To think saving on Universal Credit is extremely difficult?

Saving isn't the point of UC but to help people get stable and off benefits it would help if they can save !!

Yeah that’s rotten. I found flatsharing stressful even in my 20s - the stories I could tell you of former flatmates! I hate that it’s so normalised nowadays in many countries. People act like its a universally acceptable solution to singles not being able to afford a place to themselves, but I really feel people shouldn’t need to do it once they’ve left college unless they want to.

No wonder many people get into and stay in unhealthy relationships, especially as they grow older - there’s no real social safety net if something goes wrong. I can’t imagine being 60 and needing to flatshare with strangers. Especially if they’re much younger.

I think the government need reminding too. Not just this one but previous ones also.

I still can’t get my head around the fact that UC for many people are usually not sufficient to cover the basics. Not everyone has savings or family to help them out. What do they expect people to do especially if they can’t work due to illness?

Im on benefits

I think a few people on here need reminding of that.

Benefit claimants are human beings, no matter your opinion on the system itself.

I'm not sure why my posts were removed. Identifying. It was all played out very publicly on twitter. I said nothing that identified me on anything I posted earlier.

Under 35's are only entitled to the cost of a room in a shared house. Can you imagine? I had three children at that age and yet single people are being kept perpetual teenagers in the eyes of the state.

Having said that, LHA for over 35's is so low that a house share is often the only option. I've been in the position of trying to help people in their 60's and above look for flat shares. They're competing with people who are young enough to be their grandchildren - it's totally inappropriate.

Thanks - good to know.

Just did a quick search on google and from what I can see the typical rent for a one bed flat is mainly within the £700-£900 range so £550 is not good.

I’d say one beds in my area were closer to £550 about 4/5 years ago when I first moved here. But those days are long gone.

And it’s absurd that under 35s get even less, I don’t get the logic of that.

It depends where in Cheshire, but Cheshire West as an example you’d get £546 per month. Cheshire East is £550. But it’s actually for over 35s, not over 30s! Under 35s get £421 a month.

I’m pleased for you that you are obviously not in the same position, and that the life choices you made were so firmly grounded in wisdom and foresight, or maybe you’ve just been very lucky.
But mostly, I just feel sorry for you. I may not have made excellent choices, in hindsight, I’ve had some bad luck along the way too. But really, I would rather be in my position financially and still have my sense of humanity, compassion and desire for a more equal society, (in which enough wealth exists that there should be very little disparity in the standards of living between any human on the planet) than live in your self congratulatory bubble.
I hope you never get seriously ill, or live with someone who financially controls you, or abuses you, or have a child who is disabled, or very sick, or lose your partner in an accident and find yourself unable to make ends meet with children, or lose your job and struggle to find another, or have any need for the support I receive.
But one day, something will happen that is beyond your amazing foresight and impeccable planning that will allow you to see that you are no different nor better than every other human being.

Yes that’s true. It was even the same for housing benefit.

I claimed for that when I was younger and I only got £200 a month despite it costing me £350 for a room (many years ago) in a flatshare. And it’s not like I was living in luxury or my rent was expensive for the area I lived in.

It’s like they don’t care what actual rents are set at, they just agree to pay up to a certain amount even if that’s significantly lower than what rents are actually are in that area.

Maybe I’m wrong then and I wouldn’t even get as much as that! If so - yikes that’s even worse.

I stay in Cheshire and I’m over 30.

People also don't have to be married to have children. I know people who had kids first and got married later. How dare anyone call people on benefits charity cases.

Wow. I never had enough savings to buy my council flat. A relative helped me and I paid them back when it had to be sold. My mum bought her council house and got a mortgage. The fact that my dad paid her two quid a week and my brother's dad paid nothing his whole life didn't help

Yes, I was just pointing out that where people believe that UC pays your rent AND gives you £400 a month for bills/food/etc, the reality for many (depending on area) is that often those two amounts may just cover the rent which means they’re left with nothing to live on.

I totally understand that. I see the same people coming in day in day out, feeling really under pressure from their work coaches to look for basically nonexistent jobs, threatened with being sanctioned, going to food banks - their lives are miserable. Some are able to get volunteer jobs and that helps with their confidence and self esteem but obviously that's not seen as valid in the long term by the DWP. The fetishisation of paid work at any cost that we've seen over the last decade and a half has been immensely damaging to vulnerable people. What right do we have as a society to wreck lives like this?

Every council has it's own LHA (Local Housing Allowance) rate, depending on housing costs in that area. If you Google LHA rates you can check what it is for your area.

Some people have zero knowledge of other people's lives. It's heartbreaking to watch this woman's struggle.

Just out of interest, where do you live that they’ll pay £800 rent for a single person? Where I live they don’t pay that for a one-bed flat. The rules are that under 30s can only claim the ‘shared accommodation’ rate of £79 a week, and over 30s can only claim for a one-bed flat at £115 a week.

People think that UC pays your rent. In reality for many people UC only pays just over half your rent. Also my friend is on UC and working and she gets no CT support at all.

I'm sitting here waiting for the "everyone on any type of disability benefit gets a free top of the range Audi/Merc/BMW" comments. 😆

Working very hard these days for my massive £27k local government salary topped up by a whole £100 pip a month, so my ADHD brain is a bit too tired to think of any more "truths" about how well off people on benefits are. But would be fun to make sure we have the full Bingo card of freebies that apparently I get.

BTW I do get free prescriptions - but only since I'm in my 60's.
I do get a council tax reduction - because I live alone, luckily they haven't decided that cats (or dogs) class as adult occupants (yet).
And that's it; but I have paid taxes/NI all my life to pay for other people's children, for public transport I haven't been able to use for decades due to it hurting me too much, for various local facilities that I don't use and mostly never have.

Don't forget that includes council tax and utilities within that £400.