Working expectations for parents on UC

[BlackCatGreyWhiskers]

AIBU to find this really frustrating? Basically there is no expectation for parents to work until their child is age 3. So if a family has more than one child that could be several years.

Whereas maternity leave is only 9-12months.

Especially as universal credit claimants can actually get help towards childcare expenses.

I don’t understand why there is a mismatch between the employed and unemployed?

When I went back after maternity, my pay was around £1500 and my childcare £800, then after I went back with my second my childcare went up to £1200. So I earnt next to nothing for 5 years before the eldest started school.

We will have to agree to disagree on that one.
There are plenty of scenarios where people are choosing to have children rather than to educate, train and work. I would say that is milking a system in my book. Benefits should be for those less fortunate. It needs reforming and should never be a lifestyle choice for some.

You understand why I wrote the 'state' and not the state, and that I was replying to someone else who had used the term?

Contribution towards childcare for working parents is offset by tax and national insurance contributions. It’s a win, win. - the country benefits from high numbers of working adults and the individuals benefit from a salary, contribution to society, building a pension.

Yup - but that’s still shockingly unfair for those children and parents of Mothers who don’t fall into that category. Basically if you’re thick raise your children because you’re no use to us.

I feel frustrated when people start shouting about 'benefits bashing'. Several times a I week I'm out of the house 13 hours a day, same for DH (in fact, for him it's most days).

I laughed when I saw someone up thread mentioning working part-time to maintain benefits as being 'great work-life balance'. Honestly, I think we should hugely cut back on benefits, make work pay and if people want to support others in their work life balance they are more than welcome to donate to charities to promote this.

We agree on one thing.
I'll ignore you from now on too.
Tschüss.

I agree with this, as someone in full-time work and with a mortgage, financially we don’t have the choice for one of us to stay at home for 3 years. It’s not fair on families and creates inequality in the sense of raising a family.

This isn’t actually true. I work full time and claim universal credit. I was expected to return to work after maternity leave as I had employment (which around 45% or UC claimants do). this only really applies for those not employed which is around 20% when you remove those that claim due to disability. You seem to have your back up OP and are very defensive with anyone disagreeing with you and many are talking about their real life experience of this and not just a table you’ve read online. I’m more than happy to have a nice chat with you about what it’s really like!

I would love to stay home with my DC and work part time but I’m not allowed to purposely reduce my income like that as it would be viewed as (I can’t remember the correct term but it’s something like) depreciation of assets.

Sorry, what?
Did you just actually use the word thick in relation to UC claimants?
What a horrible and ridiculous assumption.

And if you’re thick, please go ahead and have more children than people who aren’t thick can afford.

With AI, we have a decreasing need for workers. It’ll be interesting to know how this pans out in a hundred years.

Thick?

Careful, your mask is slipping.

I live near someone, 2 kids doesn’t leave the house but just popped out another one! Bliss x

I think I'd rather grate my face off than rely on UC. It looks like a right pain in the arse. Absolutely nothing to get jealous about

@R0ckandHardPlace This may apply to some people, but this specific person is already employed part time and has opted not to take on full time hours as it would impact her benefits. She does not need child care since her oldest child is 15, and her younger child stays with their dad when she is at work. She simply prefers not to work additional hours because UC already pays for it! In my opinion, this should not be a viable option.

I opened the thread to discuss policies not personalities.

Yes, I have never been able to work full time since I've had kids. The secondary years were even more of a shit storm. I'd be needed for drop offs, pick ups, meetings etc. Part time work topped up by tax credits / UC meant it was do-able. I might finally increase my hours if my youngest gets into college. Or have my postponed nervous breakdown.

Some of us saw through the mask from the start. 😂😂😂

Just to note, basic rate of £393.45 plus basic rate for your child of £287.92 is £681.37. Per month. That’s how much basic rate Universal Credit actually is. It’s a lot less than ‘having all your bills paid’ like you think it is!

Not you speaking in the third person?

Agreed. 👍

Nope. 🫣

So I don’t dispute those figures, but won’t you also be receiving other benefits?

If you are ill or too sick to look after your kids then what? You need to find paid help, or your dh takes unpaid leave.

if you are working and you are too sick to work, you will get 6 months full pay from most employers. So you can use that to pay for childcare and assistance.

some of the days I was most thankful for staying in work was when I was really ill, and my children could go to childcare while I stayed in bed/went to hospital appointments etc. I cannot imagine being that sick and having to cope with two active preschoolers.

if you don’t work you need really good critical illness cover. Which of course is £££ people don’t factor into their wages minus childcare calculations.

How do you know this? What is your evidence?

The sad thing is that people's lives are made better by work. Honestly having a branch of my family who are generation after generation not working (3 generations now!) I can see they haven't learnt things like conflict resolution, emotional control, the importance of delayed gratification, how much better your life is with good time keeping etc.

If people really cared about the poor and children especially they would be hugely promoting getting people back into work. Many of the skills you need to be a decent human/ parent you learn at work.

Instead, there is a definitely contingent who are happy to shout about 'benefit bashing'. It is so short sighted and frankly boring and uninformed.