Universal credit or stick on weekly?

[stripes23]

Hi I'm just wondering if people that are on UC are happier on it? I'm currently on weekly benefits and due another baby end of the year which is my 3rd so exempt from anything which is fine.
But my money weekly just doesn't last I claim for two children and I'm a single parent they are both under 4 I'm now wondering whether to go on to UC now to make it last? My bills are £23 a month Council Tax
And £43 Rent
Sky £11.50
Then food shopping that's it. So in total around £80 a month that's it.
The calculation I have done on the entitled to website showed I'd receive £508 for the kids and £317 for myself, and £473 rent paid. I forgot to add my rent is fully covered by housing benefit I just pay the service charge.
I don't know whether to switch on to it or not but I don't see anything weekly and I can never plan anything.

What do you currently get via tax credits, HB etc? Do you normally work, if so what hours?

Hi I don't work I was made redundant 18months ago and been on this ever since my rent monthly is £443 I think and HB pays the lot, I just pay the £10 service charge a week, tax credits I currently receive £116 a week and child benefit weekly, income support £144 fortnightly.

Why are you paying the service charge and what does it cover? Only that's a fair whack to find every month. If it's for maintenance of common parts etc shouldn't that be covered by Hb?

Why is your money not lasting at the moment? Your outgoings must be more than you've listed.

I'm not sure we all pay service charge for grounds keeping etc and lift maintenance and I think it's the food shopping as it's around £60 a week then the rent charge etc. But I've found if I have a lump sum I rarely buy anything as I don't like seeing it go smaller so I'd budget more I think.

£60 is a hell of a lot of food for an adult and two toddlers!

What about insurance, TV license, utilities, travel, mobile?

Really you need to go and see CAB and get a benefit check as entitled to isn't particularly accurate for universal credit.

However, based on the figures you've given, you wouldn't have any more money coming in under universal credit because it's paid monthly and not weekly/two weekly/four weekly.

For example, the figure you're getting for your kids you've said is £116 a week. But some months will have five payment points in them so you'll get more than a month's worth of money in those months.

If you take £116 and times it by 52 (number of weeks in a year) then divide it by 12 (number of months ie number of universal credit payments) that's £502 a month, similar to the figure of £508 entitled to gave you. This is more than you'd get in a four week month (£116 x 4) but over the course of a year is the same amount of money.

It's the same story with your other elements.

So on that basis, no, it's not worth the hassle.

But do check with cab because like I say entitled to isn't great for universal credit.

You really shouldn't be paying that service charge by the sounds of it. The only charges excluded for Hb purposes are for services directly provided to you eg if you were staying in a b&b and the owner provided breakfast, or if your landlord provided a cleaner and you paid for this.

I really would query that with hb as £10 a week will make a difference to your budget.

Also I'd ask the council about help with the council tax. I know that people on even passported benefits like you now have to pay some of it but the council will have a discretionary fund that could cover it for you. You need to apply and even if you're successful it'll only be for a year but with a new baby coming this year it again would help.

I wasn't aware you were able to choose between the 2. Contact your local council and see if they can put you in touch with their welfare rights team.

I wouldn't do it because you would then be placed in a work group and need to go to loads of appointments, even though your baby will be a newborn. You will also have to go through the 5 week wait for your first payment.

You can be paid fortnightly on UC.

Can you set up a credit union account and pay in a small sum weekly to build some savings?

Anyone can put in a claim for universal credit. The thing is that once you've moved you can't go back. So you really need to know if the figures add up and crucially factor in the six week start delay. Could you cover that, OP, given that you're struggling week to week?

Agree that you need someone to sit down and talk you through it.

Are you receiving Child Maintenance?

Hi thanks for all the replies the weird thing is my friend who lives downstairs doesn't pay the service charge but now since being on UC she has too, maybe I don't have to pay it I'll ask tomorrow.
And no I receive no maintenance so it's just this really. Credit union sounds good. I do need to cut back on the food shopping I cook fresh each day and it's things like packets of chicken breast and things like that, that add up in the shop.
My tv license is done once a year for my birthday and the water & heating is in with the rent,
I forgot I do £6 electric a week.

The £10 'service charge' will be your personal water and heating then. HB won't cover that. Generally most people won't be better off on UC so don't move until you're forced to. You do need to seek help on learning to manage huge budget though. CAB can put you in touch with help locally.

Assuming the £116 isn't including the child benefit you're actually better off staying as you are - working it out your currently receiving around £950 a month & getting your rent fully covered.

UC is only giving you £825.

