Living on £53 a week.....

ukcarper

Generali wrote: »

Matthew Parris tried and failed but came close IIRC.

Just to make the point, most people get a lot more than £53/wk as they get housing benefit, something for the kids, council tax benefit.

I read somewhere that they also get free fags and Sky TV but I don't think that's right.

But that is the problem if you do not have children you get £53/£71. Where I am the housing benefit for shared accommodation is £320 a month while the cheapest available property is £420 so that £53/£71 is reduced to £30/£48.

robmatic

wymondham wrote: »

The main issue is that someone who has no concept of being short of cash constantly and having a strict budget makes decisions on those that do..... not sure how we'd get around this but just shows up how someone like that possibly 'understand' the problems they are tasked with?

If you asked someone who works and who earns less than the median wage to devise a benefits system they would probably come up with something tougher than the Tories' reformed version.

The new benefit cap for a single person is £18200 per year. This is pretty similar to my net pay so you can probably guess how much sympathy I have for people complaining about cuts to benefits.

Is this something that the comfortably-off middle classes can understand?

exarmydreamer

CLAPTON wrote: »

Clearly there are a whole variety of people in different situations.

Whilst it's true that only some of those aren't really trying it's also true that hundreds of thousands immigrants seem to get jobs.

It does sometime seem that it's totally outrageous to suggest a young person from, say the Welsh valleys, should go to London to get a job but it does seem that a young person has no trouble coming form Poland.

http://www.lookjobs.co.uk/2013/03/butlinski-butlins-goes-to-.


There are work agencies in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania which have contracts with Butlins and Premier Inn etc to find and employ solely from abroad to work here. Job Centres in Britain are not given these jobs to advertise, these companies deliberately look abroad for their cheap staff.

ukcarper

robmatic wrote: »

If you asked someone who works and who earns less than the median wage to devise a benefits system they would probably come up with something tougher than the Tories' reformed version.

The new benefit cap for a single person is £18200 per year. This is pretty similar to my net pay so you can probably guess how much sympathy I have for people complaining about cuts to benefits.

Is this something that the comfortably-off middle classes can understand?

Yet if under 35 that single person in my area (South East) would get about £7600 if under 25 it would be about £6700.

grizzly1911

exarmydreamer wrote: »

http://www.lookjobs.co.uk/2013/03/butlinski-butlins-goes-to-.


There are work agencies in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania which have contracts with Butlins and Premier Inn etc to find and employ solely from abroad to work here. Job Centres in Britain are not given these jobs to advertise, these companies deliberately look abroad for their cheap staff.

No doubt their whole reason to pack an a rucksack, to come here and sleep on a bunk bed, for NMW, save as much as possible and send it home is somewhat different to someone from the valleys, or wherever where minimum income means minimum everything.

No doubt if they could see wages of 3 /4 times what they could achieve, for working in somewhere "better", they would also make the sacrifice.

If you have little or nothing to lose it makes the choice so much easier.

abaxas

I'm sure money is tight on £53 PW.. but...

With all that free time, you can shop around and make the money go further. Especially when you can eat very healthily for less than 2 quid a day.

silvercar

Matthew Parris tried it in 1984. Followed by a string of politicians.

In between Parris's adventures in poverty, numerous politicians followed his lead, sniffing the PR possibilities which swirl around such exploits. Piers Merchant also travelled to Newcastle to prove he and his family could live on benefits, while David Willetts made himself homeless for a night when he was shadow secretary for work and pensions. Most recently, Michael Portillo "became" a single parent for BBC2 ....

Full article here.

chewmylegoff

wymondham wrote: »

The main issue is that someone who has no concept of being short of cash constantly and having a strict budget makes decisions on those that do..... not sure how we'd get around this but just shows up how someone like that possibly 'understand' the problems they are tasked with?

Actually many middle class people do have experience of being forced to live on a perilously low income for several years. It was called university and whilst I can't speak for anyone else, I do know what it is like to have a disposible income of almost nothing whilst being unable to borrow more as I was already maxed out. I lived in London and had an income of about £80/week (whilst that was at the turn of the century, I had to pay my £55/week rent out of that). As I am sure you can appreciate, after paying rent, transport and bills there wasnt much left to spend on food. We couldnt afford a tv licence or phone, let alone sky tv, and lived in a horrible area. I remeber beig short changed from a £20 and being financially crippled for the next two weeks.

Most people who go to university (which includes almost all politicians I should think) these days know what that is like to live on a very tight budget and therefore it isn't beyond their ability to understand what life on minimal benefits is actually like. Furthermore many modern university leavers also know what it is like to work for pretty low pay whilst trying to service exorbitant debts and pay their living costs.

robmatic

ukcarper wrote: »

Yet if under 35 that single person in my area (South East) would get about £7600 if under 25 it would be about £6700.

So they wouldn't be affected by the benefit cap - good. It still seems grossly unfair that we pay some people in some areas benefits that are more than the median net income.

Dreadzone

The point is not to be able to live on benefits but for it to bridge the gap while you are looking for a job.

The argument of if someone can live on this or not totally misses this point.