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

The houses weren’t hers to sell. It was a decision that has wrecked communities. It has created snobbery that never existed before. Someone bought their council house at a discount and thought it made them middle class. Yes we do need more social housing. Yes the landlords do provide a service but my God they’ve stuffed their pockets

Yes I think one of the main changes need to be that CM is taken into account and all CM goes through the CMS system. It’s ridiculous that people can get that much in benefits and also get whatever CM they get paid too. UC amount should be calculated after CM is paid. The system really needs an overhaul,I actually support the new proposals after reading lots of threads on here the last few days.

So if that is the case they won't be paying CM anyway. It's the ones that do pay regularly and reliably and then the state ( taxpayers) pay for the kids again that is absurd. By all means pay single mums to raise kids if the dad won't/ can't pay any CM but when they can pay and do pay why do we pay again through UC or tax credits?

Please do explain how OP is abusing the system by working part time and claiming precisely what she is legitimately entitled to ? Or is just that you don’t get as much and can’t see further than that ?

If you have a child who is disabled then having family care even with UC and all other benefits can be a lot cheaper than the alternative.

Some children with disabilities can have medical needs - peg feeding, non-verbal, alternative communication - or behavioural needs - mostly violence - that means full residential care is considered appropriate.

The cost of this is anywhere from 60k a year upwards.

schoolsweek.co.uk/private-special-school-places-cost-480-million-per-year/#:~:text=The%20boarding%20fees%20are%20concerning,from%20£40%2C752%20a%20year.

If the poster has two children who are disabled then potentially that is two lots of residential care at 120k per year.

Paying their mum however much it is in UC to look after them is cheaper than the alternative.

She's actually saving the state money!

I guess I want to live in a society where people who need it are supported. I want to know that if I or my kids need support from the state we can access that support. I don't want people to feel bad or guilty for that. I think we all benefit if society is caring and supportive. I speak as someone who has never needed to claim benefits and have always worked but we should all know that any one of us could need support.

On the points others make about sustainability they may have a point and maybe universal basic income is something to explore for the future. Greater minds than mine will need to figure that out.

@Babyroobs

Last month, I spoke to a man who was outraged that his UC claim did not take into account the money he paid in maintenance- he thought it should be fully covered by UC rather than come out of his claims.

He said it was unfair that his daughter was costing him money as he couldn't afford her!

If you're in receipt of 2 lots of MRC DLA, I'm not thinking a well paid full time job is going to be feasible any time soon. Why feel bad?

I know I started this thread to ask a question but I have a question myself.

What was the point of Right To Buy, why was it introduced? Was it to give social housing tenants a chance at becoming home owners? Was it to push more people into private renting? I’ll be honest, I’ve never really researched the scheme so I don’t understand what the aim was. From 6.5M units to 2M is a massive drop

Feckless wanker

But I am not sure how blaming the people who are filling the void makes any sense.

Because they’re profiteering. Housing is an essential.

Well for balance I work full time in a public sector job which requires an MSc. I get no benefits at all. I am not even entitled to child benefit.
I take home £2100 per month. I also have to pay mortgage, childcare etc.
I can not afford any luxurys at all. I spend my weekends doing washing and cleaning.
I saved and worked for years to afford my house. Literally nights. weekends full on work. Never had a penny in benefits.
I have worked through depression ( yes I still got up and went to work, no MH excuses here) I worked around young children. Worked through grief.

Why the f@#£ did I bother when you can get all this money for free???
let's hope the government does cut benefits is all I can say after seeing this. I am so so shocked at what OP is getting.

Sorry but that is a lot of money!

THIS! 💐None of us know what the future holds, we will all need support at some point.

Pop out baby after baby? Having 2 children is hardly popping out baby after baby. You also have no information on their father, you’ve just made that up yourself

People selling their homes for £££ after buying them cheap 30 years ago are profiteering as well.

Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Buy

Would all the posters who are supporting the amount the OP claims, have the same opinion if the thread was entitled ‘I get £2k per month child maintenance. Should I feel bad for claiming UC?’

The OP refusing to answer this renders every opinion pointless. If she gets a decent amount of CM, surely any human would feel bad claiming extra money.

The benefit pot is not never ending. The NHS is barely fit for purpose. The country, economically, is on its knees. Of course people shouldn’t be claiming money they don’t need.

I’m not saying the OP shouldn’t be claiming, but if she gets a decent amount of CM, then yes, she should feel bad for claiming in excess of what she needs.

Which aspect of her claim do you want to remove from the OP?

The right to buy was introduced by thatcher.

She believed that people should have a stake in society and that was part of what drove some of the privatisations of the 1980s as well. So British Gas, BT etc were privatised and anyone could buy shares in them.

She wanted to create a society where people owned their own home and had investments for a number of reasons but she did also believe it would make people more involved with their local area and their local politics and have pride in what they had achieved.

It's had a big impact beyond that. Obviously thatcher is divisive in many ways for many of the other things she did but the right to buy was aimed at giving renters "a stake in society"

Why the f@#£ did I bother when you can get all this money for free???
let's hope the government does cut benefits is all I can say after seeing this. I am so so shocked at what OP is getting.

I see your point with some situations but as pp have said not everyone gets benefits like this and many are in the breadline already - specifically single childfree adults. My worry is rather than reforming the system and providing social housing they’ll just do a blanket reduction in benefits.

Why is it right that people who work full time, that get no help from the government, are told to 'suck it up' when we only voice what thousands of other people think?

Benefits do need a complete overhaul.

People having a home, living in it for 30 years and then selling it will make a profit. People owning 3+ houses and renting them for as much as they can get is using milking renters for profit.

As pointed out on this thread, it’s councils paying thousands and thousands of pounds into the pockets of private landlords. That means your tax money is making private landlords richer. So who are the real scroungers?

Why would I sit here and write out a timeline of my life? Why would I could give some posters a breakdown of my life so that they can decide whether I’m worthy of receiving UC? Does it matter if I say that I was married and had a divorce? Does it matter if I say that I got pregnant from a one night stand? Please feel free to make up my life story, it doesn’t impact me or my life.

I have 2 children, not 4. I receive 2 children elements and 2 disabled child elements as both childen are disabled. They only have a small age gap and my youngest is the one that has Down Syndrome. If my first child had Down Syndrome then I probably wouldn’t have had a second. The disabilities of my first child were not known when my second child was born. That’s the most information I’ll be sharing and that’s just to clarify that I only have 2 children

Yeh that’s it; the disadvantaged nicked all the money

How would reducing benefits to the mothers of disabled children with Down syndrome help your situation?