AIBU to be angry about the benefits system

[Daffodilsinfebruary]

I have recently discovered by using a free, independent benefits calculator called entitledto that had I applied for Universal Credit over 2 years ago, me and my family would be over £16,000 better off.

I had assumed that benefits were for either single-parent families or people unable to work due to disability.

The majority of our savings would have been from claiming 85% back in childcare costs. We also would have had a payout of over £200 each month in addition.

For context, we bring in just shy off £4,000 a month. I thought this was a very reasonable income and we would be entitled to nil.

I feel angry that we did not know about this. A friend of mine who I met through our children attending the same nursery told me she claims 85% back in childcare costs during a conversation in which I complained of my childcare going up £150.

I did further research and 19 billion pounds apparently goes unclaimed every year.

I’ve never claimed benefits in all my life and worked hard to get on the property ladder.

should I be angry that we didn’t claim, or take it in my stride.

I wonder how many other families who could have claimed but haven’t.

I don't really think that you needed this money OP. Benefits should be for those who need them.

“I have recently discovered by using a free, independent benefits calculator called entitledto…”

The entitled to calculator isn’t perfect. It even says “know what you could be due”. Very often DWP and HMRC calculate entirely, and sometimes wildly different numbers.

You’re right the benefits system is broken, but not because of work shy parents gaming the system, but because the Gov have purposely made it very confusing and hard to apply. Plus if they make and error and give you too much benefit, you’re charged with benefit fraud and have to prove you didn’t know they’d made a mistake.

I can't understand how you would be entitled if your earning 4 grand a month as a couple...me and my partner earn half of that and we get a top up from universal credit but not alot, our income including benefits is still less than your income 🤔

You honestly wouldn’t get any UC. I didn’t when a single parent and earned £3k a month. Your wages would wipe everything out.

Have to say though UC and PIP saved my skin when I was suddenly diagnosed with epilepsy 2 years ago. It’s uncontrolled so I have seizures left right and centre and between PIP and UC I get just over £2.5k a month and don’t have to worry about seizing at work and can afford to live quite comfortably.

But I had to do all the research myself, there was no ‘oh your brain is fucked here’s what you need to do’ leaflet!

I think it has very recently switched to 3 months now but you are correct in that if you have earnings you can't claim it anyway.

If you have LCWRA on your claim you would also get a work allowance just like those with kids do. It is an extra help to enable people who due to illness or disability may only be able to work part time. UC is actually more generous than ESA in that you can still receive the LCW or LCWRA and work as many hours as you like unlike on ESA where there is a limit to 16 hours.

So confused. You earn near 4k a month as a family and are entitled to benefits?

I earn near 4k a month and I have checked, i am NOT entitled to benefits. Only child tax credits.

How is this even possible? Did I miss something?

I'm a single parent on less than that and I get zilch 😭 got all excited and did the calculator again... still zilch

You’re angry because you didn’t bother to check before…riiight! 🤣 You must live under a rock.

I used to work for CAB and whilst there were many excellent knowledgeable advisors there were also some really crap ones. I left in the end because I complained time and time again about a totally incompetent colleague who repeatedly failed to correctly calculate people's benefit entitlement, some of them terminally ill, and nothing was done. They still work there today.

Thanks. It was my work coach that told me that I would lose money if I worked (back when I had one). Maybe she was wrong, but I tend to trust people who are there to give advice.

Child tax credits is a benefit.

It is always wise to check for yourself. See here.

Maybe OP did not factor in any savings she has. I would find it hard to believe that a household on £60k+ that indulge in a lot of luxuries don't have savings somewhere.... especially if they have a mortgage. I mean, house repairs and maintenance needs to happen, and can be very costly.

UC works on your "elements". Everyone's elements is added up, then your wages are taken away from the total (essentially).

So if you had a single parent who earned 66K (take home 4K), but had 3 kids aged 7, 8 & 9, and paid £1200 a month in childcare and £1300 in rent, that person would be entitled to £1600 a month in UC. Don't come at me telling me this is ridiculous, the figures are correct and it is what it is.

If you had a single parent with who earned 66K (take home 4K) and had three kids aged 4, 8 & 9 (so one is born after the 2 child limit came into force and isn't counted), with no childcare costs at all, and £1300 a month in rent, that person would get approx £180 a month in UC. If that same person owned their house, they would get nothing.

It's not a straightforward "you earn X so you are entitled or you aren't entitled", it takes into account the ages of your kids, how many you have, your housing costs, your childcare costs, your wages etc etc.

Post by bot - designed to whip up antagonism.

Thanks. I just blindly believe people, which is a huge fault I have.

I do crafts (and am pretty good at them) and when I said to my work coach that I would like to sell them (to recoup material costs really... crafting helps with my mental health), then I would have to register a company and be classed as self-employed... which confuses me as you can make up to £1000 per annum in a hobby business and not have to declare or register anything with HMRC. So I am not sure how that would work with self-reporting earnings on my UC journal...

I never bothered in the end. I now have a house full of hand made stuff that gets given as gifts, or I donate to charity auctions etc.

Haven’t RTWT but it seems to me that, if the OP doesn’t feel she needs whatever she could claim in benefits, she doesn’t have to claim or she could claim and donate the extra to an appropriate good cause - Food bank? Educational? Children‘s charity for the developing world?

Indeed.

A previous poster mentioned above about the managed mingration payment, which is great because obviously people are guaranteed to not be worse off.. however I can’t help being slightly annoyed that when I had to go from tax credits to UC in the year 2018 (practically when Covid struck) that I had to wait 6 weeks (people who had to move over around that time will also have experienced this) for any money to help with rent, the childcare element? Etc.. but now people are transitioned over and get a guarantee that they won’t be worse off?

mine and plenty of other peoples payments were on hold for 6weeks, my son nearly lost his nursery space because I couldn’t afford his slot without the childcare element, we had no money for food. We tried asking for an advanced payment which was always ignored on our journal! We was made significantly worse off..

would have been lovely to have the reassurance that we wouldn’t have been worse off so my child could still attend nursery, so I could work.. the rent had to be paid late.. a lot of bills during that 6weeks were put on hold..

the system needs to be fairer, we were a family in need back then, if they are doing managed migration now, why couldn’t they have done it back then? I nearly lost my job due to having no childcare because I couldn’t afford the childcare bill.

and before people start going “ooo you shouldn’t have children of you can’t afford them” I didn’t ask to be landed in the shit, I was working 35hrs a week, had child tax credits, help with some of the childcare costs.. which on tax credits they wouldn’t expect you to find a 1100 lump sum payment to be able to claim it back.. they’d actually help you get back into work.. husband also got made redundant during the pandemic so unfortunately we didn’t expect for him to lose his job, a new system to come into place and wait 6weeks with practically no income (bar wages which didn’t go very far) and also we lost a daughter in 2019 but they was pressuring me to find more hours literally 3months after she passed away!! So forgive me for not having a crystal ball.

its always been a system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

*2019 my apologies

Tax credits are a benefit just dressed up under the tax credits name to make it look like some kind of tax rebate rather than a benefit ! I think it was just so that the masses claiming them didn't think they were claiming benefits.

Shouldn't need benefits on that amount of earnings

Something similar happened to me with my first child. Me and DP were working full time and I didn't realise I could claim benefits until the 2nd 2 years later when someone I worked with mentioned it. I really struggled during maternity leave with the first too. I wasn't angry at missing out though, just grateful when I was able to receive them.

It does frustrate me that so many working people need benefits if they want to have children and have a good standard of living. That standard should be available on one full time wage.