Desparate

Malthusian

macman said:

If you left the UK aged about 25, you would have had maybe 9 years NI contributions at most, yet you seemed to believe that you would somehow get a full State Pension? 

The OP didn't suggest anywhere that he thought he would get a full State Pension. That appears to be one of those ideas that people invented so they could crow at him. The OP just listed what State Pension he is getting.
Pension Credit for a couple is £1,200 per month, so the idea that he could get £1,000 per month in benefits isn't totally incredible - however he is apparently ineligible due to his partner being under State Pension Age. (Hasn't been explicitly stated but otherwise he would be on that and not Universal Credit.) Why they can't work to support them hasn't been stated.

Exodi

Alan_Fisburn said:

My house rent is £900 per month!!! Plus power, council tax, water etc. We were forced to move into this house as no cheaper ones were available owing to the shortage of rental property in UK.. We had travelled all over England for three months looking for somewhere to stay and found nothing. 

Oh behave, rental properties in the South (the most expensive part of the UK) are around £900 per month.

You only need to drive for a few hours to get the midlands upwards and you'll find the houses are about half that.

macman

Malthusian said:

macman said:

If you left the UK aged about 25, you would have had maybe 9 years NI contributions at most, yet you seemed to believe that you would somehow get a full State Pension? 

The OP didn't suggest anywhere that he thought he would get a full State Pension. That appears to be one of those ideas that people invented so they could crow at him. The OP just listed what State Pension he is getting.
Pension Credit for a couple is £1,200 per month, so the idea that he could get £1,000 per month in benefits isn't totally incredible - however he is apparently ineligible due to his partner being under State Pension Age. (Hasn't been explicitly stated but otherwise he would be on that and not Universal Credit.) Why they can't work to support them hasn't been stated.

Point taken, but it would be interesting to know on what basis they thought they could get an income of £1K a month, whatever it might consist of. 
OP has been asked several times to confirm what age his wife is, to clarify this point. And as to why he is paying so much in rent, when cheaper properties are available, if he is willing to live anywhere in the UK.
The OP's main misfortune seems to be that he put all his savings into the business when into his 70's and sadly it did not survive.
I don't think people are crowing at him. They're just bemused as to why he would make a move back to the UK after 50 years away, without being 100% sure as to what income he could expect from the state, without any private pension or SA state pension in reserve.

barnstar2077

Exodi said:

Alan_Fisburn said:

My house rent is £900 per month!!! Plus power, council tax, water etc. We were forced to move into this house as no cheaper ones were available owing to the shortage of rental property in UK.. We had travelled all over England for three months looking for somewhere to stay and found nothing. 

Oh behave, rental properties in the South (the most expensive part of the UK) are around £900 per month.

You only need to drive for a few hours to get the midlands upwards and you'll find the houses are about half that.

Stupid question, but as I am unfamiliar with the benefits system, wouldn't the government simply give him less money if his rent were reduced?  This thread really should be on the benefits board imo.

elsien

barnstar2077 said:

Exodi said:

Alan_Fisburn said:

My house rent is £900 per month!!! Plus power, council tax, water etc. We were forced to move into this house as no cheaper ones were available owing to the shortage of rental property in UK.. We had travelled all over England for three months looking for somewhere to stay and found nothing. 

Oh behave, rental properties in the South (the most expensive part of the UK) are around £900 per month.

You only need to drive for a few hours to get the midlands upwards and you'll find the houses are about half that.

Stupid question, but as I am unfamiliar with the benefits system, wouldn't the government simply give him less money if his rent were reduced?  This thread really should be on the benefits board imo.

No. Rent is only paid to to a certain amount then the person has to top it up out of their other benefits. Lower rent would mean less to find from the living expenses money. 

Suggestion to post on the benefits board made at the start of the original thread. 

Grumpy_chap

Exodi said:

Alan_Fisburn said:

My house rent is £900 per month!!! Plus power, council tax, water etc. We were forced to move into this house as no cheaper ones were available owing to the shortage of rental property in UK.. We had travelled all over England for three months looking for somewhere to stay and found nothing. 

Oh behave, rental properties in the South (the most expensive part of the UK) are around £900 per month.

