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

No it’s not.

We bought two properties with mortgages and rented them out.
The mortgages were not buy to let as they didn’t exist then.

I am sure you are knackered having to care etc. As it can't be easy. But in reality the tax you may pay on 700 odd income from work is far overshadowed by the benefits received so in reality you don't pay any tax at all in the bigger scheme if things. Having said that it's great you are able to snd willing to work to contribute and for your mental health. I'm not judging it is just eye opening and I'm not sure we'll ever get to a point where all parties feel benefits are fair and just

I’ve already said that I’m better of working and would get £500 less if I didn’t have a job. You’re always better off having a job whilst receiving UC

OP you said quite a few times you won't be sharing anything about the father/s, - if you did at a high level it would provide more context and backdrop for example if they were deceised, no income... if they were contributing , yet a different context. People are just trying to get a sense for and rightly so, if fathers should and could be be accountable more as its a massive issue in general. If you feel its outing that's a different matter ( but quite honestly there are probably loads of mothers in your similar position )

I genuinely missed that part of your original post.

So you only want other claimants of state benefits to comment on your thread and help you answer if you should feel "bad" about the sum of money you get.

In which case I can see why you have become so defensive towards questions that most people earning the taxes that support you in this way would think it was reasonable to ask.

Interestingly as I mentioned, I think you are probably in a situation that exemplifies why we need a welfare system to support people in your position, but as you don't want to hear the opinion of people like me I will leave the thread!

This is an incredible amount of money to receive from the state. So many families are in full time work and earn nothing like this and are seriously struggling. You're only claiming what you are entitled to, so I wouldn't feel bad about it. I wouldn't want to swap places with you, but on a surface level it's pretty galling to read.

No issue with people claiming what they're entitled to within the system but the system isn't right when:

1.Such a large proportion of that claim is going to a private landlord rather than you being in a council property. How many other UC claims are essentially paying private landlords mortgages these days? These are the real people cashing in here.

2.Father's can duck their responsibilities and not contribute financially so the state has to pick up the tab

I think the issue is more why are rents so ridiculously high and why are wages so low. Wages have not kept place with inflation for years. The amount of help you get towards rent via benefits is also capped at the 30th percentile for rents in that area (so UC in someone living in London will generally be much higher than other places in the country). So I think people are making the wrong comparison.

Most people also do not get anywhere as much towards living costs as the OP, plus they have to pay out of their meagre living costs money a top up towards their rent, as if it’s more than the LHA UC won’t cover the excess.

The main point though is that the OPs UC is particularly high because she’s getting extra support due to having disabled children. Which I believe is justified. I think we should be looking after the more vulnerable in society including families with disabled children, and these families shouldn’t have to be living on the breadline. We are not talking about out of work, fit and well jobseekers with no caring responsibilities. Their UC won’t be anything like the OPs.

Also if people are upset with the amount going towards rent, their ire should be with the government. It’s the tories who have sold off all the council housing, trying to sell off all the housing association housing and have made it less profitable for private landlords. We have a housing crisis in this country. We don’t have enough particularly at the lower income end. It would be way cheaper to house the OP in social housing than private rent. People are struggling to find anywhere to live and everywhere is expensive as a result. We should be asking why the government are choosing to pay the mortgages or towards to assets of private landlords, rather than looking to house people in reasonably priced social housing which gives them better security.

People always blame the wrong person. The shocking policies with regard to housing over decades causing the current housing crisis and ridiculous rents are not the OPs fault.

Possibly because they've been working for forty years and are worn out? And wondering how many more years they have and don't want to work until they drop?

When I was made redundant just after the pandemic I was in a £35k salary and almost had it completely covered by UC, I was short a few £100 but it was a life saver whilst I job hunted. Before this I had been working for 10 years. I only have 1 child so my UC was never as much as yours OP - and I didn’t realise people could get that much. However there is a reason why.

I think it’s ridiculous that wages don’t match our living costs - I would say that is a much bigger issue than the amount of UC you are paid and other people that rely on benefits. The UK has high tax and currently a high cost of living and it’s exhausting for workers.

This in spades

The government didn't feel bad giving billions of taxpayers' cash to their friends for faulty PPE and track and trace. The money that the op is getting is supporting vulnerable children and that is very important. Plus the op works! Don't feel bad.

No, you shouldn’t feel bad about it. You are claiming what you’re entitled to under the rules.

There's an election coming up. The Daily Fail is flooded with stories that fit the Conservative campaign narratives of 'cut the bloated benefits bill' and 'tough on migrants/immigrants'. This thread feels like many popping up on social media at the moment, just to further that narrative. It's more subtle than the Daily Fail stories, and reaches an audience they might not. OP are you sitting in the Conservative Party social media office running hundreds of social media accounts?

I am a single disabled mother of a disabled child - I currently cannot work due to my conditions/disabilities and I have my DC 100% of the time.

In Australia, my entire government benefit (the total amount of money I have to live on per month to pay all my expenses including rent, transport, medications, food, utilities, and everything else) is the equivalent of £2400.

I’m a widow, and mother of a young child, not entitled to any benefits, and my widows pension is 1k a month. So that seems like a lot to me, but good luck to you, OP!

Sorry - conversion error:

Amount I receive per month is $2400 (Australian dollars), so £1250 (GBP).

Buy to let was introduced in 1996 by ARLA and became popular whilst Labour were in power from 1997 onwards - there was a 30 fold increase under the Blair government.

Your rent must be far, far lower though - if it wasn't you'd be homeless. London is in a different league when it comes to prices. Not that I'm saying you have it easy, you clearly don't.

I don’t think you should feel bad about claiming what you’re entitled to. However, I just would like to understand as a few people have mentioned this is salary equivalent of something in £50-60K bracket. But your net “take home” after working and receiving the various benefits is I think £4,484/month which is equivalent to gross pay of over £74K. Is that right or are some of the benefit payments taxed?

I totally agree with you that right to buy was poorly designed and should never have been allowed to be used as private rental properties. We need more social and affordable housing.

Make sure when you get your tax code sorted out that HMRC pays you back what they owe you in overpaid taxes for previous year(s).

In all honesty, how is the welfare system meant to carry on without some kind of reform?

It is a lot. You get more than I do coming in with your wage and I’m earning 63k a year. My rent is £1350, and because I’m paying for this myself I have to sleep on the sofa when my son is home from Uni. In work benefits are generous and people always assume those on benefits are struggling but you can see from your post that it’s not always the case. Im personally moving north in a couple of years but I’m been stuck done south for years waiting for my kids to grow up before I can relocate. Youngest will go to Uni in 2yrs and I’m then going to move north and buy a property, fed up working so hard and not even owning a property due to the prices down here

I’m just really shocked there are so many people unaware of the large amounts paid out to many on benefits.If you go on the Facebook pages of benefit groups there are many examples.Its not just a few people here and there.

Goodness me, this thread! The only reason this woman gets this much is because she has two disabled children. If she didn’t, she would be benefit capped and forced to work more hours. All of you saying ‘what’s the point of me doing my full days shift then when I could just claim £3 grand a month?’ Well you couldn’t anyway so don’t torture yourself with the thought.
I’ve worked since I was 15 - my salary was over £50k when my 3 year old became incredibly poorly with a form of epilepsy (I’m not even going to address the person who would take epilepsy for an extra £2.5k 🙄🙄).
Hell yes I claim benefits now. Not as much as the original poster as my husband earns around £30k so we get deductions for his wages but it still comes out at around £2k a month. Almost all of that money is directly related to my disabled daughter and I would give every single penny back with interest if you took her disability away and allowed me to go back to work.