Cost of living. I'm having a meltdown tonight.

[TwentyTwenty20]

I put my heating on for an hour or so this morning because I forgot to dry my son's school uniform, and my landlord won't let me install a tumble dryer. It cost me an extra £2. I didn't put my heating on until January last year. We lived under the duvet until then. I got my son changed under the covers. I used to just get in the bath and stay there in the evening to keep warm. I'm a lone parent, I take home £2100 a month and get £140 UC, £96 child benefit. My rent is £1000 a month. Council tax £150 with SP discount. Electric, gas, petrol, car insurance, Internet, school uniform, food, life insurance, water bills, £130 on before and after school clubs so I can work, then there's failed MOT which I had to put on a credit card which I'm paying off, tv license, phone bill etc. Then there's life and scraping by so my son can continue his gymnastics hes been doing since he was 2. Council is awful and you can't apply for any of the cost of living stuff unless they have 'identified you'. I've done income and expenditure with a professional and they've said I've pretty much cut back as far as I can. They fine tooth combed my bank statements. How is the amount I make not enough? I have applied for 6 cheaper houses in the last month and none will rent to me. I'm 400 and something on the list for council housing. 10 years ago I was on 18k a year and comfortable and saving.

Will this ever get better? That's a genuine question because I can do all the cutting back I can but if I keep getting knocked back for cheaper housing and higher paid jobs I just don't know how I will go on. It is no life and I don't enjoy getting out of bed in the morning anymore.

I don't take it that way. I find them comforting to know that people think my ex is as much of a cnut as I do.

Do you think it will ever get better? I don't get much UC as I'm in an area where people are flocking to from London, rents are now huge compared to even just a couple of years ago, and the LHA is less than half a lot of people's rent as it hasn't increased for years.

I think the blunt truth here is £1000 a month rent is extortionate! Where in the UK do you live to be paying prices like that? Is there any way you could relocate to an area cheaper in terms of property rent costs?

Sadly I don’t think it’s going to get any better so drastic action and decisions are needed in my opinion in order to survive. It seems almost pointless offering advice as you’ve clearly sought all the right advice. I’d maybe cut back on paying the tv license - just lie and say you only watch Netflix and then you won’t need a license. £130 seems excessive on clubs - is there no one else available to help so you can cut back on that? The only other thing is that £1,000 rent. I relocated from the south coast 400 miles north to Lancashire just so I could save myself £500 a month on rental costs… but appreciate you might not have the ability to make changes as drastic as that.

Just remember, life abroad is much better. Don’t ever forget that as an option either. We’re all in this so feel your pain entirely.

TheBluntTruth

£1000 rent is a lot.

How big is your home OP?

I don't think it will get better until large amounts of social housing is being built ( unlikely) or house prices come down significantly or bloody BTL landlords sell up in droves ( hopefully this may happen ). I have young adult kids and really fear they will never be able to afford homes or kids when even a job which looks decently paid on paper does not even stretch to a basic standard of living.

I fled an abusive relationship, went through thr family courts, have PTSD and a suicidal family member who I would not move away from (he attempted suicide twice last month- because of the cost of living). I hate life. I absolutely hate it so much.

I think the government will have to do something about the LHA rates. they don't seem to have risen for a few years now.

Although having read this back to myself I guess BTL landlords selling up will make things worse for renters. I'm just disgusted that it has reached this situation in the first place that people are paying so much in rent.

You shouldn't need permission from your LL to get a dryer. Just get a condenser dryer, no installation required. You just need to empty the water collector after use. I've no idea how much they cost to run though.

I wanted to start a similar thread, my take home is similar to yours but I have a mortgage so no UC. I have £700 left after essential bills, with food only shops coming in at £90 a week and "need all the cleaning stuff" shops adding a further £40, there isn't a lot of wiggle room for emergencies. £300 after food. From that the car needs fuel - £70, the kids have a growth spurt and need new shoes £30 a pair, oh look school wants some money too and that's without things like TV licence, service and MOT, hair cuts, trip to the dentist, glasses etc.

On paper it's a good sum to take home, but it's a sum that excludes you from any kind of help. I heard someone say it's expensive being single. It really is!

Edited to add my mortgage is cheaper than rent but I'm realising I can't afford to work.

Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, lounge, small dining room, two bedrooms, small garden. My rent was £800, my landlord put it up by £300, I didn't move because nobody would rent to me, and the council told me I would probably be in a hotel or b&b for a 'significant period' if I got evicted.

It's really shocking isn't it. My son paid £1000 per month rent when he moved into his flat two years ago. He's just moved out as he has bought a house. It's now being rented for £1350 per month. 35% increase in two years!

BT and Virgin Media have social tariffs for internet for folks on UC.

Perhaps, cancel or look at cheaper life insurance plans. You can probably get cheaper than £20pm if only a basic plan for now.

Definitely use the benefits calculator--your UC seems very low with rent and childcare elements included.

That’s quite a large home for two people to be fair, two bed to bath. Lounge, dining room , garden, but if you can’t get anything smaller and cheaper I’m not sure what you can do.

It's not big at all. It's an old victorian terraced house with tiny rooms. The second bathroom isn't really a bathroom, just a toilet. The garden is miniscule (5×5m) with a communal path down the side.

The Uc could be correct. If op is only getting half her rent covered by the rent element, the child element is lower for kids born after April 2017 and she could have advance repayments coming off her total UC making it lower.

Private rents are indeed extortionate, but some of us are stuck on them and have no way of getting a council/housing association property. Ours is £1700 for a 3 bed semi and I know it's going up in December.

There are limited places you can cut back. Is the car absolutely essential?

Is your mobile on a contract? If not, if you go via TopCashBack you can take out a 12 month contract with Three mobile with calls, texts and I think 120gb of data for £12 a month, plus get £50 cashback, so it works out about £6 a month.

Cheap tumble dryers are expensive to run. I hate using ours. Could you invest in a heated airer instead? They're supposed to be cheap to run and should speed things up. If you want a dryer though, ignore the landlord. We have one - didn't cross my mind to ask for permission.

I think private landlords should only be allowed to operate if they have no debt on the property. Tenants shouldn't be at the mercy of someone else mortgage rates.

It’s hard for everyone believe me. Good for you for fleeing an abusive relationship though that’s amazing and takes great strength.. if you can do that you can get through this cost of living crisis.

I think people need to think outside of the box more - not suggesting you’ve not done that. Might be very bold of me to suggest this but you clearly seem very close to this family member who is also struggling with the cost of living. From not only an emotional support aspect but from a financial aspect also, would it be an option to share together to further cut back both of your costs? Appreciate you have a child and probably adore your own space as we all do, but might be a sensible suggestion considering it would benefit their mental health having the additional support and reduced cost of living for you both.

I was talking to a friend the other day and we both talked about sharing as we’d be £600 a month better off sharing aha ! Who would have thought that would even be an option at 32!

Singletons definitely have it much harder. Double income households are probably laughing in comparison.

TheBluntTruth.

I'm lucky my rent isn't bad and get most of it paid for.

I hope it gets better for you op x

I think what a lot of (well-meaning) people don't realise is that whilst UC does have a housing element, the housing element usually doesn't cover the full cost of the rent. UC housing element is based on the local council's housing allowance which nowadays is much, much lower than the cost of private rent. This means there is a significant shortfall in the rent each month that the tenant needs to pay themselves.

People reliant solely on benefits for income who live in a private rented property are fucked. Yes, they can apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment which covers the shortfall but this is only a temporary solution and it's very rare that it's granted for longer than about 6 months (because it's discretionary, applications are often rejected).

I wouldn't move someone so highly unstable in with my 4yo. The fear of us finding him dead one day is too much and I could not hack it. He hasn't got a job and I would end up paying more in rent than i do now because he makes no money.

@Babyroobs
I was thinking of her child care payments--assuming she is claiming them back. UC £140pm surely doesn't include them.

That rent is expensive where do you live?

I declare them every month but they're reduced because of how much I earn. On paper it's a decent sum.

I think this is going to have to be an option for a lot of people in future years. Until this week I have had my four adult kids all living with me plus ds1's girlfriend, so seven of us. Two have now moved into a rented place ( thankfully only £700 pcm ) and two off to Uni but I thoroughly expect that for years to come there will be one or more living with us due to unaffordability of rented places.