Universal Credit

[sn21]

I get universal credit for me and 2/3 of my children. I get awarded my full amount of rent which is £922 however it has just gone up £30 a week I am now being benefit capped by around £200 which is pretty much the same increase in my rent. I already was only getting enough to pay the bills and now I'm in arrears with my rent.

I am already looking for an exchange to an older house that may be cheaper on rent but didn't know if I could request my rent being paid straight to my landlord if that would then be taken off my statement and I will get the rest of my awarded payment. I know it only helps out a little but I'm not even getting paid enough to pay my bills. I'm paying for shopping with my £50 weekly child benefit just really struggling to make ends meet and the last thing I need is to worry about losing a roof over our heads

@Mademetoxic is the same as me on a low wage, yet still somehow funding people who don’t fancy working because it means getting the bus or it’d be too much hassle with the school run (the one I do every day). She’s fed up of it and who can blame her.

They are claiming they are no better off than the OP when they have the same income but obviously no children. I don't understand why they even came on to post that in the first place as they are in completely different circumstances.

The OP should be looking for work, but we don't know the barriers there. 'She should just have to manage' is focusing on the parent while ignoring the three other people in the situation.

I don’t think it matters. Working (children or not) should always be more profitable than just signing on.

The ’barriers’ are usually ones plenty of working people face. Not anything insurmountable or unique.

It is more profitable, the OP's family could be getting much more money with her working with UC top ups.

And the barriers are very different for people in different circumstances. Before children I was free to choose any hours, if you are in a couple with children then you can work around each other, if you are a lone parent then you are tied to school/childcare. Disability, mental health can be a barrier. DV can mean relocation which can make things difficult.

But they’re not ‘tied to childcare’ because they’re not working.

This sounds so stressful OP. If you're driving 20 minutes to school, is that in an area where you could possibly find employment? Does the school itself have any admin jobs?

I'm a lone parent in that my exH only has our DS at weekends so I do the lions share of the school week. I work 30 hours but mostly from home and an office day once a week. I appreciate you have three kids to sort and I can't see you have mentioned their ages so don't know what your logistics are there.

Somethings got to change, you can't carry on like this. Have you looked online for work?

We were talking about barriers to employment? A lone parent looking for a job is tied to the school/childcare hours available to them. A single adult does not have this barrier.

Working (children or not) should always be more profitable than just signing on.

It is. The taper rate makes sure of that. For those eligible, the work allowance also does.

I'd work for less just to avoid the job centre.

I know it's sick isn't it I don't know why people complaining about getting x amount to help. 1400 is a lot a month. People should get a job and and pay bills aswell as children and actually see the real struggle.

Some of the amounts that people get on UC are huge and I honestly don't really know how the country affords it, in the longer term it isn't sustainable. However what you need to remember is that most of this money is either going to pay the mortgages of private landlords charging extortionate rent which frankly I find disgusting, or it's going on childcare which benefits the economy in the long run as people can continue working working when their kids no longer need childcare and can continue paying into a pension etc, thus costing the government less in the long run. This government have been so shortsighted in not investing in affordable social housing and letting house prices spiral out of control over the past 20 years. Now they are paying the price but actually we are all funding this huge benefits bill and our money is going to pay rich landlords buy to let mortgages. It really is unjustifiable.

If companies paid a living wage and rents were capped most people entitled to uc would immediately come off it.
The major problem is that people in full time work needing the government to top up their wages to a level where the government says they need the minimum amount to survive.
Working any extra hours just means your not even paid minimum wage because of the 55p taper rate.