Low wages and benefits advice

borderline

I'm unemployed and I'm dreading that might have to take a low pay job because I can't seem to find anything else.
My problem is that on a low paid job I won't be able to pay for my rent, bills and everyday expenses.
I was earning just over £20,000 before I lost my job but if I took a job say £17-18k or even less I will really struggle . I'm talking about London, my rent is already £700 month...
Would I be able to get housing benefit or anything else to help me out?
I understand that for housing benefit you have to have less than £16k in savings for some help or less than £6,000 more benefits.. How does it affect if I had a job even low paid?
I have that kind of money (redundancy money) at the moment but it's not savings it's just money on my current account to pay for rent and bills, so it's not really savings... I always get confused with what they mean by savings...
I don't really want to ask for benefits but with low wages what options do I have?:(

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Savings = any money in a bank account, shares, premium bonds, ISAs etc etc etc.

As you have over £16k in savings you are automatically disqualified from claiming Housing Benefit.

Dunroamin

Even if you were earning £20,000, your rent would be over half of your net income; you need to move somewhere with a lower rent.

borderline

Dunroamin wrote: »

Even if you were earning £20,000, your rent would be over half of your net income; you need to move somewhere with a lower rent.

easier said than done in London

borderline

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

Savings = any money in a bank account, shares, premium bonds, ISAs etc etc etc.

As you have over £16k in savings you are automatically disqualified from claiming Housing Benefit.

yeah well, soon I won't have any left since I'm only getting JSA £71 a week

KxMx

Have you tried cutting down your outgoings right to the bone, ie shopping around for best electric tariff, dropping a brand in the supermarket? MSE is a great website with loads of money saving tips so you are in the right place.

Dunroamin

borderline wrote: »

easier said than done in London

I'm from London and that's a very high rent for someone only earning £20k. You can get really nice house/flat shares for £100 pw all throughout London.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

How old are you?

borderline

Dunroamin wrote: »

I'm from London and that's a very high rent for someone only earning £20k. You can get really nice house/flat shares for £100 pw all throughout London.

Really? where? seriously, I haven't seen anything (decent) below £120-150 flat sharing/bedsits... maybe miles away from central London and if you have to commute to work whatever you save in rent is spent on travel to work

in any case, I can't see myself sharing again.. I'm well over 40

I managed with my £20,000 salary and my £700 rent... of course, I didnt spend money on luxuries

borderline

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

How old are you?

I'm over 40 years old.

Dunroamin

borderline wrote: »

Really? where? seriously, I haven't seen anything (decent) below £120-150 flat sharing/bedsits... maybe miles away from central London and if you have to commute to work whatever you save in rent is spent on travel to work

in any case, I can't see myself sharing again.. I'm well over 40

I managed with my £20,000 salary and my £700 rent... of course, I didnt spend money on luxuries

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/London-87490.html?sortType=1&displayPropertyType=flats&oldDisplayPropertyType=flats&primaryDisplayPropertyType=flats&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=flats&index=40