To be pee'd off that ppl think single mums are loaded!!!

[LonelySingleMummy]

I am a single mum of a 6 month old boy and struggle!!! A lot of ppl think single parents get loads of benefits etc and have a cushy life ?!? Who? What? Where? !!!
For the 1st 4 weeks of my son's life i breastfed but i couldnt afford to eat more than one meal a day so i had to bottle feed (another expense) by this time my tax credits had come thru cos yes i was a worker. This helped me out but I am by no means well off and struggle every week. I have to sell the house before they repossess. I can't afford any little luxuries like wine or take aways. I go nowhere and meet no-one. Who says I get more than anyone else.
Sorry rant over lol

I agree with Starlight - I don't understand this thing about both members of a couple having to work. DH has just got a p/t job - it's minimum wage because that's all there is around here. After paying for childcare and accounting for the drop in tax credits he will be working for less than £1 an hour. If I couldn't get childcare vouchers from work we would actually be making a loss!

There's no help with childcare costs unless he works for over 16 hours. Well there are no suitable jobs with so many hours, and for the pittance we'd end up with we don't want DS in childcare for that long.

I don't know how both in a couple manage to work. Although ironically if we both worked for 16 hours a week instead of me working for 35 we'd get 70% of any childcare costs paid for and we'd be probably be better off. Work that one out.

By the way, is it true that a single parent gets £160 a week excluding rent & council tax? Because I should point out that £160 a week is about the same as DH, DS and I have to live on after paying the mortgage (£480 a month) and council tax. Things are very tight - we have alcohol/take aways once in a blue moon and never go on holiday. We do run a car though and we eat healthily. £160 a week is quite a lot in the scheme of things.

not true for me twinklemegan

get about £100 a week

Income support is £59 and some shrapnel per week.

Child Tax Credit is different for most people, mine is £97 a week.

Child benefit is approximately £18 for the first child and £12 for each successive child.

I have two children, one of who is under one. If I couldn't manage on that amount of cash then I would be bloody astounded. I don't have a mortgage however, just my household bills and expenses.

Does it really vary that much, or is the £160 figure wrong? I wouldn't want to try to live on £100 a week - especially not up here with the price of electric heating - brrrrr.

It was a couple of years ago for a LP with 2 kids.
160 thereabouts and that includes child benefit i think.
If your not getting that you are not claiming something....tax credits income support child benefit.

I do think that from a purely financial point of view you have to be earning a hell of lot to make working worthwhile. I get around £15 a week in tax credits and I have a below average salary. Thankfully I do enjoy my job.

smk, what do you class as a ultra expensive pram?

weekly I have:-

is/Maint. 70. (or whatever it is the gov have increased it to - my IS is reduced by the amount of maint XH pays for DS)

CB - 18.80

tc 45.00

all in that's £133.80? I have to pay towards my rent £12 p/w yes it's not a lot but when you don't have a lot to start with, HB won't pay the full amount as it's been capped at a set limit. I may not pay for my CT, but pay for everything else.

charlie - afaik I'm claiming all i'm entitled to - and had to work bloody hard to get what I am doing with all the red tape etc, (how fraudsters do it god only knows but still).

check entitled to DTM? Im sure thats not right...check as if your cicrumstances are as they ARE.
And as if you didnt get maintenance..

I agree the cost of prams and pushchairs is crazy. I reckon the shops think they're onto a winner with the Surestart grants. I was very lucky that my parents bought ours - otherwise we'd have been getting one second-hand.

i find this thread quite an eye opener, its shocking that pople are struggling to pay for the most bsic thiongs in life like a roof over your head , food and electric
and to think you are struggling to get a bb smk, id give you one if i had one.
you lots are right to be annoyed single mums are often sneered at, the press make them out to be lazy which is so not true

most people [like me] simply do not realise some people do have such struggles, its the sort of thing you expect to her about the thrid world people not being able to afford to eat.

its poverty really imo

do you think a charirt to help families in this country would help? or do any exist already?
or would you find it insulting or helpful?

i know id give money and raise funds

That lazy thing really gets me actually. On the basis of the figures I've seen whilst researching our particular situation, a single parent seems to be worse off if they work than if they don't. Unless they have family around the corner to look after their DCs. That is crazy and it's completely unfair to cast them as lazy scroungers.

I think that the help for single parents has gone a bit too far at the expense of help for couples. It should never be the case that someone, single parent or one of a couple, gets absolutely no benefit from working. Especially not when the tax credits are supposed to encourage people to work.

Personally I don't agree with that ethos I tend to think that one parent should be at home the majority of the time. But currently the Government is saying one thing and then setting out to make it impossible.

It is poverty waterdrop... no two ways about it.

I am a LP and get £111 a week Income support, then once a month I get my Child benefit at about £79.

I get my rent and council tax paid BUT with that comes it's own trials and tribulations - the council have done nothing but mess up my claims in the last 4 years and have tried to evict me 4 times and sent numerous letters stating how much I owe when I owe nothing!

So, out of my £111 a week I get £10 petrol, £30/40 food (depending on if I need washing powder etc) .... I try to keep the rest to go towards my overdraft (I'm £25 off the limit as of today...!)

I owe my parents about £12k and my student loan is just over £12k too but that won't get repaid until I'm earning over £15k so that's no biggie.... I have another year of uni to add to that bill too!

So, all in all, we (DS and I) aren't stinking rich but we manage with careful budgeting - the CB plus a bit of IS pays the bills each month - I am very careful with my electric/gas usage and am on the cheapest tarrifs for everything.

I am not a scrounger too - it is just not possible to work with small kids on your own; the money just doesn't equal survival.... simple. I am soon going to be on a £21k salary and can't WAIT to be free of the benefit trap, but that itself brings its own debt (student loan)...

Life is not simple, but at the moment it is okay. Budgeting and watching pennies helps a lot.

you have a mortgage?

sorry, but that's not poverty.

a home is an asset.

it's more than a lot of people will ever have.

my husband is low-income. we can't afford a mortgage, ever, and because we're together and working, we have next to nill chance of getting what little socialised housing there is around here when next the landlord kicks us out.

it's nice to know that taxpayer is paying interest on someone else's mortgage so they can one day have a huge asset an increasing number of us will never have.