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Original poster

Are you claiming UC as a single mum on £30,000 per year?

55 replies

CheapHouse · 21/10/2023 22:38

I've just done two benefit calculators (turn2us and entitled to) and it says that once I have divorced and I am living on my own with my 2 children, earning 30,000 per year, self employed I'd be able to claim £203.29 per week UC.

I just don't know if I can trust this. It seems like way too much. I didn't think I'd even be able to claim anything on my salary.

If you do this please let me know.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
PerfectYear321 · 22/10/2023 20:53

People annoyed at single mums getting help to continue working need to direct their energy at the fact that the fathers aren't obligated to pay for their own kids.

PerfectYear321 · 22/10/2023 20:55

Oh, I thought you said £200 a month, not £200 a week.

PerfectYear321 · 22/10/2023 20:58

Yeah, the calculation seems wrong

Original poster
CheapHouse · 22/10/2023 21:11

So it says

Total benefits: £880.92 per month

Universal Credit
£ 509.25 per month

Support for Mortgage Interest loan
£198.77 per month

Child Benefit
£ 172.90 per month

I already get child benefit so that's what I expected.

I wouldn't be claiming the mortagage loan

It's the UC that seems so high.

I'm not sure why you thought I wouldn't be able to afford childcare costs. It's £200 for both kids before and after school club.

I'm looking at a mortgage repayments of about £600. I think house hold bills will be £500.

Child maintenance payments would be about £500.

My take home would be £1900.

OP posts:
SofiYol · 22/10/2023 21:14

AnotherEmma · 21/10/2023 23:16

Standard amount. £368.74
Child element. £539.16
(I've assumed your oldest child was born after April 2017, but if they were born before that, you'd get slightly more.)
Childcare element. £170
(This is assuming you use a registered childcare provider and the actual cost is £200/month - not the amount you pay ie with deduction for TFC.)
Total maximum award £1077.90

Net earnings. £1900
(I've estimated this, exact amount depends on your expenses, pension contributions etc)
Minus work allowance (£631) = £1269
55% of £1269 = £697.95

UC entitlement:
£1077.90 - £697.95 = £379.95/month

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/on-universal-credit/check-how-much-universal-credit-youll-get/

This.

Pleaseme · 22/10/2023 21:14

I claim UC as a single parent and earn a bit more than that with a mortgage. You will get a work allowance of £631 which is really helpful. I tend to work backwards so my "entitlement" is £1400 a month multiply that by 1.818 so I'd have to take home £3176 a month to get no UC.

Original poster
CheapHouse · 22/10/2023 21:21

@Pleaseme ah hah thanks for that.

@AnotherEmma @SofiYol I'm really trying to get my head around those figures but I don't know what "standard amount" means. Or what any of this means:

Minus work allowance (£631) = £1269
55% of £1269 = £697.95

But no worries if you can't explain. I so appreciate your help so far and will get onto CAB this week.

OP posts:
pancakeoarmams · 22/10/2023 22:25

Random hijack post but I
Just wondering if UC is available for anyone or is there a threshold etc? I'm married and I work but I am only on a term
Time contract. Would I be eligible or will it depend on DH income?

Pleaseme · 22/10/2023 22:28

CheapHouse · 22/10/2023 21:21

@Pleaseme ah hah thanks for that.

@AnotherEmma @SofiYol I'm really trying to get my head around those figures but I don't know what "standard amount" means. Or what any of this means:

Minus work allowance (£631) = £1269
55% of £1269 = £697.95

But no worries if you can't explain. I so appreciate your help so far and will get onto CAB this week.

Standard allowance just means what you'd be entitled to live recieve as a single adult over 25.

Your total entitlement is built out of a standard single adult allowance, plus an entitlement for each child, plus a proportion of childcare costs. Other people may get help with rent etc.

If you don't claim for housing costs then you get a work allowance of £631. This is the amount disregarded by UC before they start to reduce your entitlement at 55p per pound of earnings.

Your net take home pay (after pensions, tax and NI) minus £631 then multiplied by 0.55 will be the amount your total entitlement is reduced by.

