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.

No i didn't invent any facts. They are DWP facts. take it up with them if you have an issue with their facts..

I agree. Even from this forum you can see just how many parents hate kids in general, and even don't like their own very much. Despite being parents they care little for advocating for children's welfare.

Show us the millions?

Millions of false claims or millions of pounds?

"off their claim". There is something really wrong here.

Didn't you read the DWP facts I posted?

I am happy to read, post the original source, the govt link, copy and paste.

I must have missed it.

No - you quoted the actual post and said I wasn't providing facts. Take some responsibility. You owe it to yourself and society.

I'd be interested in this too. DWP measures fraud by the monetary value lost, rather than the number of people affected. So I'm hard pushed to know how you it's millions of people. It might well be, but I don't know that we have any evidence for that.

As far as I can see, you haven't quoted the facts. I found this quote from you:

(DWP estimates benefits fraud and error cost approximately £8.3 billion per year — approximately 2.7% of total benefits expenditure. Fraud accounts for approximately £6.4 billion and official error approximately £1.9 billion. Universal Credit has higher fraud rates than legacy benefits due to the complexity of real-time income assessment. The DWP spends approximately £2 billion per year on counter-fraud activity. And that's just the fraud they know about).

Which is the AI summary produced by Google when you ask it about benefit fraud (I did a reverse search of your text) and isn't necessairly accurate. RTI actually makes UC more reliable than the self reporting on some legacy benefits. The actual link to the Gov.uk page on fraud doesn't have any mention of numbers of people.

8.3 GBP billion per year (including errors) . Sounds like quite a few people - don't you think? I'm playing chess with pigeons. I need to do some work now. Make sure I get paid, a lot of money. On which I'll pay a lot of tax.

And no it's not an AI summary - well not one I used. The website I used may have given AI that info sure.

And as I said - that's what they know about.

Yeah, I should have clarified that a bit more. I think my point refers to often wealthy parents whose kids also have milder versions of particular disabilities who then show only the good side of it on social media.
In terms of value of people's lives, I think during the pandemic, it became clear that many people were not prepared to put themselves out to protect the vulnerable. We even had Jonathan Sumption explicitly saying that he did not think when it came to public policy, a young healthy life could be said to be of equal worth to that of someone who was elderly or had illness or disabilities. It's all well and good to say everyone is equal until it impacts on your own life or you have to pay. Then people change their tune.

I was also going to say that the parents I know with disabled kids live through literal hell a lot of the time. And they have told me that the sympathy and understanding and support disappears as their child grows. Once the cute autistic boy is a six-foot man with uncontrollable anger outbursts, people stay the hell away. And I can understand that but it's a hellish existence for the parents.

Of course it sounds like a few people. That doesn't negate the point that you don't actually have any evidence for the number of people committing fraud and that it isn't 'the DWPs own evidence' as you claimed.

Thanks for the entirely irrelavant update about your work schedule. I also work - want my working hours and tax code 🙄

Why are you talking about your working hours and tax code?

All information I posted is actual data. I know you and others don't like it, cos its facts innit. But here we are.

Source: DWP Benefit Expenditure and Caseload Tables / HM Treasury · Data year: 2024/25 · All figures are statistical estimates calculated from official annual publications

Eta - Bizzarely you and wittyteal aren't included in the data references!

This poster feels obliged to confront every single post not following their narrative. They are simply rude when they can't support their argument by facts

Also I've not heard the DWP talk about non genuine claims. That's not the kind of language they'd use. It would save a lot of time if the pp acknowledged they'd made that part up for effect.

Yes.. DARVO I suppose!

Non genuine claims - fraud - you take your pick honey bun

I understand and admire your future planning, I hope it all works out as best it can and as you want it to.

Well I'm direct. Do you want me to apologise for being autistic?

My point is: those solutions need considered in the round, with the round including a cost consideration.

Whilst I agree that they are solutions and are likely appropriate in many cases, we still, somewhere and somehow, need to find a way to balance the books as the country is running at a deficit….

@Northermcharn

Make sure I get paid, a lot of money. On which I'll pay a lot of tax.

That was some nauseating humble bragging you did there. Almost laughably so. Almost.

The point is not that you are direct. You are rude and argumentative. Autism is not an excuse for it.

Please do not police or try to shame me. You are not obliged to respond to or interact with me. Stop harassing me now. You can have your final word, then you can completely ignore me and I'll do likewise.

I agree with some of your points. I won't be voting Labour since they ducked out of benefits reform. Not sure about Conservatives. I like Kemi but the Tories seem to have had their day.

@Northermcharn this is why i mentioned my working hours and tax code, as you well know.

@PoeticLicense6 I think a lot of us stopped at 1 or 2 children as that was all we could afford. That’s definitely the case for us. I was back at work when first baby was 4 months as DH was newly trained in his career & earning very little. We couldn’t afford a third maternity leave or childminder fees (we got no free hours in those days). So I think it can be difficult to be empathetic when someone chooses to have more than 1 or 2 children knowing they will never be able to support them fully. I would have loved to stay home with mine when they were babies, but would not expect other working people to finance that.