@Tricket I just need to bring up something about having no spare money - am I in this position, no, but I have been and not through any fault of my own - we had a business go bust many years ago due to a big distribution company not paying us and all my spare money went on doing a liquidation and paying off any personal guaranteed lending - so I am well versed in the fact people don’t always make the wisest choices on paper but sometimes it is for logical reasons
a a lot of people private rent ( we do) and if they are receiving benefit towards this, vast amounts of people receive nowhere near what their rent actually is if they don’t have council or housing association - particularly in the southern half of the country or nicer areas in midlands and ‘up north’
would it make sense to move if things are like that- yep, but try finding somewhere that is ok and will accept benefit income or even ok income but you don’t fit their ‘multiples’ . So people end up staying put because they can’t fulfill criteria to move or the advance deposits needed before they have moved out, it moving costs! And end up using money that could be bills and food to make sure they can actually meet the rent
- Debt - none ever mentions this when looking at people’s budgets and a lot of people are too embarrased to list it but plenty of people who previously had ok circumstances have a reasonable amount of debt , they are loathe to bugger up their credit record so often really struggle and just carry on paying - sometimes it’s car finance debt , but often they need that car for school or nursery runs and sometimes their jobs.
On the other hand to balance things- You mention single mums not working and takeaways - one thing I am personally anti is the fact maintenance isn’t taken into account these days for benefits - I do know several getting very good maintenance and not working much at all and getting benefits - my big issue on this is that it disadvantages single mums or couples on low incomes jugglingcstuff and working their arses off who don’t get maintenance and can actually be worse off than people doing little but getting full benefits and maintenance on top . To me that’s an unfair situation -
everyone’s circumstances are different - instead of laying it all on feckless single mums or immigrants ( and I honestly do not know a single immigrant family who aren’t working and I know a few) - mainly Polish and Lithuanians, factor in I know several quite elderly comfortably off couples who have done some quite crafty things with their money and hence still get certain things or avoid huge amounts of tax - in one case kept a council flat in a very good area as second home whilst owning another nice home outright - maybe it ms allowed, but it’s extremely questionable morally -
so before we all jump on high horses I think playing the system unfortunately comes from both sides of the financial divide - it’s actually more thise getting by without benefits but also with not much in the way of assets who are stuffed!!