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

Well, I don’t necessarily think you should feel bad, because what mother wouldn't claim what she’s entitled to for her children.
But you are receiving the equivalent if a £53,000 salary, after tax, pension, student loan etc. Far more than many full time professional workers. So I don’t think the system is fair.

Edited to add: actually, I hadn’t fully taken into account that you are a full time carer. I suppose the scandal is how underpaid professional carers are, by comparison. It’s certainly important work.

It does sound like a lot. That said I get £600( am entitled to £1600 ish but wages reduce it).

I think the biggest problem is a lack of social housing. I don’t want to be insensitive but I’m assuming you aren’t going to be able to work f/t due to your child’s needs whilst they are still a child. So the taxpayer will pay at a minimum £1450 12 18 probably more over the years and for longer. That’s over £300K!

How is it not possible for the government to invest in social housing surely it’d be cheaper for them to build / maintain houses than £300k and they’d own as asset.

the disability living allowance for the children isn't means tested people can still claim that if their child is disabled and they work, its designed to cover the extra costs of disability. i earn £65k a year working full time snd still get around £400 every four weeks for my son. i dont qualify for carers allowance as that is means tested. im only able to work full time as hes in school, i have a dh and we have managed to arrange our jobs so one drops off and one picks up, when ds leaves school in a few years im either going go have to give up work or cut down my hours so im working as much as i can while i can and putting alot into my pension. i would much rather prefer it if my child was not disabled and he would be able to lead an independent life rather than receiving the £400.

Including DLA, carer etc.
You receive approx £4500 pm total
This is equivalent to a person with NO student loan* and a pretax salary of

£77,000

Excluding payment relating to disabilities

You receive £3400 pm total
This is equivalent to a person with NO student loan* and a pretax salary of

£55,000

(*most people aged 35 and under i know STILL have student loan and make pension contributions so would need to make significantly more. Example My db brings in less than 4.5k and earns 90k pa)

I dont find it surprising but i can see how people would.

My personal feelings are:
The disability components are way too low but that you in aggregate receive more than appropriate support given you have 2 disabled children.
I think the notion you could all be fit and well and in receipt of an equiv of £55k a year pre tax salary to be....economically problematic... but here we are...

It's this attitude which is the problem: but I consider MPs and tax dodgers to be the real benefit scroungers. And rich people, I'm sure. Which is 'anyone richer than me'. Certainly landlords and people on higher tax rates (oh, the irony - contributing more to society makes someone a Bad Person.)

Don't feel bad for your UC claim. You need it to care for your children, and this is what has been put in place in our society so that you can. We should all feel really happy about that.

But don't be angry and bitter at the people who do work and create the value that you're benefiting from.

What? Of course the landlord has discretion to set the rent on a given property. No one at any level says you must offer it for rent at market rent.

i have no children and live in a two income household. I’m fortunate to live a comfortable life, with disposable income. I have never had to claim benefits; although I have experienced living on a low wage with high expenses and it was shit.

I have zero jealousy of anyone being given money to help navigate life with high rents and high needs children. The benefits system was set up to help people who need help and I’m happy for ‘my taxes’ to contribute towards that. I don’t think people on benefits should have to live a pauper’s lifestyle either.

What I do think is a massive disgrace is that so many others are struggling, despite trying their best, and that housing is so unaffordable for so many.

You don’t win any awards for not claiming disability benefit for yourself or your child. I’d always advise claiming if you qualify. if you feel that badly about having the money then you can donate the equivalent of what you receive to charity. Pip and dla is a gateway benefit so often access to other non financial adjustments by various places has to be proved by receipt of dla/pip

This

I think you mean private developers, as contractors aren’t in the business of taking on the risk of bringing homes from site purchase to market.

However, private development of social housing is the system we currently have via Affordable Housing planning rules. It doesn’t appear to be working.

@AnotherNameChange1233

Very Bad practice to have a group of people giving benefits advice to one another in a setting. A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. The CAB and Children's Centre should put a stop to this. Might as well go on mumsnet, same discussion, bigger audience. The CAB should always be confidential and would never encourage this.

