For those who have no idea…

to @live’ on £71 a week, my mate ‘sam’ who signs on the same day as me, he has a real struggle to feed himself some weeks. His leccy and gas take £25 a week at the moment, water rates another £5 –i wonder how many would last long on £40 for all their needs , week in week out– he has a young daughter that stays with him every other weekend– so he skimps a lot for her to have a small treat.He has been informed that after april he must find £11 pw bedroom tax, as his flat has a cupboard room classed as a bedroom, also he will have to find another £3 council tax– apart from that he’s doing grand !!

what benefit is he on?

JSA-

why’s he paying council tax and not getting housing benefit?

How old is he?
Does he have any skills at all?

im currently in between jobs. at the moment due to an injury i am on employment support allowence because my doctor says i am unfit to work. however i am still trying to find a job that may be detrimental to my health. i am 22 so only receive the lower rate of £56 a week. it is a real struggle. you know you are on your ass when someday’s you have to choose between eating and having electricity.

its a struggle, before my injury i was finding shot term temporary work. and maybe worked for 1.5 of the 3 months leading up to Christmas. currently i am struggling to find anything.

i am not a oxygen thief or layabout, i take any work offered and look for jobs on a 2/3 times daily basis.

🙁 the only thing that keeps me going is my bike. and at the min im fairly struggling to grip the bars properly so not as much fun as it was before Christmas 🙁

http://jobs.mcdonalds.co.uk/

he is late thirties, ex forces, so his skills are not instantly transferable, he gets housing benefit, and does not pay counciltax at the moment– but like all of us–come 1st april all this is changing radically–

watsontony– yeah , people really have no concept until it happens to them– the bike is a great release to have– my mate can’t ride his–knees gone after his army days– what makes it worse is all the shite remarks from people who no **** all about poverty !!

£6.19 per hour (NMW), 40 hours per week

£247.6 weekly Gross
£18.35 tax
£12.16 NI

217.09 per week take home

Z 11 –your answer to everything eh ?

How do you know a)there’s a McDonalds near him and b)they’re hiring, you condescending arse?

It was certainly the answer when I didn’t have a job!

Minimum wage is better than £56 per week, would you not agree?

Depends on your rent and other benefits tbh

sucks for sure 🙁

We’ve had a hard few years with GF struggling to find work at times, and then supporting her through teacher training course last year (so we could try and turn things around) on just my income but by comparison we have it easy, really feel for anyone only just scraping by.

Gas+Elec bill seems really high though, is there anything he could do to help bring that down?

£25 a week seems high… Ours is less than £70 a month for both in winter and often less than £40 during summer and that’s for 2 of us in 100 year old 3 bed terrace with no double glazing, and wooden floors downstairs with no carpet – admittedly sometimes we are cold but that’s why we have jumpers.

man alive– Z 11 –you really are clueless !!

Are those sort of places doing 40hr contracts these days?
Last I heard it was all zero hour contracts

Go back to parents and look for work and start again

Why feed him [ the troll] not the OPs friend

Its tough out there for some for sure

Its not made easier by folk not understanding the reality of the poverty trap of benefits or the lack of opportunities out there.

he is on the wretched card meters–you have to pay premium rate on them, he sometimes runs out of gas, sometimes leccy, then he’s round other peoples, if you not working you spend more time indoors as a rule …

oh bum, card/prepaid meters are awful 🙁

grantway–his dad is dead, and his mum is in a home, sometimes wonder about folk — do they have so little life experience ?

i think some people do not understand/empathise with others hardships, even when your poor you still have your pride, and dignity– they are not bought and sold like commodities– this is reality for a significant number of people –like he says–when he was in the army, he never imagined he would end up being called a scrounger etc !!

Does he not get a ex force pension? Most ex forces mates get something every month.

Its tough out there for some for sure

Its not made easier by folk not understanding the reality of the poverty trap of benefits or the lack of opportunities out there.

+1

The Daily Hate has a lot to answer for scapegoating the unfortunate so the middle classes can feel smug about themselves.

Until recently I was working and getting less than that. £120 for 3 days per week of which £60 went in rent (for a bedsit with shared kitchen and bathroom) leaving £60 to live on.
OK, I was working part time through choice but why should I pay tax (it’s recent enough that I was still in the income tax threshold at that wage) when people can get more in benefits than I was earning? (not enough hours for me to get tax credit and no children)
.
I do sympathise a little, as I know it’s hard, I’ve been at the stage where I’ve just been buying food for the day because food for a week would cost too much. However, benefits need to be set a level where you can just about manage, as sounds like he can, just. It shouldn’t be a comfortable life, but enough to get you the very basics until you get another job (pensions are a different matter, I’m just refering to unemployment benefits etc). I realise this may make me unpopular amongst the lefties…

We pay around £100 a month for our gas and electricity (on card meters in a rented flat) I reckon, but then we’re out of the house most of the time at work. I can imagine you could spend loads more if you’re sat at home applying for jobs on the computer and making cups of tea.

