To work or not to work

[anonymoooose]

Hi all. So will try and make a long story short - I’m a single mum to two kids, 10 years old and 18 months old (have an older son who lives away). I started a part time (18 hours) fixed contract in September. The contract is due to end on 31st March.
My problem is I hardly have any money to survive once I’ve been paid from this job.
I get £788 every month and my daughters nursery fee is £660. My sons after school club is £135 a month. This month UC have said they will give me £320 and they keep fluctuating so I can’t keep to my debt schedules. I went back to work because What I was getting from UC wasn’t enough so I thought working might be better but petrol and childcare, lunch for myself is just crippling me and I'm also thinking I should just stay home with my little girl until she goes to school. I’m just thinking it’s not worth working. I do like to work and meet people and keep my brain juices going but I’ve started defaulting on my bills and debt repayments now because I don’t have enough.
My contract might be renewed if the NHS trust get some more funding but I’m don’t think I should stay on. My anxiety and depression have come back as well as bailiffs because I haven’t been able to keep up. Just wondering what you guys suggest…
For me to be able to come off UC and work full time and cover my essentials childcare and debts I’d have to be earning quite a bit. I managed it when I was younger and only had the one son but now it’s so much harder
Anywho I appreciate any advice 🤗

www.turn2us.org.uk/Your-Situation/Looking-for-work/Getting-Into-Work/UK-Wide-Schemes

www.gov.uk/government/publications/claiming-discretionary-housing-payments/claiming-discretionary-housing-payments#what-a-dhp-can-cover

I also don't think your UC credit payment is correct. You should get 85 percent of that 600+ childcare payment and I think after school clubs are covered by childcare costs too.
Then you're supposed to be able to earn about £290 before your universal credit allowance is cut and then it reduces by about 55p for every £1 you earn over that. Your UC allowance should be made up by a rent payment, your single person's allowance, plus your two childrens' allowance.

Also ignore anyone who tells you you 'should' be working. Despite how some people think they're the benefit police, it's not actually illegal to be on benefits and you aren't actually expected to be working by the jobcentre until your youngest one turns three. Being a full time single mum is like having three jobs as it is, so take it easy on yourself. If you need a break, take the chance whilst you can. But if it's just a question of whether you'd be better off, definitely look properly at your UC allowance and fight it, if they've miscalculated it. It might be low if your pay day falls twice within one calendar month, it's actually a system error and it needs correcting.

I’d get the UC claim sorted first before you make a decision. I don’t know much about it but there are several people on here saying they think there is an error.

Then you can see what difference it will make financially.

In the meantime I’d look at what other changes you can make to improve your mental health. Having bailiffs come round must be really distressing. I’d go back to stepchange for more help on this.
Good luck

Hi OP
I’ve run the sums on entitled to using your DCs ages, your wage and your childcare costs. I don’t know what area you are in so I used mine for rent rates. It looks like you’re about £420 per month better off in work however I don’t know your travel costs so you need to deduct that from £420 to find out what the actual figure is.

Have you made sure you’re paying the right council tax rate etc?
Does your son get free school meals?

It might be worth a visit to citizens advice and ask if someone could go through everything with you and see if there is anything else you need to apply for or change to be better off.

Would a childminder be cheaper? Is there a way to manage your hours to reduce the need for childcare.
For instance is it cheaper to do a longer day and pay for childcare for your older child, and reduce it off another day.

I’d say being with a big employer like the NHS gives you opportunities, they might start loosing staff soon and might be better paid jobs coming up.

Are there any local organisations available to you (health visitor might know) that can offer support, food, heating, holiday care?. Our sure start used for offer food schemes to buy cheap food for instance?

Apparently with CM the absent parent just needs to cancel the payment, there is no way of making them pay it. Seems crazy to me the money should automatically come out of the pay cheque and they shouldn’t be able to cancel it.

@Larryyourwaiter hello. I did have a childminder who could do the school run and have my little girl but she was £1200 a month but wanted her money weekly (£300). She ignored me at first when I said I get paid monthly and wouldn't be able to pay weekly so I had to stop them from going to her. This nursery is the cheapest I found
Very true about the NHS and jobs. I'm in a great department helping autistic clinicians bring a massive waiting list down so I don't want to leave it but I'm sinking.
I appreciate your help 🙂

@stairway isn't that ridiculous?! The UK should be more like the US when it comes to child support. It's so not fair the absent parent gets off scott free 🤬

[quote anonymoooose]@giggly when did I say it was ok to go back on benefits?! I am struggling with my decision as it is that's why I have asked for opinions but thanks for making me feel that extra bit worse [/quote]
You questioned if you should just stay home until your child is 5. How would you fund that if not claiming benefits. If you feel worse that’s not on me, I’m sure that there are thousands of lone parents scrimping by, and I’m not that far off it myself but keep working because as year passes you’ll earn more money.

@audweb sorry I missed this one. Thank you for your reply.
I am hoping UC call back within a few days to say why it's so low.
Some people on here really have no idea how their words can hurt someone who is struggling with what's best to do etc.
I'm stressed all day and miserable around the kids and I know I'm not the only one going through this, I just needed some suggestions.

