26K CUT affecting you or am I the only one?

[Feli]

I am a 25yr old Lone parent to one. Not planned I was abandoned by her father.

Begining of this week I was crying over how cold me and my child are at home as we cant afford heating or hot water (all wired up to electric) and the flat is so cold as its the end of the building, my child has a cold because of it.

I am also paying off the electric debt for which I used to survive last winter which is why I have barely any money to cook more than once a week let alone bills.

I moved where I live 2 years ago after the flat I was living in before got broken into and ransacked my daughter was 8days old, I had 4 days to find somewhere. The rent went from £500 a week to £340 a week after cuts were made to this postcode early this year. I have no family, I am completely by myself and last night I calculated my annual Benefit. Its £3K.

Watching QuestionTime worried me even further to hear the attitudes, I AM shaking like a leaf, I have been crying all night - the cuts they are making seems to be on the basis of people having loads of children to get more benefits to live a high lifestyle but there are genuine situations like mine who are in this circumstance not willy nilly.
I dont know what is going to happen to my daughter and I. I have just found her a school and we have well and truely nested.

When my child is in pre-school I will be running to university to get a degree which I will only get help to do if I am not working(i think)...

You know all I want to do is bring home the bacon, I dont have enough qualifications to get a job better than a telephonist, I just want to study so I can get a REAL paying job cos at the moment whatever I earned will open more expenses the debt repayments wil be increased, I will have to pay part of my rent, I will lose discounts on my electric, and so much more but worst of all I wont be able to study as I cant afford it.

I am NOT work shy or see benefits as a way of life!
Sorry for rambling but I am all over the place.

Thank you

Sorry for the missing letters - think the keyboard is pacin u

Mollie - If I am honest so am I. But trying to be supportive as havent been in that situation or done the maths to truly know if there is enough money left to look after two people. It does seem to me as if a huge amount of the benefit goes direct to landlord.

I do think that government shouldnt support the high rents in london though as it is ridiculous and non sustainable to be paying £30k net to a family of 2 out of taxpayers money.

I wouldn't fuss too much about getting a degree. Why do you think that would be the key to a better-paying job? 4 years is too much time to devote to getting a qualification that won't necessarily earn you any money when you have a daughter to support. Many graduates are on the same wage as non-degree qualified people so there's not really much wage gain to be had from a degree, especially since you are on £30k p.a. already. There's very little chance that you could earn much more than that with a degree, unless maybe it's a degree in IT, accountancy, engineering or law, all of which are time-consuming degrees to study. IT is probably the only one that would allow you to earn good money quickly as with the others you would have further professional exams / chartership after getting a degree.

You were 23 when you had your daughter. What were you doing before you got pregnant? Can you continue working in that area and get some professional qualifications through the job to increase your earnings? You mention being a telephonist, not sure what that is in this day and age, but if you mean receptionist, then you could always try and get certificates in office administration skills that would allow you to aim for PA jobs. There are well-paid PA/executive assistant jobs in London if you are willing to work your way up. Your daughter will be old enough to start nursery in a year, so you could start part-time then and then go full-time. London is insanely expensive though and you've no family there so you'd be even better off if you moved out of London. Your biggest problem seems to be that you pay incredibly expensive rent so if you could solve that problem, that would ease your money worries quickly. £30k p.a. is a lot of money to get but most of your benefits go on rent so that's why you're in a poverty trap at the moment. Getting out of London would help.

So after rent you are getting £12K to live on with one child. I work 30 hours a week and after council tax and mortgage probably have about that. Same as you single with one child. We manage, just. Certainly make sure I can afford heating. We live in a high price property area so many young parents move to a nearby town which is cheaper as it's out of the national park.

Sorry but £18K being paid for your rent is excessive.

If these are net figures, you do realise that you will have to be earning around £40K gross to cover this if you get a job.

Sorry but this is the reason they need to cap it. It's harsh but everyone is going to affected by these cuts. Me included, just don't know how they are going to do it yet.

I hate all this sniping that's going on atm but they will do what they want and we all have to find other ways of making ends meet. I'm thinking of getting a night job depending on how they are going to cut my money.

InmyPrime - the problem is that once the rent reduces so will the benefit. So she will still be struggling to live surely. The only advantage is that if rent was less she would not have to find extra for rent when the capped £25k comes in.

Or am I misunderstanding.

Feli - how much do you get if you take the rent off.

I do realise that it isn't your fault. Perhaps if housing benefit was capped these landlords would reduce these ridiculous rents.

Feli, thinking of your numbers & trying to think of solutions for you so you can stay in London...

You say you get £30k in benefits - so £2,500pcm, yes? You say your rent is £1,500pcm - is that a 2 bed flat? zone 1 or 2? If these figures correct, you have £1,000pcm for food/bills, yes?

As an aside, has anyone noticed that the thread-header said "am I the only one?" and there haven't been loads of people piling in saying "me too"?

MollieO - "The difference being you get to spend all day with your child and I see my son for 1.5 hours a day during the week."

So are you saying that this is the only difference between you and OP? Hmm, and hmm again.

purits - Question, what would you say the average demographic of MN users would be?

also, if one moves, they have the cost of moving...
rent and deposit for new place, actual moving costs, and many of the housing benefit properties are dilapidated.
its the greedy landlord who is benefitting here, as in the majority of cases.

shame the social housing was all sold off.

50% of the houses i see in estate agent windows are ex local authority here in surrey.

i wonder how much of the benefits bill is housing costs?

i wonder how many mortgages the government are paying?

good luck scapegoat OP.

white - what is the average demographic of MN, do you know?

