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.

OP, don’t worry about some posters who are picking up on the fact that working full time would solve a lot of your issues. They are correct but we might be able to help you look at some of your other expenses if you list them? Spending over 4k a month does seem quite high. Once our mortgage and bills are paid, I have around £1k left for food shopping and fun for the kids and manage fine and regularly do softplay and other expensive activities. How old are your children? I’ve found food shopping to be the biggest killer of a budget unless you are very organised, meal plan and do pack lunches.

One of you needs to leave the charity sector. It’s low paid, and it’s as simple as you need to making more money to cover your outgoings. That doesn’t have to equal more childcare time.
Maybe you both need to leave charity. One with more hours, one with less. That’s what I’d look into.

Whatever about the number of children it is definitely a luxury to NOT work full time. Most people - including parents - do not have that luxury. And don’t expect tax payers to pay for it. Most people work full time their whole lives.

People mean a third is a luxury because you've another child when you can't afford it. You or your husband or need to work full-time or do an extra part-time job.

It’s to be expected that you will feel like you have no money when you have three children and both work part time. You are very fortunate that UC tops you up to the income you have.

You say you can’t reduce outgoings so your options are to work more hours because there’s no reason that one of you could t get an evening job, or if you want to continue to work part time, at least one of you will need to find a job that pays a higher hourly rate.

Situations like this a why the two child benefit cap needs to stay. This is a family with options to increase their own earnings, who made the choice to have a third child when they already claimed benefits. I can’t understand why half of the Labour Party thinks it’s necessary to give families like this more free money out of our taxes.

Are you missing something? You’re missing a lot of somethings.

Not one adult in your household works a full-time job.

Not one adult in your household earns a decent income because the pair of you are placing altruism over providing for your children.

Your household is claiming government welfare because no one is earning an adequate income for your family.

Why have you posted this??

Unfortunately the only possibilities are spend less or earn more.

You're clear about the fact that you don't want to work more, but you don't want to post a breakdown of your outgoings so people can advise you how to spend less.

What do you want from this thread, exactly?

If you're on mat leave, could your husband get a second job at least temporarily to bring some extra money in?

Three children is a large family and many people choose not to have a third child (or even a second child) because they can't afford it.

Again, it depends on your wealth. If you have a larger deposit then it’s less.

In the U.K. the inequality is staggering and the system is stacked against those without.

My point is that rather than tell those without money that they don’t have reproductive freedom, we should be looking at a system where working doesn’t pay enough to live.

Yep

Exactly this. I am always agog at threads like this. Both parents work PT, claim benefits, have chosen to have 3 children and yet cannot fathom why they are struggling. How about doing what the vast majority of us HAVE to do - get thee out to work full time!!!

Would you spend £200 or so every week on whatever you fancied, just because? No? But by choosing to work p/t on those wages assuming a daily take home each in the region of £100 (as an example figure), that's effectively what you are doing. Time is money, and time spent not working is money spent on the luxury of having more time. Which you clearly can't afford.

2 kids still in childcare 4 days a week is likely what’s making things very tight. Especially with rent of £1400 (mine is also £1400, and i’m a single parent and don’t get UC but can’t imagine my budget having to include childcare x 2. A third child is a luxury, as you need to factor in affordability before having a 3rd as kids are expensive. You’re now seeing that yes 3 kids are very costly, but not much you can do about it.

I assume you’re both not working full time as UC tops you up, and you might then not qualify. Which I guess you can’t blame people for doing if the government allows it. If you don’t want to increase hours of childcare look at one of you taking on a second job in the evenings /weekends. You need to do all you can to manage until your childcare bill reduces.

That’s all very well but that means that the rest of us have to fund your choices. There’s no magic money tree.

Wait
How do you get UC?
Us it because you only work 30 hours a week?
So if I drop my hours from full time to 30 hours, does that mean I can claim UC?
Can people work part time hours and then claim UC?
Genuine question.
Cos if this is true, why am I working full time.

The only way to make things feel markedly better will be to increase earnings. Moving to the private sector or increasing hours is the way to do that.

I'm one of 8 and we were quite poor growing up. But the way my Mum managed to make things go the distance was pretty admirable. Cook for every meal, and batch cook if you're short of time. Rarely eat meat. Shop on Vinted or boot sales or charity shops for all kids stuff including toys. It sounds like they're little so they won't care. For family outings, ditch the soft play and invest in a National Trust family pass so you can take them outdoors for the day with home made picnic. It's all those little things that add up.

How often do you go to soft play and other child activities? These aren’t cheap.

if yog’re in maternity leave, why can dp work more at the moment?

if you’re short if money, there’s two ways to solve it, spend less or earn more. If the spending less isn’t working, then maybe the earning more is he route you need.

Christmas jobs are coming up. Can one of you get an evening job or weekend job at least in the short term, to help tide things over?

Yes, the rich have a lot more freedoms (for the things which cost money, like children). I say this as someone who can’t afford to sustain our lifestyle with another kid so have chosen to stop at 2

Seeing a breakdown would be useful, just in case there’s something to be cut.

I’d say longer term one or both of you should consider jobs in the private sector - that’s the neatest solution imo.

In the meantime, an evening or weekend job for one of you?

I don’t think it’s the number of hours, but the amount of income they’re bringing in. So they earn more, then their uc will go down.

In my previous workplace, we had people who didn’t do overtime, because it would reduce their UC, so it wasn’t worth it for them.

You said in your op that you keep dipping into savings, so the money issues now are because of maternity leave/ pay? If you have savings you were doing okay prior to this?
As you are home at the moment, your dh could take a second job or work more hours at his current one.
Once you are back at work, if things are tight there will be scope for one ( or both) of you to work more hours at the weekend/ when the other parent is home.

Both my DH and I worked 40 plus hours a week each when the children were young. Night shifts for me.

Your predicament is not a mystery. You both choose to work 30 hours a week each.

This is what is wrong with UC. You are both gaming the system so you don’t have to work full time.

Yes, you are correct. This is absolutely benefits as a lifestyle choice. Whilst I totally understand ops reluctance to place the children in full time care, this is a choice they’ve made and it’s funded by others. And now, she says it’s not enough?
One of them at least needs to work full time. Two part time parents is an enormous luxury that most families don’t have because they can’t afford it.

Peoples comments about your third child are ridiculous. It's not like you have an option to return him/her.
For anyone to give you advice you will need to give more info on where your money is going.

Sorry I can’t believe this is real.
Your income is only a few hundred quid less than ours and between us we both work a combined total of at least 50 hours a week.
Firstly - it’s plenty of money to live on.
Secondly - you want to be grateful that DH and I work our arses off and put our dc in childcare so you don’t have to.
If you want 3 dc you need to earn more. You have chosen to both work part time- why? You mention your distrust of full time nursery - well you need split shifts or one of you gets a higher paying full time job and the other becomes a SAHP.
You are going to annoy people by being so critical of full time childcare when loads of people on this site have no choice.

I think the criticism is that one of you should really be working full time and increasing their pay to support the household.