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 the housing element that’s messed up. It kind of gives me hope that as a society we have a mechanism to support people who can’t earn enough money to support themselves because they have caring responsibilities for another person who can’t survive without them. It’s ‘so much money’ because the Govt destroyed social housing as a concept and now allows private landlords to charge what they want.

Because you shared everything else, so why not mention the child maintenance if you get it?

Thanks. I’ve just look this up. From Civitas:
Analysis by Civitas of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data from 2020-21 showed a record 54.2% of people (36 million) now live in households which received more in benefits than they contributed in taxes. This includes non-cash benefits such as NHS and education services.

Well you are only claiming what you are entitled to and what you are allowed, anyone would do the same. It does sound a lot though. 10 years plus a go when I found myself a single mum, I claimed tax credits for the first time. If I’m honest I was blown away by how much I was given (significantly less than your amount but I appreciate inflation and I was living in a property I owned with a mortgage so no rental element). I went back to work after being a stay at home mum, working the minimum required 16 hours a week which was manageable with my young children (I’d been a stay at home mum to them for 7 years). In all honesty though it would have been tough I could have worked full time and put my kids in to childcare, but the system paid me a substantial amount to top up my part time wages. In years gone by when my own mum had become a single mum, there wasn’t such benefits, she just had to work hard.
personally for me, I upskilled and built up my work in a professional role so that my future looked brighter. I also eventually remarried. The combination meant I stopped my claim.
In not judging just explaining my own scenario. I think anyone in receipt of benefits needs to have a mind on the future, once the children are grown up, and how they can support themselves more independently.

OP, Takes three tax payers like me to make your life easier.
Welfare system is a delicate equilibrium between the money cashed in and out, the amount of people who contribute in and the amount of people than benefit of it. If the ratios doesn't work, the welfare system will be changed so we need more people understanding that.

You have far more monthly than me. I'm a full time working single mother, my struggles are different than yours but I also have many.
That money you have is very important for all of us, spend it wisely.

You are correct.
And I know this 🤦🏻‍♀️ because I know my DB earns 90k and doesn’t clear as much.
i blame my poor math on my newborn 😅

as i said its I don’t see how it’s economically sustainable and its fairly gaslighty when you see posts on other threads on here suggesting people on 100k don’t have problems, walk around their mansions in their diamond shoes and don’t know they are born when as we can see here…. They basically have the same income as a single mum of 2 on benefits….

Meanwhile if you care for a relative and get Carer's allowence and earn £1 too much you are doomed. If the carer is even £1 over the limit, they lose 100% of their Carer's Allowance which is currently £81.90 per week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
People do this together with (often low paid hard) jobs and raising children.

The system is ridiculous, bonkers and benefits the chosen few as OP. UK can't afford to go on and change is very much needed.

Agreed. I assume OP won't divulge the nature of her children's disabilities and I've not seen their ages (not RTFT) But disability is a very broad range and many children with disabilities are still in school all day which is a bit different to having severely disabled children at home all day. Having never used the system I've no idea if the amounts given for disability and carers change depending on the nature of the disability.

I think you do well to work at all with two disabled dc to look after alone.

Of 2 DISABLED children. A single mum of 2 children without disabilities wouldn't get that much.

as a taxpayer I find the amount you get truly disgusting. We need a welfare system, but it should be an absolute bare minimum to sustain people, not 2-3 times a typical salary.

im not criticising you OP I’m criticising the system, it’s why this country is in the state it’s in, it’s truly ridiculous and proves that work doesn’t pay, no wonder so many milk the system

It’s not difficult to be in that position though if you have a couple of kids in school and are on an average wage, should we start means testing schools? I’m on £65k and at the minute based on that data I am one of the ones receiving more in benefits than paying tax as I have a child in special school so it’s more expensive, but before that I had lots of years where I paid more tax than I got in “benefits” before I had ds and before he went to special school.

What OP gets is the bare minimum to sustain her and two disabled children.

It’s a lot but you’re entitled to it,

my brother was terminally I’ll from birth, my mam got nothing at all. He paid for his prescriptions his entire life - medication he needed to keep him alive. Was entitled to minimum finical support and when he died my mam got a letter ordering her to pay it back. He worked full time till the day he died. My dad is now unable to work due to disability- cauda equina has left him with many many issues. He also gets the lowest support. It’s a totally messed up shit system.

I don't think you should feel bad for playing by the rules. But I do think we don't value people who do contribute net tax enough in this country, for everyone taking £3k a month from the system needs someone else to contribute £3k into the system. We need to go back to aspiring to be and valueing the people that do contribute to fund those that don't. I'm receive UC to help me live so I'm very grateful to everyone who pays more than than they take so that I am able to.

You should not feel personally bad for claiming what you are entitled to but bare in mind people get eaten alive on this site for saying they’re struggling on 30k a year.

Child maintenance isn't a benefit.

Her children are disabled, the cost of raising a disabled child is much higher. Your average joe claiming benefits would get nowhere near this much. I am a single mum with one non disabled child and I get about £500 per month.

You only claim whatever you're entitled to. If you weren't entitled to it, I'd be annoyed. But you are, so you're doing absolutely nothing wrong.

I don’t think anyone here has the right to ask the extent of the disabilities but unless their disabilities mean some sort of specialist paid for care etc is needed, then the figure should be the same whether the kids have disabilities or not. Either way, it feels ridiculously high to me, but what would I know I’m one of the daft idiots that works for a living

her position minus the disabilities

Would be a lot less money.

A large amount of that will go straight into a landlords bank account. Housing needs to be tackled to bring down the benefit bill. The amount that's actually left to live on is about the same for everyone in a particular circumstance.

This post was always going to cause controversy. I honestly believe that this is what's wrong and great about the UK atm. It's great you and your children are receiving help and support however it's the working people who are literally breaking their backs and not seeing any support or benefit. I work in NHS ...x40 plus weeks. Have DC and get just under £2000 a month and EVERYTHING comes off that wage ... including Childcare ...I get no help whatsoever. I actually have no money at all for myself or holidays etc etc . You don't realise how lucky you really are OP.....

Holy shit that’s a lot of money. That’s more in total that DH get as a head of sales and more than twice my crappy public sector wage 🤯.

Disability can mean special equipment, like wheelchairs. It can mean pricier food because of allergies and ARFID. It can mean having to pay for taxis because the child can't travel by bus.

The extra costs of disability don't just look like paid carers and day centres.