What standard of living do you think should be the minimum everyone can afford?

[MondayAgainnn]

What do you think the absolute basic minimum should be?

I think everybody should be able to afford:

Decent food
Safe housing
Any extra medical things needed, including dentistry
Internet package as it is completely necessary nowadays
Enough clothes to stay warm, dry, appropriate trainers for exercising etc
Enough for some discretionary spending - obviously this is harder to quantify, but things like Netflix, a coffee, cinema tickets I feel should be a normal attainable part of life for everyone
Enough to save a bit

Whether it is through work or through benefits I feel everyone in society should be able to have a lifestyle that is dignified, basically comfortable and with room for treats. Not just subsistence level.

What do you think the minimum should be?

Meals out, television subscriptions, takeaways and cinema trips are luxuries. They are nice, but if you can’t afford them-they go. If we are skint, then I wouldn’t expect to have a meal out once a month, have the hearing on a day, get takeaways, upgrade my phone etc I would shop for cheaper dinners, wouldn’t buy books or have coffees out. I would plan cheap days out with the kids, eg days at the beach, park, woods with sandwiches rather than going to theme parks, cinema, bowling etc

Lots of the things I mentioned aren’t basics.

I haven't said they shouldn't. The OP asked what the minimum lifestyle expectation should be. The question of whether the current benefits system is fit for purpose is another matter.

Do you mean basics for a single person working FT, a family where both parents work FT, the basics for someone who can't work FT because they are too old or disabled to work (so will never work again or can only work PT) or the basics for someone unemployed but in good health and fit to work? Because I do think those things are different. Full time wages should be enough to pay bills and have a bit more for savings and treats and should mean you don't have to rely on benefits. Not sure if that's possible, e.g. four single people on NMW living in a house share can live on less individually than a family with children with 2 wages and childcare costs.

Holidays aren't essentials but I think day trips probably are.

I don't think an annual holiday is a necessity, but maybe 4 or 5 holidays through out your life time.

It's all very well to say that holidays or the odd trip to the cinema are luxuries - yes, they are, but should we really expect people to lead entirely bleak lives with never a treat, not even on a birthday?

Exactly.

Anyone working full time should be earning at a rate that covers average housing, bills, transport, food, medical, basic holiday and some for savings for emergencies. The min wage should be enough to provide all the above without top ups, even if you are a single working adult.

Benefits should only be needed if you're not working, not as a top up to a full time wage.

Everyone who works should be able to be comfortable for their labours. The higher the wage the more luxuries you can buy, bigger home etc. But everyone should start on being able to manage a basic, simple life without getting into debt or needing a food bank or needing top ups.

Coffees, cinema, holidays now count as basics to be paid for by the tax payer for people to get as freebies? No wonder the general paying public has had enough of this nonsense and become so hardened towards welfare culture. If you come out with this nonsense, don’t be surprised that people vote against this nonsense.

Is this for all 8,000,000,000 people?

Exactly, what?

You can classify anything as a basic as long as you can pay for it.

Housing
utilities, including phone and internet
food
transport
healthcare
clothing
some disposable income for things like treats, breaks, other non essential things

If people on benefits are able to afford all of the things mentioned, including holidays (!), Netflix, treats, days out etc, where is the incentive for them (and more importantly their children) to work? To see the value and point of working and aiming for more?

This is indeed a problem.

Everyone should be able to have e.g. a safe home - but no one will have a safe home unless we address climate change and so we have to think hard about how to improve living standards without further damaging the planet.

But I would like to see a concerted effort to bring those at the bottom up, looking at the UK the standard of living has fallen very quickly for a significant number of people.

OP is this minimum standard of living for the whole of world or just the UK?

Exactly this!

I spent the first 2 decades of my life very poor - no holidays, no tech (tech of the day) very few takeaways or treats, clothes only replaced when they were worn through. That was my life and I'm still here to tell the tale.

The problem nowadays is that everyone things we should all have the same high standard of living whether we work for it or we get benefits.

The government cannot afford to give everyone holidays, savings, coffees, cinema tickets, subscriptions, etc. and it's crazy to think they should - they can't afford to run public services as it is, never mind add in all these luxuries for people on benefits.

There is no magic money tree in the back garden of No.11

Exactly. My parents in the last two years have been to Mexico, the Dominican, Disney land etc they have multiple games consoles and pcs. Council house with rent paid, solar panels etc. They claim.

we camp in England. We work.

My parents are not oaps who worked all their lives either. The oldest is 51 😅

With the exception of those who are disabled, we should not expect any adult of working age to spend the whole of their working life on benefits. For relatively short periods of time when out of work, then it’s fair enough not be able to go on holiday, or have the other luxuries you are categorising as essential.

Don't forget there are swathes of people currently claiming benefits who refuse to work because in their eyes they would only be £x better off and they aren’t working full time for £x. As a tax payer, who does work full time to keep their lazy arses at home, I seriously resent those people and think they should be incentivised into the workforce. I have no problem at all paying tax to support those genuinely unable to work or who find themselves in temporary hard times.

I don’t agree with Netflix, but that’s because all we have is Netflix and we aren’t big tv people.

I think people should be able to afford a holiday a year. Not abroad and not fancy but camping in Cornwall or something.

I also think everyone should be able to afford transport.

For a family as well I think kids activities so swimming and guides/scouts etc.

I think a budget that allows at least a few small pleasant things such as being able to have a coffee with a friend, makes for happier and more socially engaged people in the long run.

Even if you don't really care about individuals having miserable lives, surely it is better for society to have happier, more productive people?

Miserable, bleak lives entrench poverty of aspiration, and drain ambition.

So yes, I think benefit payments should stretch to having treats.

I don't have kids but for example the reason I mentioned Netflix in particular is that it seems like a cheap way to provide entertainment for the whole family, and by being able to watch whatever show everyone is talking about at school means your child is more equipped to participate in society - at a very modest level.

Obviously somebody else's budget would not spend on Netflix but on a football club or something, I don't know.

People are always reluctant to accept that lots of people on benefits rip the piss. That they make fraudulent claims and its not that rare

It's a bit odd

There are millions who live thousands of miles from the sea and will never see it.

This. Netflix, coffee out and the cinema aren't necessities. Many people couldn't care less if they never did any of those.

But I do think all 8 billion people should be able to have a life free of abject poverty.

If we can afford to send people to space and for individuals to multi billionaires we can manage for people not to be in poverty

Because I think when people have their basic needs met, it frees up a lot more brain space to be ambitious and aim for a better paid job, or to retrain, or start a business etc.

Netflix, coffee out and the cinema aren't necessities. Many people couldn't care less if they never did any of those.

They were examples. Everyone will choose different things to spend a few quid on for pleasure.

Some of you are so dramatic! I couldn't afford to take DC on holiday when they were small. They didn't have one until they were around 13 when I got a better job. They also didn't have a lot of the other things you're all talking about.

Days out were walks with a picnic. (Shocker but I couldn't afford a car and used to bike 4 miles to work) We would watch free movies at home and cook frozen pizzas as a treat. I always felt incredibly guilty but they seem to look back on their childhood quite fondly.

And no I don't agree that tax payers should be funding luxuries for benefits claimants. The amount received should cover essentials but unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case right now.