Do you feel bad for receiving a ‘high amount’ of UC?

[AnotherNameChange1233]

Last week I went to my local Children’s Centre and attended a Citizen’s Advice group that runs once a week.

As long as you’re registered to the Children Centre, you can turn up for any advice needed. Some people want privacy so they go into a side room with the advisor and some parents may help other parents if they’ve been in a similar situation/can offer the correct advice. It’s also like a social group for parents, hopefully you get the jist of it.

On the table I was sitting on, one parent was trying to get her head around UC as she didn’t quite understand LHA rates, how DLA impacts UC and what elements she would be entitled too. Anyway, I started speaking about my experience with DLA, UC and offered to log into my UC account if it was easier for her to look at the breakdown visually (instead of me talking and complicating things). I also got her postcode to explain how the LHA rates work and etc.

Another parent suddenly spoke up and said, ‘don’t you feel bad for claiming that much money?’ She wasn’t argumentative or anything and we had an interesting conversation but it made me think, are people like me supposed to feel bad when receiving a certain amount?

She also said something like (I’m paraphrasing here as I can’t remember it exactly word for word) if people can’t afford their rent then they should move to a more affordable area. I raised the point of Landlords purchasing properties as part of the Right to Buy scheme, charging extortionate rent which taxpayers then pay through UC. Surely, it’s more a problem that there isn’t affordable rental properties in many areas.

For full transparency, I’m going to mention all of my UC amounts and wonder if people that claim similar, feel bad?

• 292 single person allowance
• 1450 private rent
• 539 for 2 children
• 293 for 2 disabled children
• 589 childcare costs
• 189 carer

£216 is deducted from my entitlement due to my wages. That means my UC amount is £3133. My wages is £771. I receive two amounts of MRC through DLA which is £580 all together.

Now that I’ve written it down, it seems like a whole lot of money but the costs that come with raising one of my disabled children (the other still costs a lot, but not as much as the other) is through the roof due to their issues

Welovecrumpets
The taxpayer is frankly exhausted by those with ‘needs’

I'm not exhausted. I know people with SEN children and when I see their struggle and how they strive to cope no matter what, it makes me feel humbled. I just dont know how they carry on.

Tbh Im more annoyed about Amazon paying zero UK tax but as long as people can get their stuff in convenient fashion it seems easy to turn a blind eye. Things matter more than people.

And the same tories will wrong their hands and claim people are claiming too much benefit and that it has to stop, but it’s all for show to appeal to the daily mail crowd.

They know where the benefit is going (landlords) and are happy about it.

An adult should be allowed to own one rental property under the current tax system. Any extra properties? Tax them at 50% on the rental income.

Agreed.

OP has two disabled children. At the risk of speaking for her, I am confident she would give up her income and live on pennies a day if meant she could cure her children, as would most people on this thread.

The majority of income goes on rent, childcare, and carers. The people on higher incomes moaning that they don't get more would also get these elements of UC if they had high rent, high childcare costs, and disabled children.

I wouldn't feel bad about claiming what I needed to get by. The real issues here are:

• Right to buy, private rent levels and lack of social housing
• cost of childcare
• low wages
• society accepting that men can fuck off and not adequately support their kids. I'd rather men be forced to pay and it be included in the UC calculation.

@SharpAzurePanda Course they are cos most of them and their mates ARE the landlords

I obviously don't envy you or your difficult situation but I genuinely had no idea that UC could pay out this much. I imagine for your needs it is at best adequate but I also fully understand the sense of outrage some are expressing on this thread. I think it's more because of the dreadful state of our economy and the average wages for so many jobs that the government has control over - just searched a few and am posting screenshots.

I do think transparency about all of this is helpful though (in a weird way) as how can we ever point out injustices in the system and lobby for change if all groups only ever have access to their siloed information and what they're considered worthy of!

Can only attach three but have another so will post in a follow up

I can’t believe that comment to be honest. I have a child that suffers from seizures and it’s awful, just awful. They have just started Keppra (Levetiracetam) which seems to be making a difference so far. I can’t imagine how it’d feel as a child seeing your parent having a seizure. Sending love x

Please tell me you are joking! Day centres for the disabled were greatly valued - have you ever asked a carer about respite care?

But day centres were closed because they were considered too expensive to run. Suitable premises, heating, lighting, enough experienced staff to keep everyone safe, facilities to feed, educate and entertain, cost far more than paying parents to care for their kids at home.

I am interested to know the solution to those complaining about 'greedy landlords'.
Without these 'greedy landlords' there would be homeless families as there is not enough social housing to accommodate everyone - hence the 'greedy landlords'.
No doubt the answer will be 'build more social housing' - just like that.
I am a Conservative voter (so shoot me) but I think Margaret Thatcher selling off council houses is probably one of the worst domestic policies in modern history and has left such a monumental problem decades later. But I am not sure how blaming the people who are filling the void makes any sense. Yes they may make a profit on their investment, but so do people who hold stocks and shares and other investments. Are they 'greedy' too? Because that will be most of us with company/private pension schemes.

Everyone who needs it gets their pension topped up to £228 a week if they have no other income/savings. So go for it, if you think that is preferable.

Another example set of salary info - see other post above

I don't understand why for most men CM cannot be deducted before wages paid and deducted from benefits. Why is the tax payer paying hundreds a month to support kids when many dads ( usually ) can and do pay for their kids? It's absurd. the argument is that CM isn't reliable so resident parents are left struggling - surely it's not that hard to make sure it can be reliably recouped??

Sorry I’m quite behind on the thread (only on page 5) but I’ve just answered this a few posts ago

@Babyroobs

Yep, I agree. Some of the amounts can be astoundingly high while others can barely survive.

Transitional protection for people with second properties/ very high savings also shocks me. Last week, I spoke to someone who owned two houses outright, had £400k in the bank, worked part time and was getting £500 a month UC after switching from tax credits. Crazy.

Without landlords there would be fewer families in hotels.

Because in many cases the men are pretty feckless and unemployed or on benefits themselves (in my experience)

I suspect attitudes would be quite different if the OP was to describe the change in life circumstances that occurred after making the decision to have a 4th child, presumably from a state of significant more financial independence.

how do you know they’re renting at an inflated rate? Their mortgage could have sky rocketed due to interest rates. Rates are higher on BTL mortgages anyway and residential mortgages have doubled if not tripled. Same case for majority of landlords. Yes some are mortgage free but I think the mortgagee free landlords are able to charge less as it’s all profit not just a proportion. But this is their business, they are in it to make money. They are not the problem here, the government and the system are.

And to see after taking home £3k she’s now after “seriously looking into” not getting taxed, this isn’t about guilt this is about rinsing for all it’s worth and I think OP knows this by not disclosing the additional she gets in child maintenance and getting the extra tax back.

It’s not all or nothing with UC - it’s everything in between, awards are bespoke and depending on individual circumstances awards can be so different. When you look at one end of the spectrum of course it will be scrutinised but it’s due to disability elements, high rent and childcare - it’s not shocking in any way it’s a fair system.

Explain?

It's absolutely disgusting, it really is. I don't think people realize the absurdity .

I’m so sorry your daughter has lost their dad (and you’ve lost your partner) to epilepsy. Sending love to you and your daughter also x

@Babyroobs

There is no rational answer, other than government/ society care more about the freedoms of men than the welfare of children/ burden on state.

I fully supported the welfare state but shame on you, and everyone else, who abuses it.