 |
|   | Subject: Can you live on £26,000 a yr[ £500p/wk]? (UK Centric)
Posted Jan 22, 2012 by BMT~(ST)~Ace~Mod | | Post: 1
|
Under the current govt's Welfare Reforms, (if/when passed) total benefits for a family will be capped at a maximum of £26,000. This is for all benefits excluding Disability Living Allowance. The Bishops and other Peers in the House of Lords are preparing to vote this limit down as being unfair, unjust and would lead to people becoming homeless/destitute etc. Its estimated that someone in work would have to earn in excess of £35,000 in order to get a spending power of £26,000.
So, could you live on £500.00 a wk?
Do you agree there should be a cap on benefits? If so, by how much?
A brief outline of reform proposals here:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16591457
|  | Subject: Can you live on £26,000 a yr[ £500p/wk]? (UK Centric)
Posted Jan 22, 2012 by  HonestIago
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 2
|
I live on a third of that (£8,700 after tax) - can't say it's much fun but I get by and manage to buy the occasional treat and have a social life. I'm a single bloke but I know my colleagues are raising families on not much more - no idea how they're managing that.
It's a tricky one: I liked the old Lib Dem (RIP) idea that people should get a guarantee of a certain income, supplementing salaries with benefits if your salary was below that. Iirc the limit was set at something like £110 per person, per week so below the £26,000 being proposed. I like the idea of some benefits being paid in kind - something like a public transport pass (as I understand some jobseekers get) would help me a lot because it'd mean I wouldn't have to worry about getting to work, whereas the money runs the risk of being spent, and I'm broadly in favour of the American system of food stamps, at least in certain conditions.
It all depends on context - 26k is a fairly decent amount of money somewhere like the big Northern cities where things are pretty cheap, but would be utterly insufficient somewhere down south or out in the sticks where costs are so much higher.
| | Subject: Can you live on £26,000 a yr[ £500p/wk]? (UK Centric)
Posted Jan 22, 2012 by Hoovooloo
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 3
|
"26k is a fairly decent amount of money somewhere like the big Northern cities where things are pretty cheap, but would be utterly insufficient somewhere down south or out in the sticks where costs are so much higher"
Which suggests that people who can't afford to live there should move somewhere where they *can* afford to live, doesn't it?
I've followed work around the country, and I'm not the only person I know who has.
Where are the government initiatives to relocate the masses of people who can't afford to live in the south east, but can't afford to actually move? S
I've done that too, in the past but I'm now at the point where it would cost me a lot of money I don't have to move, not to mention the disruption to the (13 and 15 year old) Gruesomes' education (future tax payers - we know that disrupted education can have an effect on later salary blah blah)
I broadly agree with HI about more things being 'paid in kind' but i also think that we should look at our levels of pay as much as our levels of benefits and ask why we expect people to subsist on such miniscule wages (esp. teachers, nurses etc)
 |  |
Yes, you can.
I live in Manchester with the wife. We've got a 3 bed-semi in suburbia and a mortgage on it. She's being made redundant in a few months so we had to look at our finances a bit closer, although she's very good at keeping an eye on them. We worked out that we could, reasonably comfortable get by on just my wage, which is a little over that amount.
A lot of what people consider "essentials" aren't. Sorry, but your Sky subscription is a luxury. Your new car every couple of years that you're paying through the teeth for? Not needed. The constant change of wardrobe to stay in fashion? Get over yourself.
It's more than possible to live on £26k.
Yes, you'd probably have to move out of London, but hey, *I* can't afford to live there so why d'you think I should subsidise you to?
By "you" I don't mean anyone in particular. And I've heard all the "Oh, but all our friends live here" or "But the kids go to school here" And what? You think that you're such shallow people that you want make new friends? Or that we don't *have* schools up here?
