I honestly cannot afford to live

[Inkdrinker]

I work 40 hour weeks, yet I was paid 6 days ago and I'm already completely out of money. My rent is more than half of my pay, council tax is a further 250 pounds, my energy bills are ridiculous despite trying to cut down on using so much.

I have 3 kids to look after. How are people going survive this? This is by no means a ploy to ask others for money, I do not want anyone's money. I just want to know I'm not alone in this situation

@perfectyear321 25% or 50% reduction on c tax
It’s a way of encouraging single people from moving out of larger houses with more than one bedroom.

Wow you have a good one, they do exist!

Don't forget single persons discount on council tax if not claiming it already

I'm old enough to remember the pill tax riots but it still doesn't make sense why the single person discount is 25% rather than 50%

@PerfectYear321 because it's a tax based on the building not the person. It's not council tax = 2 wages to pay it. It's X size/location property = Y amount of council tax. They don't charge 2x council tax if 4 adults live there, why would they charge 50% less if only one adult lives there? The 25% discount is in effect a goodwill gesture. The poll tax riots were because people couldn't afford to pay it and there was nothing they could do about it. Council tax is different, there are ways to reduce it, the 25% discount for single adult occupancy and/or eg moving to a different property or sharing your home with other adults. Neither of which options is looking particularly appealing to most people. We expect a better standard of living these days. Maybe there will eventually be riots again 🤷

I think it comes back to something another poster said. When people share their homes with other adults these days it's often their adult children, who they are still treating like children and not expecting them to contribute a full share towards household expenses. Looking at my family tree history info the electoral role shows people with a spare bedroom sometimes had a lodger or the teenage children living with parents had left education and were working from 14. That's how less well off people afforded their household expenses. Modern life is lived very differently but the various household expenses still exist and have got worse with technology being a necessary and expensive thing which used to never exist.

Obviously you haven't been to the North of England. Hope you get enough to leave for Scotland where you will have to fight for your rights as a woman. 👋

Are you claiming everything you can? Because those figures are where I was 2 years ago when I’d moved house to a new area so no longer got HB and I was putting off claiming UC due to nightmare stories.

Even if you’re not working - with UC you’ll get the single parent element, 2 children, child disability premium and likely 100% rent leaving you approx £700/month after rent PLUS CTC, CB and DLA.

I’m working now so things are very different - but at the point I was really struggling I was terrified of UC and I really shouldn’t have been because it’s worked flawlessly for me.

@Oscarsdaddy the situation with your FIL's energy bill sounds like a mistake. No way would a single man be using £1000 of energy a month, especially with the price cap in place. We are are two person household and currently spend £1200 a year on energy. I would expect an elderly pensioner to spend a fair bit more than us due to being at home more and needing more heating, but not £12k a year.

I would call Citizen's Advice as they have a specialist helpline to help vulnerable people with energy problems.

Also check his meter readings and if something odd is going on like immersion heater left on 24/7.

DSis does midwifery, her child is now 16 (DSis was 18 when she had her so she’s still young herself), so the shift work isn’t much of an issue for her. DNiece will come to mine for the night if she wants, or to my Mums.

My understanding is that there isn’t much leeway with placements or shift times, nights and weekends, year round, the job is the same after, and any single parent doing a degree with high contact hours needs bomb proof childcare.

I did my STEM degree just after I had my first child, ExH worked away, DD was in childcare from 8am till 6pm Mon-Fri for 3 years.

I'm only 5ft 5 but I'd need an age 14 for leg length which would then be too wide (tops would be fine as I'm a 10 on top). So a 11 or 12 year old girl my height and build could easily have the same problem.

Teen clothes size are weird as fuck, frankly.

Both teen DDs are my height - 5ft 2 - I’m 8st 9lbs, they’re both around 7st/7.5st . My skirts and trousers fit them far better than the equivalent teen size, which we discovered last summer when buying new school uniform.

Tops are fine - in fact I buy most of my tops/coats etc from the teen ranges as they’re cheaper.

But trousers or skirts? Nope. They’re either super wide on the waist or far too long.

@RedRedWhiney you just sort yourself out a prepayment, it's excellent value if you get two drugs or more a month. I have ten drugs a month for the princely sum of £10. You can pay monthly and it's only just a bit higher than the cost of one item for whatever you need. There's info on how to apply here.

