Families on UC

[happypickle]

Off the back off another thread and doing a few searches of the benefits calculator, it seems the sweet spot for a lot of families will be to be renting, have a low/medium earning (typically) husband and an unemployed mother who stays at home. This seems to yield the highest return for UC, no childcare expenses and a happy mum who gets to stay at home and be there for her children.

It doesn't seem to be fair that UC system supports this whilst middle earners will be expected to both work full time in order to pay their mortgage and pay extortionate child care fees to probably be in a worse financial position than those on UC.

I know the theory is that long term, the working couple will be better off as they will have better pensions and career progression. But is that really the case?

I don't see how the uncertainty of renting is beneficial to anyone.

It is if they have a secure tenancy.

Everyone has the same choices. You are free to quit working to SAHM too.

Once your child/children are over the age of 1 you are expected to attend interviews at the job centre and be prepared to return to work.
UC isn’t a great amount of money. Regardless of whether a parent stays at home to save on childcare there is still a cap on how much they can receive. There is an incentive to work with UC paying 85% of your childcare if you’re under the earnings limit, they want people in work.
Im a single parent who works and receives UC, when I was with my ex I didn’t qualify due to his earnings (Which weren’t great) so I have seen both sides.

I suppose the thing is those kids grow up and then you have no skills and have been
out the workplace for years. Also UC has changed and they will push for you both to work.

I claim UC, single parent, work full time, mortgage / house owner. I’ll probably be better off long term than those single parents who rent / work v part time / not at all. Although obviously get a lot less just now.

I would also say that the rent thing is a bit of a red herring. They don’t get that money it goes to a landlord who is profiting from a massive failure to invest in social housing. There was a thread the other day, £300k plus for someone raising kids in an ex council flat over 18 years. I bet they sold it for 10k back in
the day.

Some benefit claimants get too much, that covers their costs and more some! Whilst other claimants are not even given enough to heat the house and feed the children. Some children only have one decent meal a day at school as the family, or more to the point, single mother who works, doesn’t get enough support. That’s why during the 6 weeks holidays lots of children go hungry, because the low amount of benefits provided doesn’t cover the cost of the extra meal a day. Yet some claimants don’t have to worry about heating or eating, because they are given excess. The system is broken and needs an overhaul.

Every child should matter, not just certain ones.

Doesn’t anyone feel guilty taking money from the state? I would unless I was in dire genuine need or had a disabled child or something. Able bodied adult bumbling along on benefits - I couldn’t look myself in the mirror taking money from taxpayers to support myself.

Most claimants do work, they’re not paid a wage decent enough to support themselves, despite working full time, so the state covers the difference, to compensate the employer. Google working tax credits and it explains it. It was a push for business to grow, but they didn’t, they just took advantage of the work force.

The benefit bashing on here gets less subtle every day.

Most of the problem nowadays is that it's become a lifestyle, not a stopgap.

No I don't as I have a mortgage and UC won't cover mortgage housing costs.

And if everyone made this choice, where would the UC money come from?

Why should people feel guilty? There are plenty of working people having to claim universal credit. What a horrible post

Plenty of poker with a mortgage claim UC. If your income is low even with both of you working you can claim.

Surely a big part of the issue there though is that people aren’t paid enough to give them a decent standard of life? People working full time shouldn’t need to be supported by the state. That is a sign something is going wrong in society surely?

By secure tenancy, I assume you mean social housing? Which is like gold dust and the waiting lists a ten years or more if you're even considered and not all social tenancies are secure only council houses have secure tenancies and they all sold their stock to housing associations who do a variety of tenancy from / years to assured at best.
I worked for one of these H/As and most people are on the waiting list and bidding until they are no longer a priority and are forced to look for private rentals.
Also staying at home on benefits until a child is 3 living in poverty isn't my idea of the dream but you can aspire to that if you choose.

We get UC, I'm a sahm my husband works full time we have a mortgage, 2 of the 3 children in this house are physically disabled I'm a carer to them both, I get one lot of carers allowance which is deducted from the UC despite me running on 2-4 hours night sleep for the last 10 years there is no respite. No I don't feel guilty I feel exhausted.

Well you chose the mortgage. If you think the sweet spot is what you describe there is nothing to stop you. Except of course you realise that actually is not that perfect after all and you want “more”.

UC is set up to give you the most if both parents work. It's mow a requirement that you need to be available and looking for work or working if your child is over 3 (I think) for 30 hours a week. As a family we claim UC, both of us work. Husband is self employed driving instructor and also works 15 hours for a coach firm. I do 3 days as a TA for special needs children. We have 3 kids, 2 of which are SEND and registered disabled, so I get the carers element which removes the 30 hours requirement.
Renting is not stable at all unless it is through the council or housing association. No fault evictions are common, deposits are huge. We were evicted before because the landlady wanted to move in, we had to stay months after the date because we couldn't find another place to live, it was incredibly stressful. We live in a housing association house now and it is such a relief to be out of private renting. I do think that UC should take mortgages into account in the same way they do for rent, it feels like the government is saying you cannot own a home because you are poor !

If anything needs to be fixed urgently it's carers allowance. It's a disgrace that it gets taken off UC and wages at all. Carers are saving the taxpayer millions in care costs

No I didn’t. 50% of the country claims some kind of in work benefit. I’ve never had a period of unemployment since I was 16. Even at uni I worked 2 jobs and paid tax.
When I unexpectedly became a single parent at 32, claiming tax credits was the only thing that actually allowed me to work because putting my daughter into nursery was costing over 1/3 of my salary - and the only reason it wasn’t even more than that is because I worked 4 days, one of those being every Saturday, so my daughter was with my mum.
I no longer claim benefits and own my own home. The fact i was able to dig myself out of that situation was purely as a result of receiving support for the first few years of my daughter’s life.

The whole carers allowance system is shocking. But the goverment have yet again shown they have no respect for carers.

That’s the point of benefits though to tide you over. Sorry don’t know much about it but personally would not be comfortable taking money I hadn’t earned myself on a long term basis unless I was in genuine need. Doesn’t seem to bother anyone else so maybe I am the old fashioned one.

I think it works out about £2 an hour for carers or something.

I suppose if you have a mortgage, then you have an investment.

I rent and will have nothing to show for it or anything to leave for my dc