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

steve-L

wellynever wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10537363

Just wondering what people think, this is for a single person, i find this quite high for just one person but i suppose it depends where in the UK you live,

As someone in the support group with a partner this is the exact amount we get a year and that includes rent and council tax plus everything else the list would be too long if i was to add everything, we live ok on that,

As for a working single person on that money what chance to buy their own home marry have children, it just saddens me that in 2014 that £14k seems to be ok or even the norm.

I'm 7 years out of date but I lived on less than 10k/yr for 2 years very comfortably as a single person.

It is impossible to buy a home however....

Richard_Cranium

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

Support workers pay is crap (similar elsewhere) & that is similar to a friend who delivers plumbing pipes round London.

This is why the NMW is far too simplistic.

My LA is advertising for a Telecare operator/responder, working nights (£18 per hour), days (£14 per hour), and weekends (£20 per hour).
Reading the job description it's basically answering the phone and doing home visits when required.
The main criteria for the job is awareness and experience of disabled needs and issues, not that far removed from the support worker role, but a million miles removed in terms of remuneration.

Marisco

steve-L wrote: »

I'm 7 years out of date but I lived on less than 10k/yr for 2 years very comfortably as a single person.

It is impossible to buy a home however....

Well you couldn't do it now, not without benefits anyway. Depending on where you live, housing costs alone would cost you half to three quarters of that on it's own!

Mrs_Arcanum

Castler wrote: »

It says there council tax is £120 a month however the average band D property is only £90 a month.

So this single person is living in a larger than average property indeed they must be living in the top 1% of properties by values

Our council tax is the 2nd lowest in the UK & band C is £135 pcm (over 10 months). So where you get £90 for a band D I don't know.

john539

Marisco wrote: »

It's 4 years out of date!!! :eek:

Yes, it's strange old stories keep appearing in the BBC most popular list.

john539

steve-L wrote: »

I'm 7 years out of date but I lived on less than 10k/yr for 2 years very comfortably as a single person.

It is impossible to buy a home however....

Impossible to believe & meaningless without detail.

Then you make a bizarre comment about buying a home, weird.

UKGuy

According to IDS £53 a week is more than enough to live on!

john539

UKGuy wrote: »

According to IDS £53 a week is more than enough to live on!

Yes, lot of hot air from IDS, unfortunately he wasn't prepared to show it was done.

Richard_Cranium

UKGuy wrote: »

According to IDS £53 a week is more than enough to live on!

That's his daily breakfast allowance isn't it?
I seem to remember IDS and a few of his mates volunteering to live with single parents and the like for a week to see just how hard/easy things were. IDS lasted one night, obviously the breakfast wasn't up to his exacting standards.

Marisco

UKGuy wrote: »

According to IDS £53 a week is more than enough to live on!

If your housing costs were paid, then you could survive on it, but it would be a far cry away from living!!