It's difficult to believe that it is true and I would report this if it was my children's centre as it is totally inappropriate and unprofessional.

If you know how benefits threads go why post, unless its to add fuel to the fire on all of the PIP bashing going on in government right now.

I had to give up my career after my son was born twelve weeks early and suffered a catastrophic stroke at ten days old. He was totally dependent needing 24/7 care. He lived for more than 20 years. I received DLA, child benefit and Carers Allowance. I had a mortgage . i was ineligible for any other support as I had a small private income. The Carers Allowance was taxed and was stopped when he was in hospital even though I provided all his care there to help out the short staffed nurses. I only got additional help in the home after I became so sleep deprived I could not remember whether I had given him his medicines five minutes after having done so. In time he needed 24/7 two to one care and I worked alongside a professional carer who earned a low wage but the company charged the local authority £22 an hour. I got £60 a week at that time Carers Allowance for as a previous poster might recognise working like a dog to the point of exhaustion..My health due to the stress has been impacted as has my life expectancy.
I remain grateful for the Welfare State . None of us knows what others lives are truly like . A catastrophic event can impact any of us and it could be just around the corner. If you have your health and your children are healthy there is a possibility you can move forward in life. I do have a lot of sympathy for those on low wages who are working long hours and struggling to get by in this cost of living crisis . However I cannot understand the envy??? 0f some posters.

No. Australian cities now have London property prices.

As another parent with a disabled child - you already had two disabled children - and thought you should have another child, when you already had four as it was. Frankly, that was stupid. So yes, I do judge you. Not the OP.

But iirc the poster said she has to pay everything including her rent out of a sum significantly lower than the OP's rent - I think it was around £1200 (her whole income) vs £1450 (OPs monthly rent). She can't be paying more than her income in rent?

Surely sex work would be an option for you then? Not such an extreme choice as death, is it? You did say in an earlier post that you would endure any sort of suffering for an extra £800, so why not?

They don’t, truthfully.
Housing costs are still cheaper in Australia especially when utility bills and council tax (rates) are taken into account.

I agree and I'm so shocked too. That is a lot.

I hate to disappoint everyone, especially those frothing at the mouth and jumping up and down in anger, but I don't think this is real. It sounds a bit like Rishi Sunak is stirring the pot.

While ever we're scrabbling with one another, none of us are questioning them.

Well yes, they could charge rent at less than is required to buy the property, maintain it, pay for the 2nd-property taxes, and absorb non-payment by problem tenants that they can't evict due to over-protective laws... but then they'll run out of money quite soon and stop being a landlord.

The lack of private rental property at affordable prices is a direct result of increased legislation which harms landlords. Legislation which the people who need those rental properties often cheer on, because they see it as sticking it to rich people.

Financial illiteracy and class warfare: it's a damaging combination. Especially in high enough numbers that it unfortunately does affect what legislation is passed.

The only alternative is for there to be more social housing. Instead of expecting high tax payers to pay out even more to build housing for everyone, the best thing would be to immediately scrap long term social tenancies, and actually make existing social housing available only to those people who genuinely need it now as a means-tested benefit. And stop right-to-buy, which has absolutely no justification.

What people struggle with is that someone working all the hours they can as a teacher or nurse, earning £40k, would bring home quite a bit less than you.

It makes it feel like there are probably lots of people choosing to work very part time and have their income topped up with benefits. We don't all feel that the government can afford to give people that choice. There's a band of people eligible for nothing who are living off a lot less than you op, who are desperate to have kids but putting it off because their employer won't give them more money just because they have a child to pay for & so they can't afford it.

I questioned it. I agree with you.

Some local authorities kept them going (or at least in name).

There's one near me.

The lack of private rental property at affordable prices is a direct result of increased legislation which harms landlords.

No, its not. Its that housebuilders are private companies who have landbanked to ensure not enough homes are built for decade, meaning shortage of supply pushes prices sky high.

It doesn't matter who owns the homes, if there arent enough of them, the prices to live there will be too high due to people fighting over them.