As you can tell, it's a bugbear of mine 
| | Subject: Can you live on £26,000 a yr[ £500p/wk]? (UK Centric)
Posted Jan 22, 2012 by HonestIago
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 6
|
What happens if there aren't the jobs? West Yorkshire, one of the cheapest places to live, also has one of the worst unemployment rates in the country. There might not be the support networks either - young families who remain close to grandparents can be more economically productive than those where one partner has to work less/not at all to look after the kids. There will be an income gap and the government might end up having to fill that.
Not everyone has the freedom to simply up and leave: I do, which is what landed me in Bradford and then later enabled me to move 20 miles at a couple of days notice when I was offered much cheaper accommodation. I could simply pack up and move, take on much longer commute, and as a result I moved from the absolute breadline to being a bit more comfortable. Not everyone can get away with that - they have other considerations and other peoples lives they need to think about.
You've followed work across the country in the past - could you do it now with a relationship/family?
| |
Sho raises very good points, why expect people like nurses to work for less than you're willing to pay out in benefits?
Although, as it's a bugbear, I'll go back to the disrupted education thing. When you're in your working life, you're never these days going to go into one job and stay there. It's going to be disrupted. Preparing a kid to deal with that now can only put them in better standing for later in life. And yes, I changed schools a few times.
HonestIago, a lot of people these days, and for quite a few years now do not live in the same cities and they grew up in. I certainly don't. Like yourself I've moved around a bit.
Yes, there's less employment up here, but if you're on benefits down south you'd still be on benefits up here.
This does however lead to a serious, very, very serious problem of sink cities. Sink estates are bad enough, but when you get whole towns where the majority of people don't work, or are in menial make-do jobs, then you've got a serious social problem on your hands.
Out of interest...how many are near the cap? I'm wondering if there's a wrong impression in some minds that all benefits claimants are coining it.
Almost certainly it's misreported. And it's a maximum across all possible benefits that can be claimed.
| | Subject: Can you live on £26,000 a yr[ £500p/wk]? (UK Centric)
Posted Jan 22, 2012 by U94986
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 11
|
I've only ever earned that much once, for a couple of years.
I'm definitely living on less than that now, although some of that is choice as I reinvest a lot of my takings back into the business (ie I leave it in the bank while I search for premises). I can't add it all up, as I'm not sure where my council tax benefit letter is, but its not taking me over £300 a week. I'm paying my own mortgage and utilities, and I take around £50 a week out cash. The rest all stays in my personal bank account to pay the bills, the money in the account doesn't go up, but it doesn't go down either.
I've not paid into a personal/private pension for years though, nor am I able to save on that income.
| | Subject: Can you live on £26,000 a yr[ £500p/wk]? (UK Centric)
Posted Jan 22, 2012 by Mr603
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 12
|
Much like everyone else outside London, I do live on a (slightly higher than ) 26k p/a wage (before tax).
But then HI is right, the places where you can afford to live on this wage seem to be worst hit by the recession. I can't think of many friends who haven't been laid off/found it hard to get work in the past three years. Myself included.
| |
My husband is disabled and, due to a series of falls last year, I'm now his carer. We have one child. We live on state benefits.
Income support (piffling 12.50 a fortnight), Carers Allowance, Child Tax Credits, Incapacity Benefit, DLA, Housing and Council Tax Benefits and Child Benefit (but everyone with kids that).
Sounds like loads doesn't it?
It a actually work out at less than £350.00 a week.
I live in the North West, in a council house (so my rent is very reasonable)
Whn/ifI can ever return to work, my rent will not be unreasonable, nor my Council Tax and I'll certainly be able to earn around £350.00 a week. This is the longest time I've ever not worked (some of that was part-time) I'm getting stir crazy...
I still have to say that anyone who is insisting that it's easy or ok to move a child around schools either doesn't have children or didn't have to do that a lot as a child.
I did (army brat) and I won't inflict that on the Gruesome Twosome unless we are in severe danger of starving to death and I wouldn't expect someone else to do the same unless (was it Hoo who mentioned it?) there is some kind of state assistance.
