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.

For many it's a contribution and doesn't come close to the extra costs of being disabled

Thank you, I’ve been fighting for a school place (any school place!) for years. Some people are just unpleasant and like to patronise and belittle others.
I’m going to take on board the actual decent advice.
I can’t believe a thread about my wanting to work but worrying about the high rent has turned into this absolute farce 😂

Um, because you're ignoring basic legal entitlements and maths. Or not giving the full story. Two of us have done the calcs on the information you've given. A third from DWP told you that your claim to be only £90 better off was wrong as well.

Zero to do with gratitude.

@WillYouPutYourCoatOn bloody hell! Wind your neck in. 🙄 I'm not sure why you're gunning for OP so much but it's completely unnecessary.

She doesn't have to give you a breakdown of her finances. As someone with a very similar family situation to the op I could only dream of being on the income figures you have quoted here.

Telling her to just keep on at the LA to get her eldest into school is embarrassing. You've no idea of the ins and outs of the situation.

I'm cringing reading your posts. Cringing.

I haven't quoted anything. It's the government benefits calculator. Why don't you tell them there wrong.

I also do this day in, day out across the country and have done for years. I can categorically tell you it doesn’t work like that for many. If it did there wouldn’t be as many SENDIST cases as there is and there wouldn’t be such a demand for PAP letters and JR proceedings. As I posted, there is a rapidly growing number of children for whom there is no suitable school.

Nowhere have I said OP is an “unhelpable” case. Absolutely nowhere. I have posted many suggestions of ways forward. None of them include the disdain and judgement your posts do.

For her child (who has already attended school) to be unplaceable would be more unlikely. The only times we see this become an issue is when one (or even two/three) placements are found and the parent will still be insisting that it's not good enough for their child, whilst declaring the council is doing nothing to school their child.

This shows such a lack of knowledge and understanding. Most DC with EOTAS (i.e. they meet the legal threshold for it to be inappropriate for the provision to be made in a school) have previously attended a school. Many parents disagree with the LA about what SEP is reasonably required and what placement (or otherwise) is suitable and are forced to appeal where more than 98% of them are proven correct.

I am amazed someone who is providing financial advice has a limited grasp of UC housing and childcare elements.

This. Those that don’t understand clearly don’t have a disabled child/ren with significant additional costs.

You're amazed at a lot for someone who works in SEN declared a child "clearly" had to have an EHCP for SS... And then had to retract that...

OP I think retraining if you can is probably the best plan of action. That's what I'm going to do. I also have an older and you get child, on my own, eldest has sen. When eldest is big I'm hoping he may be a wee bit more independent and I can work at least part time out of the home. Fingers crossed.

I hope your consultations with the new school go well. My son missed a chunk of secondary school while there was no suitable place for him and it was a huge strain for us all. The battle to find a suitable place for him took a real toll on me (my finances, relationship, physical and mental health etc). I don't think people realise how hard it can be to find a suitable placement for a child with complex sen.

Again, I didn’t have to retract anything. In the current climate it is rare (unicorn rare) to get a SS placement without an EHCP in the OP’s situation. It just doesn’t happen. Even with an EHCP many have to appeal.

Don’t worry, I think everyone with a child in ss knows you need an ehcp.

@PringPring thank you, I’m definitely going to look at any training I can do. My only qualifications is in childcare and sen but I need a break from that kind of work 🙈

You think I should call the DWP up and tell them they're calculating wrong?! So same as the op. Yes. I'm sure we'll get right on that. First thing Monday morning.

Excuse me UC worker, some random on the internet is insistent I should be raking in cash and I'm not. I insist you recalculate immediately! 🙄

I can't speak for op but in my area we have a carers support service who offer to go through your benefits and check it's all okay, which I have done.

You're clearly very set on how parents of disabled children are living. Raking in money, and being lazy not trying hard enough to get our kids to special school. 🙄🙄🙄

Good luck to the families you work with.

