To think saving on Universal Credit is extremely difficult?

[FirmGreyMember]

It feels like Universal Credit doesn’t really leave much room for saving once basic living costs are covered. I know in theory people say to put even small amounts aside but in practice it seems very difficult when most of the money goes on essentials.

AIBU to think there’s very little opportunity to build savings on UC?

Yeah i live in a poor area so this is a whole other world to me. As nobody is earning anywhere near that level, i don't particularly know many people earning more then minimum wage even . And yes you're right about footballers.

Yes some footballers earn that in a week but plenty don't. The footballers at the team I support earn around 2k - 3ka week tops. Which is still good money. And that's an Spl club.

The most I've ever earned even in a managerial job has been around 26k a year

I personally don't think any footballer should earn 400k a week - all that does is price fans from being able to afford to go to games

Side issue but it's something I feel strongly about because too many people can't afford to go to games. Even in my area where season tickets are relatively cheap

Income inequality is a massive problem. If people weren't so blown away by others earning phone numbers, they wouldn't also have to complain about benefit claimants!

I had a friend 25 years ago who worked for the lottery board. She earned 80k a year then. She probably earns four times that now. I worked in a homeless unit as a manager and I earned around 23k which felt like a fortune to me then - she never made me feel bad about being poorer than her. I always paid my way on nights out

She got lucky. She's said that herself I don't mean that in a bad way. She was working in a project in the East end of Glasgow and the right jobs came her way at the right time - she was very good at her job. So was I but hers were more high pressure than mine. I couldn't have coped with that. My job was challenging enough as it was

My dd is severely autistic and will never live independently or work. She has just started claiming LCWRA at the higher rate (before it changed to half) and tbh the cut makes no difference to people who will need adult services support a it’s taken off them to pay for care anyway. Getting the new lower rate just means there’s less to be taken towards care costs when it comes to filling in the financial assessment. We have just done this and they are taking most of my daughters LCWRA leaving her with not much left to do anything on the days she doesn’t have day service or carers. Halting the LCWRA just means less money will be able to go into adult social care services….which will likely result in more cuts for day services and support living.

But makes a great headline for people who think disabled people are scroungers I guess.

It isn't £5k a month take home pay on a salary of £60k.

At absolute max, it will be take home pay of £2100 each per month (so £4200 for two incomes of £30k) after tax and national insurance has been paid. If there are pension contributions or student loan payments, this will be reduced further.

Do you pay student loans on minimum wage i thought you had to earn over a certain amount?

Over 26k or so

This is why we need to stop pushing uni on everyone unless you have a specific career in mind that you will earn a reasonable wage for you're just wasting time and money. I work a slightly above minimum wage job and have no student loans because I made the decision to not waste my time and put myself in debt.

I got my last degree funded because I live below the line and I did it part time

Someone will be along shortly to complain about you bettering yourself, whilst questioning why people don't better themselves...

Yeah, NMW workers should get better jobs but they shouldnt be allowed to do that via financially assisted education.

Its so short sighted because eventually that person will more than pay back that support when they are in a better paying job and therefore paying more tax!

I really do think that a certain type of person (many of them are on this thread) wants poor people to stay poor because otherwise who can they look down on?! Pathetic really.

I bet. That degree more or less saved my life. I was in a terrible state. I'll say this out loud. I was stalked and threatened by a man and his friends for over 15 months. I got death threats. Parcels sent to my home. Photos of my house and my address going online. Threats to maim me. Police did nothing. He told police I caused his wife's miscarriage. I didn't. They abused me. He got his pals to tweet lies and police took them as evidence

I'm probably only here right now because the day I got arrested I emailed police saying that I could not go on - two officers came to my door and they tried to help

He went to police and told them I was stalking him. He laughed about it on twitter. I was arrested and charged and abused by police due to his lies. I've had two breakdowns over it all. It went nowhere but police abused me and I'm still not over it 6 years on

So if anybody on here thinks I don't deserve benefits. I'm broken. And I hope people get that

If they are going to keep cutting disability benefits they need to finally introduce a way for people to try work without it affecting their benefit entitlement.

Current claimants are hardly likely to risk losing the higher rate by going back to employment in case their condition means it doesn't work out and they have to start again on lower rates.

Higher rate what you can claim pip and uc while working i do

I'm so sorry that happened to you. Remember you don't owe anyone an explanation. If you choose to share what happened, as you have so courageously here, that has to be on your own terms. Nobody has the right to require justification so they can deem others deserving or otherwise. We are all human beings, worthy of respect and the means to sustain ourselves.

But how can they do that? The tories tried to limit people with mental health conditions from accessing disability benefits so they would be targeted more at people with physical conditions but the courts ruled it illegal. I presume that ruling is still binding and so future governments will not be able to do this either. You can't offer assistance to one person and deny it to another where the degree of impairment is the same and with PIP, everyone is assessed on the same criteria.

There are so many people so far up their own arses on this thread, you can barely see their perfectly pedicured toenails.

God, imagine being one of those people. One of those who look down on the poor and think they don't deserve anything more than the bare minimum.

@PenelopePinkerton doesn’t help anyone at all, certainly not without being paid handsomely for it! How naive can you be? She works in private healthcare. The four people she’s paying money to each month are her children.

I am so, so sorry this happened to you. The police are often big fans of using the actual victim, and most vulnerable person, as a target.

Thank you. I know multiple other women who got the same treatment. They harassed my mum too. A man who tried to help me was threatened too. It was only because I sent an email to the chief inspector of police Scotland the night it happened to me saying I felt like ending my life that anyone tried to help me

There was a detective inspector who tried to help me. My mum and I had a three hour meeting with her.All I did was cry.

And after the charges were dropped I was told the person who got me charged compiled a dossier on me. He had 20 fake accounts on twitter to harass me and my mum.
He had 11k followers on his main account. He told police I was mental and made it all up

My brother was harassed too - and people on here think I don't deserve disability benefits?

Im still broken 8 years on. But I'm trying. I'm trying

The dwp told me I was fit for work. I was terrified. The arresting officer laughed at me when I was being arrested. He threatened to throw me in a cell when I was in custody. He abused me. He told me before he charged me that I would get a tag fine or community service. I don't know why I'm still here and some people on here have said you are too well to get disability benefits

As everyone has said, it's not meant as an income to save, more a temporary safety net. This is a daft/goady/insensitive question as so many people who work FT can't save. With all the free extras amd subsided CT you are actually saving as otherwise you would have to pay for dentist/glasses/rent.