Can we all take a moment to pray for Thea, living life on the brink of poverty at £6k a month (£3.2k of which is UC).

[BananaramaDefence]

In a good month when UC gives full entitlement, Thea has a total of £6,142.00, from £2,800 in take-home pay and £3,342 in universal credit plus child benefit. Her monthly expenses such as childcare, rent, council tax, energy and food etc are usually around £6000. She says: "So it’s living very much on the edge."

And now the cap is removed she will get more!!

From this: Pregnant mum-of-four: 'Budget benefit change saved our Christmas' - The Mirror https://share.google/QGbNeuIKPAmg1qNG5

No wonder people get pissed of with welfare in this country. I work 40 hours plus a week, have children, have to pay a mortgage, childcare and I earn way less than this!!!

No child should live in poverty but at the same time no family should get this muxh in benefits.

Before people say, yes but it's to pay rent and collate, I also have to pay all that and my mortgage is half my wage!!

Totally agree 👍

Hardly any women set out to be single mothers. Life and shit happens. A massive majority of abusive men do not show their true colours until the woman is pregnant.

Why dont the poor sods on here moaning ask for a drop in salary/ become a single parent/ move to one of the most expensive parts of the country/ give up their mortgage and rent etc so as to be in Thea's apparently enviable position?

I don't know who Thea is BTW haven't read about her, but what I do know is that UC doesnt pay out that amount usually, and is mostly a top up for working people on low wages. The childcare element allows them to actually go to work. Without it, the people in lower paid jobs couldn't survive. And then we wouldn't have shop workers, cleaners etc etc. Which I'm sure we'd all miss, right?

Oh hang on, I forgot. You guys moaning on here are going to fill the positions, problem solved.

What a load of old tosh focusing on one outlying case the right wing press have dug up.

People on benefits are in almost every case worse off than people working on decent wages. Otherwise, the majority of us, not being stupid, would jump ship and join them.

And Im saying this as a household earning a bit too much to claim any.

And again... yeah, people working should be better off than people on benefits. People who are working full time should not NEED any fucking benefits.

Aim your anger at the fact that they DO still need benefits, and that full time work is not for many people, sufficient to fucking live on.

That is the real problem, that is what you should all be really fucking angry about. It isn't because that money isn't out there. It's because employers are (for moderate to multinationals) stuffing that into their profits and their fat cat bonuses and not in to the pockets of their employees, it's because utility companies can and do fleece us for gas, electricity, water, and raise their profit margins higher and higher each year, whilst not maintaining the infrastructure that provides those utilities, paying employees shit wages and avoiding paying tax.

It is of course much easier to punch down than up.

As you were.

Just hope some of you on here arent also moaning irl about rises in national minimum wages going up either, because that would be sickening.

Loads are earning a pittance, many on zero hours contracts, and these workers need topping up or we'd have a hell of a bigger problem on our hands as a society.

Insurance covers the financial aspect of these situations and is readily available. Can’t afford the rates, can’t afford the kids.

’Are their no workhouses’. Quote from Scrooge for a bit of festive good will.

Sorry but my field of fucks is barren as they say.

if you spend time frothing over every case like this, you'll make yourself very unhappy, resentful and exhausted. Just let it go!

ETA ....

What a load of old tosh focusing on one outlying case the right wing press have dug up.

Yup!

Yes. I don’t understand why people on universal credit are paid to have children when people who work don’t get an increase in wages for every child

Because these examples confirm that system is inherently unfair and abused by a minority. If you don’t wish to discuss it just scroll on.

So why don't you ? There are calculators to work out what your entitled to based on your status (Marital) & income

Play around & work out the best outcome for your family would be the common sense approach

Fuck me there's some wilful ignorance and poor literacy going on here.

The woman with 4 kids, another on the way, and no job is not the same woman as the one being discussed. Obviously the frothers haven't bothered to actually check what they're frothing about!

The woman being discussed, Thea Jaffe, has 3 kids and works full time. Her rent and childcare bill alone comes to £4.9k a month (google her name, you'll find an interview where she gives specifics).

When her kids age out of childcare, her UC award will go down a lot.

Yup.

Rachel "Grinch" Reeves has seen to that.

It’s exhausting trying to explain this to people who can’t be arsed to listen to the reality of the cost of living for someone in London on the minimum wage.

where is the father of those kids? Why is nobody angry at him for shirking his responsibility?

whwre is the rage at the price of rent and the lack of social housing?

Where is the anger at employers for repressing wages?

@daisychain01 What a load of old tosh focusing on one outlying case the right wing press have dug up.

Er, excuse me, it was reported in the Mirror which is a left-wing publication.

It’s the most unfunny joke of the decade.

