UC & child’s bank account

[Elliesmummy1]

Just a bit of advise please
I claim UC and want to know if my UC can be affected with my 2 year olds child savers account
it’s with my bank and I have both accounts on my app
is there a limit to how much she can have in or not
as I want her to have 15k + plus when she’s 17 for driving lessons and a car but don’t want my money affected as I have nothing I live hand to mouth
Thankyou x

we own our cars outright

it not my problem u would rather feed ur face with the finest and not save

Yes, that's right @Elliesmummy1 - I'm spending all my money on fine dining. Just like all the rest of us who scrape by without benefits or owned-outright cars (note the plural) or any help from anyone at all.

🙋🏼‍♀️

You're doing nothing wrong @Elliesmummy1 If you were pissing your money up the wall, buying drugs/name brand handbags/going off one 2 weeks jollies with your mates, you'd be lambasted/called a bad mum etc...

So you claim some benefits - big deal. MANY people do. You are doing a lovely thing, putting money by for your daughter and making sure she has a comfier future.

I KNOW some people will think 'grrr, I work all the hours God sends, and cannot afford to save £15K for MY DC's future.' And they have a point, it is infuriating, and I have had such feelings myself in the past occasionally... Eg, some years ago, me and DH were a bit less well off, and couldn't afford to replace the boiler, and a single mum with 4 kids around the corner (who gets her rent paid by the council,) had just got a new kitchen put in by the council and was moaning because she couldn't have it in light oak, only medium oak!!!

But don't hate the player, hate the game! The OP is just doing her best for her child. If her UC is making her life comfortable enough to be able to put a bit aside for her child, then that's not a bad thing IMO.

And can people fuck off with slating her spelling and grammar?! SO rude and very bad form!!!

You're welcome.

Oh and definitely definitely open a help to save account. You pay in £50 a month. After 2 years you get a £600 bonus and another £600 after the next 2 years. So that's £1200 return on a £2400 four year investment. Guaranteed. You will not get better anywhere and it is all totally legit.

@PurpleButterflyWings Thankyou regarding the spelling I was writing while I had a 2 year old jumping on me lol the joys eh! X

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@BlueTitSmilingAtMe will look into that tonight. :) might have 2 accounts going on for her :)) x

That sounds fab!

Ah no, that one's just for you. Good to have though. And the bonuses you get aren't counted as income for UC either. They're yours.

@PurpleButterflyWings No and I'm not nearly as rude as the OP !!!

Oh il do it for me then :) Thankyou x

@PurpleButterflyWings

I don't have anything against claiming benefits. I struggle with someone claiming to live hand to mouth whilst saving upwards of £80 a month. Do you not see the difference? It makes no odds to me if the person claiming to live hand to mouth is working or not, it's a hard place to be either way, but I think OP was somewhat mocking people who actually do live hand to mouth by suggesting she can save her CB every month.

I'm waiting for my own benefits to drop and I have minimal shopping in because we had an unplanned expense last month which has left us short. Most months we scrape by. It's crass to say your child has everything and more, you are going to save your CB each month but consider yourself on the same level as people like myself.

@PurpleButterflyWings it really is. I saved into it by direct debit. Ngl there were times when I was like 'Christ, I really could have done with that fifty quid in my hand' but boy at the end of the four years it was amazing to have the entire sum there. And once I'd got into the habit of saving I continued even after I was out of the scheme - took some and reinvested it and continued paying in and now I have proper savings.

(The rest, yes, I did use for a holiday. It was a good holiday though.)

Wow wtf have I just read....living hand to mouth but saving for a child's future! I don't receive benefits but always assumed they were for people in need...clearly saving them you aren't in need....I've got a hard hat on for this comment but why disadvantage yourselves when clearly struggling when you mention the living in hand comment

Might look into this! As you say, Sometimes it's good to go without for a bit (apart from essentials obvs) and then have a big sum at the end. What @Elliesmummy1 is doing is a good idea IMO.

@PurpleButterflyWings honestly do. It's a good habit to get into and actually in line with traditional ideas about how to spend your income ie some for living expenses, some for saving, some for spending. I only realised the physical reality of it when I was doing it.

@Polly271220 I get what you're saying but since 2008 wages and money don't mean the same as they did before. The state expects to top up wages and the benefits that do this are definitely not a 'safety net' in the old sense of the phrase. What I mean is wage top up benefits compensate for the fiscal situation we are in which is that the BoE has been printing money for the last decade and a half so that the pound in your pocket is worth less today than it was yesterday, and less again than it was last week, and considerably less than it was a year ago, whereas the pound you have invested in whatever property you own, or any assets you own on top of that, is worth more today than it was yesterday, and more again than it was last week, and considerably more than it was a year ago.

People (like me) who can't invest in assets don't benefit from that situation, so the government throws more cash at them instead.

If you're above that waterline, then really you should be investing. Like, I assume you own your own home? Well, that's your safety net. The rest of us have cash from the government.

I guess we all have to wait and see how it all plays out because the bank won't keep on printing money forever.

netmums is leaking

Yah I agree. This idea that people on benefits are all wasters is v old hat. Anyone who understands anything about the UK economy knows it doesn't work like that any more.

What on Earth is that hand-in-the-air emoji supposed to represent? @Elliesmummy1

Sadly it does (I'm not on UC yet though).
I've had to move my dc's savings into their names so it's at risk if they go off the rails. All their birthday and Xmas money was squirrelled away for a decade. Another way to penalise less well off kids.

She could try saving for her child with money she's earned, not money other taxpayers are giving so that her child doesn't live in poverty. Hard to know what the real truth is when you have people like this but then the newspapers are full of stories of people who can't afford to eat because benefits don't pay enough?

Op has a certain household income. Low enough so she can claim uc. Of other posters aren't claiming uc, then their income is more.

Op could be living very frugally and put a bit by for her child. What's wrong with that?

We've recently come off UC as our income increased, and it does grate when we hear of UC claimants getting extra payments etc when we're still struggling. But it still stands that those on UC have less money coming in than we do.

So how is it anyone's business if Op is saving out of her income?

Op could be living very frugally and put a bit by for her child. What's wrong with that?

Probably this...

I wouldn’t exactly say poverty she has everything you can think of and more
shes spoilt

The idea of living frugally doesn't really balance with OP posts.

I’m on UC top up for my full time job and I’m shocked you can save £80 a month. How is that possible?! And we live very frugally, don’t have a car and get our rent topped up.

You must have been able to save significantly in the past too if you own your cars outright? Unless you had a mega-salary job before pregnancy. Which I’m presuming not as you’re telling everyone to ‘do one’ if you don’t agree with them, which doesn’t show a particularly high level of intelligence.

You know this advice is only relevant for a short period of time though? Given you’ll be looking for work once you child is in school? Yep?

I don't know how many more times I can say that UC isn't about poverty and still be ignored.

Yes, there are some benefits that are about plugging the gap between survival and not. But for the most part UC and the other top up benefits are meant to be long term subsidies to compensate for the fact that we've been printing money for 15 years and therefore wages on the lower deciles don't cover living costs.