What happens to state benefit in a recession

ianian99

Damzel_In_Distress wrote: »

can i just state that i do not have £110 a week left after my council tax and rent are "paid as well" ....i pay the £100 a month rent myself out of money ..so i get £110 a week which comes to £440 a month..THEN i take the £100 from that and am left with £340. which comes to £85 a week!
I have a gas meter which costs about £10 a day if i want to have heating like a normal person,....if anyone thinks they would be "better off on benefits" well why dont you try it? ...ill stay here and wait for you to come back saying.."sorry you were right"...i dont no who these people are who manage to get more money than i do,trust me its NOT possible! i wish it were,i often dont eat so my son can! £340 for four weeks?? which bills out of it like this -

TV lisence - £20 a month
Gas - £80 a month (sometimes more)
Electric - £40 a month
Food- around £150 a month
Water - £25 a month
all comes to £315 a month! ! so thats £25 i have left for other things my son needs,or for travel to the supermarket etc...
i can assure you,ive sometimes gone 5-7 days with nothing at all left!!

Just wanted to add that i no alot of you will say £150 a month is a lot for food and household items,and yes i no it can be done cheaper!..part of the reason its that much is because my son still have to wear nappies as he has a slight kidney problem which causes him to wee on a frequent basis which cannot be helped at all.

have a look at some of the bankruptcy threads and see how much people are putting down for food etc. If that was the REAL cost they were claiming then everyone on benefits would die of starvation.
Again everyone seems to have a go at anyone on benefits but its fine to scam finance companies/banks/bs etc out of 10's even 100's of thousands of pounds by going bamkrupt.

PasturesNew

ianian99 wrote: »

have a look at some of the bankruptcy threads and see how much people are putting down for food etc. If that was the REAL cost they were claiming then everyone on benefits would die of starvation.
Again everyone seems to have a go at anyone on benefits but its fine to scam finance companies/banks/bs etc out of 10's even 100's of thousands of pounds by going bamkrupt.

Yes, if you see what they can "get away with" as the cost of living on the BR board .... you'd need to be loaded to exist!

I've always thought that a BR budget should equal benefits + the cost of getting to/from work. It's only for 2 years after all... and they had the fun.

beingjdc

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yes, if you see what they can "get away with" as the cost of living on the BR board .... you'd need to be loaded to exist!

Somehow, after rent, housing and travelcard, I have still managed to spend £450 a month on average, over the last year.

Not sure what on, frankly. I feel like I've been fairly frugal!

ceridwen

crikey...a rather long thread on this already....so forgive me if points have already been covered.

I was last on benefits over 20 years ago. Since then - I have seen a great long list of cuts in benefits levels being implemented. When I was on them we received:

- non means-tested benefit for a year (not 6 months, as now)
- there was an income-related addition to benefit for a while
- there was an extra weekly amount paid to cover fuel
- there was an extra weekly amount paid to cover water
- there were grants for unexpected extra expenses (eg beds or the boiler needing replacing, etc)
- I seem to recall there was more tax back from previous period of employment
- the capital limit was £3,000 (ie rather a lot more than £6,000 is worth nowadays)
- mortgage interest was paid immediately (after those 3 waiting days)
- mortgage interest was paid in full, regardless of the size of the mortgage
- mortgage interest was paid indefinitely (think there is discussions going on about restricting it to 2 years?)
- there was money given to home-owners each week to cover them for the maintenance and insurance of the house (as that is an extra expense that homeowners have that is not applicable to renters) - I have a feeling that has been cut too on the quiet - as no-one seems to know about it when I ask.
- full rent was paid - without any attempt to tell people they should move to cheaper accommodation

There may be others - but all those things were paid - on top of basic benefit when I was last unemployed over 20 years ago. So - Governments of various political persuasions have already made one heck of a lot of cuts in benefit over recent years. It is physically impossible to cut literally one single penny extra from benefit claimants (certainly childless ones and those with standard-size families - ie 1 or 2 children) - as the amount payable is only £60.50 per week for a single person now and it would be totally impossible for me for instance to live on that amount now and know that absolutely the only other money I would get on top of that is Council Tax paid/some medical costs covered. That is with me being much better at managing my money than most people are - not just my opinion (other people tell me how good I am with money too).

Hence - the Government simply CANNOT cut benefit AT ALL - not unless they want a huge crimewave or a HUGE amount of social unrest anyway.

