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

1 - where is this magical children's centre that no longer exists in most places?
2 - suspect thread is here to wind people up
3 - well done you've wound me up especially after my tax bill on Friday which was beyond a joke.

Exactly . For all we know her landlord could have multiple properties all housing UC recipients - getting all that rent money each month and not working but would anyone even think to criticise the landlord……..

You’re absolutely right. I should have known better really

You get more than my partner and I bring home together with both of us working. We only have one child as we didn’t think we could afford another, that actually makes me very sad sometimes. So if I left my partner and had more children I could get more in benefits than we do as a hard working couple. I’m sorry but I think it’s bonkers. No wonder this country is screwed.
I know people will come at me for saying that, but my partner missed most of his child’s early childhood due to the hours he had to work to make ends meet. Do people laugh at people like us for working so hard when, if you know the system, you don’t have to?

@Fourgreycats obviously that’s not what I’m saying - HOW DARE YOU suggest that I would wish that!? You’ve missed my point entirely

You shouldn't be able to get more money from benefits than you could get if able to work a full time job.

Take away the 293 and 189 disability and carer costs, leaves £2,654 plus £771 wage = £3,425. £41k after tax. £53k salary.

If you were working, would you be on a £53k wage? If not, you are getting too much benefits and the whole system is therefore very wrong.

Yes - why don’t you just plan to have a disabled child/children then and get extra money just like I did and OP too …….. like there’s actually a choice to make 🤦‍♀️

OP I think you are doing great continuing to work while caring for 2 disabled children on your own. That is really hard work! Well done to you!

It is shameful that the father of said children is off the hook and is not contributing to their care and also not providing for them financially. There really needs to be a better way to approach this so that the tax payer is not left to carry the entire burden.

With 2 disabled children I see how you are able to claim and receive a large amount on UC, it is a wage which is above the national average wage. And I can understand how people who work full time jobs and are not eligible to claim anything would feel like they were being taken advantage of. So there are 2 sides to it.

"If you know the system you don't have to"

You know you're absolutely right, op obviously purposely had two disabled children, left her very happy relationship to work part time and claim benefits, she's living the dream - bloody hell.

Please do explain your point then if I’m mistaken and that’s not what you meant then

People do not realise the expense of having disabled children so they often don’t agree with the amounts paid .
Please do not feel bad

Woow, that’s very decent help. This is still a very generous country; glad for people that need it can get help; thought people were complaining about benefits being stopped.

I’m really astounded that people are so wound up about those with disabled dc getting more money due to that ? Do you get annoyed if you have to go to any kind of routine medical appt and see children there with long term conditions and start calculating how much more they are getting spent on them by the nhs and feel jealous ?

I’m not judging OP.

Am interested to know what disabilities peoples DC have in order to claim that amount AND work. I presume this means working during school hours only.

It’s so hard to get a diagnosis for ASD/ADHD etc nowadays and I can’t help but think it’s just because the govt don’t want to fork out extra money. When for me it’s about having the knowledge that there’s a reason my child is as he is and tools to deal with it. Not the money.

She hasn't said dad is not contributing. She's refused to answer that question. Which means the likelihood is he's paying some maintenance, possibly at an ok amount as well. Unsure whether he's involved in their life from what she's posted

Ha! I also used to feel bad and I receive a LOT less than that. Look, the system is devised to support the vulnerable and, frankly, the rules are kind of inexplicable to the average person. There's no sense in feeling bad about what they give you, they've worked out your entitlement and you are receiving what they've calculated you need for your circumstances. If others get less, that's just not your problem.

Maybe just don't go around showing people how much you get though. People can get really nasty when jealous.

Only on MN would someone moan about paying tax on their wages when they are getting a huge sum of money every month tax free already. Yes you might have been put on the wrong tax code but read the room before you rush to "look into it", people are on their arses here and I'll be completely honest and say I don't know what the point of this thread is? What do you expect to achieve from it or what responses do you want?

Yes but you would have to make sure the future children were disabled. Not quite sure how you would plan that??

I don’t think you should feel bad but I don’t see how the country can really afford to function like this. House prices and rent need to come down. Tax money is propping up the housing market instead of going on education, healthcare, police etc.

The cost of RTB and failure to build enough council homes is staggering isn't it.

Can I ask out of interest, what is the benefits cap?
I don't know much about how the benefits systems works, but I'm sure I've seen posts here in the past from disabled people on PIP who still get their housing allowance capped even when their rent is higher?

I honestly cannot fathom how users can be jealous of a single mother to not one but two disabled children who also works part time and is a full time carer.

I have one disabled child (genetic condition that took 2 years to diagnose and suspected ASD that's already taken 3 years but yes as PP mentioned it's really easy to get a diagnosis ) and I can't imagine doubling up on it, it's really hard with one so I genuinely can't imagine what it's like with two.

My husband works full time and I part time and we're still entitled to benefits (most of it on childcare to be fair). I don't feel bad getting it, if I didn't have a disabled DC like OP then I could work full time and earn more than I receive on benefits plus not have to worry about my DC all the time, life would be great.

It's a mad system where people get far more in benefits than they would earn on a fairly good salary.,

Assuming the average worker is paid £39k, that’s the entire income tax of nine people.

Not criticising the OP, but you can see why the cost of state support is becoming a challenge for the country.

You are not meant or supposed to feel anything, you feel what you feel. You do realise it is a lot of money.

The thing that needs to be"fixing" is the fact that wages/salaries are too low to provide a reasonable quality of life now. A £60k salary has the buying power of a £35k salary 15 years ago yet a 35k job 15 years ago will now pay a salary of say £45k.

So those in work are sometimes poorer than those with benefits not because benefits are high but because wages are low.

The actual horrible beneficiaries are shareholders and company owners who profit from being able to keep wages low.