What were benefits like in the 90s/2010s?

[Autumnflakes]

I’ve name changed for this.

I came into some inheritance and I feel my mum believes she’s somewhat entitled to it for bringing me up on her own/she has nothing. There’s bit of a split in the family as some see my mum as poor old Susan, always had it hard, would be good for her to have a bit of luck. Where as DH said that she’s just lazy, expecting the world to fall at her feet, and since he’s said that I’ve been thinking…

I grew up in absolute poverty, hot water was only on just before sharing a bath (couple of times a week) or I’d boil the kettle for a wash. Our oven broke and wasn’t replaced for years, even before that, it was seen as a waste to have it on, even on Xmas. There were times I was genuinely hungry, I was definitely malnourished for a lot of those years. Sometimes my mum would have a ‘partner’ for a couple of years at a time and things would be slightly better. I remember 2008/2009 clearly as mum was single and we had nothing. I’d sell things on eBay that I had bought from charity shops so I could buy myself lunch at school. I’d quite often miss school as it was just too cold to get out of bed/being lethargic. I worked 20 hours a week from turning 16 and it all went on essentials for us both. When I went to uni everyone moaned how bad living conditions were but to me I thought it was amazing, at least we’d have the heating on when it was really cold and I had money to do a weekly shop!

My mum always said that she was only entitled to child benefit and Widows pension. That’s why we couldn’t have free school meals and because she had a mortgage we weren’t entitled to housing benefit. All of her benefits went on the mortgage which was around £300pm. She’d often say that we’d be better off in a council house but we were trapped where we was (even now I believe it was the right decision to stay in the house). Apparently she wasn’t entitled to income support and that’s what other support was based on.

Something just seems a bit fishy. Food banks weren’t introduced until the conservative government came into power. Surely mum would have bothered to apply for all the benefits she was entitled to? She has a lot of pride to the outside world, but surely she would have put that to the side to ensure that we weren’t living in that level of poverty. But, her ability to procrastinate from everything/find excuses why she couldn’t work/general laziness is something else.

She’s always hinting for money from us. Sometimes I do feel bad as I do remember that time and I wouldn’t have anyone live like that. She is better off now, she’s mortgage free and receiving her pension. She always talks as if she was a hero for getting us through that time. How hard she’s always had it but made it work. How much she had to sacrifice as a single mum and I should be thankful. Thankful and repay her for her struggles. It was the governments fault for not helping. She would occasionally have a part-time job, but they’d always be a reason why it wasn’t working out.

Looking at a fact sheet of benefits from 2008, the only non-means benefits she was entitled to was CB and WP at a total of £438. Minus the £300 for the mortgage, it sounds about right that we had £138 for the rest of the month she always had enough for cigarettes too.

If my inclination is right, that she didn’t even bother to apply for more benefits/pride stopped her from reaching out for help, I will have zero guilt for not paying for her to go on holiday. I do have little sympathy already because she should have stuck at a job but if she didn’t even bother with filling out some forms for benefits while I starved, I will call her out.

I worked for DWP for years - I don't understand why she wasn't entitled to income support. I remember when it was paid until a child was 16 and the child benefit stopped - I remember the first Monday in September was frantic with people changing to JSA

I used to work 21 hours a week and get about £650 a month in tax credits (child and working) around 2006-10. That was for 2 children.

I’m thought if you were on income support you still got child tax credit, but not the working element.

Child benefit was around £15 a week for your first child and £10 for any subsequent.

My abusive ex left me jn the early 90s. He paid zero child support. We had a mortgage on a small terraced house and it was paid directly to the mortgage company by the DSS. I only had income support and child benefit. There was no free child care back then so I couldn't work. Also had a loan secured to the house which exh and I had (foolishly) took out. I just couldn't pay for it so I lost the house.
Got free school meals when the kids started school. After everything was paid I had about 50 pence a week left

Is it because she was not doing anything to get work? Im not sure about the rules back then but perhaps to claim something like income support when you were older, she would have been expected to be trying to work. You don't just get free money because you haven't got any and can't be bothered to earn any, even back then i think there were requirements

OP I had similar I remember going to school with a plastic bag for a school bag, for instance, and not having e.g. PE kit, it being freezing (Scotland) with no heating and she'd leave the windows open in Winter! No fridge, just one of those camping cool box things but without any freezer packs to use..

My mum had some mental health issues but I was surprised no-one at school picked up on it or anything.

I'm not sure what allowances they had then (early90s) but I know nowadays she gets this pension credit which seems quite generous.

OP is it possible that even when you got to an age you didn't need a lot of looking after that your mother had a mental health condition preventing her from working ? People don't always like to share these things

There was also a payment which some teenagers got when they were about 16 to stay on at school which was up to £30 a week, if your parents earned under about £30k.

EMA?

@Autumnflakes sorry but I genuinely dont understand how she managed to obtain a mortgage without being properly employed?????

