To think that bit is impossible to live off of benefits?

[Rolf38]

So Universal Credit rates are £498.89 an adult couple over the age of 25. This is meant to last them one whole month. So £250 per adult which works out at about £60 per week or just £8.57 per day.

How is someone meant to buy food, pay their bills and maintain a jobsearch at these rates?

I understand that some may think that by setting benefits at a low rate, there will be a greater incentive for recipients to return to work. This I understand and agree with to a point.

Surely though that danger of setting benefit rates too low is that it has the opposite effect. Claimants may reun the risk of getting in to debt, depression and lose the desire to maintain an active job search, along with any ambitions and aspirations they ever had.

Is met ting benefit rates too low a precursor to the increase of long term benefit claimants, simply by affording claimants less resources and willpower to maintain their job search?

After all, say if have been unemployed fir or three months. In this time, you have been so cash strapped that you haven't even been able to go to the cinema or meet an old friend, as bills and increasing debts have taken priority.

Without just a bit of enjoyment to boost morale, how less determined would a claimant be to give their job search their all as they would be if they could take their mind off of it for a bit.

For the couples payment too, I wouldn't be surprised if such a low payment to sustain two adults for a month may cause friction in the relationship, adding further restrictions to morale and job search.

Of course taxpayers money should be treated with the utmost respect.

However, is keeping benefit rates at such a low level proving more costly in the long run?

Why not add an incentive for job search for claimants? Increase UC payments by 10% for those who continually do all they can for their job search over a sustained period (say three months).

Such an increase, just form he most committed in their job search, would act as a continued incentive for the most determined to find work quicker (thus reducing long-term burdens on the taxpayers). Restricting an enhanced payment to just the most committed would also ensure that those not committed to athe or jobsearch and envisage a long-term existence on benefits find that this, beyond subsidence level, is not sustainable.

If you are doing everything you can in your jobsearch, why should you be unable to afford very basic enjoyments (even on a very occasional basis)? Why are those who put in the effort, in testing times, not differentiated from those who show no desire to come off benefits.

Perhaps in addition to sanctioning claimants who do not fulfill their commitments, the government should do more to help and reward the positive attitude to do all they can to get back to work.

MyWhatICallNameChange Lots us working are on low pay and like you have also lost parents. Who will pay for my holidays?

I hope you aren't meaning me yellow. I get 3.10 a week working tax and 57.84 a week child tax credits. Hardly enough for a fabulous lifestyle

You forget the full HB so that's got to be at least £400 a month as well. So at least £650 a month help because the two adults work little between them despite having a child to provide for.

Nope it's 260.04 per month for my rent.

We both have 2 jobs and work as much as we can when shifts are available. Or can you not read that part?

This week we have both worked alternating nights. And will continue to do so until next Saturday. So out of 14 days we will have each worked 7. Which is more days than when I was full time.

And I don't get the HB that goes straight to the council.

It will stop people saying that they can't afford to get a job as they will be much worse off than if they're working. That was a mad situation. I don't think choosing a life where you don't work and be kept by other taxpayers should be an option

A huge huge amount of service users I come into contact with used to be employed but have given up work now because of problems with childcare assistance from UC they couldn’t actually afford to be working and it turned into an expensive hobby

Which is more days than when I was full time.

It might be more days but the hours must be minimal as with such a low rent and it being paid in full the wages earned would be very very minimal.

I was also getting the full HB when I was getting 500 per month maternity pay.

I will probably have to pay rent in January due to earnings for this month. So yes I get HB it depends on my wages. I have to submit wage slips weekly.

It's about 50/60 a shift I get. So for 7 days 350. My full time 5 days was about 270.

So like I say above I won't get HB when I get paid and submit my wage slips.

of course there are people playing the system and choosing not to work but this proportion usually have no or very little work skills and would be on the very lowest wage,they dont have aspirations to have a good education etc its just not important to them and no no differrent life so to them its an ok life

to these people it normal have the provident lady round,ow money to the utilities,buy the cheapest food etc but get buy and this is normal

But they are the minority and many on benefits through no fault of their own struggle and lead a very frugal life,i really dont think you can blanket statement something like this

For a few years my mother and I were a single parent family on benefits. I still recall my mother buying one slice of meat, giving it to me for Sunday dinner and eating the leftovers because she couldn't afford two slices. Looking back it shocks me to recall how thin she was. She used to sit under a duvet during the day so she could afford to put the heating on when I came home from school. Clothes and toys were from charity shops. I remember having to stop going to playgroup because they put the price up by 30p. She used to hoover for our elderly neighbour every Friday because he gave her £1 which she put away for Christmas. It was impossible for her to get a job because with travel and childcare costs plus losing entitlement to free school dinners and prescriptions, housing benefit and council tax, she'd have been worse off working in a minimum wage job than she was being unemployed. I think this is still the case for many people on benefits.

