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

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/30/california-housing-vienna-lessons

that’s right- if the cost of housing goes up you have to pay more or have nowhere to live.

In this case If mortgage’s go up, market forces mean the landlord will put the rent up if he can. If uc won’t pay, he will put out the UC claimant and rent it to someone who can afford it. Or sell it. Not rent it at a falsely low rate forever.

Either way, op ends up with nowhere to live.

Its constantly the

look over there at what they are doing

whilst we snaffle more gold in top our pockets

and they fall for it

I don’t see how it’s feasible for Landlords to keep on increasing rental prices, UC to keep on covering it and there’s still hardly any social housing being built

That's the nutshell.

Anyway, I'd better be off to bed, hope your respite is restful OP!

I’m open to moving outside of London but I don’t think I’ve brave enough to move to a completely different country

Buy to let mortgages did not exist in the recent past. The Conservatives introduced new banking rules that made them possible.
Before then private rents were cheaper than mortgage payments, because only landlords who had outright bought a house rented it out.

NO incorrect. You declare your wage then declare your pension contributions.

There should be no issues if pension is relief at source or a sipp/private pension.

Yes those people can and do feel annoyed. This is one amongst many reasons why they don’t want to work FT. I’ve been reading newspaper articles about taxation and I see it at both ends. I see people approaching then£50k level and actively doing things to avoid it like cutting hours, but then see people more at your level that if receiving a promotion or pay rise reduce hours as they don’t want to risk their benefits. That cannot and is not right and a reducing number of people is paying out more and more for people claiming benefits.

The OP is not doing anything wrong legally, but I do feel I should represent what I’m sure will be a minority view of the ethics of this example and many others

Thank you! I’m currently binge watching this absolutely batshit show and will be off to bed soon enough myself. I have one more day left of rest which I’m really looking forward too. Have a great night

Interesting. My workplace specifically outlines that paying to avcs via salary sacrifice cannot take you below NMW. Will double check thanks.

Only 2 days in every 6 months?
I can think of a million better things I would rather be doing in this very short window of respite.

I see lots of people my age reducing their working hours (early sixties) who are not entitled to any benefits. If people can afford to work fewer hours, many will.

i never said salary sacrifice. That is different. You are correct that cant go below NMW.

The landlords can rent at market rates to anyone. What you don’t understand is the market sets the rent. The landlord has no more power than the tenant to set the rent. If there were lots and lots of cheaper rental properties, the landlord couldn’t charge more because people simply wouldn’t pay it. Also the cost of rental properties is related to the cost to buy as that will dictate landlords costs and their alternatives.

landlords can charge more and more rent because rental properties are getting more and more scarce and more expensive to buy and rent. This is because of increased taxation and regulations on landlords, higher interest rates and many landlords selling up due to anti landlord sentiment. Not because landlords simply want to have more money.

anyway, no point arguing with silliness - this type of economic illiteracy just ends up with more homeless.

This is not true.

You’re obviously entitled to all these benefits so fair enough. I don’t expect you to say what child maintenance you get but it does make me wonder if maintenance should be taken into account in universal credit. If a child’s father was a very high earner and paying a lot in maintenance, surely this should be used for childcare, for example, just as it would if the parents were together or is a single parent had this level of income.

@User2460177 It is true.

@Susieblue18 Maintenance did used to be taken into account. They had to change the rules as so many fathers were failing to pay the maintenance they were supposed to, leaving families in utter destitution.

Are you presuming to know the OP's PhD status? (Apologies if you do, and I missed it.)
You also say "the system is extremely unfair to those of us who are able and chose to work."
(Like most in her situation, OP DOES work albeit restricted around her increased caring role.)

Wo/men with even the most lucrative careers can have that earning potential entirely snuffed when fate has something else in mind, such as an all-consuming duty of care.

I’d enjoy it while you can the benefits bill isn’t sustainable that’s why it’s getting overhauled, I’m sure this will happen no matter who is in government.

I just don't get it
Not at the OP, disability is totally different

I have a mortgage and am single, no DC and min wage so not entitled to anything

I had a termination because I can't afford a child but I would be better off renting, having a child and working PT?

My dad has worked since he was 13 but is renting in retirement. His partner gets more in benefits than he does in his pensions plus the additional stuff like the cheaper broadband etc, she's about £500pm better off than he is - and he gets nothing because his pensions are too much. Which makes no sense because she gets more in benefits!

It's not jealousy that I'm posting this - ok slightly because due to health issues I would love to drop to 32hrs work but can't - it's just more... min wage feels like a joke

And rent too... my friend is currently in a hotel room with her two children as rent is her wage
She's homeless and waiting for council housing and willing and able to do DIY with family help

On Facebook today people were posting about all the abandoned houses they've been exploring
There's literal mansions and family homes and farms rotting while people pay £1600 for a 2 bed house or are living in a hotel. I know some of these houses are owned but what a waste

I'm sorry but I totally agree here . Its just not sustainable and its not fair - it should almost always be a case that you are better off working than working minimally and be supported to effectively earn the same as someone on 65k...just wrong. Don't take it personally OP but agree this system needs an overhaul. Having said thst I think if you have disabilities or kids with disabilities that's where we need to do more.... OP YOU kind if fall into that camp but the way its structured looks like the system is in shambolic mess. I know people that can only dream of earning that amount of money and quite frankly perhaps a lot of people could claim things they probably are not and then where do we end up with funding it all ? It almost seems as if you have decided you can't afford to buy a property you could very much get the system to support you by working less hours too and hitting that tipping point.... I'm not sure what the solution is but this was an eye opener and it doesn't look great nor is it fair 🤔

This is probably why the Govn is now talking about reassessing benefits.

My cousin who is classed as disabled told me she could claim more/ the same in benefits if she wasn’t working.
That’s madness.
I understand disability benefits are being looked at now with the idea of offering support at source rather than money. With the predicted increase in the benefits bill something has to give.

You never know you might strike it lucky and your baby goes on to develop a disability so you're entitled to some extra money......I'm sure all the restrictions on your life and worry about what will happen to him when you finally get a break from caring by dying will be worth it. 🙄