Benefits - does this seem realistic?

[Ivy44]

I was giving our office cleaner a lift home from one day (we chat a lot and she lives on my way home) last week and she openly told me how much she gets in benefits, I was a bit taken aback by the amount she gets as I keep reading articles about people on benefits being in poverty, due to all the cuts. She is a single parent of two children who works 16 hours a week as a cleaner, the children are 9 and 13.

Salary - £550 per month
Housing benefit - £360 per month (covers rent on a 3 bed council house)
£180 per month child maintenance
£1,120 per month in child/working tax credits and child benefits

This is the equivalent of a 35k a year gross salary. This isn’t supposed to be judgemental as she’s a nice lady who does a good job for us but I am a bit shocked at how much money is available in benefits, given the articles I keep seeing about poverty, food banks, teachers having to buy food for kids who go to school hungry etc.

You should be more upset that she gets paid a pittance so the government needs to top up her salary to give her a proper income

🎠

It seems pretty genuine.
I’m a lone parent at the top of the teaching pay scale. Obviously it’s good money but it means wraparound childcare for D.C. every day and the full on nature of the job.

I saw a min wage 16 hour job and worked out that, as I’d need less or no childcare (DC both in school) I’d only be £100 a month worse off.

Of course I have the benefit of:

A secure, enjoyable job that gives me intellectual stimulation and nice colleagues, and has decent holidays and sick leave
A good pension and general financial stability for the future
Knowing I’m paying my own way as far as I can etc etc

But if I didn’t have a good job I enjoyed I can totally see how it’d be tempting to go for the easy, low stress, no commute, no childcare needed job. That’s not a benefits bash as I think this is a good thing!

Unless her children are disabled then no, that's not correct.

When I first started working after claiming hb I found I was no longer entitled to it.
My wage was a bit higher - around 650 a month.
Everything else is about comparable to my situation.

It allowed me to leave a horribly abusive relationship, find a job that worked around school hours for a DC who couldn't manage in after school care and as soon as I could, I worked my way up and saved up for a house deposit.

If I hadn't had that stepping stone I don't know where my DC and I would be.

I would fight for everyone else to have the same access to benefits lifting their children out of poverty.

Food banks are often for those who have their benefits cut off due to sanctions or for those with no recourse to public funds.

@Nobaggypants if you put the amounts into to the entitled to calculator online it is absolutely correct.

Well I suppose that shows just how much people loose in tax.

Your sums are off it's £26k pa, if her wage wasn't such a pittance there'd be no need for tax credits. How very dare she be a single mother trying to raise her kids.

She only works 16 hours though not full time so her salary would be higher in Full time work.

Child maintenance isn’t ‘benefits’

£360 wouldn’t cover the rent for my three bed council house!

donnadarko
I don’t think you read my post properly, I said it wasn’t judgemental, just questioning as I am surprised by the amount. I’ve never had any experience of the benefit system personally, so I am just asking a question.

She told me that the £360 per month covers the rent on her 3 bed council house. We are in Manchester, not London or the Home Counties.

OP
Why are you surprised? How much does it take to run your home? Do you think she should get less and live in poverty?
Honestly cannot stand these posts, middle class snobs who expect the lowly people to stay poor. Away and give your head a wobble 😡

I don’t understand massively about how benefits work, but your cleaner works and that enhances her benefits.

The majority of people using food banks don’t work and they may not receive nearly as much as the cleaner. I’ve read about benefits being paid late or incorrectly which may put people in arrears with other bills etc. Definitely leaves them in hardship!

You’re right that some working people have to rely on food banks too, but again there could have been a change in their personal
circumstances which means they have no choice.

There was a BBC article I read about yesterday where new mums are having to leave their newborns in hospital as they have nothing to give them to take them home - pushchair, cot, clothes etc. I’ve actually found baby banks where people can donate to help - THIS shouldn’t be allowed to happen or EVER normalised.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-merseyside-47707547

It’s devastating that people have no choice and to live like that. I was quite upset as it shouldn’t be allowed to happen and it appears to be the introduction of universal credit which is making people poorer.

I get so angry when the people who are in a position to help, don’t - this is more about the politics and particular parties not enhancing the lives or opportunities of those that aren’t able to do so themselves without that support. I’m looking at the Tories directly 🤬

So I get why you’re questioning, but that is not representative.

I think a lot of you have missed my point - £35k a year in Manchester is not poverty is it? Especially as her housing is covered (I think the cost of private rentals is the cause of a lot of poverty for those on low incomes) and the average gross salary in Manchester is about 26k.

Salary-6600 a year
Housing benefit-4320 a year
Tax credits/child Ben- 13,440 a year

=less than £24, 360 a year

Child maintenance is not a benefit

Would you rather she did everything with solely her £550 per month pittance/salary?

She could do more than16 hours though.

Yes of course £550 is not enough to live on.

I think that is the rub. I think the system encourages part time work.

thesearmsofmine

I said, the equivalent of 35k Gross salary - gross salary is before income tax and NI are taken off.

Child maintenance is still part of her income though.

I am not questioning whether or not she should get the money, I was just surprised by the amount. My point is, are articles in the Guardian, saying that 20% of children in the UK live in poverty actually correct.

You're not allowed to question the welfare state on mumsnet only criticise it for being rubbish. Any type of critique is patronising, and wicked. There is a very deep problem with the current working tax credits which ensures that it simply doesn't pay to work more than 16 hours a week. This has totally reduced women( and it is women in the vast majority) to low skilled work and low prospects. Gordon Brown brought this in and I know plenty of women who 20 years later are still just doing 16 hours a week in Tesco whilst claiming. It's a fundamentally flawed system.

To the posters saying if her wages were better she wouldn't need benefits Why should her employers pay her a massive salary she's a cleaner! An unskilled job

She could choose to work more hours and because she doesn't she gets money handed to her that is wrong!