£73.10 a week to live on

[abacucat]

If you are single and on statutory sick pay or unemployed, this is what you get a week to live on. You will also if you have savings below £16k get help with rent and council tax, although you are unlikely to get all your rent paid, so will have to make a contribution out of the £73.10. That is the grand total of your entitlement.
So my AIBU is, I am AIBU to get annoyed about people who are well off and have no idea how little many people manage on?

I would be angry if I had to live off that little because of something out of my control, ie my health. And I agree that most of us are lucky and don’t know what it would be like living off that little, and can only imagine how tough it must be dealing with poverty and poor health. If you feel like explaining the day to day frustrations and difficulties you face, you might help a few more people to understand. But what the solution is, I have no idea.

People who earn 50k a year though work hard for that money to pay for the other people at home getting their £73 a week

Well I think 73 quid a week as absolutely shit but it really depends on what people call "well off". If it's "anyone who has more than me" then I would think yabu. On the other hand people complaining that they don't get a foreign holiday every year probably need to look around them!

I think in discussions about income on MN there is a real race to the bottom mentality with posters being told they have nothing to complain about or that they're well off simply because they're not in food poverty or have a roof over their head. In a wealthy country and a modern society there should be a "floor" below which nobody is allowed to fall. I think the measure of well off should be more than not starving or homeless.

Why does it bother you that I get by on £50k? How about you focus on you, instead of focusing on others. I don't give any amount of thought to people on £80k, or £100k, or more, whether they're "getting by" or "living it up".

But it sticks in the craw to hear people moan about getting by on £50k a year. Why?

That is a lot of money but, if you live in some areas of the UK it won't go very far

homelet.co.uk/homelet-rental-index

• In October, average rental values in London (£1,619) were 74.5% higher than the UK (£928)
• When London is excluded the average rent in the UK was £768 in October, average rents in London (£1,619) were 110.8% higher than the rest of the UK.

Also everyone lives as well as their pockets allow. So any change will hit someone on £50K as much as it will hit someone on £25K - which is why foodbanks are still seeing some relatively well off people using their services. They have as much of a struggle to make the necessary changes to their usual spending round and get into debt as quickly as anyone else!

Having had to make my ends meet on JSA I know how hard it is, but it isn't supposed to provide a living!

@cantthinkofausernamee agree! The amount my DH gets taxed to pay towards people who 'cant' work is a joke, but oh he earns enough to support his family so he's worthy of hate from the people his taxes go towards. What the fuck!

Who are you annoyed at though? Anyone who makes over that?

And when your DH has to do 12 hour (and sometimes 24 hour shifts) up to 6 days a week, to earn his money, to pay over 1k a month of taxes, to pay for others to sit at home - how is this unfair on you ??

People earning 50k don't always have it easy.

After I had my children I worked part time because we're a military family and childcare was a bloody nightmare to put it mildly. I earned more than £73 a week, however when I became too sick to work I wasn't entitled to anything because I hadn't paid enough NI. We had to suck it up. DH couldn't do overtime because that doesn't exist in the RAF. We'd have loved £73 tbh.

Better off people are paying tax to provide people who don't/can't contribute that £70 odd a week though... Someone on 50k a year has to support themselves by and large & won't get the same handouts as the unemployed or long term sick, so don't end up much better off. Plus, they're actually having to go out and work for it!

You just need to play the system a bit better... have a kid or two that you can't afford, work the obligatory 16 hours a week, then see how much you're entitled to.

Will we talk about Carers Allowance then?

It’s all relative though. 50k is loads in some cases and not much in others. They may only earn 50k because they work in London, and most of their money goes on housing as they don’t get help with rent and can’t afford to buy.

Either way, someone earning 50k is still nothing to do with someone on SSP. The two aren’t connected.

