Please dissect me yet another tedious Daily Mail benefits story.

[ItWillNeverWork]

Anyone got anymore details on this story about a woman having benefits cut from 32,000 to 24,000? Has anyone looked into the numbers in detail to see what truths the DM are twisting (I assume they are doing so; they always do). By my quick calculations even by moving into a 3 bed house here in Brum you would have outgoings roughly a minimum of the following each month:

Rent: 600
Bills: 200
Bus: 200
Food: 900
Nappies: 10
Phone: 25
Clothes: 80

Monthly Total: 2015
Yearly Total: 24180

So 32,000 doesn't seem that unreasonable when you have to add other things on, and 24,000 is going to mean this family getting in debt to survive. The question is, what have I left out or included wrongly? Would the 32,000 figure include the cost of free school meals? Council tax deductions? How are they really coming to this 32,000 number?

eta: I have no kids, so don't really know all the costs involved.

 

[Firky]

I Don't think you get many nappies for a tenner.

 

[stuff_it]

I Don't think you get many nappies for a tenner.

Voice of experience?

But yeah looking at more like £30+ for a week for disposables and outlay for washables is fairly high.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

I Don't think you get many nappies for a tenner.

The sproggs are much pooier than I realised. How much do you usually spend then?

 

[quimcunx]

I've heard Firky just keeps his kids in the bath and showers them down once a week. No nappy costs there.

 

[pinkmonkey]

£900 on food? Even my waitrose snarfing wine quaffing brothers family don't spend that much?

 

[weepiper]

They'll get free school meals and council tax benefit as she's on Income Support. Nappies cost a lot more than a tenner a month as others have noted. I think your £200 a month for bills is very optimistic, I pay nearly that in a 3-bed flat being out 3 days a week (at work/school) for gas, electricity and phone/internet/telly. She's in a 6-bed flat, has small kids there everyday and possibly having to use card/key meters which are much more expensive too. Basically when you consider that she's paying £8580 a year in rent and feeding, clothing, paying for shoes/school uniform/school trips/birthday and Christmas presents/heating her house adequately/paying for hot water for them all to have showers/baths for seven children, that money's not going to go as far as you might think it would if, say, you were a single bloke or a couple in your twenties spending it on beer and cinema tickets and holidays abroad.

 

[snadge]

£200 quid on bus fares, wtf, £900 quid on food wtf, where are they going, taking buses to fast food restaurants daily?

 

[weepiper]

Also, this little tiny sentence, hidden away in the middle of the article is rather telling

While she is still in touch with her estranged husband, Wayne Bache, father of her six eldest children, she claims he only gives her ‘the odd fiver, but that’s it’

but yeah, let's blame the lazy feckless grasping single mother. While making out she's a liar.

 

[weepiper]

and this

having failed to secure a council house

makes it sound like it's her fault, wtf? They have to live somewhere

 

[weepiper]

The question is, what have I left out or included wrongly? Would the 32,000 figure include the cost of free school meals? Council tax deductions? How are they really coming to this 32,000 number?

eta: I have no kids, so don't really know all the costs involved.

You've missed out car running costs which will be a hefty chunk

 

[snadge]

You've missed out car running costs which will be a hefty chunk

car running costs are less than £200 per month 'bus fares'.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

£900 on food? Even my waitrose snarfing wine quaffing brothers family don't spend that much?

I just calculated it as £4 a day per person (probably less for the younger ones though). £4 x 7 days = £28 per week per person; £28 x 8 people = £224; £224 x 4 weeks = £896.

 

[Thora]

Voice of experience?

But yeah looking at more like £30+ for a week for disposables and outlay for washables is fairly high.

£30 a week on nappies? Depends, but I reckon more like £5-£6 a week for one child in nappies.

I probably spend £250 a month on food for 2 adults and a toddler, I can imagine another 5 children would add £400 to that.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

£200 quid on bus fares, wtf, £900 quid on food wtf, where are they going, taking buses to fast food restaurants daily?

