I am better off on benefits

[yousilvertongueddevilyou]

I make £1100/month self-employed. I now get £620/month in Universal Credit and £80/week in child benefit.

I'm on a £26K/year salary which goes a long way where I live.

If I got a job that paid £28K/year I'd have to work more, for £100/month more, which I'd lose in prescriptions, free school meals, and council tax support.

I'd have to make at least £30K/year to make working worth my while and then I'd have to lose even more on childcare to work full-time.

So I really need to make at least £35K/year and even then the slog wouldn't be worth it.

I'm grateful. It does trap you into a static income though. Unless my self-employed work becomes more lucrative.

I do work as much as I can, but only in school hours and before school, as it benefits my child to have me pick them up every day.

I'm certainly not incentivised to go back to work, but I am still seeking employment because I enjoy working.

Universal Credit was bashed but it actually works really well and rewards people to work.

@BishBashBoop are you talking about me? Idk if this is some sort of failed name change but no, I didn't read those posts so I didn't ignore them. Regardless of all that, it still doesn't give you any right to say what you said about people with lots of kids or those on benefits. Your struggles don't entitle you to be an asshole.

@cadburyegg Thank you. This is exactly what I mean and you are a better reflection of what UC is like as a whole. The OP is in her current sweet spot for only a couple of years. They clamp down hard once kids turn 5 and 13.

@cadburyegg My child is 7 so I have a while and would love to find the best thing to upskill in, that's what I wan to take time out to do this year once the repercussions of an abusive relationship are dealt with.

I like working with people but they are all very low paid.

Is it though? Rent paid if you’re in rented, and £185 disposable income. Doesn’t sound too bad.

Are you not planning on having any expenses? Not going to pay any gas or electricity, eat, ever go out anywhere, let alone a holiday?

No it wouldn't because we all get a personal allowance.

I thought you had to be gainfully employed if you are self employed? You need to earn at least the equivalent of minimum wage full time hours before they top you up. If your self employment is not paying you £1600 a month I thought you would be encouraged to become an employee?

How are you entitled to free prescriptions or free school meals on that amount?
Free prescriptions are for people who earn less than £900 a month so you should check you're not claiming fraudulently, you could get fined.
I'm single mum to one and earn the same as you, sometimes a lot less and I've never been entitled to free school meals except in ks1 which everyone gets.

@monitor1 You can work and claim pension.

not forever though. Not contributing to any other sort of pension = a miserable old age once you can't work, unless you have other wealth.

you don’t get free prescriptions on UC unless earning less than £400 per month
free school meals is only if you earn less than £7k
I call bull

@Danikm151 Yes, I didn't realise this. I don't use either, just assumed.

You didn't assume you made it up.
I don't like this thread.

@schnauzerbeard Until the OPs child is 13, her MIF is around £960 per month from memory. Might be a little more now.

@Dodgeitornot It's just above £1,100 a month.

@yousilvertongueddevilyou interested you decide to respond to that but not my other question.

I'm going to assume the stuff about work ethic is directed at somebody else because I didn't make any assertions in that regard.

Fair enough with the overpayment thing, perhaps they've sorted it out since we lost all but £2.60 of UC on the grounds that they'd overpaid (and then closed the claim the instant the assessment date put November and December's salary date into the same period - but didn't mention it until the end of January, deleting all access to the previous figures and making it necessary to start the claim again, just as well I still had my salary going in even though we had to miss all the bill payments and never got the missed months back, blah, blah, blah...)

Can you appreciate what I said about not being reliant upon the system working and income being dependent upon political will, though? It's like working but never knowing if your boss or clients are going to bother paying you any, some or all of your wage/invoices - and you don't have the advantage of a union, ACAS or insurance policy if they screw up or change the rules.

It took a while, but I earn good money now, far in excess of what UC pays. And I am in control of that. You can't beat the feeling of knowing you're in control, especially if you've experienced being controlled by somebody else - relying upon benefits to make the bills is good in that you can, when it works, pay the bills, but when you're a tickbox on a screen away from being royally fucked over, it does not feel like having autonomy in the way that a fulltime wage does.

Something that could help you is looking at volunteering, studying for additional qualifications (how about getting yourself a St Johns Ambulance First Aid qualification?), doing things that might be different to what you have tried before. You could get a start in education by casual invigilator work (they'll be recruiting right now, you get training, a DBS and experience in an educational environment), you could do conservation volunteering as that often involves things like working together in groups with varied abilities or education/information at flower shows; so many things that could be the thing that makes you a more appealing candidate for TA or other employment in a school - or anywhere else.

You have the freedom to make choices, try things out and as a result, get past the level at which benefits trap you.

Thank you, that makes sense. I had assumed they would be looking for her to work if her self-employment didn't earn her minimum wage but your explanation makes sense

@NeverDropYourMooncup Kind of but no, UC has paid me more reliably and on time than some of my invoices, also my last job would pay me late frequently which really messed me up, that was a charity.

I have applied to volunteer just now and hope to give them a day.

I only have this year to have so much free time. But I also have a horrible thing to deal with including divorce which is taking up too much time.

What? I don't love my job but I still work and get paid well for it. I do it to earn money.

I honestly can't believe this. I say this as a single parent too. People have always got help with childcare costs. In fact I can remember my own mum getting the full nursery fees paid and working too on the old system years ago. If your wage is low with kids you don't pay full rent and you would get a single person's discount for CT also at a minium.

@schnauzerbeard Yea, that's what I mean by the op being in a sweet spot so to speak. It's really important you do all you can to improve your income by the time your child is a teen, it's really hard from then on for multiple reasons. 1) you've been minimally economically active, 2) the sudden jump in expectations is difficult to meet and for your kids to get used to 3) it's a very short time between 13 and the age where you completely aren't entitled to help.

Try having no option to work because you have a disabled child and would be fired from any job you could ever get because of the amount of time you would need to take off.

This is the kind of post that gives people who think that those on benefits are scum even more ammunition.

Life solely on benefits is crap. Fighting every step of the way to get suitable disability benefits for your child is soul destroying.

Smug posts like this make me feel so angry. Benefits may be a lifestyle for you but some people have no choice.

Im in a similar position so completely understand where your coming from?l! Its so frustrating

That's not how Universal Credit works. UC is done on a month by month basis, not a whole year like the old tax credits system. With UC, you upload your earnings every month, and they pay you based on your earnings for that month only.