£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?

@Tiredmummyofmany

It's £73 for everything not used food!!!

That's been stated many times on this thread.

£73pw would be a real struggle for most. After bills that would leave very little to eat. It should be more.
50k is perfectly fine wage to survive off in London. You wouldn’t be rolling in it but you would be comfortable. We have more now but we had less than 50k before and were fine.

DeloresJaneUmbridge

👏👏👏

It isn't going to be a lavish lifestyle but £73 per week for a single person is more than adequate to feed them

But being fed isn’t the only outgoing a single person may have, is it? Rent or mortgage, heat and light, water, travel expenses, phone and internet, Council Tax, toiletries, various insurances...

@Starzig

Erm why? In the interests you're not being sarcastic and derogatory? 5 nights is the same hours as 5 days, the choice between them is mine, works out for childcare. No one 'makes' me work I do it because that's what you do to survive. What most people do to survive.

But you've illustrated my point beautifully - despite working and contributing I'm still targeted for being a low earner - and that's nothing more than sheer snobbery. The main argument is it's free money, when that's blown out of the water by people like me, good old fashioned mockery is used to make sure I know my place.
How very mature.

"It isn't going to be a lavish lifestyle but £73 per week for a single person is more than adequate to feed them"

Being treated as lesser because they havent got living proof that they have had sex without contraception.

The £73.10 a week is only to stop you see people begging for food as they literally have nothing. Or stealing.

"However this is money you getting for nothing."

You're not getting it for nothing. You're getting it after having paid in your contributions. Despite what the media tells you, very few people have never worked at all.

"Some countries you wouldn't get a bean. "

Completely ridiculous to compare with developing countries. In many countries with similar wealth to ours, you'd get more.

"But you are not working any hours at all if you are on SSP or JSA! Literally money for nothing!"

They worked before they got it and paid into the system so they can take out when unable to work. It's not money for nothing, it's claiming on your insurance. It's not charity.

£73.10 isn't the only amount someone is likely to get - assuming they are single and rent they will get the housing element of uc (which pays in full as long as your rent is in the bottom 30% of prices in your area as defined by local housing rules) tax credits may be payable if they have dependants, council tax benefit varies, it's 100% off here. It is very little but it's meant to be a stopgap until you return to the workforce, to tide you over.

To live on for the long term it isn't enough - you need to replace clothes etc. But unless you are ill/disabled the idea is that you get a job of course

We don't earn a lot but we save 200 a month. 100 goes into emergency savings incase of sickness or unemployment 100 is to spend. We also both have income protection insurance. It costs around £15 a month and they'll pay out most of what you earn a month for a year.
It's about planning well while you can...

so far this term I have had 11 days where I would have had to take the day off to take children to appointments. plus tree half days already, I would have another 5 with another set of appointments coming up for ds.

carers allowance, maintainence, child benefit, savings, and bank of mum and dad have supported us. I have paid into the system, their dad pays into the system. At the moment we are taking out more than we are putting in, but who could predict that one is going to have a disabled child or two.

But people warning £50k a year will no doubt have a mortgage etc . It's not that much when houses are so expensive!
If it's all you have to live on but it's just food then it's enough ! Be grateful there is a system that alllows the earners to help those in need !

I sort of see your point, that it's not enough, but your anger is misplaced.

I'm a teacher, was in a decent income, husband owned two businesses, all fine and dandy.
Until my husband cheated and left, I became severely disabled and was unable to work.

I had £105 a week PIP. Wasn't eligible for ESA because I'd left work for two years to study. Wasn't eligible for JSA for the same reason. Not eligible for housing benefit as I had a mortgage. £105 a week, to pay £500 a month mortgage, all bills, food, costs of having a child, fuel, carer costs etc - well it's completely impossible. My house was repossessed and I had to rely on food banks and family members, of which I only have two and who are skint themselves. For the disabled, it sucks.

@tiredmumofmany As has been said umpteen times it's not just for food. It's for all bills, transport, rent top up etc. Everything.

Still think it's adequate?

I agree with pp. This thread looks like the comments page of the Daily Mail.

Posters ought to remember tglhat no one knows what is around the corner. My DH and I were both very high earners.

We are lucky that my DH at the moment can still work.

I have a first from a very prestigious uni. I have had to give up work due to a disability that is rapidly getting worse and will eventually kill me.

@LittleBitNuts I would hope that your husband and you actually understood the breakdown of taxes. Funnily enough the amount that goes on benefits is a small percentage. I'd aim your anger at corporations that avoid paying billions rather than being angry at those struggling on benefits.

Anyway, I pay a large amount of tax and I don't begrudge doing so as I know that it's needed. I do begrudge a government hellbent on the ideology of so called austerity that's essential a war on the poor and public services. I'd be happy for more of my tax to go there - I can afford it.

If you distributed the wealth more evenly (and the uk has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world) you could easily afford to treat the sick and disadvantaged to more help.

But no, fuck that, let's make sure the rich get richer eh? Screw those who fall on hard times. The middle classes are the worst for this. They suck up to the 1% trying to get scraps from their plates.

MN has gotten so much worse. Feels like an influx of Daily Mail readers.

Try being a carer and living on £64 a week for all the hours you spend caring for the person you look after. 7 days a week 354 days a year and no respite. And contri uting to society by saving the NHS and social care thousands each year. Combined with all unpaid carers your talking billions each year

I've been quoted many times so will say that I have been on the £73.10 and I stand by my original post that it is doable. It's £73.10 cash for food, electric, heating etc for a single person. You also get housing benefit, free health checks, prescriptions.
It's never going to be a good life but I don't think it is the workhouse life either. I know people who are working NMW jobs who are worse off (which is a different thread altogether)

f it's all you have to live on but it's just food then it's enough

It’s not just for food. It pays rent/mortgage, Insurances, heat, water, light, clothing, transport, phone, internet...

You also get housing benefit

Not everyone who is on JSA is renting. Not even who rents will be entitled to have their full rent paid.

No, @tiredmum, it isn’t enough. It’s not enough to get through a hard winter. It’s not enough to replace shoes, underwear, basics. It’s not enough to eat healthily. It’s not enough for internet and telephones.

@tiredmumofmany Im assuming you get Child BENEFIT.

Why do you want such a race to the bottom.

its not just people who are not working that have to live (exist) at this level when i was single and working low hours on low pay every penny over £75 a week that i earned was taken off my housing benefit after paying excess on rent, council tax, utility bills, etc i was left with £15 a week to feed myself, it can be done but its shit, and no i didnt borrow a single penny from anyone or anywhere i just survived it

People have more, people have less. I’m sure homeless people would love that money and a flat.

You can’t get angry about it.