£23 a month kids bus pass for 7 kids (maybe only needed for the school age kids though, I guess). £55 a month for adult bus pass. Total £216.

 

[Thora]

£900 on food? Even my waitrose snarfing wine quaffing brothers family don't spend that much?

Does your brother have 7 children though?

 

[weepiper]

car running costs are less than £200 per month 'bus fares'.

3 kids at high school will need bus fares x 2 5 days a week term time.

 

[Thora]

car running costs are less than £200 per month 'bus fares'.

I bet the running costs of an 8 seater car are pretty high.

 

[Thora]

3 kids at high school will need bus fares x 2 5 days a week term time.

It would be £52 a month for the two under 16 and £68 for the 17 year old here.

 

[weepiper]

I bet the running costs of an 8 seater car are pretty high.

Seriously... I make car tax/mot/a set of new tires a year/insurance come to about £80+ a month, and then you're going to pay petrol/diesel on top of that

 

[Thora]

I would seriously struggle to support 7 children on £32k a year. We're on a bit below average household income with one cheap child to run and we still live pretty frugally. At least 5 of those kids will be eating near adult amounts, can you imagine buying them all shoes? Even cheap Asda shoes that fall apart are a tenner each, they each need school shoes, sandals, wellies daps etc etc.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

They'll get free school meals and council tax benefit as she's on Income Support. Nappies cost a lot more than a tenner a month as others have noted. I think your £200 a month for bills is very optimistic, I pay nearly that in a 3-bed flat being out 3 days a week (at work/school) for gas, electricity and phone/internet/telly. She's in a 6-bed flat, has small kids there everyday and possibly having to use card/key meters which are much more expensive too. Basically when you consider that she's paying £8580 a year in rent and feeding, clothing, paying for shoes/school uniform/school trips/birthday and Christmas presents/heating her house adequately/paying for hot water for them all to have showers/baths for seven children, that money's not going to go as far as you might think it would if, say, you were a single bloke or a couple in your twenties spending it on beer and cinema tickets and holidays abroad.

I was assuming they had moved into a smaller house, but you're probably still right about £200 being optimistic. Lots of showers and cooking going on, I would hope. Birthdays? Christams'? Why should UK PLC taxpaying taxpayers pay for such luxuries. /DailyHeil

 

[xslavearcx]

32k a year would be hellish for bringin up 7 kids

 

[weepiper]

I was assuming they had moved into a smaller house, but you're probably still right about £200 being optimistic. Lots of showers and cooking going on, I would hope. Birthdays? Christams'? Why should UK PLC taxpaying taxpayers pay for such luxuries. /DailyHeil

Absolutely... Shoes? Food? The selfish grasping greedy little brats.

 

[xslavearcx]

what the daily mail needs to do now is do an expose of what lies underneath their xmas tree and find out what presents YOUR taxes have been paying for!!!

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

Absolutely... Shoes? Food? The selfish grasping greedy little brats.

Broken alarm-clock Britain!! Child-worker Shirkers!!

 

[xenon]

The DM and their ilk, never tell you about the far more common situation of single people or small families that have had their HB cut and have to contribute towards typical private rents from their JSA. They always go for these relatively rare cases. Funny that. Yet we'll all get distracted by wondering about 900 quid PCM on food and their ficticious benefit totals. I bet their adding in things like prescription charges, dental care, anything they can to get that figure. Don't play their game.

 

[pinkmonkey]

Does your brother have 7 children though?

I didn't realise it was for seven kids - I don't click DM links.

 

[SpookyFrank]

32k a year would be hellish for bringin up 7 kids

By comparison, condoms cost practically nothing.

 

[ViolentPanda]

By comparison, condoms cost practically nothing.

Good to see that, as ever, you've taken account of the psychodynamics and gender politics of the situation, Frank.