Poverty trap? What to do

[Duckingfun]

I’m on benefits due to having a disabled child who currently isn’t in school.
I want to work, when he’s at a suitable school I will be looking for work. However my rent has now increased in my council house to just under £1k there is no way I can afford it if I work. The better off website says I will be something like £90 a month better off, I want to work but I don’t want to work 40+ hours a week for £90 and then I’d be worse off after travel/childcare etc
Whats the answer? I can’t move and it just feels so unfair that the council raise the rent to the top limit of what they can.

Please OP take time to care for yourself, I do have my husband and he does work but I'm a sahp to 3 children with sen and although I would really love to work I am just about staying a float and most days I feel so down but trying so hard to be the best mum for my children who need me.
I would wait until your child is in education that he is best suited to and then look at your options regarding if you can move to a more affordable home and then find work or even volunteer (That's something I'm looking into to give myself some self confidence and something for me).
Good luck

Respectfully, it's your posts that are clueless.

She was working/volunteering. The reason she isn't is because she needs to be at home due to lack of school provision. She is in effect homeschooling, and needs this rectified.

She hasn't mentioned an EHCP. Maybe DS has one. It's unlikely his medical needs are extremely complex due to the fact he has been in school previously. I would take a guess at ASD, ADHD, ODD, or similar. Just a guess.

@Duckingfun what I have entirely missed is that you are in Norfolk!!! That's where my charity is. And also there are huge numbers of properties well under the £1k rent you are talking about. Now I know you can move. I deal with Norfolk HA all the time. I do not know of anyone paying anything close to £1000pcm rent. You categorically have options. I literally helped someone who was allocated a 2 bed flat for £550pcm last week. 3 bed houses, maybe £750-£850.

Are you going to provide the op with the deposit and moving costs for a move?

it's your posts that are clueless.

Far from it. Supporting parents of DC with SEN is also my job.

She is in effect homeschooling

EOTAS and s19 provision is not EHE.

She hasn't mentioned an EHCP. Maybe DS has one.

OP mentioned a new SS being consulted. If you knew anything about SS and consultations you would know OP would need an EHCP for SSs to be consulted. So, OP’s DC clearly has an EHCP.

It's unlikely his medical needs are extremely complex due to the fact he has been in school previously.

There are many DC with complex medical needs attending schools in England.

Fingers crossed this school will work out for your DS, OP. However, you also mention that you have a disabled DD at nursery, so childcare and schooling will be a long term calculation for you, for years to come. I would think strategically about training for a career for when your children are older and more independent (assuming that is possible).

Done the job 7mths. And from a finance background before that.

I haven't lost empathy. I have met enough people who claim they are "trapped" to know, when this is, and isn't the case.

I too, was very "omg how awful, oh that's terrible, oh how difficult" before I became all too aware that many people claiming to be trapped, don't want any solutions. This isn't losing empathy, this is learning very fast that not everyone declaring how bad their situation is, actually wants a solution. They aren't interested in anything that requires them to help fix their own situation, they've got every non relevant excuse as to why they can't possibly do anything, even when you put a solution right in front of them.

The Norfolk Assistance Scheme may well do.

(Awaits inevitable excuse as to why this won't work...)

Not forgetting, there is the potential the current property may have been adapted to meet DC’s needs.

Annnnnd there's the excuse

Yeah, there's no way more than one house could ever be adapted.

Chances are, you won't be able to work anyways - esp. not 40h as you will have to attend appointments, meetings etc in your working hours, there will in all likelihood be no childcare available for the school holidays... same for wrap around childcare. Most breakfast/after-school clubs and childminders won't take kids with additional needs. Both of mine are disabled, I speak from bitter experience :(

But if the OP is adequately housed would they even get help with moving somewhere else?

I didn’t say more than one property couldn’t be adapted, but it isn’t as simple to move between adapted properties. Some people wait years for a suitable property. Some LAs claw back adaptation costs if people move with a set timeframe (1/2/5/10/20 years). Some LAs don’t allow households in an adapted property to swap.

And sometimes the suitable properties are more expensive than your typical 3rd floor 3 bed flat or your 2 up/2 down.

You can’t possibly become an expert in the SEN system within 7 months.

Give it a rest @WillYouPutYourCoatOn

The expensive rent may well be because the house has specific characteristics that this family needs. Local authorities in the main have a desperate shortage of these types of properties.