@BouncingJAS more than us on this thread or the entirety of mumsnet?

Could you imagine actually getting £50k+ a year!

No. You said I was quoting incorrectly.

I pointed out I wasn't "quoting" anything and they are directly from the government suggested calculator. It's not "some random" anything. Please use the government website yourself and try to come up with a different figure, using the same information.

And further to this it was also manually calculated by another poster.

So yes if you think we're wrong, you think the DWP is wrong. It's their calculation. We merely input the figures according to OPs story.

Could you imagine not being able to understand that the story you've given equates to the same amount hitting your bank account as someone on a £50k+ salary.

OP,

You sound like a fantastic, switched on woman.

I'm sorry you're getting shit from some people on here.

I have a friend with a very dependent, disabled DS. He's 20 now and still needs constant care and attention at all times.

She could never reliably commit to any days/weeks, even hours without often (almost always) having to change plans.

Clearly the people @WillYouPutYourCoatOn 'helps' are not in your situation, whatever they think.

@WillYouPutYourCoatOn

You talk about a £50k salary year as though it's millions.

£50k salary a year amounts to around £2,990 a month, depending on various things.

If your rent is £1k, then council tax £200, gas, electricity, £300, water, £50, , insurance, £50

Then food, clothes, transport to appointments.

It's a good amount to live on but OP isn't going to be jetting off to the Bahamas, is she 🙈

Except the thing is not only do I do this for work, specifically in the same area OP lives, but I am also the mother of a disabled child, who claims CA and works, in Norfolk.

So when I say, this is possible, or this is what you should be entitled to, it's not a guess.

Good evening, all.

We've had a report about some of the posts on this thread so we're just popping in with a reminder to please post within our Talk Guidelines - it's fine to disagree, but please don't make it personal. Thanks.

Thank you. When I posted, “OP would need an EHCP for SSs” I didn’t realise someone wouldn’t be able to comprehend I meant OP would need an EHCP and they would think I meant every situation. I don’t know how I could have made it any clearer when I posted “OP would need”. That is not me back peddling or retracting anything. If I meant everyone or every situation I wouldn’t have written “OP would need”, I would have posted “everyone needs” or just “an EHCP is needed” without qualifying it with OP would need.

Previously, yes. New arrivals, sometimes. EYFS assessment places, in some LAs. LAC, sometimes. Self funded, if you can afford it (could be £100k-150k+ pa) and the school accepts self funding pupils. APs, yes. SS in your situation, it just doesn’t happen now.

Honestly OP, start a thread on the SN boards and other posters and I will guide you through what to do about the EHCP/s19 provision. For anyone reading, it won’t be an immediate solution though.

@WillYouPutYourCoatOn

I am sure that in your role you also see people for whom it is NOT possible.

So when I say, this is possible, or this is what you should be entitled to, it's not a guess.

Except some of what you say is possible, isn’t for all carers.

No, I haven't suggested it's millions. It is, using the information OP has given, what she is receiving. No two ways about that. So if it's not, she has given misleading information and only she knows exactly why apparently she gets over £1000 less. Two of us, who work in this field have not got the amount wrong. The government calculator is not wrong. It is, impossible for no other factors to apply, and OP get £1000 less than the calculator states. It's not a subjective amount. It's a fact based calculation that will come back to the penny, when you input the information. So only two things are possible. OP does indeed get that amount. Or, the information she has given is incorrect.

£50k is however, a good amount of money. A £50k salary is well above the national average.

There will be rare exceptions where certain things may not be possible (exceptions don't make the rule) much like my cousin's child not having an EHCP. Nothing OP has said, shouts that her situation is so far removed from many other carers with disabled DC.

What she is entitled too, however is not a guess. With the exception that she hasn't given an exact rent figure (so we've both used £950 and £1000) these calculations, to give slight difference in outcomes. It's literally a calculator. A rigid formula that does not give different answers.

You and I both know this.