How do people live off £317.72 Universal Credit?

nicetomeetyou

Per month...

Utilities £32.50 per week - £130 month.
bus pass £10.00 per week - £40.00 month
mobile phone £2.50 per week - £10.00 month
tv licence £3.25 per week - £13.00 month

Leaves £31 a week for toiletries and food. How do people live on this amount...

tomtom256

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

Per month...

Utilities £32.50 per week - £130 month.
bus pass £10.00 per week - £40.00 month
mobile phone £2.50 per week - £10.00 month
tv licence £3.25 per week - £13.00 month

Leaves £31 a week for toiletries and food. How do people live on this amount...

Its the same amount you get for JSA etc.

It's not designed to live off but as a stepping stone between unemployment and further employment.

calcotti

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

Per month...

Utilities £32.50 per week - £130 month.
bus pass £10.00 per week - £40.00 month
mobile phone £2.50 per week - £10.00 month
tv licence £3.25 per week - £13.00 month

Leaves £31 a week for toiletries and food. How do people live on this amount...

To which you also have to take into account rent because the housing element is in most cases less than the rent people will be paying and Council Tax because most local authorities no longer give 100% Council Tax Reduction.

Kentish_Dave

You should also be using your emergency fund for the few weeks it takes you to get back into work.

sammyjammy

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

Per month...

Utilities £32.50 per week - £130 month.
bus pass £10.00 per week - £40.00 month
mobile phone £2.50 per week - £10.00 month
tv licence £3.25 per week - £13.00 month

Leaves £31 a week for toiletries and food. How do people live on this amount...

Every single one of your figures is more than I spend on these things as a working person.

Utilities £8 per week - £33 month.
bus pass £0.00 per week - £0.00 month I walk
mobile phone £1.80 per week - £8.00 month
tv licence £3 per week - £12.56 month

Vates

I have no idea. But loving people giving their own personal anecdotes as to why it's wrong to spend that much, like it is irrefutable evidence. Everybody can save money and I'm pretty good at budgeting for needs not wants but everyone's circumstances are different. But genuinely no clue. Sometimes I wish I had stayed in supported housing so I wouldn't have to deal with all this.

[Deleted User]

No idea. Least you can buy basic range of food cheap enough if trying. I wasn't surprised when my experience at the Job centre was being sign posted to CAB and money advice service along with an advance offered to repay over 12 months interest free that it wasn't going to be a pleasant ride. Though I got the overiding message someone is better of working. (when possible)

It made accepting a zero hours job with cut off missed meaning payday in 5 weeks sound OK in some respects. (though job local so I can walk though got did also get a free permit to park and cups of tea by the bucket)

One of my bills has allowed me to pay arrears at £5 per month until around 2024! and I ended up with a lower energy tariff when I explained unemployment/new job pay delay. It's good for the bills to be scrutinised at times like these. I tried to give cat food away to a person out of work but was told their animals were fussy. Would rather have baked beans then try old cat food sandwiches (ha ha!!)

[Deleted User]

sammyjammy wrote: »

Every single one of your figures is more than I spend on these things as a working person.

Utilities £8 per week - £33 month.
bus pass £0.00 per week - £0.00 month I walk
mobile phone £1.80 per week - £8.00 month
tv licence £3 per week - £12.56 month

You pay £8 a week for gas/electric/water/telephone line and broadband ? ? ?

poppy12345

sammyjammy wrote: »

Every single one of your figures is more than I spend on these things as a working person.

Utilities £8 per week - £33 month.

Let me know your secret, my gas alone is more per month!

Alice_Holt

tomtom256 wrote: »

It's the same amount you get for JSA etc.
It's not designed to live off but as a stepping stone between unemployment and further employment.

The group of people who must really struggle are those who have been assessed as not fit for work and placed in the LCW UC group (the equivalent of the ESA WRAG group,
Under UC the single rate is currently £73 pw rather than pre 2016 ESA WRAG rate of £102. A reduction of nearly 30% (more in real terms).

Some of the politicians who voted through this particularly nasty austerity measure in 2016, didn't understand that being placed in the ESA WRAG meant the claimant had been assessed as unfit for work. I recall that Stephen Crabb (who shortly after the vote became S of S for the DWP) was in that group; writing on social media -
“These people are in the work-related activity group (Wrag) and they do have a disability or illness but are able to work. Any disabled person who is unable to work due to ill health or disability is in the support group of ESA. They are wholly unaffected by the change, as only those who are fit to work and actively seeking work are included in the work-related activity group.”

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/21/stephen-crabb-facts-disability-aid-cuts-benefit

The first below the line comment is quite apt.

Given this startling lack of parliamentary due diligence, it's hardly surprising that many politicians are viewed as overpaid self-serving charlatans, rather than responsible and hard-working professionals.

I don't recall Crabb seeking to rectify his error in his brief tenure as the DWP Sec of State (before he was sacked for sending sexually explicit messages to a 19-year old woman he had interviewed for a job whilst Welsh Minister).
Incidentally, this particular DWP Sec of State was rather more clued up on the opportunities provided by lax parliamentary expenses guidelines than the fundamentals of benefit legislation. During the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal, it was reported that Crabb had claimed £8,049 for refurbishments to his flat in London that were carried out from July 2006. He sold the flat the following year and switched his second home expenses to the house he had recently bought for his family in Pembrokeshire, allowing him to claim back £9,300 in stamp duty and £1,325 a month in mortgage interest for almost a year, while designating another London flat he was renting with a fellow MP as his main home.

Vates

poppy12345 wrote: »

Let me know your secret, my gas alone is more per month!

This. My gas is at least a £20 top up per month just for hot water for showers and washing up! It gets crazy expensive, more than double, in the winter which is why I apologise to guests and tell them to leave their coat on (and why my olive oil always freezes in my kitchen every winter! It goes clear again in spring, lol).

That's £20 before I've even put the £20 on for electricity per month!