on UC at the moment to check entitlement again on or soon after 8 April.

Why have you resurrected a year old thread?

That poster is wealthy, it's well known on here. She doesn't need benefits.

Why bedrudge the benefits others need then? Bit weird.

@Suzi888 women who are being financially abused, often have to claim UC etc whilst still living in the same home as a well-paid ex husband/partner. I for one would rather see many, many women being able to access that money, regardless of if their ex will fuck off or stay hanging about being abusive in the family home, because the woman cannot force him out. Why should she have nothing to live on? No one would rent to her probably, either? If you don't have proof (her direct word spoken to you directly) that she is "cheating the system", then in reality you know nothing about the situation. It's a measure to protect women and children, to allow them money to eat and survive.

I'd save your ire for the rich Tories who are privatising and tax evading and comprehensively bleeding this country dry to the tune of billions of pounds; the ACTUAL figures of benefit fraud are laughably tiny in comparison.

I thought his when I did my first calculation. The calculations are way off you get monet deducted based on your take home pay. I got less than half of what the calculator says.

I don’t need benefits and no longer live in the Uk but would prefer a tax system which supports (properly) those that do without the governments latest scheme of threatening those who are disabled or ill with further benefit sanctions .

I don’t begrudge those who need support from other taxpayers . High taxation = better public services which is good for everyone.