What is your household income, how much is benefits, and how are you coping?

[Gabrilla]

Genuinely curious after so many threads on here about benefit changes. Please feel free to name change!

I’ll start:

Salaries for both of us total 90k. Only benefits are £102 month child benefit, though we also get tax-free childcare and 15hrs free at nursery.

Total income is about 6k a month, mortgage and bills 3k, nursery 1k, commuting costs £500, groceries cost £500, husband pays CMS and other bits to his children totalling about £500 leaving us about £500 for everything else.

Feels like we’re constantly penny-pinching.

I am in a very similar boat to you OP in terms of income and outgoings. But no other children to pay for - just our own. I think people don’t appreciate how much it costs just to go to work (childcare and commuting costs!). Are you paying a mortgage? If so, at least you should be building up an asset for retirement. That’s what I tell myself when I buy all our clothes 2nd hand. And yes I agree, it sounds like this household income should go further than it does in reality.

Do people not do any budget planning before having kids, buying a house and getting a mortgage or making any significant purchase that requires debt that has to be repaid?

Or have savings for rainy day emergencies?

£45k single parent. No benefits just the child benefit. no Maintenance from father. I’m alright but have to be careful, no luxuries or holidays but we’re happy. Slightly concerned as I will need a new car in the next couple of years and that may change things!

£352 housing benefits
£532.88 ESA
£434.20 PIP
£20 private pension
=£1339.08

£416 rent
£200 food (many food intolerances meaning I can only eat certain things)
£400 bills
£60 petrol
£456 care contribution
£110 disability related expenses
= £1642 (ish) I end up robbing Peter to pay Paul and eating food that makes me ill. Also none of that is including the extra cost of bringing up my 21m old granddaughter (who came to me with nothing) for 4 days a week.

I can’t wait for labour to start reducing my money, I’m so glad that they have given me the opportunity to kill myself. So grateful.

Seems not! We have an incredibly nice lifestyle because we have the lifestyle we can afford and didn’t keep having kids. This is indeed a tale of have the kids you can afford.

I I know you have a lot of outgoings but I find it strange that you can’t afford a holiday I earn

2750
CB-280
Benefits-177

Total: 3,207

Rent 1400
Electricity 120
Life insurance 40
Internet/tv/2 phones 86
Bin charge 23
Apple 20
Disney 10
DS club 25

Total 1,724
Leftover 1,483

1483 goes to
300 food
240 fuel
200 savings
50 kids clubs/school trips etc
100 treats/coffees/takeaways
100 clothes/shoes
50 birthdays/gifts
50 prescriptions/medicines
150 holidays/trips (either as a payment off a booking or as savings)
I know this essentially leaves over 243 but it gets eaten up somewhere usually and if not it’s put into savings

so a holiday, trip is budgeted in.
Have you done a FULL breakdown of all outgoings? !

Not being funny if you can take care of your grand daughter you can work.

50k between us.
Mortgage and all bills approx £1200
Food shopping £500
petrol and parking £250
Money for 17 year old DS about £150
Paying my oldest DS’s share of his rent and bills £800 and it’s crippling me!! He was made redundant in November but starts a new job on Monday!! So I’ll be a bit better off next month 😊

The trouble is…. Who will employ someone with disabilities and health issues? It’s taken my DS 4 months to get a job after being made redundant! If he’d declared his ADHD diagnosis he would probably never have got another job!!

Not gone through the whole thread but 6k in and nearly 6k out is not sustainable. No need to bash OP but some serious budgeting needs to be done plus some risk management. My advice is to work our your expenditure based on a single income or work towards it no matter the sacrifices. No guarantee that life doesn't throw a spanner. Secondly, you can build a safety net and build a savings pot for you and your kids future.
Won't be easy but we live based on a single salary level from six years ago. As my salary increased we have had a nice foreign holiday but otherwise we're content.

To be fair I budgeted, saved, projected figures, bought a house, had kids and then everything increased by a huge amount.
I’m in the house I was in 8 years ago, now with 50% equity yet my payment has gone from £900 a month to £1900 a month due to the increase in interest rates. My oldest started nursery at £225PW, child is still in the same nursery it’s now £390PW for the same amount of time.
Energy costs, water, council tax has all increased by about 40% during that time too.

I don’t think it’s fair to expect people to reasonably be able to sustain such huge increases in a short period of time.

We have around £1100 a month from my OH pension and about £500 from my part time work,
Despite the huge increases in the cost of food and fuel we don't really want for much.
I save all my income and we use it for our travelling fund.
We have no mortgage or children, but also get no benefits.
I could only dream of spending £500 a month on food, £500 for everything else is also pretty generous, but it really depends on spending habits and what your expectations are.

But you can hardly compare what you spend on food for 2 to OP spending £500 on a family of 6 most of the month.
Per person you’re probably spending more!

PLease may I ask where these are in your budget: gas bill, water bill, council tax bill, house/buildings insurance, car insurance, breakdown cover, service/MOT, pension?

No I agree, it’s not funny at all.

1: Suggesting that disabled people shouldn’t have children is bordering on eugenics, you know what type of person believe in eugenics don’t you?
2: Unless you’re my GP, Numerous consultants, the DWP or the Family court, I’m not sure that you’re qualified to tell me if I’m fit to work or look after a child.

But I hope that you feel better for commenting.

I’m in Ireland we have no council tax, water and no gas in my house.i rent so no insurance, the furniture is not mine either so to be honest it was pointless having contents insurance.
Pension is paid pre tax
car related payments I take out of savings in a lump sum.

Who said disabled people shouldn't have children? I must've missed that somewhere

1. suggesting that disabled people shouldn’t have children is not the same as suggesting if you’re too disabled to work you’re too disabled to have children. Absolutely disabled children can and should have kids. But you can work. Childcare for example.
2. see above.

How are your bills only £300 a month? Our council tax alone is £200.
Water £50
Internet/TV £50
Gas/Elec £200
Mobile phones £20
What am I doing wrong?

I didn’t. I suggested if your able to care for a grandchild your able to work. Because you are. Childcare would be the obvious.

aah thank you. I didnt realise no council tax or water bills over there!

I have four children. Two at primary school and two preschool age. One of them is at nursery 2 days a week and the rest of the time I have them both at home with me. I have a disability. I cannot work but I can care for my children very well. They aren't mutually exclusive.

The cliff edge at £100k is farcical though. We want our high earners working as much as possible as that’s where income tax generation lies, but then we incentivise them to work less. Up the top rate of tax by 1%, give them back their childcare and nil rate band fgs!

Respectfully, you’ve made these choices, ie to have half your income go towards mortgage and bills. Obviously I don’t know your circumstances but I would bet you live in a much nicer house than ours but we manage ok on about £32k, (as I need to work PT due to caring responsibilities) because we clearly made very different choices. I’d love a better house, but accept this is the choice we made. I can’t feel much sympathy, sorry.

@Tonkie18thank you for sharing that. It shows how disability can just not be overcome as many on here think. I really hope things get better for you and can understand how overwhelming it must all feel.