How many of you live solely on universal credit?

[Zzzbug]

I've just read a thread about 6 figure salaries.
Wondered how many mumsnetters rely on universal credit only.
One extreme to the other.
Very nosy I know.

I don't claim UC now but I did between Oct 19 and June 20.

It was unexpected. Our housing costs were £400 more than what UC gave us and we had a lot of other outgoings that we expected our incomes to cover.

It was really hard. We had to borrow money from family and CC's to get us through.

It was 8 months of hell even though I had a temp part time job to help us out.

That said, I really appreciated the help we were given.

We did for about a year, mainly due to corona virus. I was a stay at home mum (and shielding) and my husband worked full time- however he had just moved job about 5 months before the pandemic hit, and as is quite normal with similar jobs in our local area it was a temp to perm job. Which meant that for the first 6 months he was on a temp contract but would be made permanent after this time (usually not a huge deal) However as covid hit and his colleagues were all furloughed he was not entitled to anything as he was just a temp and so he was just let go immediately.
It was extremely difficult for him to find alternative work (despite applying for literally everything- including McDonald’s and supermarkets etc) so we ended up on universal credit for an extended period. It was bloody bloody hard and demoralising to say the least!

@Lottiethelemming

I don't claim UC now but I did between Oct 19 and June 20.

It was unexpected. Our housing costs were £400 more than what UC gave us and we had a lot of other outgoings that we expected our incomes to cover.

It was really hard. We had to borrow money from family and CC's to get us through.

It was 8 months of hell even though I had a temp part time job to help us out.

That said, I really appreciated the help we were given.

That £400 a month gap between what UC will gave you towards rent and what you actually had to pay must have been a killer.

The local housing allowances are absurdly low in high-rent areas. What was intended to be a ceiling on how much the govt will subsidise rents has turned out to be a floor in many places.

I was working in homelessness prevention when LHAs came in. Over the course of a year or so, it became impossible to find places at below the LHA, even landlords of the shittiest properties put their rents up to the LHA level. Then it was made an average of the lowest 30% of rents, instead of an overall average, and that made it even worse.

Rents in parts of Sussex are now so high that we have single people without children, in one-bed properties, being hit by the benefit cap, too, even with the application of LHA

A friend who has long Covid does but she has a council house otherwise she'd be screwed. Her family also buys her and her kids food and pay their utilities.

It's punitive AF but it's what all those who fell for Tory propaganda fell for.