Benefits reduction

[Bonsaitreepic]

I got my UC payment today. Just checked and it’s almost £300 less than usual. This is because my oldest is now classed as an adult as he’s left ft education. He’s not currently in work.
I have 3 other children but now I seemingly only get support for 2 of them due to the child cap.
Im freaking out. I only get maintenance for one of the children as I have the other 2 50/50 with their dad. I cannot afford to lose this much money every month. I was already struggling as it was. I’m unable to work just yet as one of the children has complex needs. I already get some DLA for them.
im quite sure there’s nothing I can do about this but I’m so worried

Doesn’t make it any the less true. Lots of people also conveniently overlooking the fact that benefit claimants are tax payers too.

He’s got a disabled sibling though so will have experience. Care work isn’t just elderly. He may be ideally placed to do community care type work supporting a young disabled adult. That type of work is highly in demand and in all areas. I’d be surprised if he couldn’t get immediately fixed up via an agency or look on local council website.
No matter what career he has in mind that type of experience would have transferable skills and be a positive addition to a cv.

Whilst it's right and proper to take 28+ not in school off their parents uc claim, I do think that recipients should be given 3 months warning (so in the June) that this will be the case. Also where the 2 child policy comes into effect, a warning about that would be a good idea.
It's less about the system being unfair, more that people aren't always aware - it's not difficult to automate such messages either as they know the dates of birth!

Obviously in this case the 18 year old needs to hand over more of his uc and pay his own phone bill from now on. It will have the added incentive for him to get a job if he's only got £50 a month pocket money.

Well done Milafawny's son 🙏

Your oldest needs to get a job and pay board. Presumably he left education in the summer? He needs to go to an agency and take on anything they have. If he did this he would be in work within a week if not sooner. He can still look for something he really wants to do whilst he does something he doesn't really want to do, that's just life. Tell him to sign to a local temping / recruitment agency asap. He will be an office temp or labourer within a matter of days.

It might help his CV, but if he doesn't want to do it, it would be unfair on those being looked after.

If he does, then great.

What is interesting is the bubble people like you live in. You have no idea how easily the system is played because you either do not live in an area where most residents are unemployed, or you have no friends on benefits. You can choose to believe I’m not telling the truth but the reality is that a lot of us know exactly how to play the system. Obviously not everyone who receives benefits is playing the system but it is also not a small minority.

Your eldest needs to get off his backside and get a job doing anything while he “decides what he wants to do”

OP when I was at a 'crossroads' I did soul destroying work in call centres until I went back to Uni and get a medical degree. My parents, as average working parents, didn't get any benefits and didn't have the financial reserves to support me whilst I decided what to do with my life either. It's not a luxury most people have unfortunately and the best thing you could do for your son is make damned sure he realises that. He pays you the majority of his UC or uses it to fund his own place. He has no other option and nor should he tbh

He needs to get a job. I am really surprised he gets any benefits, he's just had 14 years of free education, he should be working now.

Don't forget to claim carers allowance and Carer's element on UC because you're also a full time carer for your child. You don't need CA to apply for CE on UC, either.

There are also jobs you can apply for on the Civil Service website which will allow you to work from home and work flexibly around your children. They are worth applying for.

The sickness benefit system, particularly disability benefits isn’t easily played, as anyone who has been through it will tell you. PIP is very difficult to claim - as evidenced by the thousands of genuinely disabled people who have had to take their claim to tribunal to get a fair decision.

such frothing on this thread. Benefits users pay taxes too you know. Jeez.

Yes, it always makes me smile when I read how "easy" it is to get sickness/disability benefits.🙄

They obviously haven't tried to do it. 😗

Only thing is, you can’t get both CA and the carers element of UC. Existing CA claimants will have their UC claim reduced by the amount of CA in payment and will receive CE, which is less.

I wish OP would answer the question about whether her DC can look after the younger children in the evenings while she works somewhere, but I guess he can't, or she would have said so.

With my kids the expectations were clearly set out well before they left school...once the tax credits and CB stop they are expected to work and pay their way if they weren't going to uni. Both got jobs before the end of August because they knew that's what they needed to do.

Your son needs to get a job, there are plenty about at the moment, in most areas anyway

think people are being very harsh to OP and making massive assumptions about her.

If our income was reduced by £300 a month, no matter the reason, I'd be panicking as well. I have no idea what the situation is with her child with additional needs, but I know with our son we're often firefighting and it makes it hard to make future plans when so much effort is just on coping now. - plus the sleep disruption etc makes it hard to think generally.

I feel for her son as well - Covid/lockdowns, sibling with additional needs, potential parental relationship breakdown... but he does need to get a job and contribute to the household, though I'm not going to pretend that I know where they are, what the job situation is and glibly say it's easy for anyone to walk into a job at the moment. But if he's not, he needs to be trying alongside figuring out what he wants to do with his life. And he should be contributing more than £50/mth, while also thinking about transport when he gets a job - that was a panic for me when I got offered a job but had no money, my partner was at the end of a five week month so was skint and my parents were on holiday!

Comes up regularly on MN doesn’t it ? I’ve been a benefits adviser and have volunteered my time helping applicants via a disability charity since 2013 when PIP was introduced as well as changes to the sickness benefit system. I can’t tell you how many genuinely severely disabled people have had benefits reduced or have lost them entirely because PIP/ESA employ some of the harshest and most unfair assessments which are more about saving money than providing support. I’m disabled from birth and my condition is never going to improve, yet I’m forced to undergo regular, costly, and pointless reviews to make sure my permanent disability hasn’t miraculously improved . And yet the notion that the DWP processes can be navigated and assessors easily outwitted still persists.

There are two reasons that people are cross:

1. Because its well known that payments for children stop when they turn 18, so she should have been planning for this. She knew her son was going to turn 18.

1. Because almost exactly the same amount of money is being provided into the household by the state.

1. Because very, very many people and their children have never, ever had the luxury of spending at least a few months of not working to work out what they want to do with their life.

And me. I see how it is. I've done advocacy and I'm disabled. In the real world I know how it is. 🙄

i understand why you don’t want to take money off your son, but the reality is £50 of £250 is less than a quarter. In the real world he may be spending up to 30% of his income on rent and another 15-20% on food so you should be taking more than £50. You can’t afford not to. He could also get a job which would increase his earnings asap. It’s a harsh truth he has to learn and sounds like he has to learn it quickly. X

Fuck off with your nastiness. op has a disabled child she is caring for. There's just no need to be so nasty and demeaning.

OP has a disabled child she is caring for. Do you know how much carers save the state?

i don't get the frothing tbh - the OP clearly posted here in panic and with a great deal of anxiety. None of you know her circumstances, how long she has been a single parent (and how she became one). Many of you have assumed she has never worked, even though there is no where that says that. There are some vile comments about the child that requires additional care, and no one knows that. There is no empathy or kindness towards her at all. It's vile.

And the boy, who is still only a few months out of school - you're all going on about him sponging. (and yes, maybe the OP should be taking more of his benefits, but fgs the way you are all suggesting it is just unkind and horrible).

And the main point, the comments assuming that all single parents and others benefits are scrounging and are able to and should be working more (no matter that they're parenting alone, and there's a shortage of jobs they can do, and, in the OP's case, she has a disabled child) and that you, as tax payers, don't want to fund this family (as though it's your choice). And for what it's worth, the two child limit is a vile draconian policy, that, no matter what you think about the parents having those children, has meant that several hundred thousand CHILDREN are now living in poverty and abolishing it tomorrow would lift them out of poverty immediately. There is no defending this policy at all.