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?

Then the country absolutely won't be able to afford funding residential care at thousands per week because the family carers have given up.

We owe them a huge debt.

Haters will hate me too then.
I've 3 children on hrc.
Did you all see the thread yesterday about how many parents of disabled children have thought about suicide ?
Judge away though.
Having the freedom to go out to work would be a dream come true for me.

Taxing the mega rich and closing the loopholes would be a good start. Building council houses would lower the benefit bill as we'd then be investing in state owned property rather then lining the pockets of private landlords. And while we're at it re-nationalise all the other public services we sold off which are ALSO costing us a fortune and lining the pockets of private shareholders! Ever wonder how we had much better public services when we were a much poorer country...?

Means testing for the winter fuel allowance for a start - pensioners make up more than 50% of the National benefits bill (whoch doesnt include disability benefits spending - most of which ALSO goes the pensioners)

Single mothers on benefits makes up a tiny proportion of our welfare budget.

If you consider £3,000 a month to be a pittance I’d like to live in your world. What would you consider to be ‘adequate’ ?

This!!! Well said!!!

The winter fuel allowance has been means tested, your stats re pensioners is very dependent on whether you consider the state pension to be a ‘benefit’ or something that working people have paid in to all their working lives.

It is a pittance for many families with disabilities.

I got not far off that as a single parent with two children one with a disability - I had to home educate because the school and SEND system was abc still is a travesty - we barely got by.

Just to make your blood boil a little more - I now work full time for a local authority in mental health - if I was a single mum now and somehow magically managed to continue my current job whilst still with the same child set up I’d be receiving DLA plus UC and would be getting around £3000 a month in wages and benefits.

If I were to become a single mum now with my children older, my eldest would still be receiving PIP, I’d still be getting universal credit and again, roughly the same would be coming into the household.

You don’t get to choose whether yhd pension is a benefit or not - it is. Period.

and I think you’ll find that the pension pot ran dry a very long time ago as today’s pensioners didn't pay in anywhere near enough - people paying taxes now are paying for the pensions

Winter fuel payment - excellent news.

Exactly. The average pensioner will become a net recipient by the age of 70. The state pension is legally defined as a benefit.