£26K Benefit Cap

tartanterra

Article from the BBC entitled:

"Family life on benefits"

Where an unemployed father of seven claims that he will have to choose between

eating or heating

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16812185

Of course, there is the usual income and expenditure chart accompanying the article.

If I could give any advice to "unemployed father of seven" it would be to stop buying 200 fags, a large pouch of tobacco and 24 cans of lager every week, then he may possibly be able to keep the heating on.

Weekly shopping £240
Includes food and household goods, 24 cans of lager, 200 cigarettes and a large pouch of tobacco.
'Our biggest expense. We do all our shopping at Tesco or Morrisons in one big go. Mostly we buy the "value" range - tinned meatballs, baked beans etc. On the cigarettes, my wife tried to give up, but she missed one appointment on the course and they threw her off it.'

And also, if the stopped spending £15 a week on Sky, and £32 a week on mobile phones, they might even be able to turn the heating up a couple of degrees.

Mobiles £32
'My wife and I have mobile phones, and so do all of the teenage children. You try telling teenagers they're going to have to do without their mobiles and there'll be hell to pay.

Sky TV £15
'We get the Sky Movies package because we're stuck in the house all week - otherwise we wouldn't have any entertainment.'

Isn't it funny, that the things many working people treat as "luxuries" appear to be "essentials" when you are long term unemployed?

And I haven't even mentioned his regular Friday night out yet.

Entertainment £20
'I go out once a week, on a Friday night. I meet up with my mates in the pub and have three or four pints.'

I really, really hope the benefits cap is in place soon.

phil_b_2

A few pints on a Friday night is fair enough IMO, everyone needs some kind of social life. it's not breaking the bank majorly.

As for the sky and fags, that's a laugh. £1k per month on shopping in general seems rather much for a budget food shopper like me. I could eat on £10 per week if I really needed to! But I'm one of the few who arent fussed about eating the same boring thing every day.

lvader

Does he have 7 kids knowing that he gets extra money for all of them? In other countries if you can't afford to feed your kids, they don't give you extra money, they take the kids away.

Going4TheDream

All his little 'extra's' add up to around £7800 a year (and of course that is nett of tax)

I wonder how many lower paid working people will have to choose to 'heat or eat' without the sky, fags, beer and night out to even console them yet get up out of bed each day to earn their way.

Graham_Devon

The BBC went to obvious lengths to highlight the booze and fags.

£82.40 could quite easily be saved for that family each week.

It's really a choice between eating, heating and smoking. As quitting smoking would just about achieve all the savings they will need to find under the cap.

I get the feeling that the BBC's agenda regarding the cap is to back it up. About a week ago, the girl interviewed on benefits was obviously chosen to annoy others. Personally I believe the BBC reporting is good on this....but others think it is victimising claimants.

I just want to highlight however, that for many families, living on benefits is very tight, without spending money on these things. Those with higher rents than this bloke (the majority) will have a different story.

kelpie35

This is the best news I have heard for a long while :j :j :j :j: :j

Hope it happens sooner than later.

enomis

This article really upsets me coming from a media outlet that claims to be impartial.

I don't for a second believe that this family represents a typical family living off benefits. Also, the article is badly reserched and misleading

just a few examples,

1. The benefits they recieve seem wrong "His wife Katherine suffers from bipolar disorder with an anxiety disorder and is unable to work", yet is in reciept of JSA?

2. "I see eight people here having to choose between eating or heating." - with the amount they spend on alcohol, tobacco and entertainment I can't believe such a cooment could really have been made (it probably was but seriously nobody that thinks like that should be taken seriously)

3. Rent/Housing Benefit £76.00/week - Ok for North Wales social housing (maybe), wouldn't get much of anything, social or otherwise in other parts of the country.

Along with a lot of other things in this country the benefits system (and media responsiblity) need sorting. A one size fit all benefits cap is not the answer and biased unbalanced reporting is not the way to get us thinking that it is.

funguy

Shocking that they would cap the benefits at such a high figure!! £500 a week equivalent!! Whats the average income in the UK? £20K? and then people pay taxes etc on that figure...so actual cash in hand must be close to £14K. Thats what the cap should be!! Maybe that would encourage people to go out and work!

tartanterra

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Personally I believe the BBC reporting is good on this....but others think it is victimising claimants.

I don't think the BBC can take any credit for the way it is reported.

Anyone who is working and paying tax (especially those on low wages) are never going to look at someone who has been unemployed for years and think "yeah, they certainly deserve over £30K in tax free benefits"

That is really the crux of the matter.
I don't think that the BBC searches out the bad cases, it just seems to me that there is thousands and thousands of them out there who don't work, don't want to work, and are easy to find at the moment because there are so many of them.

Our insane benefits system has made the situation worse, where benefits can be so high that it makes long term unemployment a lifestyle choice.

I don't mind my taxes being used to financially assist anyone who finds themselves temporarily unemployed. I just don't want to pay for someone like the guy in this article who hasn't had a job for 12 years.

The BBC should have highlighted this sort of thing years ago.

michaels

I saw this - I thought the bit about 'there not being any jobs in his line of work' was particularly cutting - most would think after finding no jobs in their line of work for 10 years that may be they should consider alternative employment?

BigAunty

A member of MSE has published a recipe website which is nutritionally approved whereby a family of 4 can be fed for £100 a month - £25 a week.

Therefore, he has the potential (but obviously not the inclination or capability) of slashing his grocery bill by £190 a week.

But actually, a lot of his 'grocery' spend isn't on food anyway.

Apparently, only around 5,000 are on JSA for more than 2 years, so it takes particular 'skill' to be unemployed for more than a decade if he's had no work in that period at all.

I think under the work agreement that JSA claimants sign, they are permitted to look soley for their existing line of work for the first 6 months, then are required to widen the parameters. It is evident that he's still got the mindset that he doesn't need to change his expectations.

Like earlier posters, I also don't understand how the couple has a joint claim for JSA. On the benefit forum, it is fairly common for someone with mental health issues to be receiving DLA (with their partner getting Carers Allowance for them) or Incapacity Benefit (which pays more than JSA for long term claimants).

All I can think is that the wife was booted off IB now it's being replaced by ESA and IB claimants are being gradually ported over. Under ESA most claimants are found to be either fit to work, or fit to work with some support, or withdraw their claim.