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?

Our birth rate would then plummet
it already is, being a parent is hard work, requiring a considerable amount of personal sacrifice, it's not a hobby that people do for their own amusement!
We need to support people who are willing to be parents not attack them for not being able to afford it!
I think being a parent will end up as a role that you get paid for, otherwise most women will increasingly go 'nope, not willing to sacrifice myself, I'll have a career and independence instead

I don't see a problem with the birth rate plummeting as only about 20% of people contribute more than they take during their lifetime anyway. All you have to do is make sure that the kids that aren't being born are from the 80% and the kids that are being born are from the 20%,

By the way, would anyone care to explain how all these freebies are being paid for? How are you planning to find this wishlist of free holidays, Netflix, coffees cinema trips?

All the chest beating by everyone to lock down the economy and wanting to be on furlough ranked out already ailing economy. And now everyone’s squealing about inflation, with no one, not one person owning up to screaming about wanting harder, longer lockdowns.

In the same vain, all the progressives wanted to tax the corporation. Well, now their tax rate has gone up to 25%, and guess what they are leaving. Astra Zeneca anyone? Tax big oil they said - British oil companies pay an effective tax rate of 70% - have your bills come down? Didn’t think so.

Oh well, the magic money tree, sorry the printing presses have been printing non stop for years now. I’m sure they can go a little longer. To bankrupt the country, a la Greece. But hey, at least you get your Netflix.

@sst1234

Someone asked for an example of a system that works. The system in Finland works. You may not consider it useful but there are certainly aspects that would work here.

The tone of your post was unnecessarily unpleasant.

Ah, I see that is just your usual tone. As you were…

Food
shelter
clothing
clean water
education - including access to extra curricular clubs/ classes
access to good recreational spaces
experIence of other cultures / countries
experience of the arts/ history

I often wonder why we don't make able bodied people that can work do a few hours a day in a community based role to 'earn' their benefits. For example they could do some litter picking, clean graffiti etc.
Benefits should definitely not include money for netflix and holidays ffs, if those children of welfare parents go without they need to have a serious conversation with their parents later in life as to why they did so little to provide for them!
I am not well paid by any stretch of the imagination but my children attend hobbies and have holidays because I have worked my arse off solidly for years for them to have those things.
Why exactly should able bodied people capable of work expect the same lifestyle on benefits?

I wonder whether part of the answer is to have the state provide the basic necessary things, rather than money

So all children get access to free clubs and lunches at school. Well stocked libraries with new books.

Free public transport, reliable local buses.

A basic amount of electricity and water and Internet.

Thus the whole of society gets the basic things of life provided.

I often wonder why we don't make able bodied people that can work do a few hours a day in a community based role to 'earn' their benefits. For example they could do some litter picking, clean graffiti etc.

If there is a need for litter pickers and graffiti cleaners, then advertise it as a job and pay someone a proper wage for doing it. If people are doing it to 'earn' benefits then it becomes a way of getting cheap labour, undermining the concept of minimum wage.

They had workfare type jobs where people were forced to work in Wh Smith, Poundland and other big companies for their benefits, I have no idea if these schemes still exist but they would lead to people working for as little as £2 an hour.

If we need graffiti cleaners, litter pickers etc then we should pay people a proper wage for doing those jobs and then they wouldn't need benefits at all.

Wages need to increase. Im 45. My parents had 3 kids. Dad worked in a factory, Mam worked part time in a shop

We had a holiday abroad every year (UK when we were little, went abroad when we were 13, 8 and 7) they bought a house and we had a car

Mam saved the family allowance and we had new clothes from that pot 4 times a year.

Families should be able to survive and thrive on 1.5 wages and do really well on 2

Working should always pay more than (non disabled) benefits. I joined a benefits Facebook page to help a friend - lots of claimants wanting to know the bare minimum they can work to claim maximum benefits. People clearly in relationships with the father of their kids but pretending to live separately to claim maximum amounts

Rent to private landlords needs to be capped. People are claiming huge amounts of full rent because rent is extortionate

And we need to build millions of homes to make sure that everyone has a roof over their head.

Recognise that the market isn't working.

Build houses, including ones adapted for wheelchair use etc, and then allocate them to people when they are in need

Everything you said plus:
Access to healthy food and a way to cook it
Education - up to university if they're able enough
Access to a phone to take/make calls
Transport to get around (buses are expensive now).

I think discretionary is on the edge. As technically I'd say they're not basic.

A decent, secure and well maintained home that is big enough for their household.

Energy, water bills and council tax.

Three decent meals a day each.

Toiletries, nappies, formula milk if needed, cleaning materials etc.

Warm, durable clothing and shoes.

Internet access.

Transport, either public or private if they live somewhere where public transport is poor.

Medical, dental and optical costs.

Some leisure/cultural acitivities.

A modest holiday now and again.

A decent, secure and well maintained home that is big enough for their household.

Energy, water bills and council tax.

Three decent meals a day each.

Toiletries, nappies, formula milk if needed, cleaning materials etc.

Warm, durable clothing and shoes.

Internet access.

Transport, either public or private if they live somewhere where public transport is poor.

Medical, dental and optical costs.

Some leisure/cultural acitivities.

A modest holiday now and again.

😂😂😂 Lakielady how is this going to be paid for?

Rent to private landlords needs to be capped. People are claiming huge amounts of full rent because rent is extortionate.

This. I'd love to know how much of the "benefit bill" ends up in the pockets of private landlords.

How about a military barracks style provision. So everyone gets food, roof over their head and clothes.

If they want something else then they need to provide it themselves.

But the state provides the roof over everyone head in an emergency

Not as much as you might think given most of them won't accept DHSS as it always seems to say in the adverts

@Gingerkittykat the point is they are not 'working' for £2 ph. They are contributing to society in return for their benefits.
If they want more money they could always get a job.....

100% agree with this, then you wouldn't get children suffering because of feckless parents.

So advertise the role as a job and pay them to do it as workers, even if only on a temporary contract.

Unless you have a “bad back” like my dad who sometimes hears voices but goes to Mexico lol

can’t work tho clearly.

Bad back and voices none of which of probable funnily enough 😉🙃

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

Of course there is. It's been demonstrated over and over again.

It is however only available to the few.

It would be possible to provide these things if the super rich weren’t hoarding so much money and not paying taxes. I would like there to be a Universal Basic Income.

I hate the Daily Mail attitude to benefits on here. The benefits system isn’t the safety net it once was. PIP is almost impossible to get for anyone with mental health problems/neurodivergence. I’d be living in a camper van from September this year if I didn’t have family helping me.

It feels like the majority of people are killing themselves working and raising children and feel bitter towards anyone who isn’t doing the same. It’s just become normal and I don’t think it was normal twenty years ago. The move from tax credits to universal credit has made life far more difficult.