I think the reality is that the vast majority of us are one illness/accident away from being reliant on benefits. Lots of people bury their heads in the sand, it won’t happen to me, or actually don’t realise how little they are entitled to, whilst buying into the Daily Mail stereotype of Sky TV etc. There is the assumption that there is a benefits net but in reality SSP etc. is very little and when you have rent and bills it simply isn’t enough to live on. There was a post somewhere the other day about a cancer sufferer who was only entitled to very little in terms of benefits and MacMillian had confirmed that. Yes you can get insurance for this sort of thing, but the renewals once you’ve had something like cancer, it becomes are unaffordable.

So I think yes YABU to be annoyed at those struggling to manage on larger salaries, and save your annoyance and energy for governments that have pandered to the right wing press and have inevitably targeted the wrong people whilst trying to concentrate on the small amount who chose it as a lifestyle.

It's very hard. It's not great. I know about this from experience. But at least you have a roof over your head.
I think it's pretty terrible if people do not CARE how hard it is for some folk. It shows lack of empathy and feeling.
I don't think you can assume that people who are better off do not care, though. Possibly the government cares very little.

I think when you are living on so little through no fault of your own it can at times seem unbelievable that someone earning 50k can’t manage on that amount of money.

Of course people have different outgoings and where you live impacts how far that money goes.

Yes you are unreasonable to be annoyed at people whose productivity ensures we have benefits and services for people who are vulnerable

Yes you are unreasonable to be annoyed at people who have little say or influence over the level of support on offer to people.

Yes you are unreasonable to attempt to a low level divisive arguement about a complex issue that has vexed governments, left and right, all over the world for decades.

To be fair I can see why it might stick in the craw when you have so little and someone on £50k complains but that person is hardly making a direct comparison between them and you. More likely they've realised that the reality of life on that salary can be very different to what some might believe it to be.

Growing up 50k would have seemed an unimaginable income to me but many years later look at the cost of living, take off what's paid in tax, then meet all your living costs and there may not be a lot left over. Yes, it's absolutely better than poverty there's no arguing with that (although this is MN so... ) but I suspect what people mean is that they'd have imagined a more comfortable existence on that kind of salary which they may well have worked 10/15/20 years to get to, often taking on extra work or studying towards qualifications at the same time.

I'd like to think the vast majority understand they're better off than some other people but it doesn't mean they can never complain.

I'm caring for my disabled son so very broke, i work a little (and declare it). I'm very grateful to have benefits and not angry at those who have more.

However some individual well off people are very insensitive. I had a friend who constantly moaned to me about her nest egg dipping below £100k (with also a paid up house). In the end i said - it's hard for me to sympathise with you when i don't have £100 in the bank.

But that's one idiot.

Yabu. You aren't supposed to live on it, it's a stopgap.

"why it's essential to not take anything for granted, save, take out insurance"

If you save, you'll get even less help.
We already pay national insurance.

I would find it very hard to manage on that amount.

I’ve always told my kids that it’s pointless comparing yourself to others. There will always be someone better off than you, someone who is cleverer, someone who is healthier etc etc but likewise there will always be someone who is worse off than you, someone who is less intelligent and who is less healthy

It’s literally pointless.

There will be millions of people in the world who would be delighted to have 73.10 a week to live off. I’m sure that doesn’t make you feel any better does it.

I’m sorry you are unwell and I’m sorry you are struggling for money. I hope things improve for you soon.

It makes me angry that benefits are so little, and then people get sanctioned, so the amount they get becomes even less. If you've got the absolute minimum Government has decreed a person needs to live on where is the logic in taking some away?

I may be totally getting this wrong and I don't claim any benefits and never have but in the OP it states :

" You will also if you have savings below £16k get help with rent and council tax, although you are unlikely to get all your rent paid, so will have to make a contribution out of the £73.10."

I'm shocked and quite pissed off that you can claim any benefits if you have £15k in savings!! Savings are for rainy days, if you have a few grand in savings you shouldn't get any state benefits in my opinion.

I don't think£50k is too much, but op is not angry because you're comfortable, but because people blame the victim.
There's another thread about being poor, similar issues.