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

Are you a single parent? If you are, on that wage you would be entitled to claim childcare costs.

I do believe we are a generous nation, but what’s the cost to society if those with disabilities are not cared for?

We can’t claim a penny for anything but I am thankful as I wouldn’t want the difficulty of OP’s life.

I’m sure if we were to fall on hard times, acquire a disability we would want some support from the government.

It is a lot of money but this is an expensive place to live. We are not a developing nation where those with disabilities beg on the streets to survive.

I’m not sure what we can do reduce our UC liability but the only thing I’d say is we cannot make it so attractive that for those that are able it’s unattractive to work.

Because it's relevant.

It's a huge amount of money 🤯🤯🤯🤯

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

I’m a single parent to two disabled children, I work full time in a professional role and don’t claim benefits beyond DLA. It’s entirely possible depending on the extent of the disabilities, stage of life etc. When they were younger and in the midst of multiple health appointments etc I could only work part time with a very flexible employer, now they are older, their needs known and catered for and with appropriate school places, working full time is fine, if a bit of a juggle.

I don’t think a “how can you possibly work with 2 disabled children” narrative is helpful. Life changes, degrees of support change, medical processes ebb and flow, there are times work is possible and times that it’s much less possible. Most parents I know who have disabled children are in work, in professional roles while caring for their children.

I know work capacity can be very limited for some parents of disabled children but disabled child doesn’t automatically mean parents can’t work.

It is surprising to know that £19 billion worth of support remains unclaimed every year. As a nation, our social security system has a positive impact on society.
However, it is quite alarming that around half of the working population does not make a significant contribution to the economy, and a large majority of the workforce is not profitable from the employers' perspective. This can be referred to as Pareto-bingo.

It's difficult situation for you and youre not doing anything technically wrong.

For context, a take home pay for this monthly amount after tax would mean you'd need to have a salary of £48,750.

It's a delicate issue but I do think as a country it's not great to lift people well above the average salary like this.

The consequences I feel it skews supply and demand as people have more to spend on things and rent so prices are going up, but that's the governments choice. As in there wouldnt be as much demand for things because people couldn't afford it, but instead people on benefits have a much higher take home pay than a person the average person working FT so can fuel demand when they otherwise wouldn't be.

For instance I work FT in finance, totally stressed and salary of £34.5k take home after deductions £2.2k. My kids costs are rising along with everything else. We are treading water financially. I feel sick about the cost of food, the cost of everything. I wore my 4 year old winter boots through whole winter with a hole in the right one so every day it was wet I got a soaking foot. I've had to bin them now and already wonderong about how I can afford to buy a new pair. Will need to buy new kids summer clothes very soon but genuinely can't afford. We dint have any luxuries at all. I feel sick about money every day and dont see a solution for us personally.

So you take home the same as a salary of £48,750. And there will be lots of others in similar situation.

Some interesting thoughts... would you have ever got to a salaried role like that on your own, would the others have made it to that amount? Do you have a degree and paid thousands for professional qualifications, have they?

I just don't know if it's right to give so much money, even taking into account disabilities.

It's a very delicate situation in this politically correct world and I don't know what the solution is but I personally feel it's disheartening to have take home pay so much less than benefits. I don't think it's good for society to be honest. I'm not saying give no money, but equivalent to a high salary - I'm not sure that a good choice for society, to have FT workers taking home so much less.

Is all the UC money net? You don't pay any tax in it? If so you're on the equivilant of a very very decent salary and I can absolutely see how two working parents, pringing similar home after tax, would feel agrieved by your situation.

1. LL's do not want to rent to UC claimants

2. Could be a minimum wage dad. Maintenance does not effect UC. Single mums or dad are in no way accountable in what maintenance is used for.

Next person you would like to blame?

its a shame you are not so lucky and that your children are not disabled, but not all disabilities are diagnosed at birth, maybe depending on your children’s ages they could have a disability that becomes apparent as they develop if you are lucky.

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.

Additional costs don’t just relate to direct care though. At various times our DLA has been used for transport and parking costs for multiple hospital appointments, private speech and language therapy, plugging the gap in salary when I had to work part time, paying for specialist tutors, clothes that don’t irritate, particular childcare when my kids couldn’t cope with clubs and camps, activities and craft materials to suit their needs etc etc. The costs attached to disabled children is about more than direct care.

