Comments on: Could you live on £60 per week? And could your MP?

By: Gaz

Gaz — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:45:50 +0000

I’m currently on JSA i only get £51.85 per weeks and when that drops into the bank fortnightly, its instantly all gone on rent. As far as i know i can’t claim any more benefits so all JSA is doing for me is keeping a roof over my head (I know this shouldn’t be sniffed at but when you’ve lost 6 stone in 2 months it is quite worrying). I haven’t eaten properly since I was working two months ago and it has now been three days since I had anything even remotely filling to eat, yesterday i scraped the change together for a greggs sausage roll, now I have to wait a week and four days before i might be lucky enough to have £1 for something else to eat.

So no. You can’t live off job seekers.

By: digitalben (ben ssssss)

digitalben (ben ssssss) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:31:01 +0000

http://www.oxfamblogs.org/ukpovertypost/2009/02/could-you-live-on-60-per-week-and-could-your-mp/

By: befairtochildless

befairtochildless — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:17:01 +0000

the benefits system rewards those who have children they can’t afford to raise (irresponsible) and those who have never worked and run up big debts and never saved, and penalises those who have done without to save, do voluntary work and work part time if have no children. It is a disgrace and childless low paid and unemployed workers are now the group who are in poverty in this country, not those with children whether in and out of work or pensioners who now do get enough to live on -minimum £132 per week plus full rent and council tax paid plus winter fuel allowance and free prescriptions and optical tests. The childless get nothing. This is so unfair!

By: G Lawther

G Lawther — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:09:52 +0000

I have been using my savings to do a one year course after losing my job. I’m now exhausted keeping up with academic work and diagnosed clinical depression and anxiety. I can’t get any benefits – they’re saying I didn’t pay enough NI in 2008/09 just because of my NI number they calculate week from Thurs to Wed so I lost out on 2 weeks bens then due to taking a job on a Mon-Fri week and not bothering to claim the one other week before getting a temp job again. I own a property that is run down and unsaleable and am stuck. People with no kids who have helped ourselves all our lives are being completely used and ignored supporting the rich and those who never work when we can and getting nothing back in return when we can’t! Even if we are entitled to JSA for 6 months, and work part time in hope of finding work, they reduce JSA £ for £ for every £ earned above £5 so working for nothing! Also, if we do voluntary work on top of part time work, they don’t count hours done on voluntary work toward w.t.c. hours, even though we’re working just as hard as paid workers and earning nothing for those hours. The system stinks and it’s time childless low paid and unemployed people started making a real fuss to highlight this. After all, it isn’t us who are adding to an unsustainable population boom that this planet simply can’t support!raisingwoercostspart of a Mon thv

By: Will b Done

Will b Done — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:12:21 +0000

i have worked all my life time here made redundant wife works min wage i got job seekers for six mounths then told live on whatrver you like nothing more for you here go away and we will call you every 13 weeks to see if your realy trying to get work nic they would keep that right but no money i have been liveing since on my wifes min wage WILL ANY MP LIVE LIKE THIS and yes they want us to pay for their mess and the cleaning out of their moats ect how sick

By: Welfare reform, and speaking up for the mentally ill « Benefits Culture

Welfare reform, and speaking up for the mentally ill « Benefits Culture — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:18:47 +0000

[...] who are trying to earn that extra £100 they need to cover their basic needs. As Oxfam asked, could YOU live on £60 a week? (People on disability benefits get a little more, almost £90 a week, but that’s still a far [...]

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:16:18 +0000

I have my 9 year old daughter living with me for half the week, I was awarded joint residency by a judge. I had to quit my job to be able to take and collect her from school as my employer wouldn’t/couldn’t change my hours. I have no family to help me and we are expected to live on £60 a week. I dont get child benefit or child tax credit, my ex partner gets it. I dont eat for one or two days a week so that my daughter can. It cost me £25 a week in bus fares to get her to school which I cant avoid paying. This leaves me with £35 to pay for gas, electric, water and food. Its impossible to live like this. MP’s dont live in the real world as they have no idea of the hardship that living on benefits causes or I suspect that they do but don’t really care. The last poster, Ben Henderson is a fool.

