How do I survive when the £80 stops...

[barryclarry]

Hi In February I had to make a UC claim as I had to leave my full time job due to my deteriorating mental health.
I have no kids and I live alone.
I have been providing fit notes to the job centre but still haven't had a medical.

During the 5 week wait I had to take out a advance.
They are taking £65 from my money a month to pay this off.
My payment next month will be £553
£330 is my rent
£60 is my gas /electric
£25 is my broadband
£40 other debts including my water rates
That is £455
I will have £98 to last the month for food and anything else.
(Sorry if my calculations are slightly out )

I'm panicking.
I don't know how I'm going to manage tbh
Is anyone else gonna struggle ?

[AmericanTie]

Really sorry to hear about your troubles OP. We're going to really struggle too. I'm working so I do have more money coming in but I'm a single parent and I don't earn much although I do work full time. I signed up to a different energy company last month to get a fixed deal but that company has now gone bust although they did take a direct debit off me first, while I was still paying the old one. So now I'm waiting to be allocated a new one which probably won't happen in time to get the warm home discount. I've got this money outstanding that I've paid for for gas and electricity twice and I'll have to pay again to the new company whoever they are. (And I don't even care who supplies as it's the same gas regardless so the whole thing is just stupid.) Then next month I'll be down £80 UC and another tenner down so my NI can pay for people to inherit money from their parents. All in all with these multiple payments and deductions I've already lost £300 without even doing anything and I'm kind of wondering what's going to hit us next. I'm already overdrawn and it's still another week to payday. I feel really hopeless this morning, like what is the point of me even working if all I do is get hammered financially regardless. £300!! On nothing!!

[IfImLyingImDying]

I have no advice OP but I just wanted you to know I hear you. Our energy supplier has just gone busy which means we’ll almost certainly have higher bills to pay. With that and couple of other things all happening together, today I am feeling so very defeated and scared.

I’m just sorry

[TheTurn0fTheScrew]

put in a PIP claim, but try to find someone with experience in supporting people with MH difficulties to claim successfully. the forms are not at all designed with MH needs in mind, and there's definitely a knack to answering in a way that ticks the boxes.

[AmericanTie]

Yes a specialist welfare benefits advisor could help there, either at the council or the citizens advice bureau.

[MattyGroves]

What skills do you have?

Can you pick up some ad hoc work? Babysitting, dog walking, gardening, cat sitting, flatpack assembly. Is taskrabbit in your area?

Have a look at olio for free food that people are giving away

[Nosilayak]

Apologies if this has been suggested or does not apply but can you claim ESA, either new style or income related? Also, United Utilities in my area run a Watersure scheme, it may be worth checking if your water supplier does something similar. The government also runs a Warm Home discount scheme through some energy suppliers, maybe that's also worth checking out. If your mental health issues are affecting your everyday life and you think they will be long term, then apply for PIP. I think so many people are going to be in a terrible mess when this UC money is cut, its frightening.

[110APiccadilly]

Prolific is good for getting a few extra quid - I leave it open to get alerts while I'm doing other things and get about £50 a month from it. There's also a thing I've heard of called 20Cogs which you can only do once, and I believe some things involve signing up for free trial subscriptions so do be careful to cancel them(!) but would get you a one off payment that might help get you through the month.

For saving money, follow Feed Your Family for £20 a Week on Facebook, that's a really helpful account.

[JinglingHellsBells]

I know it's been suggested already but your broadband does sound quite high. Also your utilities- what size house or flat do you have? I know gas and electric are all over the place at the moment but if you are paying around £720pa as a single person ( one bed house or flat? or more?) that sounds quite a lot. Can you economise at all on that?
Just asking as an elderly friend of mine who is on a low income pays around £75 a month for gas and electric but they have a 3-bed house.

[PumpkinsAndCats]

I’m surprised people are saying the broadband is high? How much do people usually pay? Mine is £45!

Anyway I never got the extra £80 so I’ve just had to manage with out it.

[OnwardsAndSideways1]

This sounds incredibly stressful. I don't know if this is an appropriate suggestion, under the circumstances, but round here there's a lot of need for cleaning, supporting the elderly a few hours a week (like a home help), dog walking and so on. The pay is ok, so I pay my cleaner £14 an hour now, whereas a couple of years ago it was £10 an hour. There are too many people looking for help and not enough people doing these jobs. You can also clean Air B and B etc.

Now I know that's not a long-term solution. And, someone will come along and say if you report it to UC you will lose money, this is probably true. So I would do what you have to do to survive. I don't feel remotely bad about someone on the breadline taking some cash/bank transfer for £30-50 once a week to stop themselves going under.

Just a suggestion and I don't know how this would fit in with your MH but sometimes the people who suffer the most are the most caring and honest people and I'm just saying that we all have to survive in the system as it is, and so perhaps relaxing your moral standards and doing the odd cash in hand job might solve this problem. If you are in arrears all the time, it will be much harder to get your MH problems solved.

I'm sure lots of people will now say they would never do that, but lots of people do and if it is for small amounts that would not attract tax anyway (so under the personal allowance), who blinking cares?

[Reduceddutiesboredom]

@BlueberrySugar
I totally agree!

£600 a month wouldn’t even cover the rent & council tax for a 2 bed in my crummy town. Awful position to put anyone one.

@barryclarry if still apply for PIPs, even if you get a tenner it’s better than nothing. Have you been able to access help for your mental health?

[MatildaIThink]

[quote theseoldbone]@MatildaIThink I hadn't considered that being the reason it was setup like that. I suppose it sort of makes sense but surely if the person takes the advance, it's because they don't have that last paycheck and actually need it. It wouldn't be hard to ask for a bank statement to show if there's money or not.