For me I take home £2200 a month so disregard £631 then multiply by .55 and my reduction is £869.

My total entitlement is to £1400 a month UC which is reduced by £869 to £531. It is massively helpful.

AnotherEmma · 22/10/2023 22:43

CheapHouse · 22/10/2023 21:21

@Pleaseme ah hah thanks for that.

@AnotherEmma @SofiYol I'm really trying to get my head around those figures but I don't know what "standard amount" means. Or what any of this means:

Minus work allowance (£631) = £1269
55% of £1269 = £697.95

But no worries if you can't explain. I so appreciate your help so far and will get onto CAB this week.

It's all explained in the link I shared at the end of my calculations, and Pleaseme has explained it too.

Please can you clarify whether your oldest was born before or after April 2017?

Apart from that missing info everything else in my calculation was correct (you confirmed £200 childcare costs and £1900 net pay).

I do think the calculator you tried has overestimated your UC, did you put in less take home pay??

Have you tried Entitledto and Turn2Us and compared them?

SofiYol · 22/10/2023 22:55

CheapHouse · 22/10/2023 21:21

@Pleaseme ah hah thanks for that.

@AnotherEmma @SofiYol I'm really trying to get my head around those figures but I don't know what "standard amount" means. Or what any of this means:

Minus work allowance (£631) = £1269
55% of £1269 = £697.95

But no worries if you can't explain. I so appreciate your help so far and will get onto CAB this week.

So UC is made up of elements.

Single adults element so that’s just what you on your own would be entitled to.

And then child elements, so the extra allowance you get per child.

Housing element - this wouldn’t apply to you if you have a mortgage.

Childcare element - help towards your childcare costs.

So you add all of those elements up and you have your total UC entitlement, this is what you would get if you didn’t work. It then makes deductions from this entitlement dependent on your salary.

UC allows you to earn a certain amount before they deduct any of your entitlement. So you can earn eg £697 before they deduct anything from your UC entitlement.

If you earn more than £697 from work then your entitlement reduces by 55p for every pound you earn over that £697.00, a previous poster has calculated this for you to give you an idea of what your UC payment will be monthly.

DustyRhodesYell · 22/10/2023 23:03

@pancakeoarmams obviously your dh's earnings would come into it, why wouldn't they?

Babyroobs · 22/10/2023 23:07

pancakeoarmams · 22/10/2023 22:25

Random hijack post but I
Just wondering if UC is available for anyone or is there a threshold etc? I'm married and I work but I am only on a term
Time contract. Would I be eligible or will it depend on DH income?

It depends on lots of factors - your joint income, savings ( anything above 6k reduces amount), how many dependent kids you have and their ages, whether any of them are disabled, whether you pay rent etc.

Babyroobs · 22/10/2023 23:09

CheapHouse · 22/10/2023 21:11

So it says

Total benefits: £880.92 per month

Universal Credit
£ 509.25 per month

Support for Mortgage Interest loan
£198.77 per month

Child Benefit
£ 172.90 per month

I already get child benefit so that's what I expected.

I wouldn't be claiming the mortagage loan

It's the UC that seems so high.

I'm not sure why you thought I wouldn't be able to afford childcare costs. It's £200 for both kids before and after school club.

I'm looking at a mortgage repayments of about £600. I think house hold bills will be £500.

Child maintenance payments would be about £500.

My take home would be £1900.

No idea why it even mentions the support for mortgage interest as you don't get that unless you've had no earnings for 3 months.

gossipgurl · 22/10/2023 23:10

You know what, £30k can be considered low income. I know many people are on 0k, but I’m not surprised you’re eligible for benefits on that income with 2 children. Sign of the times (inflation & cost of living) perhaps

Legoblockskillfeet · 22/10/2023 23:31

Can I please add a couple of questions to the thread? There seem to be so many knowledgeable people on here.

  1. How long between submitting a claim and it being paid?
  1. If currently claiming as a couple but planning on separating and claiming as a single parent, would there be a gap between the joint claim being paid and the individual or is there a mechanism to avoid any gap? (I am really worried about having long a long gap and getting into more debt)

3.Can you only claim for current childcare costs? Or can you claim for what you will need once separated? e.g. if a family member currently does some childcare but have said that they will stop if you go through with the separation.

