Is receiving £30k pa on benefits “living in poverty”?!

[ChumpWizard]

Amol Rajan BBC R4 Today was in Colchester this week. Great interviews but one thing had me wondering.

Is receiving c£30,000 pa on benefits “living in poverty”? That’s the equivalent of a FT job earning c£40-£42k Pa.

If you are foolish enough to believe that a typical claimant can receive anything approaching that figure, your annoyance is predictable.

It's fucking peanuts, especially when people need extra support. We should have universal basic income of £50k per year. No exception. All disability aids fully funded.

Well if your rent is so high it makes things a struggle you may well be entitled to the HB element of UC.

How would this be paid for?

My dc and partner rent a 1 bed flat for that….. Some parts of the country cost more to live in.

You are clueless

A ‘reasonable solution’ is not one that means they are supported by the state. It will be difficult to support a family this size for anybody, but if it means her DH being present and watching the family within his capabilities, then she has the capacity to go out to work.

6 SN kids? Good luck to him.

Surely you appreciate that’s not doable. Putting the basic minimum figure up for unskilled workers to £50k will then mean a pretty substantial pay increase for the public sector - doctors, teachers etc. because you wouldn’t expect skilled workers to be on wages only slightly larger than those who are unskilled would you? And that would then impact the public purse, and in turn the tax payer.

If there is a UBI then it should be the same as the pension is now.

There should not be a UBI. People should work to earn money, not be given it for free.

Well perhaps they shouldn’t have had six kids!

And people who can not work? Or who do not yet have a job? They can't live off fresh air.

Well, there they are here now. What do you suggest? She shove them back up into her uterus?

No one is saying that all people on benefits enjoy a life of luxury. It depends what context you’re putting on luxury. Some will feel a take away each week is luxury. Not all luxury is defined by going on multiple holidays and affording designer clothes. But the reality is that a lot of people not working will prefer to live and just get by on benefits, rather than go out to work.

I listened to that article. It. Said neither she nor her husband had worked for over 10 years, but three of their six children were under 0. The youngest was 3. So they chose to have at least 3 of their children whilst unemployed.

The vast majority of us are living in poverty due to the cost of housing and living.
I earn over double that and am scraping by as I live in a high housing cost area and get no help with anything due to being above the thresholds and raising kids on my income.
I would definitely be in dire poverty on 30k a year trying to live where I live.
Wages have stagnated so much and costs have rocketed.
Dont blame those on 30k benefits. Blame those 1 percent who are just taking all the cash and pumping it into their pockets

A bad decision, but if you don't pay them benefits then the kids suffer.
What do you think is the answer to this? Especially when the kids are already here.

The poorest person that works full time should be better off than the richest person on benefits.

No one on benefits is "rich".

Someone on more benefits than the "poorest person that works" will have disabilities and/or disabled kids.

Would you like to swap you wage for their disabilities? Yeah, thought not.

@XenoBitch that's the problem, isn't it? I don't think the children should suffer because their parents made poor choices, but I also don't think the parents should be rewarded for having 6 children whilst not working. I don't know what the answer is.

I'm on benefits and ADP and receive approximately 17 000 per year

When i had my 2 children both me and their father were working full time. Now im main carer for my oldest and my dh cant work.

What am I meant to do with my children? I cant send them back.

It's understandable if your DC and their partner are high earners. People generally choose homes that they can afford.

I was saying that anyone who is on benefits that tries to rent a £2k a month property is a clown.

I think my rent is under 400pm its paid by uc