my fake family...

It concerns me that the government caps benefits at 26,000. They argue that this is the average wage in the UK and no one should earn more on benefits. Fair enough you say? Apart from the obvious problem that the cap is being applied per household and not per person (as the average pay is for one person not a household). I wanted to see whether a person earning 26k after tax would be entitled to benefits. As the government deems it enough to live on for one group, surely the answer would be no?

meet my fake family. A single parent, earning 35k a year (26k after tax) with 3 children. They live in this house in sheffield. I chose the cheapest rental 3 bedroom house on in sheffield. They pay 495 pcm. As the parent works I have estimated 100 pounds a week is spent on childcare (say 2 children need childcare, 5 pounds an hour for 10 hours a week). Council tax band A in sheffield is: £983.49 a year. They have no other income.

So, putting all this into http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

  

That is a total of 7,300 pounds of benefit entitlement. Ok, so lets say this single parent looses their job? They'd get more, or the same right? Thats what the government says, the government is cracking down on benefit entitlement being too high. Wrong...

So, my fake family would be better off in work. 33,268 pounds would be their income if they were in work, and if they are out of work this drops to only 21,168.37.

Even on 26,000 pounds a single parent would be entitled to benefits. There is a big difference in the income you receive if you are not working.