And just because companies are advertising jobs doesn’t mean the OP’s friend will get it if he applies. I’m sure he’s applied for plenty of jobs.

he is still fighting to get his pension– or part pension– that is really doing his head in !!

andrewh – Member
I was working part time through choice but why should I pay tax (it’s recent enough that I was still in the income tax threshold at that wage) when people can get more in benefits than I was earning? (not enough hours for me to get tax credit and no children)

I do sympathise a little, as I know it’s hard, I’ve been at the stage where I’ve just been buying food for the day because food for a week would cost too much. However, benefits need to be set a level where you can just about manage, as sounds like he can, just. It shouldn’t be a comfortable life, but enough to get you the very basics until you get another job (pensions are a different matter, I’m just refering to unemployment benefits etc). I realise this may make me unpopular amongst the lefties…

Whole point of this thread is to show how difficult it is to survive on benefits and your comment is ‘it should be difficult to survive on benefits’ because your part time job had a shit wage? The problem is wages haven’t risen to meet living costs. Not that benefits are too high.

And surely £120 for 3 days is way below minimum wage?

Yes it should be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. Remeber those of us on rubbish wages (my example was to show some working people are on less than JSA) are still contributing to them. And benefits have risen faster than wages the last few years.
.
£120 for 3 days was take-home pay. I know JSA is taxed too but the OP’s friend won’t pay tax until he gets a job and his income goes up (but the JSA will count in his year’s earnings) And as the OP didn’t mention rent (assuming housing benefit?) it means that my weekly income after rent was below his on the JSA. I was merely trying to point out that I know what it’s like living on rubbish income, but that it is doable. Not easily, but it is doable.

its easy to say

6.19 per hour (NMW), 40 hours per week

£247.6 weekly Gross
£18.35 tax
£12.16 NI

217.09 per week take home

when there is work about im the first on the phone/email trying my best to get the job. unfortunately i am not the only person in my area thats in the same position. ZULU- you fancy offering me a job and finding out im not a work shy ****. or maybe if i send you my cv you will be able to find me 40 hours a week easily enough. national minimum wage is not a problem, i would even work for less.

my example was to show some working people are on less than JSA)

Its impossible to be on less than JSA when working as you should sign on and still get a fiver more as the first £5 earned is free – you were in excess of JSA as I gave a table with rates. You failed to show this

As you claim it was some while ago – I am guessing 5 + years if you actually paid tax on it so the rates were even lower

FWIW family tax credits and working tax were implemented so you cannot be worse on in work than on benefits

IIRC there were some anomalies but you required a massive family and they affected a tiny fraction of 1 %

Oh and given your income you would have been eligible for HB as well as it is income not work based

As a family of three our gas, electricity and water bills are lower than his.

As you claim it was some while ago – I am guessing 5 + years if you actually paid tax on it so the rates were even lower

FWIW family tax credits and working tax were implemented so you cannot be worse on in work than on benefits

About 3 yrs ago.
And you can’t get tax credits if you have no children and work fewer than 30hrs per week.
We are digressing, I did it through choice, I liked the time more than the money and I had the fallback otion of returning to the parent’s place, which I know not everyone has.
The point I was trying to make is that it is possible to live off that sort of money. Benefits should just be there to tide people over until they can get another job, if they are receiving money from the taxpayer yes they should have to scrimp and get by on the minimum (again, excluding pensions from this)

no andrew it is not enough to exist on– his washing machine is broke= so he uses mine, and other s, he goes hungry a lot– he is too proud to admit it, but thats how it is !– Edukator– you live en france -non?– so what is your point about utility charges–here the poorest pay the most– like for most things….

And you can’t get tax credits if you have no children and work fewer than 30hrs per week.

Thats why I never mentioned it but did mention Housing Benefit which you could have claimed

Do you at least accept that you got more than if you were on benefits as its really not even debatable – it would still be true today never mind then when benefits were less

Those card meters are evil– pure and simple– if you live in certain postcodes you have no choice !! My water and sewerage is £40 a month– so i guess he is underpaying !!– this is a guy who has served in bosnia, iraq,six counties, he has great skills , not very applicable to civvy street !!

As a family of three our gas, electricity and water bills are lower than his.

You’re probably on DD rather than a pre-pay meter which will have a much higher per unit cost (to rip off the poor, so the middle classes can have lower bills).

When I graduated 9 years ago I had to live on £5 an hour for six months, worked out about £160 a week income. It was a nice student flat so rent was about £75 a week and I had to pay a half share of the council tax as I was working.

I couldn’t do it. Had a huge overdraft by the time I found a salaried job.

No dependants. I’d only just got up to my income allowance for that financial year too, so I’d not been paying any income tax on my income either. Absolutely brassic. My bicycle wheels were falling apart commuting to work 20 miles away for the first month – this was the only way I could get to work. My first salary installment paid for some serviceable wheels!

You’re probably on DD rather than a pre-pay meter which will have a much higher per unit cost (to rip off the poor, so the middle classes can have lower bills).

…or he is, allegedly, in France. So very hard to use his example as a useful parallel.

i am amazed. its like some people are implying the op is lying. Really pisses me off..