How can we manage financially as Universal Credit support reduces?

[elliejjtiny]

We have 5 dc aged between 19 and 11 all with disabilities. Dh was a manager up until youngest was born, then he became unwell and had to take a massive pay cut. I'm a Sahm and get carers allowance. We get UC. Dc1 in his first year at uni, dc2 about to start in September.

We are just about managing at the moment but barely. In September we are going to lose the child element of universal credit for dc2 and I'm worried how we are going to manage. When the dc were younger I thought I would be working by now but I'm only getting 4 hours sleep a night and my 11 year old needs constant supervision when not at school so I don't know how I could fit work in. Dh has to work away about 15 weekends a year (from friday morning until late Sunday night) which leaves me completely exhausted each time. We spend 9 weekends a year picking up/dropping off/visiting dc1 and I imagine spending the same amount of time with dc2. There is no childcare for children my dc age with SN and they have to be picked up and dropped off at school. The dc have appointments about once a week on average and dc4 stays in hospital about 1 night a year when I don't get any sleep at all.

Realistically I can't think of any employer who would employ me with the amount of time off I would need and on so little sleep. At the moment I spend the time dc are at school doing the housework, cooking the dinner and trying to catch up on a bit of sleep.

I'm trying to think of anywhere we could save money but I can't think of anything. Dc1 doesn't cost any less money while he is at uni.

Where does OP say that DH works part time?

No. Completely agree with you there.

Extremes on either end of the scale are rarely a good idea.

Do I have the solutions? I doubt it, but demonising a disabled family is far from any solution I feel is human.

Presumably you think the vast number of people who voted reform in the recent elections are also bigots

Tbf your post confirms what many people think about Reform voters.

Does the name “Stephen Hawking” mean anything to you?

just wondering.

My family member held down a job whilst being very disabled. People do, you know.

Nobody is saying society should not care for the disabled, or wish them unborn

the problem is choosing to have children can’t afford full stop without benefits. Many people would like big families, but cannot afford to pay for them. So they don’t

My DS is blind and has other health issues. He's managed to get a degree, has taken a year off but is going to do a masters next year. PIP helped him do that, he's blind not intellectually challenged or with a learning disability that affects his intelligence . That's the case for many people, MS, cerebral palsy, being deaf, and many other lifelong illnesses cause a person to be disabled.

What do you think personal independence payment is for? It isn't an out of work benefit.

Well in the case of my friend who got a first from Cambridge, he needed benefits because his electric wheelchair was extremely expensive and he needed help with self care, what with being paralysed after being hit by a drunk driver while walking home from school.

You’ll be glad to know that he died in his early 30s from complications of his disabilities, so you’re no longer having to pay for him.

So how much of a big problem is this? Give me some facts and figures?

Related specifically to big families(3 kids plus) who cannot afford to pay for them?

“so disabled they can go to uni” - for the third time let me introduce Dr Stephen Hawking into the conversation.

How are they not costing you any less being in uni? If you're on a low income they should have full maintenance loan and I'd guess with SEND and low income they'd be entitled to some kind of bursary or grant on top of that. They should be paying for their own food, travel and course materials with that. If they have chosen expensive accommodation that takes up all the loan, they need to be looking for cheaper options for next year. For DC 2 you need to be putting together a budget plan and making sure they can afford their accommodation and are applying for all the loans and bursaries they are eligible for.

Yep.

My son is disabled but doesn't have a learning disability. He goes to mainstream school and there's no reason he wouldn't be able to go to university without the right support if that's what he wants.

My gosh thats so sad, I am sorry x

It's a mixture of reasons really. I've watched lots of current affairs documentaries about the decline of the UK.

We used to be wealthy (not for a long time) and so people got very entitled and unrealistic.

We have governments who don't care about making the right decisions for the country only the ones that will keep them in their job.

