Couples who live separately so they get additional financial support

[slimline]

A couple I know got married over a year ago, yet they still live separately. She has two children from a previous relationship and lives in a 3 bed house. He lives in a 2 bed house and has no children. I mention the size of their homes because it’s clear that there is ample space for the entire family to live under one roof. I can’t think of any other reason for their separate living arrangements (considering they have made a commitment to each other through marriage) aside from financial security, as her eldest child has SEN and she doesn’t work. He is working, which I assume could complicate things if he were to move in. Yes, I understand it’s legal, but I can’t help but think they’re taking advantage of the system in some way. This isn't the first time I've heard of couples or families living apart in order to increase their income. I’m ready to be accused of benefit bashing or called all the names under the sun. Don’t care sorry!

But the couple OP is on about are not finding loopholes, and nothing is being exploited.

Yes, and this system is wrong. Of course people use every opportunity, just another proof that we need radical change of welfare system

What part of it’s perfectly legal means it’s perfectly legal to do

So what part of it do you not understand

its the law - they aren’t breaking it
they are just smart enough to take advantage of the law

why wouldn’t you take advantage of a law that’s makes you thousands of pounds better off

just like people chuck money into a pension to avoid paying tax

just like 2 people who 55 k can claim child benefit
but 1 person who earns over 60k

it’s the law and people will use it to there advantage. - they would be stupid not to

they aren’t doing anything wrong
playing the system would be living together and claiming that they don’t

Wrong according to who?

What would you change, and how would you enforce it? To make a joint UC claim, a couple must live under the same roof. How would you amend that?

I’m disappearing to spend a mortgage payment on my weekly food shop, but my advice to everyone currently enjoying their magic windfalls and feeling rather indignant about anyone critiquing current welfare policies - enjoy the money while it’s there. Try and save some of it while you can.

The country is skint. There is no more money and the welfare bill HAS to reduce moving forward. It will either be Conservative or Reform, or a coalition of those parties winning the next election and one of their pledges will be getting more people into work and getting more people off of UC. It’s better to know it’s coming than not plan for it at all.

Wrong - says who
You and who else

well your obviously wrong because the DWP / Law don’t think it’s wrong

as they allow benefits based on household income
not a gold wedding ring and a certificate to say your married

trust me if the DWP could find away around this they absolutely would have change the law
it’s been this way for at least 30 odd years back as far as I can remember anyway

I think we’ve completely lost our way with the benefits system, and it annoys me that successive leaders haven’t tackled it properly and that there’s now no shame attached to taking other people’s money. Quite clearly these people should live in one house as a family, and two able-bodied adults should be working.

I haven’t taken any money off anyone since I was 22. I’ve worked incredibly hard to achieve this and this has probably at times been to the detriment of my two lovely daughters. But I was brought up that it is shameful not to pay your way.

My grandmother was widowed with three young children just after the war. She had to go on National Assistance. This was a great family secret because it was such a shameful thing to have to do. We seem to have gone to the other extreme. Surely there must be a middle way.

How do you force a couple to live together?
Would you want to live in a society that has such powers?

Do they? I thought they had another week yet 😬

OP should know 😏

Yes I would. If you’re in receipt of government money, you should do what the government tells you. No issue there?

In any case, being married historically has always meant living together. It’s not really a marriage otherwise?

well be glad that you can afford a mortgage payments on food
be glad that you have a secure home to live in

This country isn’t skint
the media and press like to make out we are skint , we are far far from skint

be angry at the people at the top
not people at the bottom

be angry that our government is going to try and waste millions maybe billions on a digital id - for what purpose

be angry that they were spending millions on hotels for people who arrive in a dingy
( I don’t blame the people)
be angry that they want to give almost 80 million to the chago islands

be angry that Trumps war has made petrol go through the roof

be angry that the House of Lords get 400 a day to turn up and all drinks and food are subsidized

be angry at the millions and million of money wasted on PPE during Covid often to MPs family’s and friends business

be angry at the people at the top who are so scared of losing control of the money they set people against each other so we don’t notice what they are doing

but no your just angry at the people at the bottom cos that’s what the press and the media want

people like you and the op are exactly what the government want
you are just doing their dirty work for them 😂

Dictating personal lives to such as extent is chilling. I am sure there are countries in the world you could move to if you wanted to be controlled in such a manner.

But they are doing what the government says

they are living apart

they aren’t breaking any rule or any law 😂

PP wants the government to have powers to force couples to live together.

Sounds like some awful dystopia to me.