Nearest library to me is in the centre of town, around a £6 return bus fare. With internet at home i can spend a couple of hours at least twice a day job hunting. Can't really go into town and stay there all day in the cold with no food & hot drinks especially at this time of year, and with my physical issues (which are just not quite bad enough to class as a disability but are quite restrictive all the same) would be extremely painful.

And anyway, on JSA or ESA £30 a week in fares just isn't doable (and a LOT more expensive than t'internet).

does

but why are you saying about your wages,what about your dp's im guessing there on top,you talk about your money but dont say much about dh

is he down as living at your address

sorry but i find your situation confusing

@Christmas yes he is and he has to submit slips as well. I just say it's my money and my claim as it's because of me we are having to claim.

He is mostly paid monthly so we get the HB on the weeks I can't work so he can etc.

It's all very confusing but we submit the wage slips and go from there.

User, You find childcare for a disabled 15 yo who needs collecting from school and can't be left home alone and I'll get a fucking job. Or maybe I could hire a carer for my son, I wonder if they'll accept £62.70 per week to look after him?

My kids have been through a hell of a lot this year and deserve a break. And it's "glamping" holiday in the U.K, don't worry we're not using your taxes on planes fares to foreign climes.

thanks does hope you manage to pick extra shifts up coming up to christmas

Like our alternating shifts this week 2 of them I'll get paid for the next 2 Fridays but our earnings for that week is still low enough to get HB. The other 5 I'll get paid for in January.

His shifts are all going to be paid in January.

So that means other than those 2 shifts from me it's the 60 we have for those weeks etc.

January we will probably have to pay full rent for at least 3 of the 4 weeks.

But that's how it goes on zero hour contracts.

MyWhatICallNameChange You repeatedly use the word 'deserve'. Lots of us working very hard for minimum pay have been through hard times and would like to treat our children to a "glamping" holiday in the UK. I repeat, the sense of entitlement on here is unbelievable. And yes, I do resent my taxes paying for your kids "glamping" holidays. Jesus.

DullAndOld, if you read my post properly you would see that I said benefits should be raised in addition to making people work for them.

The other point about putting people out of a job - why not just have these people shadowing actual employees? The aim isn't to get work out of them, it's to ensure they are out doing something. Therefore the lazy arses that like to sit at home all day will no longer have that option, they'll be out doing stuff instead. Maybe they should have a choice between a work placement or college? The point is NOBODY should have the option to do nothing if they are capable of doing something.

So too good to take any job but happy enough to live off the hard earner money of other people. Sums it up.
Oh, I do wish I knew if it were your money or not. (Of course it's not). I'd be spending on wine tonight and I don't even drink!

Gilead Whose money do you think it is then?

It's nice to know that the holiday I've booked for next year will be judged by everyone as something we don't deserve. I think my kids deserve a bloody break after losing 2 grandparents this year and a family break up.

You can do what you want with your money, but this thread is about it being impossible to live off benefits. So you can't complain that is impossible and you have to use food banks, or can't heat your home later.

Others suggested that it was essential to have access to the internet to apply for jobs (clearly never heard of libraries).
My nearest library is a fifteen mile bus journey away and would cost £7.00 per day in bus fares.
(As it happens I'm disabled so this doesn't apply to me, it does however apply to other folk living in the village).

Gilead Its so easy to find a reason not to do something.

MyWhatICallNameChange Lots us working are on low pay and like you have also lost parents. Who will pay for my holidays?
I think the person in question said she was looking after a child with a disability. If this is the case then it's paid for by the amount she is saving the government caring for her disabled child.
The fact that you begrudge a carer a holiday with their family says everything one needs to know about you...

User How does someone manage £35.00 a week on bus fares (job centre expect a 35 logged hours), out of £73.00. Which bit is for food, bills etc.?