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.

"And it's looking at this £536 a week with no rent or mortgage that OP needs to ask, "why can't I afford to live?""

Because having a disabled child especially one who isn't at school is expensive?

If you have a problem with Scope’s figure take it up with them. The figures they state are after disability benefits such as DLA. Anyone who disputes the figures is clearly ignorant to the costs many disabled households incur even if they themselves don’t have those costs.

which she hasn't earned anything to cover

your benefit bashing attitude when I work 24/7 caring for my disabled children makes me want to spend the rest of my life claiming benefits. It is not supportive, it is not kind and it is not helpful.

@Duckingfun also, because DS can’t attend school but is eligible for FSMs, are you receiving FSM provision for him? If not, Contact has model letters you can use to request FSM provision.

Also I never said I can’t afford to live 🙈

UC calc, with zero childcare costs. Rent at £950, with LHA of £800.

Literally the only other thing I could have got wrong is your council tax at estimating band B. This won't make any notable difference if I've got it wrong though.

I hope you work out what the discrepancy is, as there may be something you're not claiming or something not calculated correctly, and we can help out this right, or at least understand why your claim is so much lower.

no work required

except caring 24/7 for a disabled child while also having another disabled child. It may not be paid for employment but it is still significant.

Unpaid carers save the state a fortune.

And whilst I don't have an identical child, I have a disabled child. I help numerous people a week with disabled DC. This is not my first rodeo at these figures. I will have seen people in very similar situations to OP. Not identical but certainly not incomparable. With the equivalent of a £51,900 salary entitlement, and suggesting this isn't enough, exactly how much do you think OP should be given?

That is over a grand more than I get

Also, she doesn't receive DLA for the younger child, who she says attends nursery and expects to attend school. This is not a disabled child for DLA/benefits purposes.

OP, go through it line by line. Most of the figures are set amounts per month over which their can be no discrepancy.

Which line(s) make up the £1000 difference?

The child is still disabled as per the Equality Act whether they are in receipt of DLA or not. I did not say OP received DLA for DC2. In fact, you can clearly see I acknowledge she doesn’t because there isn’t a second disabled or severely disabled child element on the UC workings I posted.

It’s interesting seeing your made up story of my mildly disabled children and 50k+ a year.
However that is not the case at all. It would be nice if you stopped making up scenarios in your head.
I CANNOT currently work. Doesn’t matter what you say, it’s impossible. I am trying to go back to work in the future when ds is in a suitable school. I CAN afford to live BUT if I work and lose benefits I wouldn’t be able to afford the rent in the house that I was given (again I didn’t choose this area) unless my wage was majorly topped up by uc. what you are saying is pointless and irrelevant to my situation.

Literally the only other thing I could have got wrong is your council tax at estimating band B.

Except the housing element is also wrong because the full rent of £950 would be paid since OP is in a council property.

OP I'm not sure why you are so determined to insist a benefits calculator, with little wiggle room for error, is "made up."

The benefits you are entitled too, given the figures above, equate to a £51,900 salary. Again, that is fact. Not a fancy story. It's maths.

I literally work, housing people with Norfolk CC, and again, you are insistent you can not move. You live in Norfolk. Factually you can. There are many hospitals in Norfolk offering excellent provisions and so many cheap areas. Claiming you'd be too far from a hospital is quite odd because you can't be far from anything ok Norfolk really, it's not huge, you can drive from furthest point to furthest point in under 1.5hrs, so when you factor in the many hospitals within that total distance, you should always be within 20 mins or so of one. Dereham, anywhere in the Fens, Brandon (technically Suffolk) Thetford, Swaffham, Kings Lynn. In fact, unless you're trying to live in Holy/North Norfolk coast, or central Norwich, there aren't many places that aren't cheap because essentially Norfolk is the buttcrack of nowhere. Beautiful, but definitely cheap, and even in Norwich there are estates which you can live on well under your rental limit. You just don't want too.

I have read the whole thread and you are wasting your time.

She doesn't want to work. She wants to be subsudised so that she lives in comfort.

Thats what it comes back to every time.

Your points in this thread have been spot on. She is not looking for solutions.

Surely your UC is going to adjust to rental increase though? I thought council were only allowed to charge what the maximum LHA is? Once you report the change the rent component on your UC will be upped unless you have been placed in a property that is bigger than your bedroom allowance?

She wants to be subsudised so that she lives in comfort.

And yet disabled households are more likely to live in poverty.

I don’t have anything to add, just that I wish you all the best in sorting this out. 💐

Perhaps the OP would prefer to have security of tenure rather than being at the mercy of the private rental market where she and her children could be evicted at any time. She would also need to find a landlord who would be prepared to accept a single mother on benefits. Rarer than hens teeth these days.

@WillYouPutYourCoatOn You’re being unreasonable. The thread had decent advice until you joined and started pecking.

Those on their high horses clearly have no mental ability to imagine the work that goes into being a carer for a disabled child and how exhausting everyday existence will be for her.

None of that is relevant.

The "woe is me" stories on here are completely out of control.

What is relevant is her financial situation. Leave the martyr stories at the door.

Ok, I’ll tell UC that some rando on the internet says I should be getting more than twice as much as I do. I’m sure they’ll listen.
I don’t drive and would move tomorrow if I could.

@Iloveblink182 they will cover it, I’m more worried about when I do work how I would pay it.

@BouncingJAS carer for 2 disabled children wants to go to work but is worried because of rent cost. Obviously that translates into I don’t want to work. Even though I don’t have to and have said I want to but carry on, maybe you and @WillYouPutYourCoatOn can live together in your benefit bashing fantasy land.

To the posters with empathy and understanding thank you, I will look into training so that I can hopefully go into employment with better earning potential. I think this is definitely going the way of snotty people complaining about the welfare system unfortunately but thank you for the advice.