Living on £53 a week?

BitterAndTwisted

marisco wrote: »

I think it would be extremely difficult to live on that amount.

"Extremely difficult" doesn't quite cover it: try "impossible".


Taking into account expenses such as; food, petrol, essentials like clothes and haircuts, utilities, TV license, phone and broadband package, insurances. Then the costs of running a car, something most need to get to their place of work.

Petrol, essentials like clothes and haircuts, Honestly, clothes and haircuts are not essentials when you're having to live on a pittance.
utilities, TV license, phone and broadband package, insurances. Then the costs of running a car. Running a car? if you were lucky, you might just be able to hold onto it until better times come round again but only if you kept it off the road.

With the housing-benefit cuts coming in coupled with Council Tax benefit being reduced, I'd say that a single person who lives alone trying to manage on £71 a week would be a short-cut to unsustainable overdraft/debt and complete and utter misery.

It might be different for those who are part of a couple with young children but for single people it's a really terrible existence. It's really difficult to comprehend only having the heating on for a maximum of one hour a day in the coldest winter for thirty years, and still absolutely dread the bill arriving unless you've had to do it yourself. Which I have and it was truly horrible.

RAS

Irrespective of what the man who challenged IDS is spending his £53 on IDS spends a lot more than £53 per week on his expenses after housing and bills.

And the chap concerned is one of George and Dave striving poor whose lives are better working than not working.

lemontart

all these threads seem to work on the assumption that everybody rents, not everybody rents many have mortgages and they are not exempt from falling on hard times.

for first 13 weeks zero help, so out of what you receive you need to meet all of it, then if you qualify it is paid every 4 weeks in arrears - the amount is base on government set interest rate on the interest only part of a repayment mortgage not the capital. So it will not cover all the mortage and you will need to meet shortfall. If you are unable to find work after 2 yrs then this help stops- unlike rent help.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/help_with_housing_costs/support_for_mortgage_interest#4

RAS

A car is not an option; to be blunt a bus is not really an option either in most of the country. You learn to walk everywhere.

The single persons allowance has to cover

Electric and gas
Water rates (these may already be taken out of your benefits if they are included in the "rent")
A contribution towards Council Tax.
Any transport costs (so if you work but do not earn enough to stop signing on, you walk to work).
Clothes and footwear
Household items - kitchenwear, linen, lightbulbs etc
Sanitary and grooming products
Any insurance products
Communications (phone, TV etc)
Food and consumables.

You will not be able to afford all of the above. freecycle and charity shops are your friend but not much use unless you can get to them (so if you live in a deprived area what is on offer is not great).

Things you will not be able to afford are
Any entertainment or going out money
Car
Satelitte TV
hair cuts
large household items

amyandrew14

Wow its amazing how people actually live like that

embob74

I think it is almost impossible for a single person to survive on benefits but if you have children it can be quite a good lifestyle.
I do believe that if you have worked you should be entitled to a decent benefit payment for a certain amount of time which will hopefully see you through until you find another job. It can be a real shock to go from a full time wage to £71 and as a PP said when you do find a job you could find you have absolutely nothing to live on for a month.

It's certainly an incentive to get a job. The only single claimants I know that are on benefits long term tend to supplement their income with illegal activities.

embob74

I'd like to add that I would never consider internet access as essential but there was a story on the news recently which showed Scottish claimants having to claim online and one man who had no internet access and was not tech savvy had his benefit stopped!

sassyblue

amyandrew14 wrote: »

Wow its amazing how people actually live like that

It is and it sounds terrible. What gets my goat is that in the media there seems to be no distinction between people on benefits and scroungers. It's those milking the system, fibbing about things to get more benefits that need tackling not those desperate for work but unable to find it, and unable to live on benefits until they do.

I think the way to go is a means tested benefit system in that you get back a much higher proportion when you've been a worker and contributed, and those who have never worked should be on the minimum.

There are lots of grey areas, like youngsters who are starting out but l think it's better than penalising those who lose their jobs and have been hard workers.

lemontart

embob74 wrote: »

I'd like to add that I would never consider internet access as essential but there was a story on the news recently which showed Scottish claimants having to claim online and one man who had no internet access and was not tech savvy had his benefit stopped!

The last 3 jobs I had since 2006 I found on line not in papers or agencies and one of them they contacted me via reed.co.uk online where I had registered my cv , I read papers on line I do not buy. I save money on line and for me I feel one thing that would be bottom of the pile to go would be my internet access as with all the savings made from not buying papers, not traveling to register with agencies in near by towns and more and cash back via topcashback it has more than paid for it's self and helped keep the baliffs from the door

I got rid of the land line and sky years ago do not smoke or drink, rarely go out so it is one of my few if any vices

Spendless

Back in the late 1990s I was made redundant, the first time I'd been unemployed since leaving school. I lived alone in my own mortgaged home. JSA was around £50 per week back then. I applied for help with paying the mortgage. The amount didn't meet my monthly payments and there was a waiting period before it kicked in. I spoke to my mortgage provider who agreed to reduce payments for a while. I didn't own a car and lived within walking distance of the market. As I'd had a good idea that redundancy was a likelihood for some months previously I had a good stock cupboard and money on a supermarket loyalty card to tide me over. Though I had PPI protection on any loans/credit there was a waiting period. So it is doable just not in the long term and you do need something to tide you over until financial help kicks in (rainy day money).