For me, after I stopped working due to ill health, it took a few months for me to apply for UC because I'd never ever imagined I'd be a benefit claimant and held off as long as I could. I needed, and was entitled to, the benefit so it being called a loan I needed to pay back really stung [/quote]
@theseoldbone
It is one of the reasons why people are advised to apply for UC as soon as they become eligible. Many people do not apply until after the money has run out, at which point they still have to wait another five weeks, which really bites them. Asking for bank statements gets complicated, because then what if someone had a redundancy or final pay cheque but decided to splurge to get benefits sooner etc.

I understand why the system was created in the way that it was, that does not mean it makes sense to me (even four weeks would make more sense than five, as most pay cycles are monthly), but it does cause hardship, especially when people wait to apply. My husband used to help out in Citizen's Advice as a volunteer, he runs his own business so is good with forms, navigating bureaucracy etc. and he did say that the biggest single problem with UC seemed to be the five week (or six weeks as it was previously) wait at the start of the application process, the vast majority of their referrals to food banks were people in that initial wait period.

[Comefromaway]

I really don;t know how people are expected to survive.

I just calcuated the bare minimum dd needs to live in a room in a shared house and it's £120 per week. Now £40 of that is travel to get to work but even if you remove that it's £80 to cover food, basic voxi phone, bills, council tax, toiletries. I haven't included for clothes or insurance.

Broadband is absolutely essential these days. Without it you can't do anything. The number of companies who are online only is astounding.

[ThreeFeetTall]

What is the reason why UC is not paying your rent? Is there anything you can do to change that? Paying that large rent out of your personal costs element is not sustainable

[SmileyClare]

I sympathise.
We're claiming universal credit after my (builder) husband fell off a roof, sustained awful injuries, and I'm caring for him at home. It's a struggle to get by on the paltry amount.

You can defer repaying your advance, this is what we have done. It's been deferred until the end of the year when we both hope to be back working. Put a note on your journal. You can defer repaying it under "exceptional circumstances".

We've also applied for PIP although I'm told it will take 4 months (!) to process.

I hope things improve for you.

[Comefromaway]

With regards to bills being high. I don't know the OP's situation but my daughter was quoted £60-£80 per month for bills in most of the shared houses she looked at. She is hoping it will be around £40 as her housemates got a good fixed rate deal but with the number of companies going bump that might well increase. I looked at the EPC for her house and it's awful. Everything is the minimum required to be able to let a house. The landlord has no incentive to improve things in the same way a homeowner would.

[OnlyFlans]

Can recommend the too good to go food app as a good money saver especially if you have a freezer.

You pay £2-3 and get a bag or box of food that is about to go out of date- but is fine to eat or freeze. Our Morrisons always provides a huge box filled with stuff, last time I got a kilo of cheese, 7 lots of different bread/ cakes, loads of fruit and veg etc. Made soups, stews, pasta sauces, lots to freeze. There's lots of stores use it like spar, Costa, greggs etc.

[wildmountaintime]

@ThreeFeetTall I'm sure OP will come on and confirm this, but that IS her whole payment including the rent part. Yes, the Personal Costs element really is THAT low!!

[VladmirsPoutine]

As someone said upthread are you 100% certain you're getting everything you're entitled to? Also UC is criminally low - it's not a bug it's a feature of the system. The idea being that it will 'force' you into work or just about anything else. I'm so sorry you're going through this. Have you been able to see your GP r.e. your mental health. A letter from them could help somewhat not least because perhaps you could also get a prescription or see what other options are available to you. I know the shit thing with bad mental health is just the feeling of helplessness. I hope it does get better!

[SmileyClare]

What is the reason UC is not paying your rent?

That's how mine is calculated too. I pay our rent out of the monthly lump sum, all bills, expenses and am left with around £40 a week to feed a family of four. The payment is incredibly difficult to survive on. None of us are eating properly.

[Comefromaway]

@ThreeFeetTall

What is the reason why UC is not paying your rent? Is there anything you can do to change that? Paying that large rent out of your personal costs element is not sustainable

It's probably the cap. The amount they will pay in rent for a single person is laughable. It's supposedly based in average rents in a particular area but I don't know where they are finding these places from as when dd was looking the cheapest place in a shared house was well above the minimum that UC would pay. If the OP was living in their own house then UC will not necessarily cover the entire rent.

[nettie434]

Broadband is absolutely essential these days. Without it you can't do anything. The number of companies who are online only is astounding.

It's even more essential for new UC claimants as you have to claim online etc. I can only suggest considering applying for PIP barryclarry as although it's really complicated and the assessments seem very dehumanising, unless you think you can find another job soon, even Martin Lewis couldn't make that budget balance.

[sashh]

Talk to the water company, they all have charitable schemes that can reduce your bill.

Check out the 'warm homes discount' if you can't get it from your supplier then swap. It's £140 towards your electricity bill.

Apply for PIP and contact citizen's advice for help claiming

[me4real]

They are taking £65 from my money a month to pay this off.

@barryclarry You could call them and see if they'll reduce the amount per month so you pay it off over a longer period. No harm in trying.

I hope you get your medical soon and it all gets sorted out a little for you. xxx

[PolytheneRam]

If you're mental health is so bad you can't work, is it worth making a claim for PIP?

I'm sorry that you're going through this. I waa too mentally ill to work for a decade, and struggled on benefits whilst my daughter was growing up.

Life is much better now, but sometimes I think back to those times and weep.