Agreed. I realise some people can't work at all, but it is important to remember that this isn't a binary thing

There are plenty of disabled people and carers of disabled people who also work full time (for far less than the op is being paid in many cases). We are lucky to be paid well but DH has to do all the running of the house on top of his full time job, because I am not well enough to, and after working I am often too ill to do anything except go to bed. My children often have to sit with me in bed to do their homework, and often after work I am too ill to read them a story so we have to find other ways to bond at bed time. There a heaps of families like ours, battling on and working. And that's not to suggest the op can or should. But just to point out that it isn't a binary between disabled benefit claimants and working taxpayers who are in rude health and have easy lives. I can have empathy for op and also for those who work and juggle difficult lives for far less than the op gets in benefits

Or equivalent 80k per year for two able bodied children based on her numbers

I agree. And I haven’t gone into the highest paying profession that I could have, given my educational background. I have a first class Oxbridge degree and a PhD, but I became a teacher in a school for SEN kids not a lawyer or a tax accountant. And I love my job. I imagine they all come from homes that are net beneficiaries from the state because it costs up to £50K each for the local authority to send them to us.

Most of it going on rent and childcare though.

OP said earlier on the thread that her DC with Down's won't ever be able to live independently, which suggests their sibling would be able to. She also said she would lose a chunk of her benefits as they leave childhood. So that gives some indication of their level of disability.

Having slept on it and come back to the thread this morning, I still believe that those like OP who need state support should receive every penny that's available to them, but this still feels like way too much. That's not OP's fault though.

It should do though. Virtually everyone has some kind of medical condition that requires a bit of extra spending. For example I have 2 best friends, one has trillotrichomania and has spent £££ on hypnosis and products such as gloves and antibacterial creams. The other is anxious and has spent £££ on private therapy to help her overcome it. I have a medical condition which requires about £20 a week in certain food/drink.

All of us just suck up the costs as the price of life in general. Society can’t mitigate every last little thing. The bar should be a bit higher than needing benefits for branded food tbh

Half of the population are net beneficiaries of the state (Net positive contributors).
The consequential cost of not having a social security system is far higher than a few thousand per month. The average UC claim is around £800 per month.

Because its irrelevant to the benefits element, it's based on his separate income.

What the father should pay is what the father should pay (if hes still on this earth to pay it)

I'm glad OP hasn't provided that info as it's clear at this stage of the thread, it would just be another stone to throw at her.

I am gobsmacked & shocked beyond belief at the amount you get compared to what I'm struggling on working on my own!

Perhaps people ought to consider that without Mum looking after them it would cost upwards of £166,000 per child in full time care

So, Mum you're cheap

And also the problem is the high cost of rents in London and the south east.

Wow I am staggered at how much you can claim, that’s got to be the equivalent of a 50/60k job?

I earn 45k and take home way less, plus have to pay for full time childcare for both let alone housing costs etc

I am in as much debt to the state as you, OP. I don't need direct payments, but the UK have paid for my existence and continue to pay.

I am very aware that although we are a high income family and pay taxes, my taxes are nowhere near enough to pay for life-saving/life-enhancing treatments, brilliant education and all the other services I have received and continue to receive. Even when I stop paying tax, they'll give me a pension.

If I feel like slacking at work, I remember my debt. I think about my kids and their fancy universities and braces and difficult births and remember that other people paid for that.

We all owe a debt to others.

The more I think about this the angrier I get tbh.

you, and others in your position have no incentive now to change it until you absolutely have to, you are on an amazing salary for doing nothing whatsoever.

all those who say but most goes,on rent etc, so does most of most people’s wages!

disability doesn’t necessarily = greater expense. Yes it may, but it doesn’t necessarily.

any political party that sorts this out and makes working more attractive than benefits will get my vote, I realise I’m not being politically correct here but it’s about time people stopped treading on eggshells, your family and others like you are financially crippling the country, 3 people have to work full time in min wage jobs just to pay your benefits, how do you think they feel?

It is what it is, I wouldn't want to swap lives with you and think the fact you even work part time with two disabled children, as a single mum, is admirable.