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'm so sorry to hear what you went through. Regardless of benefit entitlement, she smoked cigarettes and drank booze whilst her daughter starved.

I wouldn't be feeling too guilty about not passing on any inheritance if I were you!

We returned to the Uk in Nov 2001 with two small children and nothing else much ! We both got jobs quickly though and even when both working full time we got a decent amount of child tax credits plus child benefit. They were pretty generous from what I remember.

Oh also to add! Her inability to keep a job down due to sheer laziness is not your problem either!

It sounds like you did more than her in keeping you guys alive when you were a child. Food sacrifices whilst she smoked and drank. Working when you could and giving money to her. Selling stuff from charity shops on eBay to pay for school lunches because she was too proud to apply for it. Meanwhile she cba to keep a job, smokes and drinks.

You don't owe her a penny! Honestly I just want to give you a huge hug 🩷

OP hasn't said her mum sat drinking and smoking.

My mother was widowed in the sixties with two small children, and there was literally nothing then.

She had to immediately go back to work - obviously earning a lot less than men in the same job - pay the mortgage and sort us out. I managed to be given a full-time place at the village nursery, which resulted in some very nasty comments from married mothers about how unfair it was that I got a place.

My mum worked full time also getting a tiny widows pension and we definitely struggled up until I left home at 18 in the early 80s.

I found a letter after she'd died written in the late 70s to the DSS as it was then, begging for help as she had only £15 left every week to feed and clothe me

Makes universal credit seem quite good

When my dad died in the 00’s, my mum
got advice from citizens advice and she was entitled to loads of benefits/tax credits and I think it was apparent that we would have been entitled to benefits even if my dad hadn’t died due to him being a low earner but my parents just didn’t know. They presumed they worked so didn’t get anything. I think it wasn’t publicised much, and without the internet how would you know, it’s so sad to think how hard we struggled when we were entitled to be claiming tax benefits

I'm intrigued as to how she managed to pay off her mortgadge with so little incone. I Can't imagine a similar scenario these days.

Might only have been £40k if bought in the mid 90s, less if bought earlier than that.

I was a single mother in the early 00s and there were always adverts on the tv saying families on up to 60k could get tax credits and I didn’t know anyone except the elderly who didn’t use the internet. In the 1990s the benefits system was completely different and yes absolutely life was very tough but by 2001-2003 that had completely changed and went from barely being able to afford to eat to actually living a relatively comfortable life when was just on benefits and when working. Only became difficult again when became a student

No idea, but I would say that if I struggled to raise my DD I would be extremely grateful that she was financially secure in her adulthood and wouldn’t be hitting her up for money.

When I divorced in the mid 2000s, the benefits were basically non-existent and I lived on thin air (job-seekers allowance) until I could get a job. (Sorry, can't recall the exact details). Sounds similar to your mum, in that I had a mortgaged house.

Once I had a job it was fine. Got tax credits and was loads better. I didn't smoke though. but did have the odd night out!

In both cases though (job/no job), son got free school meals and free school books.

It's the not having a job that was your mother's real problem, OP, and it sounds like that was a choice.

I also think you likely were entitled to free school meals and she didn't apply for them. I don't think I needed to, it happened automatically, but I might be wrong, I can't remember. It might have been different for different councils/benefits?

My eldest was born in 1993 and I think the benefits were fairly reasonable. I started working full time in 2000 and did get some help with childcare and rent. Would have been harder for her as she had to pay the mortgage out of the benefit money but if my child was suffering due to lack of income and I’d be working, anywhere.

Loads of people didn’t have computers or the internet in the early 00s. £60k in the early 00s would have been enough to buy an average house so I doubt that very much. £60k nowadays 20 years later gets you so much less but it doesn’t even entitle you to child benefit.

Really, well maybe you were living on a completely different planet in the early 00s but the internet was very much part of everyone’s lives by then (except the elderly) most youngish people had a home computer (or used an internet cafe or computers available in libraries) I remember very clearly the adverts regarding tax credits and even the amounts, the 60k related to the £10 a week baby element for parents of babies under one but the message was that if you had an income up to 60k it was worth applying, there were also posters everywhere. I was a single mother back then, I remember very clearly what I relied on back them to so please don’t claim I’m spouting bullshit

Were you claiming everything you were entitled to as I was a single parent in the mid 00s too and received tax credits, income support, child benefit when I wasn’t working and obviously then more once I was working and was a hell of a lot more than received in the late 1990s (even when had been working)

My parents certainly were not using internet cafes. You are the one claiming I’m spouting bullshit

My ex bought our first computer in 2002. It cost £590. I also needed a landline (not cheap from BT - and if there wasn't one already installed, the costs of having one were prohibitive). They absolutely were unaffordable for the poorest people. You might have been in a situation where everybody had computers and internet (and mobiles - the 3330 was only a year old, as was the first camera phone in Europe) - but for most of us, there was fuck all money knocking around for that sort of thing.

From what I can see looking at 2008 she would of been entitled to about £742 in WP, CB and CTC (if you were her only child) plus her council tax covered plus free school meals. She would have still been entitled to the £742 on up to 15k earnings a year. Doesn’t sound much to live off now but things were much cheaper then, I had previous debts to pay so managed ok on £120 a week (3 children) after my rent paid as electric used to only be £10 a week, heating £10, food and £50. Even petrol was only 80p an litre then. Obviously would be very difficult to manage on that now.

No I didn’t have much money at all and not even a smart phone until the 2010s and remember pay per a minute dial up internet. However there were plenty of places could go and use the internet if you needed to, still lots of public libraries around etc. I was on income support with 3 children then and then much poorer when I became a student, so yes I probably was as poor if not poorer than you back then

I was erm 17 in 2009 and we where certainly online and had a pc at home with eugh dial
up when I was 10/11 years old so internet and pcs and cable tv where pretty normal.

In 2009 we had a full virgin tv package with internet full channels and landline. not having the internet and cable tv would have been seen as very weird then tbh.

Maybe they were relatively elderly?? Certainly almost everyone I knew in their 40s/50s had used the internet by the mid 2000s and most of them by the early 2000s

My mum was on her own in the 90s. I remember she worked about 20 hours a week but she didn't get any benefits beyond child benefit and there was no help with the mortgage or any money from my dad. I think it was a struggle.

Yes it is ironic that being on 60k makes you ineligible for child benefit nowadays (until this last April ) but it did then and you could also be entitled to child tax credit, if you don’t believe me then have a look at this policy document - from 2003!!

revenuebenefits.org.uk/pdf/new_tax_credits_IFS_briefing_paper_2003.pdf

BTW Child tax credit rates had increased again significantly by 2008

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/pdfs/benefit_rates_poster_2008_2009.pdf

I was a single mum to a 6 year old In 2008.
I worked part time and lived in a privately rented 2 bed flat and received in benefits..
Houseing benefit, my rent was £500pm, Benefits covered £350.
Single rate council tax.
I had to pay for breakfast club and school dinners myself.
I used a childminder during school holidays so I could work, tax credits payed for 90%
Of the cost.
I received £150 per week in working tax credits.
I wasn't rolling in cash but it was enough to get buy. I could afford to put away enough for Christmas and a Butlins type holiday every year.