Hmmm her back stopped her working did it? I remember I the 90's/00's people claiming the sick because of their back, it was a long term medical issue that doctors couldn't 'prove' you didn't have!
There were TV programmes at the time when people were caught looking sprightly when no-one was watching and then limping into the benefits office.
I wouldn't be giving her a penny if she could have worked and chose to let me starve (from a full time worker with a bad back x)

I finished a FTC in the summer of 2009 and couldn’t find any work for a couple of months due to the financial crisis. I was OK for money, but it helped that it was summer so I didn’t need to put the heating on and I had already paid big bills annually life car tax and car insurance earlier in the year. I got JSA which was £60 per week. Housing benefit covered my rent plus about £40 more because the flat I was in was cheaper than the LHA. I got full council tax benefit so that covered my council tax. So my £60 JSA had to cover food, elec and anything else. I lived rurally and the nearest city was 20 miles away.

I think to claim tax credits you needed to be working 16 hours per week. When they were brought in the early ‘00’s lots of mums where I worked dropped their hours to 16 per week as they didn’t need to work any more hours and they had working partners and mortgages as well.

There was mortgage interest relief at source and income support available.

Perhaps she had a scarcity mindset? My own mother carried on as if we were on the breadline, they have a fortune in the bank. Mean with money mean with love as they say.

Education Maintenance Allowance.

I was a single mother during those years, benefits in the 90s were not very generous at all but improved dramatically from 2001 with working families tax credits and subsequently tax credits in 2003. There were no work requirements for the main element of tax credits but needed to work 16 hours to be eligible for the additional element. The tax credit system was quite generous and often disregarded much supplementary income (which is not disregarded now under UC) plus if you were working under 16 hours you were almost certainly entitled to free school meals. Even with a £300 a month mortgage she would have definitely had more than £138 a month left!!

It sounds like she would have probably been able to get the £41 a month child tax credits as you could earn quite a bit to get that but you did have to fill in a large form and you used to get back lots of paperwork each year, all in the post, it used to fill the drawer as you had to keep it all in case of any checks later on so maybe she didn't bother

It was a lot more than £41 a week plus there were adult elements too even if you were not working from what I remember and it really wasn’t that much admin (in comparison to income support) they tried to make it as easy to claim as possible, housing benefit was much more of an admin mare but she wouldn’t have been claiming that

I was in a similar position growing up, single parent family, with most of the benefits being swallowed up by the mortgage. From what I remember things were pretty grim in the 90's, I was hungry often and the house was always cold. Things improved dramatically when tax credits were introduced in 2003, which was much more generous.

Had my first pre tax credits in 1993. I had £30 Income Support per week entitlement but as the ‘father’ was meant to pay me £15 maintenance, I only got £15 IS.
Consequently if he didn’t pay I was left with not much to live on.
I did kick off and I got the £30 eventually but it was hard.

To get tax credits there was a minimum of 16 hours (so most places only offered 15). Anything you earned on 15 was taken off income support and housing/Council tax. If you worked over 16, no housing/council tax benefit because you earned too much with family/child tax credits. You lost every penny of maintenance too, even if the ex never paid it. No free prescriptions/dental/etc or fsm if you were on tax credits, either. But you'd get 70% of childcare if you used a registered childminder or nursery. If you were lucky and timed changing jobs from low paid just after your 6 monthly award, you kept the same amount, but if you lost your job and could only get a low paid one, tough luck, you've already had your award, come back in six months. Oh, and chances were that you'd get a massive bill for overpayment a couple of years later because you were supposed to know if they'd made a mistake or force them to review the amount even though they'd refused.

Everything was stacked to make it as hard as possible for you to do anything unless you instantly fell into a higher wage job, had free childcare or could import a new bloke into the household.

Yeah my Mum had a ‘bad back’ so couldn’t work, she could do plenty of other stuff though, wallpaper, paint, climb up ladders to wash the upstairs windows etc. My Dad worked though so while we were poor it was not the way that OP describes.

The ‘bad back’ of today is anxiety, anyone can say they have it and it can’t be disproven. The fakers then make it harder for those genuinely suffering to get any kind of support and on it goes.

Anyway OP she isn’t entitled to anything and I wouldn’t think less of you for a moment for not giving her anything after the way you have described your childhood.

I was a single parent in 1999 when my son was born.

I was on benefits until he was 2.5 when I went to university. No maintenance.

I had more money on benefits than I did on student finance (Inc dependents allowance etc).

My son did not grow up in poverty by any means.

My first baby was born in 1998 out of work it was only JSA or income suppor and CB (plus HB for renters). I remember hunting out coppers from the sofa to buy pasta or bread at one stage.

Once tax credits got introduced we had a lot more income and managed much better. I'd be inclined to say if you were mainly being raised in the 90s there would have been less support.

My parents divorced in 1991 and I know my mum got income support,child benefit and housing benefit until my youngest sibling turned 11,then she was expected to find a job.We never had much but was never as dire as you describe and yes my mum always seemed to have money to smoke and go out drinking.
I ended up as a single mum in 2006 I was entitled to child benefit,working tax credits,child tax credits and help towards my rent.I didn't drink or smoke and all my pay went on food,clothing and energy bills.

Great that's helpful 🙄

Born in the 80s, grew up in the 90s. Single mum and she was on benefits. We were poor growing up, but we always had food. Mum also used to get help family and friends too. CM was £20 pw from my DD iirc.