By: Ben Henderson

Ben Henderson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:05:13 +0000

I’m A 22 Year Old male, i have damaged my back at work (in a steel factory)
i’m willing to stay at work doing light duties but they can’t accommodate me/give me any “meaningful” tasks, my doctor signed me off for 3 more weeks, with statutory sick pay, all i will get for the whole 3 weeks is �210 SSP which is what i would normally make in 3 days. i really don’t know how i will survive next month, that is going to have to cover my rent, gas, electic and water bills let alone food. If i dont take the sick leave and go back to work before my back is healed and have an accident then i will be dismissed for negligence as it will be seen as my fault for woring with an injury and then i’ll be out of work, then i wont be entittled to sign on jobseekers for six weeks as it will be seen as my fault for loosing my job, by that time i will be homeless. i have worked since i was 16 and have always paid tax and NIC, my NIC added up to �1682 just for the last tax year – april 2008 to april 2009.
I’m not saying everybodies the same but most the people i now on jobseekers or incapacity benefits are quite comfortable on them, my friends on them go out more then i do and some of my mothers friends have been on them since before i can remember. after i’ve paid tax, NIC, rent, household bills and food a significant amount less then 60.50 a week, and definatley not enough to save for a situation like the one im in now, not that i ever thought i’d have to. and im a hard working citizen who as i said before has always worked. now i am in need of help there is nothing for me, noone to pay my rent or bills, this makes me physically ill thinking of the state i’ll be in very shortly. Especially seeing as all that has come out about the MPs expenses recently! i alway thought living in england, as it is supposed to be a ‘democracy’ that there would be support for someone like me, but apparntly not.
i also live with my girlfriend who also wors full time, so if i do lose my job we will both lose our flat as she couldn’t afford to pay for both of us.
My girlfriends mother has an honours degree and has been a registered social worker for 15 years, she has worked very hard to get where she is now. she’s on 33,000 a year of which she sees 18, 480 after 44% taxes and that doesn’t inclued NIC. so after NIC at 11% she gets 16, 447.20. she also has to pay a mortgage of at the moment 1000 a month, leaving her with a discusting 4447.20 for the year! that makes 85.52 a week, which she still has to pay all household bills with, plus school meals for both children and uniforms. most people on benefits get a school dinner allowence for children as well as a uniform allowence. she has two young children aged 6 and 13 as well as her 24 year old son leaving at home, who at the moment is unemployed. her eldest son has also always worked but has recently lost his job so i do understand how hard it is for people to find work at the moment but on as little as she is getting after essenstial expenses it seems there is no hope either way. she is a single parent only getting 120 from the father as child maintinance for the younger child. as she is earning over 31, 800 a year so she is not entitled to any benefit other then child benefit and when my girlfriend was in college she was not entitled to EMA. to me it seems there is absolutly no point getting a degree and professional job if thats what you are going to be left with! i can’t actually remember the last time she went out as she simply can’t afford to. she has been diagnosed with depression and is seriously struggling to survive. so sorry if this seems completely out of order but personally if i was having my rent/mortgage paid and the getting an extra 60.50 a week i would be very happy especially if i was single without children, and not having to pay tax or NIC.

By: E.P.

E.P. — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:24:56 +0000

I am a ‘migrant’ from Eastern Europe, Lithuania. I came to this country to find equality and democracy which was rarely seen twelwe years ago in Lithuania. But now I can’t find it here either. All financial problems are likely to be blamed on new entrants to the EU. We still have no access to ‘means tested benefits’ and housing. So if I have worked as self employed builder for the last 10 years with some intervals, now when I’ve got into the crisis like everybody else, I have to starve. Is it becouse I am Lithuanian? Or is it becouse I have paid more than �200 per week in taxes?
Now all I have is �51 a week in Working Tax credits, shared room and empty fridge.
I have tried to get benefits, but foun out that ‘For the benefit purposes I have no right to live in UK’. And that’s after 10 years of paying taxes and hard working?
Thanks god I am mortgage free. Freedom is my fortune.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:08:12 +0000

What can we do??? I am desperate. I live in a rural area- no neighbours and no public transport the nearest town to shop is a 20 mile round trip petrol costs �1.06 a litre I am unable to work due to illness and disability and have used up my statutory sick pay it costs �40 to fill the car up I feel so hopeless is there any help out there?