AIBU to be surprised someone on £34,000 receives Universal Credit?

[Balicious]

I was listening to BBC Radio 5 Live at work yesterday morning. They were discussing the Conservatives’ proposal to stop people spending benefits on alcohol, cigarettes, etc.—but that isn’t what my question is about.
One caller said she earns £34,000 a year as a trainee social worker and receives an additional £500 a month in Universal Credit. She didn’t mention having children, paying rent or having a disability—she simply said she struggles to live on £34,000 and needs Universal Credit to top up her wages.
What is going on? That’s more than I earn! Could I apply for a top-up too? Has anyone else heard of someone working full-time and earning well above minimum wage having their salary topped up by Universal Credit? I just couldn't get over what I was hearing!

I read the OP and knew it was nonsense. Thank you for confirming ☺️.

Oh here we go again...

This place is getting so tedious

Oh don’t worry… read the thread . @Balicious made a complete t*t of herself

She likely has high rent & childcare

Blue hair. Rainbow lanyards. WfH five days a week. TOIL. CPD. Lots of sick days. Animal-free staff restaurants. A time allocation during work hours to be a trans rights ally and activist. No stretch targets. Strike days. The right never to be sacked. Annual vegan picnic. Bring your pet to work days. Bring your offspring to work days. Bring your dead ancestors to work days. Clean the bugs off the office plants days. Anti-static carpeting. Recyclable work stations. Bike, tandem and penny farthing parking. Support dog clothing allowance. Hourly drumming and chanting sessions during leap years. Subsidised Botox. December seasonal celebration. Compulsory gender affirming care. Errr...that's it. Ed

I am more bothered by all that tax ending up in private landlords hands because we haven’t bothered building enough council houses

It is, isn’t it?

Yes massive shortage in my LA too and you can't get a band 4 support worker for love nor money. The hike in private rentals is killing people whilst wages have remained stagnant. If we put a cap on the rental costs a lot of money would be saved.

The selling off of council houses by Margaret Thatcher is one of the neoliberal policies Burnham is attacking.

I bang on about it all the time. If everyone was in social housing, the "benefit bill" would be a lot less.

I once had two clients living in identical houses the same street, both non-working single parents with 3 children and 3-bed entitlement. One was a council tenant with rent of around £130pw, the other was privately renting a former council house that had been bought under RTB and subsequently sold on to a BTL landlord. Iirc, her rent was over £1,300 a month. The difference in the amount of UC was massive, I can't recall the figures now, but it was a huge amount of money. And the one getting the most UC was actually worse off, because the housing costs were higher than the LHA rate, so she didn't get the full amount covered.

There are people on Facebook groups for UC advice who are asked to post their statements when they ask a question. The amount of rent some pay is ridiculous

All the sarky comments - how dare the OP suggest this is unreasonable - but there is the minor detail that the UK can barely cover it's debt interest payments. Eventually the shit will hit the fan.

Isn’t it just 🙄

Where the hell is all this going on? I'll leave my council and come work there 😳.

Someone hasn’t read the thread. You and the OP are cut from the same cloth!

And the taxpayer is subsidising the Landlord's rent

When the whole idea of "tax credits" was introduced, some warned that it would turn huge chunks of the workforce into net benefit recipients.

Obviously they were ignored, because it was a great way to let companies avoid paying their staff. I mean why would you, if the government will ?

Not that it has much bearing here, where the only aim is to punch down, not up.

It’s easy to be unpleasant from behind a keyboard. Which is why you started this thread...

Every public sector employer. I have always worked in the private sector generating wealth so I know this 🤥

You could have listened again before starting an ill-informed, benefit bashing thread.

When did Margaret Thatcher step down- ah yes, 1990 - sadly absolutely no Gov in the last 36 years has managed to build homes (or control immigration)

But Blair started the immigration rise 300,000 a year when he was in power and it's never got below that, sometimes much higher but strangely AB isn't complaining about that

😂😂

It's housing costs that have gone mad, aided and abetted by government subsidies in the form of, firstly tax credits, and now universal credit. Basic economics of supply and demand and we've seen massive housing costs increase on the back of the government subsidising increasing rents - if the money is there, prices increase. At the same time, over the past few decades, we've had easy low cost mortgages, liar loans, low/zero deposits etc also increasing the supply of cash which fuels housing cost inflation.

it wasn’t nonsense though was it. She DOES earn £34k and she DOES get UC. Why? What does the children’s dad contribute?

It was also Brown's way of fuelling his artificial and unsustainable "boom" years - throw money into circulation via tax credits and it's inevitable that the economy will grow as people have money in their pockets. Trouble is, it's not sustainable.