Both work and we claim UC but still can't afford to live.

[Mocha1]

We have 3 kids, 2 who aren't at school yet, my husband and I both work 30 hours a week for charities so not highly paid. We also have childcare for part of the week and then juggle the kids between us the rest of the time (We don't want to work more as we dont want the kids in fulltime childcare). We rent and down't own. We claim UC but we are still really struggling to make ends meet. We really try to live to a tight budget but I have no idea how to lower our expenses any more.

Am I missing something? Is this normal? does anyone have any tips for saving money/ making more income somehow? I feel a bit at a loss as we keep dipping into our savings for just day to day expenses and we're nearly at the end of those.

Our income at the moment (I'm on MAT leave) - £3980
Outgoings- £4250

Do these outgoings seem like a lot for a family of 5 living in the south west? I've been going over our budget and I have no idea how to save any more unless we literally never bought another birthday present or went to a soft play ever again.

Oops

Perhaps you should have RTFT and noticed multiple existing versions of your unhelpful comment.

I’m amazed UC top her up to that extent. I’m not surprised she didn’t do a proper breakdown as it would infuriate posters how much they’re being paid by people who work full time, not to work full time.

Lots of posters are saying it's not much money.
RTFT.

And this comment helps OP how?

In some circles it is, perhaps.

I feel sad that they think being nasty is the answer.

I feel like any logical answer to OP’s post would’ve been deemed ‘nasty’

Thanks for the apologies - myths like this circulate and people don't research to see whether its true or not or the entire truth behind the statement

What is nasty about saying, “if you need more money to support the family you chose to have then you need to work more hours, even if this conflicts with your parenting ethos.”

What part of that is not true?

They need more money - true.
The children were a choice because the story didn’t just dropped them off - true
To make more money you need to work more hours - true
This doesn’t jive with their parenting wants but you can’t always get what you want when you have responsibilities- true

You are choosing not to support your own family by your own hand and expecting others to pick up the tab.

Thats lazy and entitled.

And this helps how???

I can give my opinion just as anyone else.

as a single parent of 2 I worked damn hard working full time - op chose to have kids knowing her income but doesn’t feel like working full time and neither does her DP. No sympathy whatsoever when they’re complaining about making ends meet

It’s not hard! One of you needs to work full time! Your outgoings are more than your income so it will only get worse! Stop being so entitled and do what everyone else does actually work!

Your current out goings are more than your income you either need to increase your income or reduce your outgoings as you don’t want to increase your hours or change jobs you need to reduce your outgoings

Can’t you get funded childcare?
One of you probably needs to increase the weekly hours.

This

Makes her realise she’s earning the same if not more than people working full time. I think a lot of benefit claimants have no idea what working people earn. They are absolutely convinced they are skint until they realise what the average take home is in a standard, working family.

She said they work 30hrs each. Which is 60hrs total. Which is slightly more than the 58hrs combined that you and your partner work.

But true! There’s absolutely no reason why her husband cannot work full time!

She should come back anyway.
I spent ages writing my post to her with tips on how to save money, based on my daughter's experience with 3 under 6.
My two cats were trying to sit on my tablet and my husband was talking AT me deliberately because he did not know what to do with himself whilst waiting to go out!!! It was not easy but I thought I could help so persevered .

We need a breakdown of job roles, working hours, top ups, wage brackets. We know why OP won’t do this as she will get torn apart but if we actually could see the outgoings and incomings this thread just might have gone differently. .

Also I can't see that anybody has mentioned this point - there are often cases where if low waged earners work more, they actually cost the state MORE on UC because even though the cash amount they receive goes down, the childcare amount goes up as they can pay up to 80 per cent of the fees. For two children in nursery that would be £££££££.

Should we be encouraging people to work more if they're actually going to claim more from the state as a result via the childcare costs? And that money then just often goes into the pockets of private nursery chains, some of whom are majority owned by US private equity firms? Tax payers money then being siphoned out of the country entirely? Not convinced that's a better option for anyone, even though I do fully understand people's frustration.

I've felt like this so many times!
Brilliantly expressed - my compliments.

approx 2500 take home after paying rent is plenty for a family your size. You both CHOOSE to do 4 day weeks for personal beliefs.
One or both of you go full time.
One or both of you pick up a couple of days evening or weekend work each week.
redo your outgoings thoroughly, create a budget and cut back.
Not a dig and maybe I don't understand but I'm actually surprised you get some benefits when you both choose to work 0.8 hours. would have thought this support would only be available if at least one of you was full time. An awful lot of people would like to work less hours but can't afford it after all.

Unfortunately you’re going to have lots of nastiness on here because it’s anonymous and people be spineless while ripping you to shreds safe in the knowledge that nobody knows who they are but perhaps contact Stepchange debt charity. They can help you draw up a budget and look at ways to shave a bit off your outgoings and find a bit of extra disposable income to free up. It’s worth a try.