I would guess mainly single parents or SAHP, with many needing benefit of some sort. Thats my thoughts anyway and would be interested to see what it really is.

Right, well I guess it doesn't help to reduce the rent then so moving out of London wouldn't make a big difference it seems. There are plenty of single parents coping in London also so they must all be earning a crust and coping somehow. London rents just seem so astronomical compared to cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow were you can get nice 2-bed flats for about £600-800 pcm.

Either way, though, the OP needs to focus on skills that will earn her the best income possible in the here and now. To me, a degree would be a complete waste of her time unless it is in an area that has high potential to generate an income greater than c.£40k, which is equivalent after tax of what she is taking home now. She would be living in poverty, struggling with debt for 4 years for nothing. Really, the OP has no incentive to work as she'll be worse off in any job that pays less than £40k, which is exactly the benefits system poverty trap that the govt is trying to tackle by introducing a cap of £26k. I do think people should be incentivised to work but not sure how that can be done either. Plunging people into poverty is not the answer but asking hard-working parents, single or otherwise, to subsidise those who don't work is not the answer either.

frogetyfrog - I always get the feeling that MN isn't that representative of your average person in the street to be honest. I think the populus prefers, watching Big Brother, Eastenders and reading the Sun or Daily Mail than MN. I dunno it's just a hunch ...

OP, don't be disheartened. I understand how scared you are.

I'm finding it hard to get a grasp of your financial situation...I think many of us would like to help somehow.

Firstly you are being screwed over by EDF by the sound of it...either that or you have literally no other source of power other than electricity.

Our elec and gas combined is about £95 per month. Gas heating is MUCH cheaper than electric, which really keeps costs down/ Don't FFS get a meter, these are bastard things and use WAY more money than you would pay by direct debit - they are evil.

You could change supplier, we are with atlantic who have been great.

U-switch is a good site if you want to have a look.

Next thing, heating grants - we had a new boiler put in a couple of years ago, it was done through a grant scheme called coldbusters. I don't know if you would qualify or not but it's good if you can manage to get it.

Your rent sounds EXTREMELY high...how much of it is covered by the council? Ours is less than half what you pay and is in a nice area though not in London.

I feel really, really sorry for you and completely understand why you don't want to uproot your little family all over again. Having no support really sucks.

Thinking of you.

re the demographic.
It wasn't a knock at the OP by the way. It was just a comment that, despite the usual hysteria when any cuts are mentioned ("OMG they will disband the NHS next and send us all to the workhouse" type thing) it doesn't seem to have the swingeing effect that some imply.
I think the cap on housing benefit is a good idea and long overdue. Dunno why no-one thought of it before.

InMyPrime - I think the reason the OP posted is that she is scared that her £30k benefits will be cut to £26k, as she says she can't live on £30k (net) as it is. That's why she will need to reduce her rent - or hope that her landlord does.

What's more interesting, though, is that she appears to have £1,000pcm for food/bills after rent is paid. If so, I would have thought she should be able to eat on that, and to keep the house warm. I wonder if there are other large costs/debts she hasn't mentioned?

Feli, it's horrible to hear how distressed you are, and we do want to help. Do you have £1,000pcm left for food/bills? Or are there other large costs/debts which are reducing that?

I don't get the op's problem. She is getting £30K in benefits! That's why the £26K maximum is needed. I know her rent might be high but it is insulting for people going out to work full-time and not earning anywhere near £30k. They still have rent/motgages and other bills to pay.

I wonder if the CAB or a benefits officer could help the OP, maybe with some kind of budget plan or whatever.

I think a cap is a very poor instrument to use to be honest. Clearly it doesn't take any account of an individuals situation, even with all the means testing to identify what help a member of our sociaty needs from the govenment and why. Therefore I can see that some individuals that are most needy are going to be those that are affected. And the majority that can weather a level of austerity are not affected by this.

I think going after people who are seen by and stigmatised by society to be sponges of the state with little or no concern about peoples actual circumstances and actual need maybe polictally astute but it leaves a very bad taste in my socialistic mouth.

I too wish the OP all the best, and I am very worried about my own friends situation.

I am at £340 a week rent!

I live oop North and have a lovely 4 bed detached, new build with big garden and conservatory for £725 a month! It's a wonderful area and right next door to 1 of the top 4 comprehensive schools in the City! I am a private renter though.

I agree with the others, you really need to think about moving away from London.

And, your gross income is about £15k more than mine, and I work 50 hours per week.

What did you do before you got pregnant, Feli?

Why didn't you do a degree straight after school, if you don't mind me asking?

Is your degree in something for which there is guaranteed employment at a good wage?

Where I am going with this is I'm worrying that your dream that your degree will make you a high earner might be clouding your judgement. Lots of young people think like that and come out of university with masses of debts to face an unimpressed job market.

for your situation.

Journey - I go out and work and I'm not insulted by OP problem, I think it's very valid for people who have been identified as requiring larger than average sums of money to give them the support they need in their current circumstances to be very worried about the anounced changes by the government.

Whiteandnerdy I'd love to have £12,000 a year to live on after payment of childcare and mortgage. Not sure what your 'mmm' is meant to be about. Im genuinely surprised that it is possible to claim this much in benefits. I get CB at the moment but not after 2013.

I have already wondered this week why i am bothering to work and this thread makes me realise i honestly am a mug to be doing so. Irrespective of housing costs £12,000 net to live on is a tidy sum for one adult and one child.