Living on £53 a week?

podperson

I think it's becoming more of an issue now since, as stated, it's doable for the short term but with the job market the way it is now people are being stuck on it for much longer periods.
I was on jobseekers a couple of times in my early to mid 20s and it was a few months max as I've always been happy to work and back then if you blitzed the streets, agencies, papers, jobcentre etc then you could always generally find something in a fairly reasonable time frame.
A few years ago I was on jobseekers again and even while constantly searching everywhere I could think of, applying for anything and everything, I was still on it for over 6 months - and that's in a large city where there are at least jobs to apply for. I know people in the small town where I used to live who are desparate for work but have been on it longer than that and struggling to even find things to apply for.
Each time I've come off it it's taken months to get back on an even keel again and the longer you have to manage on it then the worse that's surely going to get.

zippybungle

lemontart wrote: »

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

Exactly!
My family have fallen on hard times (twice) since the start of the recession.
We have quite a big mortgage (big house - family of 5) and obviously there was no help for us with the mortgage payments when my husband lost his job. We had to take out a personal loan to help cover mortgage payments (we asked bank if we could switch to interest only mortgage for short term, but they were not interested in helping).
We both work full time and pay our own way for absolutely everything. Only thing we receive is child benefit (no tax credits etc despite paying over £400 per month in childcare!)

paulineb_2

I currently live on an income of between £80-£100 a week, varies although will hopefully rise in the summer months (Im self employed) Before that I was on JSA of 71 pounds a week. Last year I had a part time job and I earned 84.50 a week but I paid rent of about £6 a week, my travel costs were £50 a month and I paid the water charge of my council tax (Im in Scotland), around £22 a month. My travel costs made life difficult, walking wasnt an option as my work was about 6 miles away and I had to cross a motorway to get there or I would have considered it.

I was worse off than I would have been on JSA but I made the decision to go out and work, better than sitting at home on the dole.
Having £53 in my hand after bills and rent were paid wasnt reality for me and I dont think its reality for a lot of single people who claim JSA.

You get by. Just. I dont have a TV, gave that up about a year and a half ago. No holidays. And its bills such as heating that can really cripple people. Im not a high user of gas nor electricity but even so, my last gas bill was much higher than I would have liked.

I do have internet access but my package costs me around £19 a month including my landline phone and Im happy to give up other things in order to keep it. I do go out now and then and I do get my haircut, but I live in a medium sized town in Scotland and I wont pay for a night out or a haircut what someone down south would pay.
I dont do new clothes, but I dont need to, I have plenty, anything I have bought over the last 4 years or so has been charity shops (I volunteered for the red cross for 12 months and you get discount).

Im not sure where they get the £53 figure from, but as has already been said some people will need to pay some rent or council tax and others will now be facing deductions due to this new housing benefit cut (bedroom tax)

The man who challenged IDS works part time I believe, not sure about what benefits he claims. The issue about being on benefits is that there is often no money for extras, if you get an unexpected bill you are stuck. And yes its probably people with kids who do ok on benefits, but kids are expensive also.

It doesnt surprise me that people on benefits get bashed a lot by others. I must have applied for 300 jobs last year and the one I got was the result of handing in my cv to a gym. I worked for 20 years and was made redundant in 2009, didnt want to go back to the line of work I left (for health reasons) but finding full time work or even 2 part time jobs has been really difficult.

Ive had two short spells of unemployment and two spells of self employment within that time (Im a fitness instructor) and Im back teaching again. It amazes me though in a double dip recession that people on benefits get labelled scroungers. Some people are but its the system that allows people to be better off on the dole depending on their circumstances than they would be in work and thats always the people you hear about in the Mail or the Express.

It never crossed my mind when I worked full time to think about where my taxes were going specificially, because taxes pay for a lot of things, not just people on welfare.

And really, a multimillionaire who lives rent free in a house owned by his father in law, what on earth does he know about someone living on the poverty line.

Sites such as approved foods helped me massively to cut down food costs. I cook from scratch most meals. Id also say I know the value of money now a lot better than I did when I was employed and Ive never been extravagent, because when you are earning 21 or 22 k a year, taking 20 quid out of the cashpoint for a night out is no big deal.

When you get just over 3 times that amount a week to live on, it is a big deal (I wouldnt spend 20 quid on a night out these days, more like £5).

And when I do earn a lot more than I do just now again (heres hoping), I think that will continue. You learn not to be wasteful and sometimes thats not a bad lesson to learn.

I hope IDS does give it a go and stops slamming the petition as nonsense, being skint isnt as far as Im concerned nonsense.

piglet25

Heres my current bills, so if I were to have to live on £53 a week I would be a bit stuffed, especially as I have contracts which would still need paying
gas/elec £156 pm
water £45 pm
tv £ 15 pm
phone £60 pm
mobile £55 pm
insurances £75 pm
Car costs £80 pm
Mortgage £260 pm
Council tax £97 pm
incidentals £50 pm
Food £250 pm

the first two bills alone would leave me with nothing, and those above aren't including everything, just the ones which come to mind

chirpychick

I have actually just figured out all of my finances and we live on less than what the government would give us for 2 adults and a baby.
We do find it very, very hard but we also have a few luxuries too.
So if I were to do a blog on living on the same amount as JSA it wouldn't actually be a challenge because we live on less than that anyway.
I genuinely never ever realised that!!
I don't find it easy, but I think it probably is easier with the 3 of us than it would be for just 1 of us.
We also have a mortgage too.

