Could you live decently on £14,400 a year?

steve-L

milliemonster wrote: »

But with respect, you are not going out to work to earn this money, by that I mean you don't have additional costs like transport to and from work each day, work appropriate clothing to buy for example etc and you would get help with additional needs like prescriptions, dental care etc which if you are employed for your £14k pa you're on your own and expected to be entirely self sufficient.

I think it's easy to forget the 'costs associated with working' when discussing what you can live on.

Marisco wrote:

But surely to god there must be more to life than just having enough to pay bills??? Is this what people have been reduced to in this country, being thankful to get enough of a pittance to cover bills, food and sod all that else that makes life worth living?

Well, I'd presume this is the motivation for working?
If you get enough without ... but then then issue really seems to be the dis-motivation for working ...

Mrs_Arcanum

steve-L wrote: »

I think it's easy to forget the 'costs associated with working' when discussing what you can live on.



Well, I'd presume this is the motivation for working?
If you get enough without ... but then then issue really seems to be the dis-motivation for working ...

People working full time + on NMW are on less than this. So what motivation is there for working? Maybe having just enough to exist on rather than struggling is not sufficient motivation when you add in all the costs involved with working.

Once children are factored in, the motivation is reduced still further.

Marisco

Linda_D wrote: »

14k a year is a hell of a lot of money, I think most people would live very comfortably on that sort of money.

Not if you lived in London or the SE it isn't, unless your housing was subsidised.

Richard_Cranium

Linda_D wrote: »

14k a year is a hell of a lot of money, I think most people would live very comfortably on that sort of money.

Yeah, in Thailand. We are talking about the UK.
A £14k pa salary in London for an adult living alone in rented accommodation would be starvation wages, a pittance.

UKGuy

I don't think it's so much about could you live on that much but more about would you want to, if people work hard then they should be entitled to have enough money left over for leisure pursuits after they have paid for the essentials if not, then what's the point of working, there is more to life than work, eat, sleep etc!

Podge52

UKGuy wrote: »

I don't think it's so much about could you live on that much but more about would you want to, if people work hard then they should be entitled to have enough money left over for leisure pursuits after they have paid for the essentials if not, then what's the point of working, there is more to life than work, eat, sleep etc!

There are an awful lot on here who sadly wouldn't agree with you.

I've always worked to live rather than lived to work.

UKGuy

Podge52 wrote: »

There are an awful lot on here who sadly wouldn't agree with you.

I've always worked to live rather than lived to work.

They need to get a life then, before it's too late! :rotfl:

Richard_Cranium

All this hard work ethic thing got me investigating a few things, how hard do people work?

I found an interesting example. My local authority posted an apology on it's web site yesterday, apparently residents are experiencing serious delays with regard to refuse collections, the reason given is that a number of dust carts are off the road for essential repairs.

Here's why. Out of the nine fitters employed by Newham council, only two are actually working on vehicles, seven have been promoted to supervisory roles (office based) because of a massive cack up.

Wage restructuring meant that they would lose a fair chunk of bonus related pay, because of length of service the only way out was to promote them. Now it seems that they would not in fact have lost anything, but they can't be stripped of their new promotions. So we have seven blokes sitting on their collective backsides covering two roles until they clock off at noon, leaving two fitters struggling to maintain the authorities refuse vehicles.

The Wetherspoons just down the road to me is chock full of council employees that have finished their 'days work' by midday, and a good chunk of them didn't start at 5am, they clocked in at 8 or 9.

I don't know what level of salary these people are on, but they sure as heck aren't working hard for it.

Tahlullah

lxpeanut wrote: »

which benefits are these? If your talking about a single person with no disabilities they wouldnt be receiving any.

Or a couple with no disabilities or children.

To be honest, it really irritates me when people say they can live on £××× amount per week, month, year but they are receiving state benefits.

If you are fortunate enough to be getting your rent, council tax paid for you, you are getting any form of Tax credits or Child benefits or extra income in the form of Disability benefits on top of the basic, you are NOT living on the basic!

Can you survive on £14,500 per year without the added extras? Probably not. Which is what those with no disabilities, no children and no access to other state benefits have to do.

DKLS

I could just about survive on 14k, I certainly couldn't live on that.