@WillYouPutYourCoatOn I think you’re in the wrong job as you’re quite awful to be honest.

It doesn’t matter what I say, you will call it an excuse and I really wish I lived in your fairytale world where I could just move and have my children in school and not too far from a hospital.

I have been on the swap sites for a couple of years with no luck, I can’t afford to move, not only rent and deposit but moving fees never mind all the stress that would come with that and the stress on my children. I have been fighting with schools for many years for my son so no I’m not just complaining and doing nothing.

Ultimately I don’t think anyone (in a private house or housing association) should be priced out of their home and when universal credits covers the rent it’s makes it extremely difficult to be financially better off. Even if I would be £500 better off working, that’s the equivalent of working for £2.80 an hour before tax and national insurance. That’s nowhere near minimum wage.

That's why I said "in effect* homeschooling. But then you knew that, didn't you.

No you don't need an EHCP for SS. I know this without doubt as my cousin's child is in this exact situation. In Suffolk. It's far more likely OP's DS does have one, I'll give you that, but not definitely. That tells me enough...

It’s been like this for years - you can’t do right for doing wrong.

DFriend is in the same boat - can’t move due to adaptations and needing room for medical equipment, doesn’t have family support, never had a holiday, if it’s not one kid needing assistance it’s another, she ferries them round to appointment after appointment let alone emergency appointments - she’s exhausted: the thought of working 40 plus hours son too is ridiculous.
Then the benefits are less that 16 hours she won’t get one over 16 hours she won’t get the other one and is literally worse off.

Now if special schools were kept open these children would get placements - bit the huge campaign to get all children into mainstream is back firing.

Only now there’s no buildings and no socialist staff.

Wvwryone I know with a disabled youngster is on the breadline and exhausted. Funny how the men don’t stick around.

@Duckingfun is your house structurally adapted for a disabled person?

It depends where it is, if inner London where market rents are £3k then 1k is very reasonable.

No you don't need an EHCP for SS.

In practice, these days, yes, you do. Unless you are self funding, which clearly isn’t an option for the OP. It is extremely rare for LAs to fund an SS placement without an EHCP these days with the exception of sometimes new arrivals to England and EYFS assessment places. Your cousin is very unique in England atm.

An if OP was ‘in effect’ homeschooling online schooling wouldn’t be being provided by the LA.

It's in Norfolk. Where I help people in this exact position. It's virtually unheard of to be this high.

The most OP should be looking at is £850 for 3 bed which her UC will cover (without knowing her exact position, she's most likely entitled to a 3 bed) which means she gets (for example under Breckland, a Norfolk council district) £800 paid for her. £50 rent a month, with (min £2.5k UC/DLA/CA) isn't exactly a bad deal. Even if that rent was £1000, let's not forget OP gets £800 of that for free.

The LHA doesn’t apply to those in council properties. For those in council properties on UC, the full rent amount is the housing element except if there is a bedroom tax deduction. Unlikely in this case. Although obviously the total award would be reduced by any earnings deduction if OP had one.

It must depend on area/HA. I’m paying £900 for a two bed flat. London/Kent borders😳

You'd be better off getting a qualification for a better paid job, bookkeeping is quite easy to pick up and jobs start about 25k (up north, it will be higher further down south).

You can earn £379 a month but yeah you would lose some money in working costs and paying a percentage of your childcare. That would still leave you with at least a couple hundred extra.

Self-employment from home is an option too if you have any ideas. When you’re on UC and have caring responsibilities there is no minimum income floor so you could earn sporadically and not mess up your benefits claims.

Think longer term than the next few years. If you start a job or small business now, when they go to school your income will rise again because you won’t be paying that childcare and you’ll be better off all around (although, wraparound and holidays have to be considered.. so it depends on if you can wangle that with other mums, grandparents, time off, etc.)

Realistically, this all only works if you physically and mentally have the energy for work after all the care you provide.

I work 19hrs a week. I get £1000 a month. They deduct your nursery fees from your wage (to a certain limit) to come to the assessable amount of earnings for CA. You certainly wouldn't be working for £2.80 an hour.

The fact you haven't looked into this properly, or that you live directly where I know a lot of what you're claiming to be virtually impossible, is actually very possible because my work deals with this sort of thing week in, week out, does not make me "awful."