AIBU to be sad and shocked by this article? part 2

[FAQinglovely]

Moondog - that's the reporter that said those things - just pointing out what I should imagine were some pretty obvious things to the naked eye

The same article says that

"Louise is not inclined to blame the government for her difficulties. She is grateful for the money she gets every week and doesn't think her life would be much enhanced by increased payments."

not they don't deduct it - they also changed that last year as well - now it's up to the person receiving IS to tell DWP how much maintenance they're getting and there benefits are then reduced accordingly - I'm not getting anything so have nothing to tell them. It's not longer automatic.

My dsis has two dc and is on benefits and it is hard for her .I have also been in the same position and I would not want to do it again as it is hard and worrying .
What would help is a ban on loan companys like provident and shopacheck knocking on your door (especially close to christmas) and waving 100.00 of shopping vouchers under your nose . Yes you can say no but when you are sat in the house with no money shoes falling off the lo's feet and you know that you can spend the voucher is in iceland too you are not going to say no. Then you spend the next few weeks either ignoring the door and ending up with a CCJ or been 10.00 a week worse off to pay it back plus interest .
What else would make things a bit better to judge is if IS went back to been paid all at once on the same day each week rather than 30.00 on Monday 60.00 on Friday etc etc when it comes in dribs and drabs it is harder to manage . It is a bit like payday been twice a week rather than once I know I would hate it if dp got his wages this way .

FAQ - thanks for that, im going to start another thread now

LEM - that's ok -

like I said in my 2nd post about it - being able to do it really cheap depends on lots of other factors as well as what ingredients you can actually buy for your money.

I count myself very lucky that I have the knowledge and resources (and a relatively well stocked cupboard with spices etc) to be able to cook on the really really cheap it needs be.

I do remember vividly 3yrs ago when I had the £15 to spend - I was totally stuck - it was mumsnet that got us through that week, and the following weeks on not much more money

Actually I've been a bit "lax" recently with my spending on food - think I'm going to set myself an April challenge of feeding my kids healthy food on the cheap this month - and be very glad that I have the knowledge and resources to be able to do it well, and that if I do go "over budget" it's not going to mean I can't pay a bill.

Tiffany Housing association round here are horrendous. I was on a housing list with them for two years after i got pregnant with ds1. In those two years, i was offered a council house miles away from where in wanted to be, and a 1 bed bungalow, that you have to be 50+ to live in, as it was in a oap care area!
Ridiculus.
I found my own private house in the end.
I have a three bed semi too! Look at the price differences!

Im with you flubdub I have to pay rent on top every month
Our rent is £595 a month
LHA say we are entitled to £235 a week.(for 2 bed which were entitled to its £525 a month)But they pay every two weeks so that means we only get £470 a month. They are cheeky cause they divide it by 12 and not 13.

So even though were on jobseekers, hardly any ctc and £20 of CB we still have to come up with the rest.

So we have to find £125 a month extra to pay the rent. We only get £470 a month in total.
So after paying the rent we are left with £86 a week to spend.

Gas at 10, Elec at 10,
Nappies,wipes,milk, at 20
Debts subject to special arrangements 35.50 a week ( I have no say but to pay now.)
So that leaves £10.50 for food for 3 people for a week.

I think Louise is doing quite well.

ermm £235 a week works out at £1000 (roughly) a month

Sorry I'm coming into this way too late. But I just read the article and it says that a two parent family earning less than £283.20 a week after housing is classed as being in poverty! Come off it! That's way more than we have! I know I moan a lot, but I would never describe myself as living in poverty!

Twinkle - it's all based on the poverty line info here and this website (lots of info on it on the 2nd website}

also Twinkle - it is quite often a personal thing. I met many, many people (some of them now my IL's) who live(d) in poverty - but most of them would argue that they weren't.

See, I think of poverty as being hungry and cold basically. We're sure as hell cold, but that's because we choose to live in arctic Scotland with storage heaters for company. But we run a car, we have household insurance, life insurance, etc. etc. A much older TV than the lady in the article, no holidays, etc. etc. but I class all those things as luxuries.

Personally I think poverty's the wrong word when they're talking about relative incomes. And what they seem to be saying is that a family that has a single wage earner who brings in around the average wage is de facto in poverty. Something's very wrong there. But hey, this argument's been had many times on this site and others. It just always amazes me, that's all.

well the world bank organisation would disagree with you there (although I suppose it is all relative incomes, as it's relative poverty,

poverty can be measured on a global or country scale

sorry FAQ i meant every 2 weeks!

well if they pay it every 2 weeks then it works out at £509 a month actually.

Yes it's a pita getting it "£470" a month, but ou have to jiggle it round, you see on odd months you'll end up with 2 paments a month,.

I get £132 a week LHA, paid every 4 weeks to me. on "paper" that looks like £528 a month (my rent is actually £595 like yours).

But in actual fact it averages out at £572 a month.

it's a right royal pita working in 4 weekly payments but it's the same as the child benefit ou actually get more averaged our over 12 months that it looks like if you talk abut 4 weekly payments as being "a month" - as you get an extra one.

In my house it's complicated procedure of carrying over certain bits of money as they come in as they're actualy part of the next months payments.

I never remember it being that difficult tbh on benefits - once I managed to find a landlord that didn't think I was a social pariah then I was home dry - nice house, paid for by the council and they also paid my deposit - plus no council tax - tbh I think the key thing is to make sur eyou aren't missing out on benefits....eg I have a friend who was on IS for years before she realised she got healthy start vouchers (they were then milk tokens) - I couldn't get through the amount of milk i was entitled to!!!!

The best "benefit" to be on as a single parent is Working tax credit - its massive. thats I think how I was always so damn well off - you still get HB etc but WTC is so much more than IS can ever be - plus you get Child tax credit and child benefit on top.

If you have a landlord that'll accept you on HB then you can live very well tbh....

"If you have a landlord that'll accept you on HB then you can live very well tbh...."

no if you can find a private landlord that will accept where the rent isn't so high that you don't have to top you can live ok - but with LHA (new name for HB) the way it is now it's a set amount.

So everyone in my area that's entitled to a 3 bedroom house gets a set amount of £132 a week, if can only find somewhere that's more expensive than that then you have to top up.

and then you have to factor in that in my town (which thankfully is fairly small as "towns" go) the areas that are cheapest to rent in are the areas with not many local shops, and those that are there are expensive to shop at. You put that into a bigger context like an area where Louis lives which is massive then the wider variety of shops to make your shopping bill come in cheaper just aren't there.

oh and I've just spent £3.20 on milk - which will probably last me until tomorrow night/first thing Wednesday morning. So that's this weeks HS voucher used up (if I'd remembered to take it with me )

You do have to work it out and juggle the money around. I agree FAQ but when your landlord wants her money on the 26th of each month and no later, its a bit tedious trying to get the rent and everything you need such as food and pay bills when your only getting £118 a week.

yes I know - I'm the same - except it's the 28th of each month for my rent.

I have as few DD's as possible, works out slightly more expensive, but it gives me freedom to pay the bill when the money is in my account rather than a set day.

Usually get a couple of weeks on most utlities bills to pay them so works out fine.

I think thats what were gonna do when we move again next week. Scrap the pre pay meters!

Illegal immigrants = FRAUD.

Mizzidee...

R O F L O L!

Nutcase.

FAQinglovely said:

"I have as few DD's as possible, works out slightly more expensive, but it gives me freedom to pay the bill when the money is in my account rather than a set day....."

I read this to mean that you were scaling back the number of children you had - and then the penny dropped - direct debits - d'oh!!!

lol @ scaling back number of children - it's tempting at time I tell you