To think saving on Universal Credit is extremely difficult?

Where do people get this crap from

There is a weird portion of people who take strange joy in people finding themselves needing gov help having to struggle and live a miserable existence. They want it to happen. I find that incredibly sad. It wont make their tax go down, and it wont result in them being sent a rebate either.
They just seem happy to know that people at the bottom are going to struggle more.

I agree - many working households are also under huge pressure and can struggle to build any buffer, especially when unexpected costs crop up. My point wasn’t that this is unique to people on Universal Credit, only that for many on UC the room to save can be extremely limited too. Financial fragility exists across the board, which is part of the wider issue.

No, it does not. You only have to inform them if your savings/capital is over £6k.

Netflix is £6pm.
If I am not allowed that, then what am I actually allowed?

It actually states in the rules that if you have any of your wage left over at the end of the month, IE not spent, then you have to tell them, it counts as savings..

I thought you were on benefits? How can you afford Netflix on benefits? I

With respect, if you had a congenital condition, This would not have been possible.

Your Bipolar and depression are not congenital, and would have been straightforward risks that you could have insured for.

You can’t really think this?

I’d rather people budgeted £6 for netflix over having to waste £150 quid or whatever on a tv licence.

do you see how wrong you are here. Surely the government should mandate netflix and save £100 a year per disabled person.

you must be trolling cos no one seriously thinks like this. I can’t believe people begrudge people so much. I mean I said its not meant to be there to amass savings but my god, people still need a basic standard of living. We don’t have workhouses anymore

It’s supposed to tide you over until you get working again. If you’ve got enough to save then you’re being given too much.

It actually states in the rules that if you have any of your wage left over at the end of the month, IE not spent, then you have to tell them, it counts as savings..

It feels like Universal Credit doesn’t really leave much room for saving once basic living costs are covered. I know in theory people say to put even small amounts aside but in practice it seems very difficult when most of the money goes on essentials.

AIBU to think there’s very little opportunity to build savings on UC?

I have paid tax and ni for over 20 years

But they’re not really a safety net anymore are they? They have become the backbone of an economy where a living wage doesnt actually cover the cost of living. Almost half of UC claimants are in work.

for example a single parent working full time in Tesco will qualify for a universal credit top up because Tesco aren’t paying enough for them to eat, have their kid in childcare and keep a roof over their head. So the government tops up this shit wage to make it just about manageable, meanwhile Tesco reports profits of over 3 billion a year, not to mention all the grossly inflated salaries of their senior staff.

Benefits are no longer a stop gap. They are totally essential long term support for a huge amount of people and if that makes you angry direct that anger towards a failing government, unfettered private rents and big corporations paying criminally low wages.

If you mean benefits being designed to cover basics only, perhaps. My point is that having no realistic room to build even a tiny emergency buffer can leave people permanently financially vulnerable.

If you're on benefits, you've already dropped off the edge, you're not contributing to society.

I'm just about happy with the idea of my taxes paying for the bare minimum of sustistance for you, but do you really think I shoud be funding your savings?

Would you knock on your neighbour's door and ask them for £50 to add to your savings?

Because that's exactly what you're expecting.

Says the person who doesn't even know there is a difference between HMRC and the DWP.

Why does everyone one on here go on about people not on benefits not being able to afford things then as soon as their questioned its oh well I can afford it, its others who can't. Well who are these others.

I didn't say I couldn't afford it. But I wouldn't expect you to understand the difference

I didn't say I couldn't afford it. But I wouldn't expect you to understand the difference

This is what winds me up. I work in the area of public spending. There is ZERO leeway in the money we have. We desperately need to stop the national debt increasingly endlessly, and yet we have people on benefits with Netflix. If you have enough to get Netflix then you are receiving more in benefits than you need and the government needs to address this excess spending. Anything they can save will put off the point at which this country drowns in the sea of welfare payments being chucked around. I can’t believe so many posters don’t understand this. How can you be so economically illiterate?