I think OP is saying that she IS one of those Mums.
6000 a month = 72000 a year before tax! Its ridiculous.

Where do you live?

People used to be horrified that when dh and I lived in London and both worked full time, we got housing benefit top up (just pre UC being rolled out there). Rent in London is horrendous.

Landlords haven't been complaining about all that lovely rent from the state, have they? Not until recently when it's become less lucrative. That's the real driver here. Thea has absolutely no power, she's just lucky in that she's been on the receiving end .... well actually just a midpoint of most of that money en route to private landlords and private nurseries (who pay staff peanuts but make huge profits).

Edited to say I've just seen @Ponoka7 has made this point- you're not shouting into the void I totally agree. We need to look at the whole journey of this money and who it actually ends up making rich.

Your naivite is heartwarming, I'm on the max amount of UC for my family too. The UC Facebook groups are full of people asking what is the minimum amount of hours they can do to maximise the amount of UC. My DC are officially in child poverty - they have never needed for anything (food, clothing) and I can afford to go away for a week on a very budget holiday off season. I drive a 2006 car and have no interest in status items, nor do I keep up with current trends wrt decor. I buy all furniture second hand. We definitely look the poorest in the street, according to Streetcheck about 70% of people are unemployed and 30% have never worked or are long term unemployed. This is a way of life for some, their DC will be no different.
ETA: I'm on benefits because I have a severely disabled child, I have to pay a carer which allows me to work 12 hours per week.

When we lived in London, worked and had to claim housing benefit top up, the joke was that dh worked in the housing benefit department at the LA! Good job on paper, but local authority, so not great pay.

A lot of his colleagues in the HB department also claimed HB top up. What a joke! Rental prices in London are out of control.

Then you get the idiots saying, “just leave London then!” Could you imagine if everyone who needed help to cover rent in London just upped and left? Who would do all the jobs?

Incidentally, we did leave. We were lucky as Dh job went fully remote just before covid (many London LAs sold off their offices), and him and quite a few of his colleagues took the opportunity to move to cheaper places, and like dh, managed to then get jobs at local authorities closer to their new homes. We now live 3 hours from London, in a much cheaper place and have bought a house here on dh wage alone, no benefits top ups at all since we left London and the extortionate rent behind.

This thread is disgusting. How any of you can wish children, who didn't ask to be born, into poverty is beyond me. You should be ashamed. Not only does living in poverty mean a miserable childhood, it has lifelong repercussions that end up costing the tax payer a lot more to manage in the long run.

This lady is working. She is therefore likely paying tax and NI out of her salary. She is doing everything she should be doing to support her family but she simply can't earn enough. She personally does not receive £6000+ a month to do with as she likes. It will go to her landlord and her children's childcare. Should she stop working so she receives less per month overall to keep the baying mob happy because the childcare will stop?

It is wrong that she cannot afford to live on a full time wage. It is wrong that rents are so high. It is wrong wages are so low. It is wrong that the cost of energy and food is so high. It is NOT wrong that this lady is getting what she is entitled to, which even then barely covers her expenses and leaves her with little extra to treat the children.

You need to start looking at the bigger picture, not these individual cases of people just trying to get by. You get pisstakers in every walk of life but the vast majority of people are just trying to make ends meet however they can. The majority of people in receipt of benefits are working in some capacity.

A lot more would be gained by chasing up unpaid tax or closing tax loopholes than will ever be paid out in benefits so let's get angry at those.

The rent in most large cities is extortionate now and there is no sign of it peaking off. A cap on private rentals is a must, there is not enough social housing or fair price rents. A massive % of UC goes on housing costs, if rents were capped this would reduce expenditure. It's mad that a couple who both work FT even need a top up, but they wouldn't be able to afford a roof over their heads without UC.

Some struggling families are getting some more money and Mumsnet is FUMING! Be grateful that’s not you struggling you have no idea about anyone’s lives. But god forbid someone might be relieved they’ll soon have enough money not to lie awake at night wondering how they’re going to afford new shoes/coats/a birthday party. Or are poor kids not allowed those? I bet half of you have never even walked through an area of deprivation never mind lived in one. Disgusting. Feel ashamed. It’s so ugly. I hope you can look at yourselves in the mirror this morning and think ‘actually I’m lucky so I’ll just shut up’ instead of getting onto Mumsnet to froth your bile and bitterness.

Was quite shocked then, but read the article and see why she's getting that much UC. It's because of childcare. Gov pay most of her childcare which is probably a big chunk of her claim. It won't be forever, only until her children are out of nursery.

I am still surprised she would qualify for it on that much money tho.

But the alternative would be her not working and claiming anyway. At least the shocking amount isn't forever and will go down in the future. She might not even qualify once her kids are out of nursery.