Benefit cap? Benefit fraud?

[coco99]

Have I unknowingly been committing some sort of benefit fraud? 😭

I’m currently in receipt of
£1778 universal credit per month
£748 DLA for my son every 4 weeks
£83 carer’s allowance weekly
£26 child benefit weekly

I was discussing finances with a close family member today and they’ve told me that I’m getting too much and there’s a benefit cap? (There was no judgments, she’s just worried I’m being going to get accused of committing benefit fraud). She said that my total benefits are way over the cap, but I never knew there was a cut off point? Universal credit know about the DLA/carers that I claim because I informed them? I’m panicking a little bit now that I might have been overpaid and will have to pay some back!

AIBU? Have I been claiming too much that goes past the cap?

@HibernatingtilspringYes I get more because I’m a solo parent x

Quit then.

"Of course not! I am merely saying that is a lot of money, and anyone working full time and not getting anywhere near that ( like the PP) is understandably questioning that amount!."

The OP is working full time. Which you would understand if you had had the same role but I'm guessing you never have.

It's double what I get from working but why should the OP go out to work full time and get a carer paid for from the Government when she is the perfect choice to care for her DC - it's swings and roundabouts. It sounds tough OP, I hope you do manage to get some respite x

You don’t need to know all the details to understand to be entitled to that rate of DLA OP’s child is severely disabled. I doubt OP is rolling in it at all

Often if you don’t know all the details it is best not to comment at all. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool and all that…

Jesus Christ some of the comments on here are vile. The OP has a severely disabled child, what do you expect her to do, leave child alone and go and work. Some people really don’t understand what having a severely disabled child entails. Ignore the comments OP and carry on raising your child the best way you can. I certainly do not begrudge you for getting benefits!

No, it's actually more than ones at the top of their banding, which is a salary of £37,796. Once the mandatory tax and NI is taken off, their salary is actually less than the OP. Like I say though, I don't begrudge her it, I would choose for my child to be healthy as opposed to having any challenges any day and I'm sure the OP would as well.

Like I say it must be tough and I wouldn't begrudge you it. I hope you've checked and are getting all you're entitled to, carers wise, to give you a bit of a break now and then.

@coco99 I do a similar job to your profession and it doesn't compare to the 24hr nature of caring for someone with a significant disability (I've worked in care roles too and that's tough for an 8hr shift!)

I can understand that on paper it seems like a lot of money to some but when you actually look at the overall household income and the additional living costs that come with having a disability it doesn't go very far at all

If anyone on this thread still worries that they're 'paying for someone else to be at home' - don't worry, unless you're in the top 10% of earners, you don't actually earn enough to pay anything more than what you'll take out in your own pension and NHS costs.

Newsflash - you cannot get carers to look after your disabled child so you can work. This is not how it works. The current systems on place force the parent to leave employment. There is no element of choice involved.

@OldMcDonaldHadABigMac I don't know all the professions my wages are similar to what the OP gets, and the nurses and OTs that I work with, we're all on similar. They get shift allowance which bumps up the basic wage quite a lot.

Technically it’s the low wages and high rental costs that are the issue. Successive governments seem to think that propping up house prices and rental prices is important which is always going to mean more needing to be paid out to landlords.

Co-incidentally quite a lot of the people responsible for this are also landlords. More social housing at a reasonable rate (even if this undercuts local rental prices) would go a long way to saving money.

The ones that work unsocial hours get shift allowance, the ones that work in clinics, the community etc, they don't. So they'll be on the wage that I stated. It's just fact, there isn't really any debating it, the figures are under the published agenda for change information.

If only people on this thread would instead reframe as the OP SAVING THE STATE more than QUARTER OF A MILLION POUNDS every year

as that would be the cost ( £300,000 plus EVERY year ) in 24 hour assisted and cared living place

or perhaps those criticising think we should kill disabled children?

1. thats literally your choice - pay a parent £30,000 to stay at home and look after the child

or 2. Pay the best part of half a million for the kid to be cared for by the state

or 3. Kill the kid

did I miss any other choice out ?

"It's double what I get from working but why should the OP go out to work full time and get a carer paid for from the Government when she is the perfect choice to care for her DC ."

No one gets a carer for their child paid for by the government to enable them to work.

Well don't then. Give your job up and go on benefits if you're that jealous.

@OldMcDonaldHadABigMac I'm aware that wages are published, I'm also aware that 9-5 Monday to Friday nursing jobs are not the norm! Regardless though, I don't think any of my colleagues would think the OP has an easier life and want to swap!

Your last sentence has no relevance whatsoever to anything I've said. I was simply stating salary amounts. You tried to come back and make out that what I was saying was incorrect. It wasn't.

I think the point the poster was making was more along the lines of it would cost the government more to pay a carer than the cost of benefits paid to the OP. More like even if it did exist it might not be a good use of anyone’s time or the government’s money.

It might be nice if it did exist but I suspect that a) some posters would still resent it and b) single parents of severely disabled children would face an awful lot of issues without extremely understanding employers and work colleagues.

@OldMcDonaldHadABigMac if it's not relevant, why were you bringing up the wages in the first place?

Nasty and jealous, this Mother has a severely disabled child. Shut up if you are not a parent, or do not have a child that needs alot of help and care.

This is what annoys me...what a person does caring for a loved one or a disabled child. If employed would be titled Live-In Carer or Senior Carer. They would of had to do and be qualified for medication administration, hoisting training for those with mobility issues requiring specialised equipment. Although when I worked in care that required 2:1 carers on shift...yet the family members had to do it single handedly. Employed they would earn 50000 per annum due to the overnight 24/7 care and qualifications needed. They would then also be entitled to holidays, sick pay...

But here we are bashing the benefits and "no employment" even though most carers who are family members do more than most 40 hour week roles 😂

But let's get them into work and outsource the carers needed instead...that would require an extremely costly package of care far exceeding the benefits..would we prefer to pay for that instead through tax?

As somebody disabled, with amputated limbs, benefits to the equivalent £46k pretax salary is infuriating! This isn’t the OPs fault, it’s the government. I completely agree; nobody should receive more than NMW in benefits.