Thanks so much for any help. I am feeling really trapped and need to know my options.

Pleaseme · 23/10/2023 00:09

Legoblockskillfeet · 22/10/2023 23:31

Can I please add a couple of questions to the thread? There seem to be so many knowledgeable people on here.

  1. How long between submitting a claim and it being paid?
  1. If currently claiming as a couple but planning on separating and claiming as a single parent, would there be a gap between the joint claim being paid and the individual or is there a mechanism to avoid any gap? (I am really worried about having long a long gap and getting into more debt)

3.Can you only claim for current childcare costs? Or can you claim for what you will need once separated? e.g. if a family member currently does some childcare but have said that they will stop if you go through with the separation.

Thanks so much for any help. I am feeling really trapped and need to know my options.

Edited
  1. 5 weeks
  2. I think it's pretty straightforward, you just let them know circumstances have changed and the date when you seperated, new address if necessary. There shouldn't be a long gap.
  3. You can only claim childcare expenses in arrears which is a bugger as you have to cough up the cash up front. Possibly you could get an advance to help. If you are increasing your hours or moving into work it's sometimes possible to get these expenses paid for you for the first month.
Legoblockskillfeet · 23/10/2023 08:10

Pleaseme · 23/10/2023 00:09

  1. 5 weeks
  2. I think it's pretty straightforward, you just let them know circumstances have changed and the date when you seperated, new address if necessary. There shouldn't be a long gap.
  3. You can only claim childcare expenses in arrears which is a bugger as you have to cough up the cash up front. Possibly you could get an advance to help. If you are increasing your hours or moving into work it's sometimes possible to get these expenses paid for you for the first month.
Show quote history

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your reply.

Original poster
CheapHouse · 23/10/2023 17:36

@Babyroobs ah hah!...I just worked out why it says that for housing. Within the UC claim it breaks it down into elements and it says 0 for housing. But the "Support for Mortgage Interest loan" and "Child Benefit" are separate to UC.

I wouldn't be claiming the support for Mortgage because it's a loan which I would have to pay back.

OP posts:
Babyroobs · 23/10/2023 17:44

CheapHouse · 23/10/2023 17:36

@Babyroobs ah hah!...I just worked out why it says that for housing. Within the UC claim it breaks it down into elements and it says 0 for housing. But the "Support for Mortgage Interest loan" and "Child Benefit" are separate to UC.

I wouldn't be claiming the support for Mortgage because it's a loan which I would have to pay back.

Yes but you wouldn't even be able to claim it even if you did want to because people can only claim that with no income at all, so I'm not sure why it's even there if you put that you have earnings in the calculator !

Pleaseme · 23/10/2023 18:34

Babyroobs · 23/10/2023 17:44

Yes but you wouldn't even be able to claim it even if you did want to because people can only claim that with no income at all, so I'm not sure why it's even there if you put that you have earnings in the calculator !

Show quote history

I’m pretty sure they have extended that scheme due to col crisis. I got an email/ helpful guide / note in the journal about it. I didn’t follow up as can just about afford the mortgage at the moment.

Original poster
CheapHouse · 23/10/2023 18:55

But it's a loan, it's not UC

OP posts:
Mamofteenager · 23/10/2023 19:47

My understanding is (and I might be totally wrong so apologies if so) if you have savings over £16K if you sell your home and your share of the equity, then you can't claim UC. Something to consider and factor in.

AnotherEmma · 23/10/2023 19:57

Mamofteenager · 23/10/2023 19:47

My understanding is (and I might be totally wrong so apologies if so) if you have savings over £16K if you sell your home and your share of the equity, then you can't claim UC. Something to consider and factor in.

It's true that in general, savings over £16k disqualify you for UC and other means-tested benefits. However, there are some exceptions to the rule, including if you sell your home and intend to use the money to buy another home, or if you are separating and move out of a jointly owned home - in both cases the equity can be ignored for up to 6 months.