We all have a point that we sit at on the honesty/dishonesty spectrum. Even someone like myself - who sits very near the top of the honesty spectrum and believes in a high level of self-reliance can only be pushed so far before sheer necessity dictates that one has to lower one's moral standards temporarily just to survive. I doubt whether any Government would wish to risk pushing honest people towards crime - because of them finding it necessary to do so as a temporary measure to even survive - on the one hand or risk even a pretty stable society like Britain having a revolution on the other hand.

I am sure the Government must recognise that most of us wish to live an honest life in a stable society and they would not wish to jeopardise this themselves.

PasturesNew

beingjdc wrote: »

Somehow, after rent, housing and travelcard, I have still managed to spend £450 a month on average, over the last year.

Not sure what on, frankly. I feel like I've been fairly frugal!

I'm keeping notes this year, not actually spent a penny so far this year. Not got stockpiles of stuff either. Going to see how much I really spend.

But I suspect I spent a lot less than £450/month in 2008 after rent/council tax. When you say "housing", I assume you mean roof over your head and council tax (not other bills too).

SingleSue

I seem to be constantly feeding the gas meter right now and the house doesn't even feel warm and snugly!

Come late night I sit here with a blanket over my knees looking like an old granny.....I now call the gas meter the old money monster.:D

ianian99

SingleSue wrote: »

I seem to be constantly feeding the gas meter right now and the house doesn't even feel warm and snugly!

Come late night I sit here with a blanket over my knees looking like an old granny.....I now call the gas meter the old money monster.:D

Is the meter in your name? Some people renting just get the card off the landlord and think nothing of it and it could be set to a higher tarrif to pay off previous debts etc.
You should check out getting insulation etc, its free if your on certain benefits, have young kids etc.
check out warmfront

beingjdc

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm keeping notes this year, not actually spent a penny so far this year. Not got stockpiles of stuff either. Going to see how much I really spend.

But I suspect I spent a lot less than £450/month in 2008 after rent/council tax. When you say "housing", I assume you mean roof over your head and council tax (not other bills too).

I do. My share of electricity, broadband, phone and TV license is only £61 a month though, so we're still looking to explain £390. £40 for my mobile and £60 for the gym. Then I guess I did have a summer holiday this year, getting on for £600 worth.

£240. I guess I might eat, drink, wash, wear and read my way through £240 a month.

SingleSue

Yep it is, it's a housing association house which has some lovely drafts where the rather large vent is in the front room.

In the winter if you sit on the sofa, you can't put your feet on the floor as your feet freeze.....it likes a gale blowing through when it's windy. I have asked if something can be done with this as it is a lot larger than the vents my parents have in their house.

No higher tariff for debts, been here nearly 11 years now..although I do wonder if they have it set wrongly as the last statement which came through before the winter showed a postive balance of nearly £30 whilst the balance on the machine was only around £5.

Will certainly check out the insulation to make sure it is upto spec, as I said, I have been here nearly 11 years and no extra work on insulation has been done in that time.

Just sat here and worked it out, since the 27th Dec (late pm), I have put £20 in but the heating is only on for a 3 hour spurt in the morning and in the evening plus a few occasional times when I have put it on for an extra hour or two on really cold days (like sitting here with a blue nose!).

I don't usually worry about the cold as I just put extra blankets on the bed and we have a range of quilts in the front room but it is just so damned cold at the moment that we are feeling it even with those measures.

Thanks for the suggestions re insulation though, will certainly have a look into that to see if it needs to be upgraded....and also tariff compare, might be time for a change.

mvengemvenge

ceridwen wrote: »

We all have a point that we sit at on the honesty/dishonesty spectrum. Even someone like myself - who sits very near the top of the honesty spectrum and believes in a high level of self-reliance can only be pushed so far before sheer necessity dictates that one has to lower one's moral standards temporarily just to survive. I doubt whether any Government would wish to risk pushing honest people towards crime - because of them finding it necessary to do so as a temporary measure to even survive - on the one hand or risk even a pretty stable society like Britain having a revolution on the other hand.

I am sure the Government must recognise that most of us wish to live an honest life in a stable society and they would not wish to jeopardise this themselves.

I think we'll be hearing a lot more of this in the coming months/years. I think society will become much more fractured as more people become desperate.