You've obviously missed some outgoings as there are no utilities, travel costs etc.

If your monthly bills really are only £80 - you're wasting around £870 a month!

You need to work out your true outgoings & set aside what you need to cover those. If it was me I'd be using the income support for my bills & the weekly money to cover food & fuel/transport costs.

Your shopping bill is quite high - my food & fuel budget is around £80 a week that gets me £25-30 fuel to get to work & around £40-50 for food shopping for me & a teenager including all toiletries & cleaning products.

So your current weekly income is £222.40 per week between tax credits, child benefit and income support? You pay £80 a month in bills, so £20 a week then £60 on food? What about gas and electric? Maybe £30 a week as you're at home with 2 kids? So where is the other £112.40 a week going? I know when you've to buy clothes for the kids, pay bus fares and do activities, this can easily get swallowed. Your food bill will also go up when the new baby arrives and you'll need to buy nappies etc too but you'll only gain £13.70 a week in child benefit due to the 2 child cap on tax credits. This may cover nappies and wipes and maybe toiletries but not food.

You'll need to work out what you spend the other £112.40 a week on and maybe create a budget where by you put aside a small amount each week to buy clothes and shoes for the kids every few months, stipulate a weekly amount for activities and keep a small amount back for emergencies. It's really not a huge amount for a family of 4 to live on but doable in the short term. It basically works out the same to be on UC as what you get now.

Are you claiming maintenance for the kids from their dad? If not, you really should be

Just read your update. Ok so no maintenance, can you claim? Is he in the country?

So your 'disposable' income after bills and food is about £136.40 a week since you aren't paying £30 a week in gas and electric like I assumed!

I would work with this figure and set a budget from it for clothing for you and the kids, activities, treats, school trips etc. Do you have any snack charges or school meals to pay?

If you are struggling financial with 2 DC it will be much tighter with 3. You really should claim Child Maintenance! Parents should not be allowed to walk away from their responsibilities.

Do you know what reading this through and looking at my bank statements it's careless spending I think, I live next to an Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco so every day after the school run I pop in there and spend around £20/40 a few times a week. Looking in my fridge I have a duck I didn't get round to using because I had something else that's now out of date, and a gammon steak that's also out of date. I really need to budget I will do that and start a weekly food shop list thing because that is ridiculous. I don't pay for bus fair as the school is around the corner so it's not that, it's got to be the random shopping trips

I did apply for Child maintenance but nothing came from it at all I will call them again tomorrow.

Don't beat yourself up, you've got a lot on your plate. But yes meal planning and weekly food shopping makes a massive difference to household budget so now that you've identified that as a point of improvement then happy days. I wouldn't go all out batch cooking mental to start with but plan say four meals a week, look up the ingredients, try to use what you've already got, and shop to that. Couple of frozen pizzas and fish fingers for the other days and you're done.

If your main aim in switching is to get paid less often rather than weekly, you can get both child benefit and tax credits paid 4-weekly if you prefer, just ask them.

I don't think you will get out of paying the service charge, and your neighbour probably only had to start because telling them about her universal credit claim flagged her on the system as not paying it already!

My experience is that on Universal Credit we have a "rich" week, a "medium" week, and two hard "poor" weeks (more like 2.5 weeks) each month, only to get universal credit again and feel "rich." I do make sure all my bills get paid, but I found it easier with smaller more regular payments to budget for food etc. I think part of that is because my freezer space is small too, so I can't bulk cook like I'd like to. It means that if I have an unexpected expense or bill at the wrong time of the month it's hard to deal with (or I have to ask for a couple of weeks) whereas if I have it just after I get paid UC then it's easy to deal with at the time, but then effects us the rest of the month.

Really it depends how good you are at budgeting. I used to think I was good at budgeting, but Universal credit sets you up to fail because you are in debt to start with because you don't get paid for 5 weeks and have to borrow the money off them, so you just end up paying a bit off that each month too which means that the amount is smaller. I'm sure it eventually evens out, but I am not planning to be on it long enough to find out. And they are not very good at paying it once you start work, especially if your paid weekly/ 4 weekly not calendar monthly that can screw up the amount for months you get an extra pay cheque. Also they seem to make a lot of mistakes if you have another income from work, so they might decide not to pay you at all one month. If I was you I would hold off until necessary (as I did but still got moved over because of a change of circumstances) because a slow and steady trickle of income can be better than a complicated borrowing system like universal credit.

Why not just ask for tax credits to be paid four weekly? That’ll give you a bumper week once out of every four but you’ll still get other income spread through the month, which probably aids budgeting TBH.