£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?

YANBU to think that it's a measly amount.

YANBU to get annoyed at people who earn £50k+ moaning about being skint - I do too. And I do see it a lot on MN, it's usually from people who have overstretched themselves taking out huge mortgages or similar (which is a choice they made and have no right to complain about really).

YANBU to be annoyed at people who look down on those who are on benefits or don't earn much.

But YABU to get annoyed that some people earn more than others. Some of those people work very hard and deserve their high wages. Others don't. Tis life. I'm a low earner and there is no point getting annoyed at people who are wealthier than me, unless of course they are twats about it.

I don't blame well off people for my situation but I do know that some don't really understand what living in poverty is. I remember a friend commenting that you couldn't really live on less than 50k. She had a big house, 2 cars, gym membership, private trainer, hair and nails done regularly, son at expensive nursery while she didn't work and good for her but she saw these as essentials.

I've had a mental break down and really struggling right now. I had savings which helped for the first 6 months but they have run out now. I have a small house with a mortgage and 2 young children. I am an inpatient in a mental hospital. I get approx £100 per week. This doesn't cover the mortgage and bills let alone anything else. It is a miserable existance

I don't think you are being unreasonable at all but as all wealthy people believe that they are rightfully wealthy (otherwise they would experience cognitive dissonance and perhaps some guilt about being so wealthy whilst others are barely getting by) because they have worked harder than everyone else or made brilliant career decisions, it's probably not worth debating!

Who the actual fuck are you to know what 'wealthy people' think or believe? Are you a mind reader? Or are you projecting your own rather small and mean opinions do you think?

Who the actual fuck are you to tell them what they should feel guilty?

50k = 2.5k roughly (after tax and pension). Rent £1700, bills £500, travel (single tube) just over £100. No you are right 50k in London is rolling in it.

Fuck me, have I stumbled onto the mail's comment board by mistake?

You live like a Queen compared to my £64ish carers allowance

@BMW6

And for Those that work and pay taxes find themselves injured or ill and unable to work for a period of time and claim SSP it's not free money! They've paid in to the system! The system designed to pay back out when and if they need it.
The same for someone who finds themselves made redundant after years of paying tax and ni - they are supported by a system they have contributed to. It's not free - if it were then no one would have tax and ni stopped at source.
It's comments like that that provoke the bad feeling from low earners towards high earners. Not even low earners Vs high earners really, it's those with decent employers that pay sick pay or decent redundancy Vs those don't have such employers.
But you keep shouting about the undeserving poor, that'll fix things.

You get money for free and are annoyed that people who get off their ages and get an education to get a high paid job or who work their fingers to the bone in a trade don't feel sorry for you for getting free money? Money that comes out of their hardworking pockets and directly into yours? For free? And you are annoyed? My self employed other half work 7 days this week 7-7. I'll pass on your thanks to him for the percentage of his salary that he gave you for free!

*arses

it also costs a lot for someone to be in prison

Literally their meals for nothing.

SSP is not free money @BMW6 would you rather a sick person kept working alongside your husband and had or caused an accident that also affected him.

There is a possibility that people would try to do this i bet they already are.

And some are left with no choice This bloke suffered his third heart attack 3 hours into his new driving job.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cardiac-patient-declared-fit-work-10522261

Perhaps not the best job for someone with a heart condition. Maybe a desk job would have been a better idea.

Or maybe the DWP should have listened to his doctors?

It isn't going to be a lavish lifestyle but £73 per week for a single person is more than adequate to feed them. As you say OP they will also be entitle to HB, CT relief and other 'benefits' such as free dental care, free eye checks/glasses and prescriptions. Many council run leisure centres have schemes for people on means tested benefits to swim/gym for free or a very reduced price.

Kamma89 Each twelve months I save £180,000 at least for the Government as I am a Carer for my 20 year old Son. 24/7 work, no holidays and I am entitled to £64.00 per week. Want to swap places with me?

Or maybe the DWP should have listened to his doctors?

This.

The biggest outcry about the welfare system should be the absolute waste of money that is the DWP’a assessment service.

I’d love to see accurate figures for the cost of the appeals and tribunal service. Hiring all those independent panel members instead of listening to the professionals involved in someone’s care is a real dicujous waste of money.

In the case if my best they ignored reports from 2 consultants, a specialist nurse and her CAHMS nurse plus the decision of the previous panel and decided that the physio who assessed her as being well was more correct. It’s a disgrace how unfit for purpose it is.

