{"id":257864,"date":"2026-01-26T05:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T05:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/257864\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T05:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T05:13:19","slug":"mum-on-1600-monthly-benefits-with-frozen-debts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/257864\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum, on \u00a31,600 monthly benefits, with frozen debts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tPaige Catlow hopes to return to work after the birth of her second child and would like to earn \u00a330,000 a year\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

In our How I Manage My Money<\/a> series, we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

This week we speak to Paige Catlow, 25, who lives in Aylesham, Kent, with her one-year-old daughter, Meadow. Shop manager Paige is currently on maternity leave and living on universal credit and child benefit. After having her second child, she plans to return to work. Paige is not adding money to savings<\/a> or investments. She had a debt relief order<\/a> approved last year and would love to earn at least \u00a330,000 a year once back at work. <\/p>\n

Monthly budget<\/p>\n

My monthly income: I receive \u00a31,530 in universal credit each month and \u00a3104.20 per month from child benefit each month. I also receive a minimum of \u00a3400 per month in child maintenance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My monthly outgoings: Rent, \u00a3837, groceries, \u00a3350; toiletries, \u00a387; council tax, \u00a3101; gas, electricity and water, \u00a3211; car fuel and parking costs, \u00a380; car insurance, \u00a390; contents insurance, \u00a37; broadband, \u00a310; mobile handset and package, \u00a375; hobbies, \u00a360; money spent on gifts, this varies but around \u00a358; clothes, this varies but around \u00a370 per month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I grew up in Dover and life was very tough for us financially as a family. We\u2019d regularly have bailiffs at the door, which I found quite traumatic. From an early age I realised I never wanted to get to the point where I, as an adult, had bailiffs<\/a> knocking on my own front door.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had jobs since I was 14. I\u2019ve worked in retail for a few years now and am currently on maternity leave from my job as a shop manager. I have a one-year-old daughter, Meadow, and am having another child later this year. I received statutory maternity pay for roughly nine months, but after that it was stopped. <\/p>\n

About a month after having Meadow, I was questioning whether I should return to work as the cost of living is so high and I couldn\u2019t really afford to be off work. Being a single mum can be hard financially, but I can\u2019t fault Meadow\u2019s dad and we are co-parenting her.<\/p>\n

I live in a housing association property and pay \u00a3837 a month in rent. In terms of my current income, I receive \u00a31,530 in universal credit<\/a> each month as well as \u00a3104.20 in child benefit per month. Meadow\u2019s father is also paying a minimum of \u00a3400 in child maintenance every month.<\/p>\n

I am not adding any money to savings or investments. It\u2019s not something I can think about at the moment. In every job I\u2019ve had which has enabled me to add money to a pension, I\u2019ve signed up to the scheme. However, I have no idea how much money is in all my pensions and it\u2019s not a priority. <\/p>\n

If I struggle to have enough money in the here and now, I\u2019m not going to stress about having enough money when I retire just yet.<\/p>\n

My relationship with money has not always been straightforward, even though I saw as a child what can happen when financial problems become serious. <\/p>\n

I used to impulse-buy a lot. I would see pop-up adverts for anything and everything online and buy it. This could be anything from clothes to food delivery services. I used buy-now-pay-later services from the age of 18 to fund clothes and nights out. <\/p>\n

Later on, I started using it to fund more and more purchases, particularly when I was pregnant with Meadow. I\u2019ve even used buy-now-pay-later for a food shop.<\/p>\n

At one point I was in just over \u00a37,000 worth of debt. Around 75 per cent of my debts were linked to buy-now-pay-later. Other parts of the debt stemmed from one credit card and a couple of personal loans. <\/p>\n

I saw an online advert about clearing debts in 2025 and getting help with money. I was eventually put in touch with Money Wellness. I wanted to sort out my finances and avoid Meadow seeing how sad her mum was getting about money problems. <\/p>\n

Money Wellness assessed my income and spending and helped me understand how to budget and what to prioritise. They also helped me figure out a workable solution for getting my debts paid off. <\/p>\n

I had a debt relief order approved in June last year, which allows people to freeze their debts for 12 months. This is known as a moratorium period. If your circumstances haven\u2019t changed after this time, the debts will be written off.<\/p>\n

I can now happily go out my front door without worrying about coming back to see a letter saying the bailiffs are coming. I no longer wake up every day worrying, crying and wondering what\u2019s going to happen. <\/p>\n

If I was back at work, I would like to be earning \u00a330,000 a year. This would be more than enough. I want to get back to work, but nursery waiting lists are crazy and often impossible to get on. I may not be able to start working until the kids start school properly. <\/p>\n

It seems ridiculous to think about this when my next child has not even been born yet! <\/p>\n

While my shorter-term goal is to return to work, in the long run I\u2019d like to be able to save money for my children. Once they both turn 18 I would like to be able to fund their time at university, should they choose to go. I wouldn\u2019t want them to enter adult life in debt.<\/p>\n

Want to take part in How I Manage My Money? Email money@theipaper.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paige Catlow hopes to return to work after the birth of her second child and would like to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,117675,1575,268,26288,85,46,266,267],"class_list":{"0":"post-257864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-childcare","10":"tag-debt","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-how-i-manage-my-money","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}