You know what? I commit "benefit fraud "and I think I'm justified

[ScroungingSingleMum]

I'm a single mum , whose ex left three years ago and has consistently refused to pay anything (and I mean anything - not even a penny) in maintenance.

From my benefits (£59 IS, £45 CTC, £18 CB - so a total of £122 a week) I am losing £15.26 a week in repayments for the loan I had to take out to secure my child and myself a home after ex did a vanishing act and the council refused to house us. Every week I need to pay nearly £15 for gas and electricity (yes, the heating is on a low setting, but we live in a cold rural area and have no double glazing), £4.50 for TV licence, £4 for Water, £8 for phone/internet connection (yes, I know its not a necessity but I have to have some way to get contact with the rest of the world - being on my own in the countryside means I don't get out much), £4.50 every time we need to get the bus into town for shopping/doctor/library/semblance of social life etc, £15 for the taxi home if I need to do a big shop, oh and feed us a healthy diet, clothe/shoe us adequately, find the money to take my child to see ex (I know thats not my job, but if I didn't do it the relationship would be lost which would IMO be a tragedy for my child), I try to save something, however small, so that we have a fallback fund for holidays/birthdays/disasters...

I am entitled to keep £10 of any maintenance ex pays - but he doesn't pay any, so we don't get that premium.

I refuse to get into debt (other than the Budgeting Loan from the Social Fund that I have) and we do not have a car, or a big new telly (we have one that I found in a skip in fact). I economise wherever I can but its very very hard.

So... I clean the old lady three-doors-down's house for four hours a week for £6 an hour. It means I can have a bottle of wine once in a while, or a coffee before getting the bus 6 miles home after a morning luging the shopping round town, or have a friend over for a meal sometimes, or buy new (by which I mean secondhand-but-new-to-me) clothes every now and then.

And you know what? If you begrudge me that then fuck you.

and yes twinkie - i am inclined to agree with you.
I am all for people making the system work for them when they need it...i am one of those who rely on state benefits.

But if you are CHOOSING not to send your child to school which would enable you to find employment then im afraid you are making a lilfe CHOICE which the benefit system shouldn't be.

sorry.

the applicable amount would be higher due 2 the cp therefore a higher net income but yes it would hav 35+ hours pw

Excellent advice about the on-line shop and electron card.

My stumbling block is the disclosure about home educating your child. IMVHO this is a luxurious drain on your finances and will keep you in your current level of reduced financial circumstances for years to come. I know that you say that you refuse to get into debt but it could appear to the outside world that you also refuse to lift yourself out of the impoverished state that makes you think you are justified in committing benefit fraud. Did you have a specific career before becoming a parent and giving up work, is there any possibility of a return to it ?

I think you can earn a bit of money before the DSS reduce your benefits anyway so if you want to be above board all you need to do is tell them about it after checking the level of permitted additional earnings.

Your ex sounds like he is a complete waste of space and his mother, well, no female sisterly support there is there.

Speechless that you think you have a right to choose to abuse a system that is for people who have no other choices in life but to use it.

You give people who claim benefits because they have to a bad name.

Am sickened and saddened by your attitude.

as a ngle parent you would get the 1st £20 of your weekly earnings disregarded 4 income support.

wot i would do is get lady 2 write letter saying she pays u £20 any other money she gives u is 4 expenses or as a gift/pocket money for the child and dwp dont have 2 know about that

Personally I'd be inclined to decalre the wages you get, it says here that as a lone parent you are allowed to earn £20 per week, so if you did so then you would be legal and have no risks regarding being caught.
It may seem like a small amount of money per week but the benefits agency wouldn't see it like that.
I also think it's a bit unfair to stay at home and educate your child if there are other options, but I'm assuming at 4 yrs old it's not exactly home-ed as such.

And I do not think she should be entitled to home educate unless she can afford it.

*single not ngle

Oh thank heavens I'm not the only one to feel you are choosing to live on benefits to fund your choice of home educating.

Those who pay to send their kids to private school also save the tax payers money by not using a state school place do you think they are therefore justified in say fiddling their tax return declarations ?

You want coffee? And shoes?

Twinkie you have no idea why the OP is HE-ing. If a child is being bullied at school or has had an horrendous experience at school, being HE might be a necessity, not a luxury.

FGS people just can't bloody resist making judgements on other people's lives without knowing the first thing about them, can they.

Her decision to Home Educate is nto one i would make but she does have the right to do so.
What i find odd is the attitude that despite being able to lift herself out of this situatino she would rather break the law.

HE is personally not something I would choose to do wether on benefits or not, but as to wether the OP should have this choice, I cannot decide.

It's a bit like me only wanting to work evenings until my kids were in secondary school, due to me wanting to be available for all of the various things they do in school, plays, workshops etc.
When I was with xp I had that choice but now as a single parent, I don't. If I want to have a better life for me and my children then I have to get a job.

The choice has been taken away, which isn't something I am happy about as I didn't choose to be a single parent, but at the same time, I can see that it wouldn't be fair to be a sahm for the next 5 years when I could be working.

I don't think I made much sense in that last post

Also you aren't saving anyone money by home educating.

I think that most children equate to about £1000 per year in education.
You are claiming more than that in IS.

also if you returned to work you would be paying at least that in taxes so you would no longer be a drain on the economy yourself but you would also be placing more money into the pot which would help raise the level of education for all.

It really is a very selfish attitude.
and i am saying this as a single mother of 2 who would desperatly love to return to work but cannot.
I claim benefits because i HAVE to.

I don't agree, she is personally saving the local authority a lot of money by choosing to home educate.

Probably by as much as she is getting in benefits.

I wouldn't do it but I think her doing it is a fantastic thing.

think it's £12,000 per year

but cross posted with mamazon so it wasn't in response to you directly

If the OP thinks she can give her child a better education by HEing, then I think it's an honourable decision, and I'm glad to hear that our benefits system supports that.

Any chance you could do another 12hrs pw of cleaning for old ppl? then u would earn enough for tax credits.
Or possibly a job working evenings or weekends when Cis seeing your ex?

It costs over £3000 to educate a child in the state system