Losing the single person council tax discount because you are kind enough to house a young adult children always feel pretty mean to me. It took me about 6 months to get my 25% reduction when they were students with a council system where the website did not work so I had to send posted letters by special delivery. They replied after about 2 months and never remembered the porevious letter so I sent them copies each time of everything. Eventually it was obtained. Then the week they stopped beings students the council was right on to it and stripped the discount away - no delays in that direction whatsoever (and as I employ the 2 children until early next year the situation is a bit too complicated to make them pay the extra £750 council tax).

Anyway I should not really be on the thread as am not badly off but the ex spouse who does not pay (nor see the children) is certainly familiar to me. In the end those fathers lose out though as they tend to have a worse relationship with the children.

£100 month is very low. Are you on a fixed rate? There are 3 adults here and we are out all day heating on a couple of hours only one cooked meal a day and one shower each. Infact we have really changed how we live using a lot of blankets. Yet Nov, Dec and Jan around £300 a month with Octopus.

Nope we are on the price cap and pay £109 pm, we got our Aug - Feb bill yesterday and are in credit still. Before that we were on a fixed tariff and paying £59 per month.

We are in a two bed flat though, never put the heating on over night and are pretty good at energy saving behaviour.

Eh, all of the above expenses were covered by my kids at that age! Do you really pay for their transport to college, ferry them around to here there and everywhere, pay for driving lessons lol. They are grown now, time to make them see the real world.

You mentioned your council tax is so high as you’re paying off arrears, could you go back to the council tax department and try and renegotiate what you’re paying back in the face of the cost of living crisis? I used to work in a council call centre and people used to ring up to renegotiate what they were paying and make arrangements all the time. It would definitely be worth asking them, if the payments were arranged before the cost of living crisis then you’ve definitely got grounds for them to be reduced now. Good luck.

Feel for all families, whatever sort, trying to jut get by. The only good thing on the horizon is Spring and warmer weather, won’t be long now……

BRITISH Gas Enquiries If you have a relative whose experiencing issues with British Gas then you could access their account online by visiting httos://www.britishgas.co.uk>identity. This will give you access to payment history and bills. BG email quotes to you showing your usage and the cost based on that. They're moving customers to a new system which commence with an A and have a UK based call centre Tel no 0330 808 3880 9-5. The old system has an overseas call centre which isn't fit for purpose. You can write to the executive team of Centrica [email protected] with a copy to your MP and [email protected] FAO Matt Allwright.

@Oscarsdaddy

You can help by looking online with your df's supplier. My friend's mother had issues a couple of years ago and she realised when she went online that meter readings hadn't been updated for 2 years and she'd been paying the same amount. She puts the readings in online for her now.

OOPS should be:
www.britishgas.co.uk>identity

I agree. 100% being a total Dick.

I agree, it's disgusting, but you don't have any choice.

Supposedly the energy prices are going down in Autumn, but not before going up first - I hope to God they will go down. The gov will have to step in the winter next year if not, it's ridiculous. They say they're going to help the most vulnerable but a lot of us don't fall into that category and are still going to struggle hugely. Those of us earning just a bit too much (due to me working full time and having very little time to spend with my kids!) to qualify for any help are really being hit by all of this. My bill this month is £241 for gas and elect!!! The £67 they are giving us at the mo has helped slightly plus i am in credit so some has come out of that, but if I have to pay that amount when this stops then I will not be in a good place and it really will be a toss up between food and heat next winter :(

I am not paying council tax and they can arrest me or whatever it is they do. I pay what I can to gas and elec and that’s been fine so far. I am not living in luxury tho am not going to be sitting without either. I would feel bad if I was directly stealing from someone’s purse at the local authority and before anyone starts government and these private companies and their chairman have been stealing from me for years. Pay what you can if you can! ❤️

@Octopusmittens They are a huge club, thousands of students, they compete all over the world. The leotards are the clubs design and part of there uniform. I suppose for a competitive gymnast it’s worth it. There are plenty of other competitive clubs and sports that have far more expensive equipment. I doubt the parents of the elite squads would ever consider not buying the leotards.

Many of the kids go for fun and don’t compete or buy the leotards. My dd only ever enters friendly comps where she can wear her own £20 leotards and we don’t have travel costs.

I had D cup boobs at 12, and was 5ft 7
Children's clothes definitely did not fit me