Mum on UC gets £3342 a month?! Is this right?

[Londonisthebestcityintheworld]

Saw this in the mirror, scroll down to Thea's story. Single mum of 3 in London who earns £2800 a month and gets an additional £3342 in UC and CB. How is this even possible?!

That top up is the equivalent of earning £50K a year. The benefit payments would put her in the top 10% of earners.

I mean, to quote the kids, what the helly? Am I a total mug getting up and slogging my guts out and working while others get more in benefits than I earn?

Pregnant mum-of-four: 'Budget benefit change saved our Christmas' - The Mirror https://share.google/kdV8SOUW8I4xpA7nT

See my comment above yours. If we allowed that to happen and all low paid workers voted with their feet, then basic function in London would cease, schools would shut, shops would shut etc. Can you not see how we are all connected? Cold, hard market forces might seem like a great idea, until you can’t get your prescription because the pharmacy shut or your child has to stay off school because there are no staff to look after them at lunchtime.

It’s not right. But it’s now the new normal. Have lots of kids, take zero responsibility for your life choices and expect the warning public to take from their own kids to give to you and your kids whom you could afford to have in the first place.

That’s why millions of high earning tax paying people are leaving this socialist mess of a country. Watch when they’re mostly gone, wonder what the benefits dependent will do then.

None of that would happen.

Salaries would have to rise in line with London living. Those who can afford to live there would have to pay more or commute further for services, which they clearly can afford to do. And things would rebalance themselves. If you don’t earn enough to live in London, you don’t have some kind of special right to do so. It’s an outright lie to pretend that everything would come to a standstill.

You've missed the point.

How is it fair that a high earner in London (80k with 3 kids) be told - sorry mate, you make too much for benefits. Sort your rent and kids.

While their undoubtedly lovely neighbour on 45K a year is told - gosh it's expensive to live in London and raise a family here - you'll need a state benefit top to bring you earnings to 100K.

And, in fact, the person being discussed (since removal of the 2 child cap) will now be on the equivalent of 113k and still have free childcare. Where am actual earner would lose their childcare credits.

So the person on benefits has actual more money in their pocket.

It is. Stark. Raving. Mad.

If it's that expensive to live in London why don't high earners who live here get a break?!

Ahhh that’s right. A job gives you stability, the ability to get a mortgage, save up for a pension, a career that will continue to pay you long after after a single mum’s benefits eventually stop. So people want to work because they know ultimately they are better off doing so. People also know deep down that living on benefits isn’t the cushy life they seem to think it is.

Or.. I could work part-time and get a benefit top up and have it both ways.

This attitude is what's wrong with the country. Nothing about this situation is fair to the actual earners. It incentives people to work less or even earn less...as they actually earn more that way.

And people here be like... Shrug. Who cares if people on benefits are making the equivalent of 100K a year...

Take Thea... How kn earth is she going to quickly jump her salary from 45K to 113K? She flipping can't. She's trapped as much as the taxpayer.

I believe unemployment in London is higher than national average anyway. London, though expensive, isn't short of people.

Yeah not cushy at all. In fact, so uncomfortable that millions choose to live this way.

No one with any sense falls for the lie any longer that energies claimants are somehow struggling and not the best looked after in society. In fact, the worst off are now the ones paying for this madness.

exactly and having to work for it as well !

Why are you tarring all benefit claimants with the same brush? I know many, and they are on benefits due to disabilities. The ones that live alone are really struggling. What they get paid is not enough to have a life of luxury on. Having to count the pennies and also being disabled is shit. And then seeing the shit on threads like this that make them out to be rolling in money and faking the reasons they claim.
No one chooses to live like that.

Probably paying child maintenance that doesn’t get factored into universal credit payments.

I work in one of the most expensive areas of the country outside of London and the SE. There are plenty of people working in my office, in the supermarket, cleaning the restaurants etc.

They’re not living in luxury two million pound flats. Or living next door to a Premier League footballer.

They’re living outside of the area and commuting in. Much like I do.