I do understand what you are saying, so I’m being slightly facetious here- I am not in receipt of government support so it wouldn’t apply to me. You could equally argue they could get a job if they didn’t want their lives dictated in that way.
Perhaps what’s needed is a better system fundamentally, that didn’t inadvertently incentivise living apart.

ODFOD. I worked as a single parent of 3, one disabled, as a teacher full time for years. I was entitled to tax credits the whole time. At the beginning, I was earning £1.2k a month with childcare costs of £850 for the same period. And I am supposed to be ashamed? How do you propose I should have lived with £350 a month for mortgage, car, insurances, utilities, petrol, food, phone, clothes, shoes, haircuts etc etc? Seriously? We’re talking 15 years ago, not the 70s! Thousands are out there working as hard as they can with an entitlement to benefits but they should be ashamed? Nah. Bollox. You have not one fucking clue nor an ounce of understanding of what it is to live in the real world.

Why do you think a Government with the power to force people to live together wouldn’t find a way to come for you and your family? People who claim benefits are not inherently bad, stupid or anything else which somehow makes them deserving of less protection than those who don’t claim. You want a return to the poor house? Or to live in a gated community that requires armed protection?

What world do you think I live in, some fantasy one? Mine is as real
as yours is. What we actually need is a system where employers pay a proper wage that doesn’t need to be topped up by tax credits and where fathers adequately support their families, rather than the taxpayer picking up the bill for failed relationships. I do have every sympathy for your situation, clearly the economics aren’t working at all.

No. First and foremost an economy where employers pay proper wages so people don’t need benefits top-ups. Secondly wider understanding that 25% of the tax take going on welfare is just nuts. Thirdly some more personal responsibility - stay in work, have the number of children you can afford, absent fathers still need to step up and support their children - that’s a big issue it seems.

But your comment was that people claiming benefits should be ashamed? I am not ashamed. I did my best. And I believe thousands out there are doing their best with the cards that life has dealt them. You only have sympathy for me because I detailed the situation. You don’t think every other benefit claimant might also have a situation? I was lucky my child’s condition was managed in school - but I am not naive enough to believe every child with the same condition attends such an accommodating institution. Indeed, Facebook groups tell a very different story. Stop the judgment. See the people behind the claims and the situations they face.

And no, I am not in denial that some people lie, cheat and game the system. But a civilised society should support its weaker members, the old, sick, disabled, those experiencing ‘hard times’ and yes, the underclass who will never work successfully without masses of support. The alternative is not good - shanty towns, make shift dwellings, poor sanitation, scratching a living buying and selling on the streets, drugs, alcohol, prostitution, petty theft, more serious crime including people trafficking and huge abuse (usually of women and children). I know what I prefer.

Why is it wrong? What would happen if you wanted to separate after you get married or your other half went off. You wouldn’t be able to claim benefits because technically you are still married. Women with kids would be royally fucked over if they couldn’t leave because they were dependent.

The only thing that would happen if you changed the system is that less people would marry.
This couple wouldn’t marry, would still live apart and still get benefits.

First and foremost an economy where employers pay proper wages so people don’t need benefits top-ups.

Is it pay or the fact that there are either no jobs or flexible jobs are less hours and therefore less pay.

I know on MN we are all self employed or WFH in fantastic careers. In the real world a supermarket, a nursery or care home needs a workforce too.

They’re milking the system and the taxpayers, but you’ve got to blame the system that allows them to. 🤷‍♀️

But the loopholes aren't the problem.

It's just the sort of people who are using them in this case.

It’s always the same shit
blame those who have the least
thry are the ones that are making you miserable and poor 😂

do you really think that if you stopped the welfare state or stopped certain benefits you would get more money in your wage packet

do you really think that money would be diverted to make the NHS better or recruit more police

it won’t - you won’t get a single extra penny
it will be spent on other shit like repaying chagos or on Prince William’s coronation

this country is rich it’s just been very very badly managed for the past 20 odd years

because people like to think of themselves as better than those on benefits without thinking that one day it could easily be them

all it takes is redundancy , a death , illness divorce or separation or a disabled child mist you might have to claim a benefit

then let’s see where your morals and superiority is
will you not claim because you feel ashamed
I don’t think so …

But really you should blame the government for allowing business to pay such a shit wage that the government have to top up the business workers salary

why on earth should a business be able to pay such shit wages
so shit that the staff need to claim help to live and pay bills

clearly the business isn’t profitable if the staff need to claim benefits

why should a professional nurse or a teacher need to claim UC
they shouldn’t but very often the wages are shit or average and childcare is extortionate