To think having £211/week each after housing costs isn't poverty?

[PianoThirty]

It is according to the Social Metrics Commission.

They say the poverty line is £203/week for a single parent with one child, £422/week for a couple with two children. All figures are after** housing costs and childcare costs (if applicable).

I'd be over the moon if we had £422/week to spend, and I don't think we're anywhere near poor.

Hi @HelenaDove I hope your disability is easier and you're able to enjoy some things. Actually will find out today what's happening, the anticipation (of a bad outcome) is giving me tachycardia and palpitations - better find my bp pills out I think! Much love for your supportive posts on that other thread - couldn't believe what I was reading a lot of the time!

@Graphista

Being trapped by my health issues makes me most often feel pretty useless and invisible. I've always been "politically engaged" but I'll freely admit, I knew it was tough, I knew there was discriminatory policies and practice but I had NO IDEA how bad it was until it affected me - it's like parenthood, you don't REALLY know what it's like until you live it)

This should be printed in bloody 2000pt type (though take lots of paper ), framed and displayed in all government offices, office boardrooms, actually, just everywhere. Sides of buses. Billboards. Football stadia. It's such an important point.

@SimplySteveRedux Its DH who is disabled. But thanks

He nearly had a hospital admission last week due to the heatwave affecting his chest, HAs really need to do something about their sweat boxes

Check your e mails.

ive tagged you into a thread.

Sorry but your posts are just so insightful.

I was SO NAIVE at the start and believed that mostly, as long as I was "honest" and because I had been a "good person" prior to first claiming benefits that while it may take a short while it wouldn't be a problem getting what the law said I was eligible for... Ohhhh how wrong I was!

Oh yes. I was told last week whilst in A&E, in my wheelchair, it was good I was a "genuine" PIP claimant. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The example of my blind DP, and sexism absolutely played a part in that debacle, being refused PIP through appeal, then making a new claim and finally being accepted after a specialist in the country submitted evidence was an absolute farce.

As for poverty, people don't realise what it's like watching the electric meter, hoping it doesn't drop until you can get to the shop in two days after being paid, looking in the fridge and worrying about food. And worry, worry and more worry. Constant worry about money.

And holidays? Luxuries? We're "lucky" with PIP that we have a car (not free you jokers, you can have my £250 a month, along with all my disabilities instead if you prefer, any takers?) but money is still stretched due to medical requirements, specialist diets, medical stuff we have to buy, extra fuel for appointments, this month we have 28, as an example. Then the being made to feel guilty for medication and it's costs. I take a tablet costing circa. £300 pm, DP an injection (x6/8) costing £150 a pop. How do we know the cost? It's the job of the surgery/pharmacy that patients are aware. There's the, currently lower-lying, campaign to mark all px drugs with their wholesale cost, y'know, just to kick the destitute between the legs a bit more.

I hate the intimation that all benefit claimants, and disabled people, are "scrounging fucks" too. I have two degrees, I was published, a "luminary" in my field, at the time I became disabled and had to give it all up. I'd never been a scrounger my entire life, yet get this shit aimed at me routinely, with the "youngster's playing the system" card.

Yet we have such a great and lauded welfare system. Boak.

B to not even ATTEMPT to complete the lengthy, very much deliberately worded to make claimants answer in a way that disadvantages them, forms to claim benefits WITHOUT expert guidance (I had done what MANY claimants do [for many reasons, pride, self respect, avoiding giving certain embarrassing details] and described my health based on my BEST day and only including the details that pertained to my main condition, meaning I left out a lot of the difficulties I experience on a daily basis, or didn't describe how bad things could be & often were)

Going to name drop a couple of sites first (https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/); (https://www.youreable.com/).

Both are extremely valuable in completing any DWP form, and I strongly recommend the B&W guides.

I also learned that you don't have to use their form, you can use a typed document, just make sure you type their questions in full; Name, NINO, DOB in header; page number in footer; staple every page. Just make sure to sign and date their original form. I've long thought about doing Word templates for it.

The B&W guides also have sample "daily diaries".

