Facing unemployment - just over £1100 in benefits

[BringBackCatsEyes]

I've just put my figures in a calculator and think I will receive just over £1100

UC £ 362.73 per month
(standard + child, then take away JSA )

117.22 per month child benefit

Council Tax Support
£ 71.07 per month

Support for Mortgage Interest loan
£ 152.49 per month

New-style Jobseekers Allowance
£ 414.05 per month

Are people actually living on this or do they end up selling their home to move into rented?

I am trying my hardest to find work. My contract ends at the end of this year.
I am not asking for advice on finding work, I want to hear from those who have experienced moving to UC and how they manage?

As previous posters mentioned, most councils have emergency funds. The latest are called crisis and resilience fund and being made unemployed could class as crisis so you may qualify for a payment.

You would get new style JSA if you have paid sufficient NI contributions even if you didn't qualify for UC.

Really? I knew you could take a repayment holiday, but not that you could renegotiate a new mortgage - or is this like the repayment holiday where you are taking a 6m holiday from repaying the capital component and only pay the interest and then it reverts to the original T&Cs?

My friend is a single mum, she got made redundant and has 2 kids she had a 3 bed house.
her mortgage was about £500 but rental value she got £1100 so she rented her house out and rented a 2 bed flat for her and her girls and the rent she got paid her mortgage and covered her rent. She did this for 2 years until she got back on her feet and was working again and got some money stashed to pay a big chunk off her mortgage.

is this an option?

I’m sure you have to pay back the mortgage interest loan part as well

I'm not sure this is allowed- if she wasn't living in the house wouldn't she have had to declare equity in it as an asset?

My advice would be to try and save , sell on vinted , stockpile some food and toiletries and find some frugal blogs to read . Hopefully none of it will be needed but it is best to be as prepared as you can and it might also give you something to focus on rather than spiralling , it is a worrying time for many people .

I ended up on interest only for years due to divorce, before eventually switching back, so it added a few months onto the length of the loan.

Having said that though, perhaps things have changed.

Op would definitely need to check how this would affect UC though as she'd own an asset that she's not living in . Sorry I can't remember the rules on this.

Op, I once had a period of nom work when I moved to a rural area. It was depressing but I would encourage you to stay positive as the likelihood is you will find work. Trust that you will. It might be in a different field of work but there will be something out there. It is a scary time and you feel alone but life will get better

The amount of benefits isn't much different to state pension and people do manage ok, usually they have paid off the mortgage by them however. Do you have much equity? It might help to have a balance sheet view of your finances, rather than income. As in value of equity and pensions and any savings/assets. If you have equity/savings there are options

Do you get child support from your teens Dad?

And most pensioners aren't providing for a child on a state pension.

No one can really answer your question OP as everyone’s circumstances are different. About a third of people rent, so don’t have the option of mortgage holidays, if their benefits don’t cover their rent then they face eviction and homelessness.

I really, really hope you find a job soon.

I'm sure it will be a lot more expensive for me to rent somewhere than what I pay for my mortgage.
Teen is in 6th form so unlikely to be eligible for anything apart from cheaper transport.
We are not there yet.

I think you're panicking a little bit. You don't have to sell your home. People on here make out that people on benefits are raking it in. Id like to see them try it.

The question is, can you manage on it after you've paid your mortgage? You need a plan.

I am not in a panic, I am sinking into depression.
No, if I get £1100 and need to pay my mortgage, I will be left with £600 to pay for everything else. I don't know of many plans that can pay all the bills on a 2 bed home & support a teenager. I am a way off that, but it is the way when you are low...you dwell on the negatives.

One thing I can do for myself is get off social media for the evening.
Appreciate people's comments.

I can imagine how scary it must be OP. I do think the number of households who can live on that amount with a mortgage would be very low. It’s a case of if you were renting you’d be able to claim housing element to cover often most or at least some of your rent so suddenly your figure rises by £500-600 maybe more and feels much more manageable!

I don’t know many households who could suddenly drop to £1100 a month and be totally fine, our mortgage and household bills alone come to more than that before we even factor in car, transport, food shopping etc.

Absolutely, and we don’t grow out of clothes and shoes like a teenager.

It’s not that it’s easy to drop long term to that amount

its just its Much more likely that OP will get something so she is worrying about something that is unlikely to happen

I feel l like a lot of people on MN have no idea how bad the jobs market is. And no, you can’t ’just get’ a MW job. They are critical jobs for employers and they don’t want to give them to people using them as stop gaps for a few months till something better comes along.

OP when my H was made redundant he eventually resorted to getting a job with Evri. Pay is shite ( well under NMW) and obvs no benefits at all as you are self employed but it’s better than nothing and eventually led to H getting a full time job employed job as a postman with Royal Mail. Better to bring in something through Evri than use your savings. H was making 1400 a month working six days a week. It’s very flexible so wouldn’t interfere with going to interviews and you work as much or little as you want. Having a car opens up these delivery jobs so that is an option.

I've been unemployed since September, skilled professional and I am not entitled to a penny after six months. It's very very hard. I'm selling everything I own

I would talk to your mortgage lender if you haven’t already to find out what the options are - could you reduce payments or pay interest only rather than taking a full holiday? Could you potentially do that immediately to allow you to save some money and build a buffer. Is there a limit on how long you could do that for? Etc etc

Just check the interest rate after for your mortgage holiday. We were offered a 6 month mortgage break but then our mortgage would revert to the standard variable rate which is 6% and our current interest rate is 1.83% so decided not to take the mortgage break. Good job we didn’t as dh is still unemployed after he was made redundant 15 months ago and there’s no way we’d be able to make those mortgage payments now. It’s shit op. If you didn’t own your own home you’d get an extra £500/£600 a month to cover rent.

Generally yes. Your home is your financial asset from which you can release funds. It feels unfair but it’s not when you zone in on the fact that benefits aren’t there to keep you in your privately owned asset.

i don’t know the legal ins and outs but my friend did it and she got another job but the first job she got was a lot less money than shed been earning so had to live somewhere cheaper I don’t think she claimed UC

hopefully OP can organise something if it’s not immediate it is a stressful time for anyone in this situation