we earn less tha the 26k benefits cap and ds knows this - now he's asking us are we living in poverty, eg "I didnt know we were so poor mum"....

[ssd]

what do I tell him, yes we are poor?

I don't usually feel poor, I get minimum wage, dh gets 7£ an hour, we both work and pay all our bills

we dont have holidays and nights out, but there are loads of people living like that now

I've explained to ds about the welfare reforms and to someone of 12 it sounds simple, eg. why dont they work or do the sort of jobs you do mum (cleaner, babysitter, dishwasher, all crap minimum wage jobs), or why do they stay somewhere where their rent is so high, we couldnt aford to live there so why does someone who doesnt work live there?

....and so on

sigh...I dont know what to tell him, I just always say stick in at school so you might be able to get a batter job than me and your dad and you might have more choice than us

from his dla not dl

I think understanding a budget is important. I do that with ds. Most of his friends parents are hugely more wealthy than me and as a result have loads of things that we don't. He knows that he is privileged in the life he has even if it doesn't always seem like that.

I think the universal credit as it is will cause people to move to cheaper areas anyway as it will not offer enough money to pay even a cheap rent...less yet a expensive one ....and they will have to work as well or lose all the benefits or go on workforce and work for free.... so There is not need for a cap at all ....
The reason for the cap is to reduce the maximum level of help low earners will get under universal credit ,whatver they are working or not will make no difference as working tax credit would be gone by then .
I hope people realise that the maximum amount of top ups a typical family will get will drop a lot under universal credit...and if they put a cap and include child benefit even more ......the total income will be a lot less and the expenditure higher ...... so people on NMW will be poor under Universal credit if the cap happens...and they may have to go and live with the other poor people that they hate so much and in worse schools ,areas and less chances of a good education and going up in the social ladder ...and they will be too poor for their teens to be fully integrated and despite working the kids will likely drop school,etc as they want to have the same that everyone else,etc and the parents can't afford it,etc ...risk of drugs and crime and alcohol in the low income families will increase,etc ..The goverment is creating social division and because of hatred we are letting them...very sad really.

Universal credit will include everything but you will only be consider employed if you work a very significant number of hours...and that number of hours is a lot higher that under tax credit and in couples both have to do the number of hours they must do ...or get penalties ...so lose money . You are expected to travel 90 minutes for any job on NMW ....and also find childcare...so how much are you going to have left after all that travelling ??? Those that are workshy will lose the benefits so ....at the end of the day the cap is not needed really .

The childcare element is less that currently so you will have to pay more childcare that now and as working more hours and up to 3 hours of travelling ..it could get expensive .....

The housing benefits part is going to be less that now and there is going to be a cap anyway .....so it is not going to cover as much either ....

If they include the child benefit ....families are going to lose even more .... the maximum 26000 is only for families in London and with lots of kids ... typical family cap would be much lower ... and if they include child benefit it is going to cause a lot of damage really ......
You will work at NMW and do the right thing in the future but you will still have to live in very poor areas and suffer poverty ....Most people on NMW currently is entitle to tax credits,housing benefits,etc...all the top ups...... If we let all that go .... we let all children future go too ..... so yes you are not poor now but in the future you will be poor ...... and you should not tell your child about your income really.... but if you are too poor to have enough heating,to repair windows,to have enough food ,to change the clothes or shoes when they are ruined ,etc .... they will suffer and know they are poor ..along with everyone else.... at the moment everybody has a basic decent standard of living .....apart from some dysfunctional families that their kids may suffer but all that is going to change and.....very sad ...

Anotehr worrying issue under UC is that if Mum works but Dad is a controlling fecker or a drunk or abusive and refuses, the benefits will be ended and the Mum's chances of escape dramatically lowered- there won't be housing for her to get away to, and her CB will be ended when ATM it's designed to be there as a safety net in these cases.

Obviously works other way around of course.

It also make low income working famillies twice as vulnerable as if either of them loses work they both get chucked off the claim, whereas ATM if one works they can get help.

Never work, get an LA house and manage much as you ever did; try your best, hit a bad patch and land up against all the changes. Wrong target group, perchance?