Everyone is too scared to say what they really think or as you can see from this thread you get called a nazi/bigot/etc. We are supposed to be delighted to fund people who don't want to work and we are not allowed to say boo to them either.
Vast numbers of the public are absolutely raging about the current state of affairs though why is why reform got a huge number of votes recently so change is coming.

The working public who are sick of funding the scroungers are taking steps to pay as little tax as possible. In part because of the cliff edge drops when you earn above a certain level but also because people object to paying tax to get no benefits from them.

People used to be embarrassed to be a burden on society and would be on benefits only as a last resort. There was a pride in looking after your family and building your nest. Now we have people on youtube coaching others how to milk the system. Of course once one person sees that others are living an easy life on benefits it snowballs. Nobody wants to be the mug working and paying tax if nobody else is.

We seem to have vast numbers of children with something wrong with them. Now it is hard to know if there really is something wrong with them all (in which case we need to investigate why and sort it) or if families are just milking the system which appears to be very easy to do.

In short the UK is living in the past, resting on it's laurels and about to have a rude awakening in the next few years. If we get a hardline govt we might (might) be able to turn thing around but there will be no space for people who are a burden. We must create growth and cut costs and live within our means. Even so it will take years to return to financial viability and that's if we can do it at all.

80 years ago the UK had no welfare system and no NHS but if you suggest such a thing might be what we need to survive you will get called all sorts of insults. I don't know if people are too frightened to face up to reality or if they really are that ignorant of what is going on.

My hope is reform will actually do what they say. If not I honestly think we tinker on till the IMF take over and slash all these benefits anyway. I mean the UK is currently financially unviable and thankfully more and more people seem to be becoming aware of it and are demanding solutions.

God help us if we get a more left wing government although I suppose that will speed up the decline and make it go boom quicker.

Plus if we look at the worldwide picture we have vast overvaluation of stocks at the moment due to the AI boom. Massive amounts of spending on capex which so far has not shown enough returns to pay it back. If that does not come to fruition we are all going to be seriously f*cked. I totally understand why the USA is sick of supporting us. On top of that we have the shadow banking industry now (bank who lend to vunerable companies) and if the AI bubble does not pan out there is going to be lots of defaulting. The whole economy reminds me so much of 2007 just before the subprime crisis in the USA came to light and big financial institutions starting going bust.

The UK is in a far worse financial situation than we were in 2007. Not to mention our public services are all on their knees whereas back then they were all quite well funded.

You're reaching so much from this thread you'll give yourself an injury.

She’s never hear of him. Or Helen Keller or FDR. She thinks that disability must mean learning disability.

It's 5.5%, which is 1/18, 67% of those are held by those over 65, and 3% are held by children under 16, so 1.65% of working age adults have a blue badge, so that's 1/60 (rounded).

I don't think 1 in 60 is a huge number of blue badges.

You sound charming.

I also second, third, fourth the comment about why keeping having kids you can't afford especially if there is something wrong with each one.

It's this type of language. That's not the way we should be talking about disabled children. Dehumanising language. It's perfectly possible to disagree with someone's life choices without describing kids in this way.

Thank you.

I'm very supple.

I don’t care about ‘the cost’, although you are being disingenuous claiming it doesn’t happen. To actively chouse to have 5 children who you cannot support without state intervention is not what benefits should be for

DS1 is autistic, he went to a specialist school and received DLA. He has been an incredible young man who lives independently, studies and works. No PIP

I chose to have 2 more children, ages spaced out so I could afford childcare as I had to go back to work. DS1 had school transport DS2 and 3 have no disabilities, however I chose to have them knowing I could afford to provide for them. Working with 3 children, one if whom was extremely challenging was really hard. It would never have crossed my mind not to

what are you trying to ask?

that poster might be on high six digits package or on a breadline. Do you want to hear that they don't earn enough money? don't live comfortably? and if yes, they are stupid to work instead of living of benefits? if that's what you imply, then no, at least they have some pride and a chance to improve their situation. Or they might be living in £5m house and having regular holidays in Four Seasons.