Ignore the unhelpful posters. Clearly no idea how hard and relentless it all feels
I would speak to the early years/childcare dept at the local council. They will be able to advise on free hours for two year olds, holiday clubs etc. Some are much much cheaper than others The council area I live in ran a free holiday clubs over Christmas for certain children. Talk to the head teacher at school as there ways they can help (free school trips, referrals to other services from food banks to second hand school uniforms)
Any local baby banks. Our local one actual puts out requests for items if they are short of what people need. There is almost always a local church that runs a furniture/white goods bank.
I use the too good to go app to get cheap food ideal for lunches
Also have you spoken to your water company they can reduce the charges and energy suppliers as there is a scheme for low incomes.
Make sure you are getting council tax benefit it’s a separate application for UC

And for those who think benefits are taking off the rest of us. Think of all those who have plenty and avoid taxes and all the money wasted during the pandemic. It’s much greater than the amount claimed in benefits. People on benefits spend their money in the local economy whereas wealthier people often save money or spend it on imported goods. If you give benefit claimants more money it has a positive impact on local economies. Rant over

@anonymoooose

Hi all. So will try and make a long story short - I’m a single mum to two kids, 10 years old and 18 months old (have an older son who lives away). I started a part time (18 hours) fixed contract in September. The contract is due to end on 31st March. My problem is I hardly have any money to survive once I’ve been paid from this job. I get £788 every month and my daughters nursery fee is £660. My sons after school club is £135 a month. This month UC have said they will give me £320 and they keep fluctuating so I can’t keep to my debt schedules. I went back to work because What I was getting from UC wasn’t enough so I thought working might be better but petrol and childcare, lunch for myself is just crippling me and I'm also thinking I should just stay home with my little girl until she goes to school. I’m just thinking it’s not worth working. I do like to work and meet people and keep my brain juices going but I’ve started defaulting on my bills and debt repayments now because I don’t have enough. My contract might be renewed if the NHS trust get some more funding but I’m don’t think I should stay on. My anxiety and depression have come back as well as bailiffs because I haven’t been able to keep up. Just wondering what you guys suggest… For me to be able to come off UC and work full time and cover my essentials childcare and debts I’d have to be earning quite a bit. I managed it when I was younger and only had the one son but now it’s so much harder Anywho I appreciate any advice 🤗

If you can stay at home whilst she's young I would if I was you. You could do a online course while you're at home to keep your brain juices flowing! Good Luck OP xx

@anonymoooose not read the full thread, so apologies if I’m repeating but as you mentioned you’ve looked into and discounted bankruptcy for the debts have you considered a debt relief order? Very similar in the way it writes them off but only suitable if your debts don’t exceed a certain amount and the surplus amount of income after paying everything is below a certain amount. Hope you manage to sort something out :)

So sorry you were hurt by some comments @anonymoooose
People can be so blunt online. I hope the helpful posters were useful nonetheless.
For what it's worth I think you sound like a great mum trying to do the very best for your family

@anonymoooose

Hi OP, sorry if it was any of my posts that upset you. It wasn't my intention and typing in this little forum can sometimes come across blunt.

My advice came from a place of experience. I unexpectedly found myself a single parent with 2 kids in nursery. The monthly invoice was over £1000 and I wasn't renting so had no help with housing ( mortgage) I also wasn't earning much above that. I did get UC on top of earnings and it was a life saver so I am in no means saying you shouldn't get help! That's precisely what it's for.

In my experience I also toyed with the idea of just not working so I could at least save on childcare costs but I choose to work full time instead. To be honest I had no idea if i was going to be better off or worse off, I just knew if I stepped out of work, I'd be missing out on opportunities to earn more.

That was 7years ago. I'm so glad I stayed in work, it was hard to make the money stretch but I kept telling myself it was only temporary. I too had debts paid through StepChange.

In those 7 years I moved jobs a few times and used my experience of my previous role to apply for the next one and so on. I increased my earnings by 22k in those years. My salary increased incrementally so it just seemed to get easier as time went on.

My point being is that none of this would have happened if I had just stopped working for a bit. I would never have been around to take those opportunities or prove myself to anyone.

Stick at it, you'll be better off in the long run . Big picture and all that

@pinkpillower thank you but no it wasn't your comment but the "giggly" person who clearly didn't read my post properly. In no way am rubbing my hands with glee at the thought of staying home and not working. It's just when I'm sitting here at 3am wondering what on earth am I going to do with this minimal money and all the things I need to do with it...I just can't see a way out. Scared I will drop the ball and the kids suffer. My oldest son is 21 but when he and my middle son were small I worked full time and paid everything, I didn't have much left over them but it was manageable. This time it just seems soooo much harder (maybe because I'm older and fatter and my daughters nursery is more 😩)
Luckily yourself and others on this post have pointed me in the right direction for things and some things I didn't know (like getting the repayment for the advance reduced etc) and I'm really grateful for that so I'm going through them now on my day off

@FAQs wow I didn't know that. I'll look into this thank you 😊

I can't offer advice OP, as I've no relevant experience.

But you've been given a few good suggestions, and you're obviously the sort to tackle this rather than bury your head in the sand. I hope you get on a more even keel and that life gets easier and less of a relentless stressful juggle very soon.

@Gazelda thank you 😊