You only need to drive for a few hours to get the midlands upwards and you'll find the houses are about half that.

You wouldn't get anything where we are as low as £900 - two bed flat from £1250

Exodi

barnstar2077 said:

Exodi said:

Alan_Fisburn said:

My house rent is £900 per month!!! Plus power, council tax, water etc. We were forced to move into this house as no cheaper ones were available owing to the shortage of rental property in UK.. We had travelled all over England for three months looking for somewhere to stay and found nothing. 

Oh behave, rental properties in the South (the most expensive part of the UK) are around £900 per month.

You only need to drive for a few hours to get the midlands upwards and you'll find the houses are about half that.

Stupid question, but as I am unfamiliar with the benefits system, wouldn't the government simply give him less money if his rent were reduced?  This thread really should be on the benefits board imo.

It's not a stupid question, there is some truth to what you say.

The local housand element of universal credit does vary depending on where the country you want to live. As you illustrate, it wouldn't be fair to give someone the same amount of money towards rent living in blackpool, than to someone living in london.

Regardless of where you choose to live however, you'll find that the housing allowance consistently lacking and oftentimes leaving very few options - with people often making up the difference themselves.

Except for London, I'm not aware of any other place in the whole of the UK that local housing allowance will pay £900 towards - meaning the OP is almost certainly making up the significant shortfall themselves.

If the OP was to move to the Midlands, even if they were still unable to find a property that they could completely finance out of their local housing allowance, the shortfall would inevitably be much smaller.

As I said before £900 indicates they are likely choosing to live in the South.

Exodi

Grumpy_chap said:

Exodi said:

Alan_Fisburn said:

My house rent is £900 per month!!! Plus power, council tax, water etc. We were forced to move into this house as no cheaper ones were available owing to the shortage of rental property in UK.. We had travelled all over England for three months looking for somewhere to stay and found nothing. 

Oh behave, rental properties in the South (the most expensive part of the UK) are around £900 per month.

You only need to drive for a few hours to get the midlands upwards and you'll find the houses are about half that.

You wouldn't get anything where we are as low as £900 - two bed flat from £1250

I live in the South East though I've no doubt you can find examples where it is higher (Brighton, Canterbury, etc).

My point was that the OP suggesting that £900 was the cheapest they could find across the whole of England was fantasy, and is only really the case in the South.

Malthusian

macman said:

I don't think people are crowing at him. They're just bemused as to why he would make a move back to the UK after 50 years away, without being 100% sure as to what income he could expect from the state, without any private pension or SA state pension in reserve.

Doesn't seem bemusing to me. I don't know anything about the SA benefits system, but poverty relief here is almost certain to be better than poverty relief in SA. Luckily for them he is still eligible to live under our system thanks to being born and raised here.
People act on vague stuff they have been told down the pub all the time. But it doesn't appear the decision to move here was wrong (in the absence of being told something surprising about the benefits they could have claimed in SA), only their expectations and choice of place to live. 
His State Pension is neither here nor there as it will be means-tested away under both systems.
If the underlying problem is that he was expecting old-age benefits but has found that the system treats them as working-age, he wouldn't be the first to be caught out by the change to the Pension Credit rules.

macman

Grumpy_chap said:

Exodi said:

Alan_Fisburn said:

My house rent is £900 per month!!! Plus power, council tax, water etc. We were forced to move into this house as no cheaper ones were available owing to the shortage of rental property in UK.. We had travelled all over England for three months looking for somewhere to stay and found nothing. 

Oh behave, rental properties in the South (the most expensive part of the UK) are around £900 per month.

You only need to drive for a few hours to get the midlands upwards and you'll find the houses are about half that.

You wouldn't get anything where we are as low as £900 - two bed flat from £1250

I don't know where you are, but if you do a Rightmove search on 2 b/r flats in say, Coventry, (approx centre of England) with a 40 mile search radius (the largest range you can specify), and max £600pm, there are 130 such flats. Plenty at around £430 too.
Repeat that search further north and there will be thousands to choose from.
More likely the OP had problems renting because he has no UK credit history and no recent UK references?