The jobless are no shirking scroungers – you try living on £65.45 a week

carolt

Is a forthnight a bit like a forthright fortnight?

Or related to a birthright?

Lotus-eater

carolt wrote: »

Is a forthnight a bit like a forthright fortnight?

Or related to a birthright?

I think he means forth night, so 4 days.....

How do you earn £300 in 4 days by doing nothing?......... I can think of BDSM model, you only have to lie still then, I wouldn't be admitting it on the net personally, takes all sorts though.

PasturesNew

If I were signing on I'd get £383/fortnight (£825/month) ... although most of that would be for LHA/council tax, leaving £65.45 for bills/food etc.

Of course, only single people get this little. If you have kids you get more - and so are free to rob them to pay for your fags, booze, Sky TV and X Box.

Working a 40 hour week at NMW (£5.80), would yield a take home of £854. As a single person, aged 25 or over, living alone in self-contained accommodation, I think there might be some WTC, but it'd probably be £5/week. I can't say how much it'd be because entitledto is too long-winded to yield a quick answer to the scenario.

jamespir

65.00 is still very little to get food and pay bills on thiough

BitterAndTwisted

In my experience it's not very little, it's too little. In order to be able to job-hunt online I've kept up with my service provider as it would cost me more in bus-fares to and from the library or whereever than I currently pay in monthly fees.

I'm all for the unwaged to not be able to afford to live the life of Riley but it's taking me a lifetime of employment skills just keeping my head above water here. It's exhausting. And sitting around at home with no heating on during the coldest winter for 30 years was a true test of my mettle. Down, but not out!

lostinrates

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

In my experience it's not very little, it's too little. In order to be able to job-hunt online I've kept up with my service provider as it would cost me more in bus-fares to and from the library or whereever than I currently pay in monthly fees.

I'm all for the unwaged to not be able to afford to live the life of Riley but it's taking me a lifetime of employment skills just keeping my head above water here. It's exhausting. And sitting around at home with no heating on during the coldest winter for 30 years was a true test of my mettle. Down, but not out!

It would seem sensible to enable people to search for work cheaply. Is there a transport benefit of any sort? where would your nearest library be?

I also think its likely that many people will need access to online arrangements made while employed...e.g. banking.

there was talk under Blair of internet being something everyone should have (something I'm not wholeheartedly sure I agree with...access to, sure, but perhaps not 100% access to).

I presume in the meantime BitterandTwisted you've checked for the very best deal you can get. You seem pretty switched on, I can't imagine you wouldn't have.

BitterAndTwisted

You're right, I have. Well, at least I've negotiated the cheapest deal possible with my provider, which is a cable one.

I think there's a half-price deal available on London buses for the unwaged but it would till cost me a pound a day to get to the library and my internet access at home costs less than that. Plus, I get to make a cuppa precisely when I want one and I can play with the cat at the same time and that's worth money to me.

It'll all be a totally different story once I've finally sold off every one of my assets so please God, I'll have found a job before then.

carolt

In many areas those on benefits get free/reduced cost public transport - does that not apply in your area?

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Of course, only single people get this little. If you have kids you get more - and so are free to rob them to pay for your fags, booze, Sky TV and X Box.

I'm sure that it is as difficult to live on benefit levels with kids than it is without. Anyone that claims that the extra benefit they would get for having kids would outweigh the costs of keeping the kids probably hasn't had kids.

Anyone that didn't feed their children in order to pay for fags and booze would end up investigated by social services and risk losing those kids.

catmiaow

What used to annoy me is my ex friend who used to keep having kids knowing she could not afford them(she and her partner didnt work) without the benefit system. She gets more than I get in wages and she has Sky, Xbox, and huge TV and uses it to pay for her booze and fags.

I do not have Sky, Xbox and the huge TV, even though I work so is someone telling people that you are better off having kids and living off benefits?

I also have a friend that although she has a child works full time and she does get CB and WC, but least she is working and making that effort.