D that it's really shockingly common for disability claims to be denied - in hopes that the claimant won't have the resilience, support or knowledge to appeal.

Along with cutting lifetime awards in the transition from DLA to PIP.

This government will leave a legacy that, hopefully, won't be looked on finely in a few hundred years (!). They are the lowest of the low, punishing the most vulnerable in society whilst stretching the gap of inequality from destitute to lower; then from lower to middle class. Yet people still think austerity is A Good Thing(tm), and people are crying for no reason.

As JRM cries - "using food banks is empowering" 🤬🤬🤬

God, I'm gonna get banned for spamming 🤣

I've had numerous, 50+ in two years, A&E admissions. There would be more, and I should've called 999 for more, but had to suffer in excruciating pain and other symptoms because a. Not enough fuel in car, b. No money to get a taxi home.

As an explicit example.

Poverty is having no home, hear or food. We have a generous welfare state in the UK to provide people basics and then some.

The figures of UC in those circumstances would be £133 for the single parent and £232 for the couple with two kids and they would need to pay some council tax and possibly some housing costs from that.

Higher transport costs due to poor location (due to not being able to afford to live more centrally), disability (more likely to need to use taxis), either not being able to drive (disability) or can't afford the upfront costs to get and maintain a car, even though overall this is generally cheaper than using even public transport like buses.

This x1000! Forever trotted out here, 'just move' 'just get a job'. Or the eco warriors 'move to a place with good public transport or where you can walk' or they suggest cycling as a viable option when the OP has stated they live off bendy A-roads with hills in Northern England or Scotland where it's dark a good amount of the year. Golly gee, those silly rural poor people! They're just irresponsible/climate change deniers/throwing up excuses and barriers.

The endless race to the bottom is soul destroying as well. The waste of talent and minds due to poverty and lack of services is disgusting.

JRM is no Christian. He's a scumbag.

Cosentyx

I pointed this out a thread the other day. My parents live rurally, mainly because of their need for a bungalow for my mum’s disability also because homes are up to £100k cheaper than in the town and they can only spend what they can afford. It angers me when posters trot out the old “you chose to live there” bollocks.

We have £300 left a month after all the household costs and food and fuel have gone out.

Poverty is having no home, hear or food. We have a generous welfare state in the UK to provide people basics and then some.

This is absolute poverty but many people are in poverty and still work. They may struggle to afford smart clothes for work or school shoes, petrol to get to work, new tyres. It’s hard to budget for extra expenses when your income only covers the basics.

Posted too soon! We are a couple with no children and we do really struggle tbh but it’s not poverty as you know it, when you factor in money each month towards a camping holiday a year plus Xmas it doesn’t leave much for unexpected spending such as car repairs or a new washing machine

In Scotland water costs are not included in council tax. They are added to and collected with the council tax.

manicmij that's what I meant, it's collected as one payment. You can't separate water rates and council tax.

Over the moon if that was my after costs cash...it certainly isn’t. I wouldn’t say I lived in poverty and it’s a lot less than those figures

You can separate them, people who have 100% council tax benefit need to pay the full water and sewage charge. It tells you clearly on the bill how much is council tax and how much is water.

Of course people who pay full rate need to pay both together, and if you don't pay then it goes through the court system rather than other debt collection.

Graphista, whatever anyone says to you you'll clearly argue opposite.

Yes there was a global financial downturn in the US. It was handled poorly here by labour which left the coffers empty, borrowing at an all time high, unemployment sky-high. It could have been far better handled by a party with a stable spending and economic plan. That's why the Tories have had to cover the costs through taxation to pay back huge borrowing and interest, whilst bolstering masses of unemployment through investment. The note wasn't misleading. I am an acquaintance of someone who has seen it first hand.
The Tories have strong economic goals, plans in place for economic crashes unlike that limp biscuit Corbin who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag without help!

You've basically turned this in to an argument over which party you support, and why you think they are better. You need to do your research from a less biased source.

As I'm such a "benefit scrounger" I'd best be off to hand my daughter to ss and stop claiming benefits.
Thank you to all, who like myself previously, paid into the system to provide support for people like me. I shall burden you no longer because it's shameful for me and graphista says so!

