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

It's certainly is something when the recipients are surprised by what they get. The whole system needs reform.

Oh I abuse the benefits system by having two disabled children? Okay!

It is probably housing element. Do you rent or have a mortgage ? Very often that’s what makes the difference between a UC award or not

You’re absolutely right. You are entitled to even more - go after it!

so strange you share every financial detail but not the maintenance amount. I don’t know why you asked if you should feel guilty and for opinions because you don’t like any that don’t agree with your own.

It is clearly a ridiculous amount of money and it’s wrong to think this is not impacting anyone. It is money that is not going to teachers and doctors and those running public services.

The biggest scandal is the landlord payment. It is capped if you’re not receiving disability benefits but there’s no cap if the claimant claims for disability. The landlord is clearly taking it in.

There is also another scandal about ADHD and ASD kids as the diagnosis criteria has widened so much so that it’s frankly not difficult to get diagnosed and suddenly access to lots of extra money. The country cannot afford it.

Thank you for the explanation. I guess it was a nice gesture (if you can say that) which gave social housing tenants a possibility of becoming a homeowner but it doesn’t seem that this was thoroughly thought out long term

The problem now is that any government trying to make changes or reduce benefits will just be seen as evil so no-one wants to make those choices.

I would honestly love to know

I think you have misunderstood the benefit cap !

It’s extremely hard to get diagnosed ! All of my dc have ASD and ADHD and it took YEARS !

I’m glad people are finally talking about this. My DH has been paying his ex nearly £1.5 in maintenance every month and it has never been taken into account for her benefits. So she earns around 20k a year , plus the maintenance, plus child benefit and over £1.5 in universal credit for the kids. She is considered low income so also gets all the COL payments, discounts etc. and her total take home is nearly 5k!

every time I question it I am accused of benefit bashing. But why would tax payers contribute so much when the cost is already covered by the children’s dad?

I understand that some fathers are unreliable but it wouldn’t be too difficult to check if someone has been receiving regular payments for some time and reduce the UC accordingly.

Well if it helps I earn £2500 after tax I am entitled to no benefits at all.

I pay rent of £1200 council tax I am on debt every single month and I can not afford to make ends meet. I get child benefit £149 and no money fr my ex after bills etc and childcare I literally have nothing and I work my backside off full time in work 8/5 and then work most evenings and weekends My child are both Sen and both attend school full time but I get no help. After school club and breakfast club are £300 alone for youngest.

Thank you for your kindness x

It's madness and seriously needs to be addressed. I have been saying this for years on MN and being shouted down for it.

OP have you got 4 children or 2? Thanks

Thank you, I’ve put that on my to do list and will look into it when I can

And that’s why we need social housing with its not for profit rents.

I just wish a landlord would start a thread ‘should I feel bad for setting the rent so high on my London flat and renting to someone on UC as I know the government will pay it all?’ !!!!

@Fourgreycats Exactly.

That's a crazy amount of money. I don't really understand how it's worked out. I think it's mad that people can get more from UC than those working full time.
Nothing personal against you, you're only claiming what you're entitled to.

My tax code is BR. A quick Google search shows me that it shouldn’t be. Well that’s one good thing that I’ve gotten from this thread

£1500 of OP’s UC goes straight to her landlord. If her landlord was the council it would only be a third of that. That’s not her fault. How much does your mortgage have to be to be taking £18k a year of taxpayers money to cover it? Her landlord is raking it in. THAT’S where the outrage should be! How many sitting MP’s are landlords or have a stake in maintaining extortionate rents?
If you remove her housing element and those associated with her disabled children, she’s receiving around £1k a month to feed, clothe, nurture and raise her family. That’s not excessive at all.
It’s not the benefit system that needs overhauled.
Make employers pay wages which don’t require top ups. It’s not folk on low or even average incomes who benefit from UC top ups, it’s the board of directors and the shareholders.
How many sitting MP’s have shares or second jobs consulting in those businesses which pay their staff NMW but post £M’s/£B’s in profits? Some of that profit is money straight from the treasury.
And the same can be said for all the privatised utility companies.
The system is rigged to make us all turn on each other, and blame the sick and the poor, while the people we should be furious with are sitting in their mansions, swimming in their pools, flying on their private jets and helicopters laughing their asses off at us fucking idiots drinking their KoolAid.

There's obviously so many variables like other people have said.
Some which are shocking
Some things aren't fair.
I've got a friend whose son is autistic. High functioning. She got DLA when he was little and apparently it's not even reviewed. She has no extra care costs for him. My child has meltdowns and more problems than him. Even my friend's husband at one point said we shouldn't take it because we don't need it. I don't hold it against her and don't bring it up.
But the whole thing's hardly fair is it.
Just how it is

I do think welfare needs to be reformed and I am probably more economically right wing than most here. But OP has two disabled children to care for, who wants to switch places? I’m not sure anyone is served by OP and her children being uncomfortable. She is probably staring down the barrel of life time care responsibilities, even for a very much loved child this is a massive demand on any person.

If they move out OP will have to start working many more hours to support herself after years of being restricted in her ability to progress her career due to her caring responsibilities.

To be brutally honest I wouldn’t want the responsibility, I paid privately for NIPT testing to reduce the chance I would have to be a life long carer and even that is no guarantee. It is a lot of money yeah, no doubt about it but people in OP’s circumstances are exactly what welfare should be for.

Presumably a proportion of the people you have in mind to answer that question are those that are working very hard to generate this income for you

You must have missed when I said, ‘I’m going to mention all of my UC amounts and wonder if people that claim similar, feel bad?

Most of these people will want to see some accountability taken for the decisions you have made, as I said, I won’t be explaining my situation so you can decide whether or not I’m worthy enough to claim the elements that I do