Do people on here wonder how someone like me copes? I earn £12K/year.

[hekissedmybottom]

I grew up poor, single parent on benefits, partied through uni, worked all my life but never got paid much. My highest salary was 28K/year in London as a single woman. Felt absolutely minted.

Now I'm on benefits with a child as a single parent and still feel well off compared to how I grew up.

I think this kind of life is unfathomable to some people on here.

Is the 28k solely benefits?

Where is the motivation to get into paid employment?

No, I don’t work at all. I’m currently self-funding for some new qualifications but still nervous about the drop in income once I do go back to work.

28k in benefits alone?! When you're not ill, disabled or elderly? Surely not.

Just remind yourself you’ll get to choose your nursing home and get a lukewarm pension, it’s what is supposed to keep the rest of us going through 45 years of toil!

So based on Ceryneianhind's calculations, you'd have a total monthly income of approx 2,400, which is equivalent to approx 35-40k ish earnings (once tax, NI and pension contributions are taken into account), and quite considerably more than your highest ever earnings!

You're kidding me right? Why are the flippety flip are rest of us working then? That's almost enough to pay 40% tax!

So are you coming back?

To get that much in benefits (and not work) you'd have to be claiming disability benefits for either you or a dc. The benefit cap is way less than that.

Neither dh or I get 28k each working full time with two kids.

The world is laughable.

You get work commitments so for example if your kids are secondary 35, primary 25, nursery none (I think). 12k a year is roughly equal to someone earning min wage 25 hours a week.

You can work out your entitlements an allowance for adults plus every child before 2017, only for two after that. They will help with rent up to limit set by local authority but not mortgage and up to 85% childcare costs.

I have a mortgage and earn £1700 ish a month after tax/ni. I get a work allowance of £537 I think somewhere around there. Take that off earnings and multiply by 55%. Roughly works out to £700 so I take that off my entitlement which is what UC will give me.

A lot of people are surprised by how much you can earn and still be entitled to help. You could be on £40k with high rent or child care costs and still get something.

No way - there must be more to this. People who are able to work and who don’t care for someone with a disability don’t just get £28k for doing nothing but a few qualifications.

Haha, possibly, I'll try again with 1000 a month

Total benefits entitlement
£255.82 / weekly
Our estimate is based on the information you have entered and does not guarantee entitlement. It uses 2022/23 benefit and tax rates.

So graduates in our company on 20K with student loans get to pay tax to provide you with 28K to study. That is so warped.

@SirChenjins honestly, I feel like the only motivation is guilt and a decent moral compass. I’m ill atm and would obviously rather be healthy, but the idea of working hard 40+ hours a week to earn less than I get now with all this free time and lack of responsibility is demoralising.

@Cuppasoupmonster I’ll keep that in mind🤣

I don’t wonder, because I assume, as above, that you earn £12,000 but that you get all appropriate benefits that subsidise housing costs etc.

Yeah I think the benefit cap for those able to work is somewhere around £1,600pm, seems kind of unbalanced though when your rent could be £450 or £1,200 depending where you live.

Demoralising? Oh, bless you.

Bloody hell, this thread has been an eye-opener.

You say 12k a year-how much money in total do you have a year with benefits included? Total amount please. That information would give people an understanding of what you need to use the 12k you earn for (food, clothes etc).

If you say you ‘live on’ an amount of money, to me that means everything comes out of that amount- all expenses. Obviously you cannot pay for everything on 12k, therefore you dont live on 12k as you receive benefits.

It seems bonkers
I have a collection of autoimmune diseases and am immunocompromised but not sick enough to get any help
So I work 40hrs a week for min wage which isn't even a living wage now but don't get any help with that because I earn too much
But if I had a child I would get help, but I don't have children because I can't afford them

They keep saying the most vulnerable and poor will get help but they're forgetting about the people who are single with no children who can earn fuck all (I'm not including myself in that) and get nothing

I am in the same position.

I've found that the only people who care, are others in the same position.

Yep, I only get an hour or so each day where I can function properly and concentrate so throwing that into studying rather than something more enjoyable or instantly gratifying is pretty demoralising when it‘s working towards a drop in income. I’ll keep working hard, of course, as they might find the cure to my illness one day and I wouldn’t want to be stuck on minimum wage when that day comes, but working towards it is an absolute slog.

Not sure why you sound sarcastic about that?

Can I ask what’s wrong with you Elden? Not a loaded question, just wondering.

Fairly frequently someone posts on here about how little they earn but how benefits entitle them to live etc etc, someone in the thread kindly does a calculation stating how much the OP will be getting and then bam! off we go on about how high benefits are and posters start saying why should I work when you're getting that much etc etc.

I do wonder about these threads.

So how much of the £28k you get is PIP or disability benefit?

The reality is that the benefit cap is punitive. The cap on housing costs hasn't kept rate with inflation so that most people on benefits can't afford to live anywhere that's decent and/or in their area and/or big enough and the cap on childcare costs means that most people can't afford to work more hours even if they want to.

And it's not a race to the bottom. Disabled people, child free people and older people are all entitled to an adequate welfare system/standard of living as well as people with children.

There is no way anyone gets £28k in benefits unless they have special circumstances like disability allowances.

I’ve been a single parent on benefits and got less than half that.

I now work FT, a single parent and get a UC top up and in total it’s still less than £28k.