I’m on benefits and work just two hours a day but get almost £46k a year – I want to work but the system is broken

SINGLE mum Cheryl Lloyd used to earn £46,000 a year as a teacher working 50 hours a week.

But due to the broken benefits system she gets the same amount working just two hours a day. 

The 51-year-old, who lives in Burntwood in Staffordshire, has two children, Luca, 15, who suffers from autism and ADHD, and Scarlett, nine. 

“I used to work full-time as a teacher at a mainstream school, then for 26 years I worked at a special needs school,” she said.

“I was well paid on £46k per year. And because they had kids with special needs, they were better off than I was, as a professional working over 50 hours a week. 

“I used to leave the house at 7am and was never back home before 6pm. Then I left to become a private tutor, on a zero-hours contract, earning £33 per hour. It was only meant to be temporary, but there’s no reason for me to go back to full-time work now.”

Cheryl gets around £1,200 a month in Universal Credit, plus £450 per month in child maintenance payments and £405 per month in Disability Living Allowance (DLA). 

She currently works part-time as a tutor, earning £919 per month on average. 

It means she gets almost the same amount of money per month as when she was working full-time. 

She is one of the millions on benefits in the UK who would like to work but feel stuck on benefits. 

Today, the Government announced a huge shake-up to benefits in a bid to get millions of Brits back to work. 

It is planning to scrap Universal Credit Work Capability Assessments by 2028, so all health payments will be made via PIP. 

The government is also planning to ban under-22s from claiming Universal Credit incapacity benefits.

It will also make it harder for people to claim PIP in a bid to save £5billion. 

Millions will benefit from an above-inflation rise to the standard element of Universal Credit, but the highest incapacity payment will be cut. 

For many, the changes don’t help support them back to work. 

Everything you need to know about Universal Credit

Cheryl said: “It didn’t occur to me to claim anything but a friend told me I’d be entitled to Universal Credit and she was right. Now, I can do as little as two hours of work per day and I end up on almost as much money as I did when I was a full-time teacher.

“It’s crazy – there is no incentive to work more because you lose benefits for every extra hour you work. I’ve recently split from a long-term partner and I’m better off on my own. I’d be worse off if I was in a relationship now.

“I want to work, I don’t want to sit at home and watch Netflix. But it’s a crap system and it’s a bad message to send to people.”

Under Universal Credit, your payments are reduced the more hours you work.

For every £1 you earn from working, your payments are reduced by 55p. 

Avnee Morjaria, associate director for public services at IPPR, said the number of people claiming health-related benefits is “unsustainable”.

“The current system is a national scandal – it fails to support people into work, locks them into welfare indefinitely, and costs the taxpayer billions of pounds a year, with costs continuing to rise,” she said.

“The Government is right to address this broken system, and by focusing on supportive measures it can help those who are able to work to do so, enable people off benefits and save the taxpayer billions over time.

“However, the growing number of people on incapacity and disability benefits is a symptom of deeper issues – huge NHS waiting lists, rising numbers of mental health conditions and cuts in other parts of the benefit system.

“The Government is clearly trying to ensure its welfare reforms deliver the right support and incentives for those who can work to do so.

“But announcing changes in a rush to deliver savings will harm vulnerable people, many of whom depend on this support to live a good life in difficult circumstances.”

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