That’s a very nasty and completely unwarranted attack on Graphista, simply because her political views differ from yours @Fbnick. How you can defend the record of a party which clearly told us two years ago there was no magic money tree, but has apparently found a whole forest of them now, is beyond me.

Im from country where there is no welfare system .
Dont ask .
Im in tears already poverty is not only in the 'homes' of the homeless. You could be working and still be poor,you could cut out all the luxuries and still never get out of poverty .
Mental health follows and its a downward spiral from there.
Ive seen real poverty and if youve never ever seen it you could never have an undestanding of it.

Graphista can I just echo earlier PP's in that I always love reading your posts, I only wish I was so eloquent in my posting style

Both are extremely valuable in completing any DWP form, and I strongly recommend the B&W guides Absolutely Steve without them I'd have never have gotten PIP

Here is now my bit to add to the pot

All of those that are in work currently is your employer able to stop 100% of your wages for the slightest infraction? Well the DWP can stop ours, and they'll stop it for any little reason, bus was late? Sanction, you had a heart attack and couldnt attend your job interview ? Sanctioned

Alsoo we have something thats called Fear Of The Brown Envelope one of those can send my mental health spiraling for days, it means they either want to see you because no doubt some malicious cunt like some on this thread will have reported you for benefit fraud even though your not doing anything fraudulent, or they want to reassess you, due to poor genes I have a mental health disability and allthough medication can manage it to some degree for the most part my doctors have said Im unlikely to work again, keep in mind this isnt my fault, and even though they are reassess you for the same thing you could still be found fit for work even though nothing has changed, we live in constant fear, fear of the abuse some of us get, fear of having a good day and somebody reports you, fear of either freezing or starving to death in winter, we have no choice in this

Sorry for the incoherent rambly post

Thanks @graphista and @SimplySteveRedux for such intelligent and insightful posts.

I truly hope that othet posters including @fbnick read what you've taken the time to write and digest it

The Labour-spent-all-the-money myth is the most harmful of all as it has and will unfortunately lead to more rule by the horribly self-serving elitists who somehow manage to convince working class people to vote for them. The fact that these tories own the press and print what they want people to read and believe is a very important point which many people forget.

I was brought up on benefits in the good old days, thatcher years when they hadn't been cut so completely to the bone

My parents were very clever with money and we live fairly comfortably.

This means:
£10 Xmas / bday budget
2 week long UK holidays in my entire childhood.
No new clothes. Ever. Even second hand underwear. The exception was if I chose clothing for xmas/bday
Good food, ie lots of homegrown veg containing aphids (extra protein!), lots of offal, and my mum's homemade wholemeal bread which was as dense as a stone. All good for me though and I'm pretty healthy as a result now.
Crisps / snacks etc at Christmas only
All fruit from the reduced section of grocer so all v squidgy
No ice cream at the beach ever. Had my first my whippy aged 18 from my student loan!
Summer holiday day trips local and on foot mostly, though we could afford railcard tickets to the beach twice each summer

The lost goes on

I don't feel deprived, I'm good at budgeting now and appreciate the comfy life I have luckily managed to earn through a hunger to succeed at school

My point is life on benefits is not easy or comfy

My parents could afford the odd bottle of wine at home and the odd football match / gardening equip due to budgeting well and skimping in other areas, but life wasn't full of spending. Its a lot harder now

@fbnick the point graphista made is that every outgoing chancellor leaves the same note

It's an ongoing joke!

They always leave a note saying that

I wonder why the tory-owned press decided to pick it up as a story for the first time ever just before a general election after a global financial crisis shool the UK's finances?

Can you think of any reason they might have decided to do this?

Do you think it influenced any people's voting behaviour?

What do you think of the size of the national debt since Labour got booted out and tories came in? Happy with how much its grown? At least Labour spent money on infrastructure and schools etc, not on tax cuts for the 1%.

For the record I'm borderline in the 1% myself and I think it is immoral and unjust that I've got a tax cut more or less each budget since tories coming to power