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!

Public sector pay is better than private I thought overall. The difference is in the private sector you can earn very high salaries which are far less common in the public sector.

Not even less common but don’t exist eg a MC partner can earn 2m.

how are you eligible

Depends on her circumstances. I get UC on a £46k salary, with one child, I get approx £190 per month.

Is that to pay towards you rent ? Just as I get less than you and don’t qualify

Not specifically, although rent is included in the calculation but I'm HA tenant so my rent is relatively low (£800pcm - 2 bed in London).

Err...what a stupid comment. The point is its a TRAINEE role - if you up this pay everyone deemed to be qualified or more experienced, and presumably not claiming UC, will expect their money to go up accordingly

When ‘affordable’ rent near me is 1400 in a housing association house , for example
https://www.homemove.org.uk/property-detail/611814876-SH002955
The only way a family could survive that wage is on UC so it’s not a surprise at all.

Its a trap.

I don’t regard you as a half wit @catspam79

but I don’t think DWP has singled you out to deny you UC you are entitled to.

If you aren’t getting, you’re not entitled. It’s that simple.

How right you are OP. So easy to be unpleasant from behind a keyboard. Do you see what you did there?

They'd have already spent 3 years completing their degree and will still be working full time in a very stressful role. We're not talking about 16 year olds on a level 2 apprenticeship. They should be paid a decent salary.
They should push up the salary for all social workers too, maybe we'd deal with the huge shortage of them and the waste on agency staff aswell as reducing UC claimants.

Yes, we really need to collect the £59bn tax shortfall, and deal with ballooning executive pay.

🤣

A decent salary - like Sharon Shoesmith on £133k (nearly 10 years ago) when Baby P was murdered and later paid off to the tune of another £600k +. As always with the public sector, too many layers of management, smoke and mirrors to ever be properly accountable. Increases, if needed, in social worker's pay should come from streamlining the service, not just putting a load more tax payers money into an already inefficient sector

PIP isn't paid as part of Universal Credit.

I know someone who is married with children and neither of them will work extra hours/overtime or take on extra responsibilities (for more money), because it messes up their UC. Why would people put in the extra time and effort when they are getting the same or more from the government. It’s a hard one to solve, but its not benefit bashing to say this is not sustainable to keep topping up peoples wages, especially if they are working part time.

Tax credits were replaced by UC along with all of the other benefits. I was getting Tax Credits and was migrated to UC. I pay into a civil service pension - I don't know if that affects entitlement although I suspect not.

The upper limit is quite a lot higher than that, depending on how many children you have- best advice put in a claim, the worst they can do is say no.

This is one of those threads that convinces me that some people on this website lead very sheltered lives. The government don't pay £500k to anyone who works just because they ask for it and I'm amazed you never considered they would have children or have PIP.

When did I say UC had singled me out?

Oh @catspam79

If you aren’t receiving it - you’re not entitled to it for some reason. But a single parent on £34k with a dependent and presuming fits the parameters - would get UC. You don’t because … you don’t

More years, @LilyBunch25 , but not necessarily more experience as for quite a few years it was only part of my job.

And it shows how much I've forgotten since I retired last year, as I completely failed to consider the capital/tariff income question, or even the possibility of the OP having a spare house hanging around...

I know I don’t that’s what I was trying to tell you

Nobody should be getting it on £34k, that’s completely ridiculous.

Have you seen how high some rents are? Some will also get it for childcare.

If you want to check that what you've been told is accurate, there's a really user friendly benefit calculator here

Benefit checker

It's really not at all unusual for the DWP to misinform people about entitlement, especially when it comes to UC, as there are so many variables.

If you are paying a high-ish rent, and providing that you don't have savings in excess of £16k (or a spare house!), it's quite possible that you could be entitled to some UC. The calculator linked above will give you a definitive answer.