It's this feckless shifting around of families that has lead to the breakdown of society... (ad infinitum ad nauseam)
I think it's important to remember that this is a cap, a maximum and as Ed alluded, not many people will be receiving anything like this figure. It's also a household figure and (I think) recognises the problem of workless households where no-one works because earning a wage would mean the entire household loses benefits.
There *has* to be a gap between the income of those unable to work and those who are working imo. In an ideal world this would be achieved by minimum wages being a *lot* higher but that ain't gonna happen so it's incumbent upon the State to calculate and set a limit to welfare benefits. £26,000 a year is not an unreasonable top limit and one that is only really going to affect a tiny minority living in high rent areas. For the majority in the other 99.9% of the country, they would never get near that figure anyway.
I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't one of the measures needed to keep the people we borrow billions from each year sweet.
Hmm.....
Shifting families around in the U.K. may seem bad, but shifting from, say, Massachusetts to Texas is quite a lot worse. 26,000 pounds is about 52,000 dollars. I think thatr's close to the average salary in the U.S., which tells you that one person can probably live on it, but a family of six would almost certainly need a second or third income to make ends meet.
Seems an awful lot to me, but then, I've never supported a family.
Moving around as a child can be useful, in moderation. But I'm still somewhat, er, maladjusted from doing far too much of it.  I was the perpetual new kid at school, think we counted it up as 12 different ones I attended...
| | Subject: Can you live on £26,000 a yr[ £500p/wk]? (UK Centric)
Posted Jan 23, 2012 by U94986
This is a reply to this Posting.
| | Post: 18
|
There's no way I'd move away from my family if I suddenly couldn't afford to live in my town. I'm a single mum with a special needs child and I need the support of my family. An that's *all* my family.
In the past I've had to call on at least two of my brothers, my mum & dad, and his dad. I can't do that if I have to move 50 miles away. Family and friends also provided a lot of his afterschool care so I could work because (so-called) professionals wouldn't.
I can't be the only person who really relies on family and friends for help. I changed schools once, and it's hard! Everyone else already has their friends, they don't teach the same subjects, they teach at different levels, so you're suddenly in the bottom group when you were at the top, or worse, they won't let you take an option because you're not good enough. Don't wish that on kids if it's not really necessary.
26k? I wish! I've never earned that in my life and I manage fine. OK, I don't get foreign holidays, I don't have a sky TV package and I may have to give up my car when I finish work in March but we'll see. I'd like to keep it, it has advantages.
As it being a cap for benefits, I don't know. The only people who tend to get a lot in benefits are surely those with large families (and how you feel about that aside, we can not call ourselves a civilisation and force poverty on children which is what cutting child benefits is essentially going to imply) or those with long-term illness or disability? I do wish that 'benefits' discussions could be split between those who are generally able to find reasonable work and those who can't. I don't have a problem with capping the overall income of 'job seekers' but it should still be a reasonable rate, and yes, minimum wage should be enough to live off without government support and we should pay nurses and so on far better.
What I don't understand is why the ill and disabled should be squeezed by benefit capping. What exactly are we trying to get them to do? Encourage the cancer patients back into work during chemo?
I think it's really important to separate those who suddenly find themselves on benefits (lost a job due to the recession, for eg) who have more than 2 children (average number?) because on the message boards I'm seeing a lot of "if you can't afford them, don't have them" but it's not as simple as that
There are a lot of disabled people who need extra benefits which might, at a push I guess, send them over the limit. Why should they be penalised?
For some, for sure, it's a lifestyle choice. But I wonder really how many people have 6 children by 6 fathers just for the heck of it?
I'd also like to see figures of benefit claimants who have Sky TV and foreign holidays and an iPhone. Broken down to: those who had but lost a paying job, and those who haven't had a job.
But what we really really really need to do is pull together and make sure that the minimum wage rises too.
Please note that Not Panicking Ltd is not responsible for the content of any external sites listed. The content on h2g2 is created by h2g2's Researchers, who are members of the public. Unlike Edited Guide Entries, the content on this page has not necessarily been checked by a h2g2 editor. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please
click here
.
|
