To ask you all what you think the minimum a person can live off is

[Soamiasnob]

For JSA it is 72 for the mimnium pension amount it is almost double about 140.

Aibu to think for JSA it should be much closer to the minimum state pension amount? Maybe more for JSA as they have to pay for the bus and its very expensive in rural areas.

I seek JSA and I get £57 a week, how us everyone else on £72? And yeah as a single person this is not enough to live in as I don't get anything else.

Income based JSA is actually £57.35 a week for a single person with no dc. As a couple we got £225 a fortnight. Bus fare to get to the jobcentre was £3.50 a day, and travel to interviews has to be funded too. They will help with travel costs to interviews, actually, which was nice of them, because there was no way we could afford the £20-£30 a fortnight it was costing us. My DM often subsidised us, or bought us extras, and she is on a state pension. Thankfully we are not in this situation anymore, but I'm still playing catch-up on the debts we built up because we couldn't keep up payments that we managed easily when DP was working before.

isnt the £57.35 amount for people under 25?

Ahh I'm glad I'm not the only one... And as for long term, I apply for approx 10 jobs a day for the past 3 months and nothing?

I don't think JSA should be the same as a pension no. Some pensioners pay rent out of it. With JSA comes HB/LHA which in my opinion should not be less for under 35s. It should be equal for all ages who claim it.

The problem of JSA and HB is that for many people it is short term and many people have debts that need to be paid out of it. I'm not sure what the answer to that is though.

I was job seeking earlier this year and found it very hard. I'm well qualified and couldn't get even basic min wage jobs eg bar work or admin.

In the end I had to remove most if my qualifications to find a job to ride me over.

State pension isn't suppose to be bare minimum to get by though is it? I didn't think that was the target. Living off benefits is no dream existence. Especially if you rent privately and the decided max HB amount is nowhere near the real rent you pay. We only had to do it for a few months thankfully, but took us about 3 years to get back on our feet properly. Don't know what you do if you've got a mortgage? Not a clue how people make a lifestyle out of it.

Well no many people won't ever get the state pensions. Everyone with a head for figures knows that it won't exist for today's youngsters or of it does it will be for a very high age. So that argument doesn't work.

I don't blame anyone on JSA that does a bit of cash in hand to get buy, as long term you need some support from somewhere.