We even put £5 a month into little chick's ISA.

The one thing I have realised though is that if for whatever reason hubby became unemployed we are tied into a few contracts i.e mobile phones which are ridiculously high and could be cut back a lot at the end of the term (but that wont be for about 12-18 months).
I would also like to use cloth nappies but the initial outlay is something we can't afford.

It has been extremely interesting reading everyone's responses and very eye opening, thanks for sharing please continue to do so.
Especially any tips you have that might help others.

Living on £53 a week would be a real challenge but I do think it would be achievable. I still think I might give it a try.

jrawle

podperson wrote: »

Have just read the article and the man who's challenging him to do it lives on £53 a week after rent AND BILLS! That's more than I have left a week after paying them and I work full time :rotfl:

Yes, I read that it was after housing and bills. I don't know what "bills" covers, so I assume it's council tax, water and electricity (I don't have gas). After those are paid, £53 a week would easily cover the essentials, including travel to work and the expensive broadband and mobile contracts that I don't really need.

In reality I do spend a bit more than that on the occasional treat, but those would stop if I was living off benefits as I would not expect the taxpayer to pay for luxuries.

piglet25

Its not after bills, the utilities have to be paid from it too, its just some people are entitled to housing benefit and council tax benefit, nobody has any other bills met by the government.

RAS

jrawle wrote: »

Yes, I read that it was after housing and bills. I don't know what "bills" covers, so I assume it's council tax, water and electricity (I don't have gas). After those are paid, £53 a week would easily cover the essentials, including travel to work and the expensive broadband and mobile contracts that I don't really need.

My travel to work is £21 per week and a get an extremely good deal; with a massive discount and salary deductions making it affordable.

paulineb_2

Tbh, I would wonder what bills someone was paying to have 53 quid left in their hand after getting JSA of 71 quid. The man who challenged IDS works part time, hes not unemployed, its possible thats what he has left after he pays his own bills.

When I was on JSA I got my rent paid. I had to pay £5 a week of council tax. My gas and electricity bills average £40 a month combined and thats after a direct debit discount of £100 a year added in and another for having dual fuel. Im in Scotland and it can be pretty chilly sometimes so I might use more heating than someone who lives in the south of england. And Im sure there are people out there who use much more gas and electricity than I do.

So that would leave me with £56 a week.

I also needed to pay to sign on once a fortnight and thats about £3 for a return ticket where I am, so thats about £54.50 a week

And that leaves food. Any other bills such as mobile phone (if you have one), Tv licence (if you have one), internet (if you have it)
clothes and shoes (again if you can afford to buy them), stuff like toiletries, shampoo, toothpaste etc. Bus fares to interviews if you dont have a weekly bus ticket (which was around 15 pounds in my area but they now do a 4 week for 36 quid)

The new housing benefit tax is £8 a week for me, Im in a 2 bedroom council flat (there are very few 1's where I am). And the minute someone starts earning over the JSA threshold, you start paying out more rent and more council tax.

I signed on last year and declared my income, I got keeping the first fiver, but then I signed off and it caused such a mess with my JSA payments that I ended up being overpaid £350 and its taken me the last year to pay that off.

Also, its things like birthdays, Christmas. My family know Im skint, they certainly dont have expectations of me buying them massive presents and I dont, I cant do it and I wouldnt get myself into debt over it either. But when you are the only person in your family not working (I am now, but I wasnt for about 5 months due to ill health), its harder for you.

And I also never had any expectation of anyone propping me up by being on benefits, but sometimes you get the rug pulled from under you job wise and you find its harder than you think to get employed again.

Iain Duncan Smith is saying its easy, I read an article the other week that said by 2015 over 50 per cent of children in the UK will be living below the poverty line.

He doesnt have to choose between heating or eating, he could have a bit more compassion for some people who do.

19lottie82

piglet25 wrote: »

Heres my current bills, so if I were to have to live on £53 a week I would be a bit stuffed, especially as I have contracts which would still need paying

gas/elec £156 pm - whoa! that's high....why? i imagine if you had to you could reduce this a LOT
water £45 pm - i live in scotland so don't pay water bills, but is this not high?
tv £ 15 pm - is a tv license not under £13 a month?
phone £60 pm - ouch, on top of a mobile? if you lost your jobs you would have to cancel the DD and make token payments
mobile £55 pm - again, ouch. why so high? if you lost your jobs you would have to cancel the DD and make token payments (change to PAYG)
insurances £75 pm - this seems a lot, what is essential, and isn't car related?
Car costs £80 pm - if you were unemployed, you could ditch the car
Mortgage £260 pm
Council tax £97 pm - this would be paid for you
incidentals £50 pm - could reduce
Food £250 pm - could reduce

But I imagine if you were lving on benefits, you would have to make the required cutbacks (see above).

Do you live alone? I only ask becasue of the high utility costs. If not, you would get more than £53 a week. In fact, unless you're under 20(?), you would get £71 a week.....