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

peter_the_piper

Castler wrote: »

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

Love to be there, our band D midget bungalow is £160/month and we have no street lights or mains drainage and its not in the affluent London area.

Richard_Cranium

Marisco wrote: »

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

If your housing costs, weekly contribution to utility bills, council tax shortfall, and water rates were paid. Then maybe.

UKGuy

Marisco wrote: »

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

That probably explains why IDS refused to prove it could be done and the fact he is a spineless tw@ for suggesting it in the first place!

Murphybear

heuchera wrote: »

So if £14,400 per year works out at just under £1000 per month take-home pay:

£100 per week rent so about £433 per month approximately
£130-ish council tax
£150-ish bills (gas, leccy, phone, water, broadband, tv licence)

That's £713 before you've even thought about feeding and clothing yourself.

Or travel costs.

Let alone having some semblance of a life/social life.

It's not much to live on.

£130 PCM for a single person seems a lot for council tax. A band B 3 bedroom house is about £105 PCM where we live in mid Devon. A single person doesn't pay the full amount do they?

Not clear from the original article are they only talking about working people or non working ie unemployed or retired? If I lived on my own i would get just over £10,000 pa which would be ESA plus LHA. When I retire in March this will rise to just over £13000 for state pension and tiny private pension plus some LHA.

So the answer to the original question is yes, most non working people with no children manage on this or a lot less.

Marisco

Richard_Cranium wrote: »

If your housing costs, weekly contribution to utility bills, council tax shortfall, and water rates were paid. Then maybe.

I said you could survive, not live, with housing costs paid, not other bills. It can be done, because I've done it. It's soul destroying and depressing, but I'm still here! It's not something I would recommend though, and no one should have to do it anyway, in a reasonably rich country like ours!

onlyroz

If I was single and childless then yes I could. Round here I could rent a room for £400 a month - that would include all bills and so I wouldn't have to worry about council tax, electricity etc. On top of that I would need a mobile and possibly broadband. If I worked within 10 miles I could cycle so no commuting costs. Plenty of money left over for food, entertainment, clothes and possibly some left over to save.

Indie_Kid

Murphybear wrote: »

£130 PCM for a single person seems a lot for council tax. A band B 3 bedroom house is about £105 PCM where we live in mid Devon. A single person doesn't pay the full amount do they?

A single person gets the 25% discount.

andrewf75

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....

I think the idea that people on low wages should be able to afford to buy a house is crazy. We should focus on regulating the rental market in favour of the tenent and building more council houses. This has been one of the really damaging legacies of the Thatcher government.

Indie_Kid

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....

You would have received benefits on top. surely?

torbrex

I live alone, I earn less than £5000, I own my own home outright, I have too much in savings to qualify for any benefits and I live very comfortably thank you very much