No thanks. He is your son. I chose not to have children.

I think you're mixing up SSP and ESA, OP.

SSP is for people who are off sick from their job. It's £92.05/week, payable for up to 28 weeks. To qualify you need to have been off sick for 4 or more days and usually earn at least £116/week. It's not means tested. You may also be entitled to means tested benefits depending on household income and savings, e.g. housing benefit and child tax credit, or UC. Also council tax reduction.

After 28 weeks, if you are still not well, or if you don't qualify for SSP in the first place, you can claim ESA. There are two types - contributory and income based.

You can get contributory ESA if you have paid enough NI over the past 2 years. It's not means tested so you can get it even if you have a partner on a good wage, or lots of savings. Usually this lasts for up to a year, but it can last indefinitely if you are so unwell you are assessed as having limited capability for work and work related activity, and placed in the 'support group'.

After your contributory ESA runs out, or if you didn't qualify for it in the first place, you can claim income based ESA. As the name suggests this is means tested.

When you first claim ESA you get £73.10/week (or £57.90 if you are under 25) This lasts for the 13 weeks while you are assessed for capability for work. After this -

If you are assessed as having limited capability for work you get £73.10 (including under 25s)

If you are assessed as having limited capability for work and work related activity (support group) you get an additional £37.65 = £110.75

There are additional premiums that are paid to those on income related ESA who are in the support group if they get certain rates of DLA or PIP.

The rates are similar under UC except the additional premiums for the most severely disabled claimants have gone.

JSA can also be contributory or income based. Both types pay £73.10/week or £57.90/week if you're under 25. Contributory JSA lasts up to 6 months.

SSp is £92.00 per week. if SSp has run out then £73.10 is the assessment rate of ESA and the JSA rate. I'm not sure how anyone lives on that to be honest. YANBU.

If you're ill, you can't work
I couldn't do a desk job or a manual job, or any job after my spinal op! I was only allowed to sit for 45 mins at a time, no bending, lifting or twisting. Too right I would claim SSP after working since I was 13
And people think oh it doesn't happen to me, one day I had sciatica, the next I was being told we need to operate now

I’d love to see accurate figures for the cost of the appeals and tribunal service. Hiring all those independent panel members instead of listening to the professionals involved in someone’s care is a real dicujous waste of money.

DWP spent £100 million over two years for ESA and PIP appeals (most of which went in claimants' favour)

@rededucator

You expect people who work themselves to the bone for a pittance, pay taxes on that and then get ridiculed and called scroungers for recieving money when they need it that they have paid in taxes and ni from their hardworking pockets, to feel sympathy for someone on 50k calling them a scrounger and saying they get free money?
I'm going to do a 12 hour night shift shortly, my 5th this week. I'll pay tax and ni on that, 3 of those nights will cover the council tax bill for the month. Are you passing me your thanks for anything government funded that you use or have used that I pay towards? NHS, education, bins emptied, libraries? Or do I not deserve that because I'm on a lower wage?
My job is very physically demanding, I literally could not do it if I should slip over on my way out and break my leg. Obviously I should not dare accept SSP by your standards then? Even just until it's healed? Because according to you that'd be free money straight from your husband's hard working pocket? Nothing to do with the tax and ni I've paid.......
Poor house for me then

@starzig it does depend on the fact that the employer has to offer or grant you the job. That employer may well have been the only one to offer him the job. Its take it or be sanctioned.............even if it may be being a danger to other members of the public.

I predict a very bad accident one day.

They really make you work 5 nights a week buswankeress? I'd be suing them. That is way too much work.

BMW...money for nothing....wow what a prize that is. Do you have any idea what living on so little entails. Top up rent, pay electric, water, gas, contribute to council tax. Doesn’t leave much for food, travel to jobcentre etc.

Still £73 a week, what a gift, thank ye sir or madam, I be properly grateful.

Been there and done it and it’s horrible. So glad I don’t have to do so anymore. I find those who say “money for nothing” usually have fuck all idea of what living with so little entails and require life to smack them firmly round the chops so they get a glimpse of it. It’s only then that they understand..

Hubby walks out
You lose a job and struggle to get another
You develop a serious illness or disability.
Your child has a significant disability.

All those things might find you getting “money for nothing” and judged by those who sniff and say “be grateful”.