Could you live on £40 a week?

[uxzuigal]

Crazy, my house alone costs me 800£ per month. Id have to become some kinda kingpin drug dealer to survive on that.

Infact: You get more per week for sitting in jail in Norway, go figure.

[Serpha]

£40 after paying all the bills, that's plenty. Also you have a car? Sell it.

[thunderdragon2]

One would think so. But nope, under UC you only get extra money in the "limited capability for work and work activity", not for the "limited capability for work" group. Confusing as fuck with the naming. But I've spoken to my work coach and he confirmed I'd get £73.13 a week, a reduction of £91 a week. As I said, disabled people are treated worse than criminals. I'd love to get a job and get off benefits, I've been trying. I applied for Sky as customer service, a job I'd be great in and can do easily, but I failed the final interview TWICE. No feedback to what I did wrong. Even worse is zero hour contracts, which I've had to refuse. Under zero hour contracts, you are classed as full time work and get no help. I need guaranteed hours, not 40 one week then 10 for next 3 weeks, that's not livable. Zero hour contracts need to be illegal, but that's another topic.

well we have both bee told different things then since i am unable to claim UC since i claim PiP so i can only claim JSA i get the lower mobility section i live in Scotland so the difference may be there i don't know . ive been trying to 2 YEARS to get a job and i haven't gotten to the interview stage yet but i agree 0 hr contracts need to go

[Tommi]

£40 after paying all the bills, that's plenty. Also you have a car? Sell it.

Considering the car is a motability car, I'd can't sell it...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motability

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well we have both bee told different things then since i am unable to claim UC since i claim PiP so i can only claim JSA i get the lower mobility section i live in Scotland so the difference may be there i don't know . ive been trying to 2 YEARS to get a job and i haven't gotten to the interview stage yet but i agree 0 hr contracts need to go

Nope, we're both in Scotland. Under JSA, I can get Enhanced disability premium and severe disability premium. Under ESA WRAG, they don't pay enhanced disability premium, just severe disability premium. But my area, West Lothian, is moving to UC in feb 2018.

[Raldazzar]

Car is covered by my PIP. I get high rate of mobility and I can choose to use that to get a car with everything except fuel covered for 3 years. Rent is paid for by housing benefit. Health insurance I don't have any, only the NHS which thankfully covers my most expensive treatments like Tramadol and Infliximab.

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I can't see full details of that. But I don't have children. I live alone. My rent is £67 a week. Council Tax band is A, no disability reductions. I get no other benefits apart from Personal Independence Payments.

This is my result: https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefit...tPeriod=Weekly

ah ok

I'm on the higher ESA bracket. (took ages to get that, lots of govt hoops to jump through), I have a daughter and live with my wife, although she is foreign so not entitled to anything, so it essentially counts me as a single male. rent is 800/month. so that's likely where the huge jump comes from

I will be off it by the time it comes to my area though so no great worry, I'll be back earning.

[Dangg]

Fuck no. I couldn't live on 40 a day.

[Donald Hellscream]

Yeah no problem, of course it wouldn't be super healthy or anything but I wouldn't die from starvation.

The reason is that I have no expenses outside of my rent and utilities like heating and electricity that I need to pay regularly so obviously that leaves alot of money for buying food.

[Stefanus]

Yes, here in Serbia, definitely, I would have enough money to pay all other living expenses diligently as well (communal services) monthly, if I were provided £40 each week. Having said that, my living expenses are not that high. If the said amount would be enough for me to support an entire family, this would be up to debate...

[kaelix1]

45 euro?, yes no problem i dare to day

Im not in Irland now but this is what i did there

Each Sunday i used to ''hunt'' for food, going for the best price i could find, buy enough food for 6 days and cook it in the same day and put it in the fridge, each day i had 2k callories, sunday was the feast day where i didn't eat (not because of money but because i notice i fell really good if i fast 1 days per week, for some odd reason my body like it)

[Jam Spoon]

Is there not some council tax benefit you can get for being on a low income?

[Super Kami Dende]

That's nearly $70 AUD.

I can live EASILY in Australia on $70AUD for food. If you can't you are useless.

[NM 156]

I can live off of zero dollars a week. It kinda sucks but I have done it before.

[DarkAmbient]

How are you spending £10 a week on internet? Is that for a fibre connection with landline? Because I have Plusnet's highest speed fibre package with a landline and it costs me less than £10 a week.

[Medusa Cascade]

I get £200 a week. Though life still sucks.

[Deleted]

Easy - why is this a problem? It only becomes a problem when you have to continue this. The biggest costs are the ones OP didn't mention. Water, power, rent/taxes. Beyond that I even could keep most of my waifus.

[willtron]

I'd struggle on £40 a day...

[Tommi]

How are you spending £10 a week on internet? Is that for a fibre connection with landline? Because I have Plusnet's highest speed fibre package with a landline and it costs me less than £10 a week.

Yeah, I've unfortunately still on contract for a while yet

[baskev]

With Universal Credit coming to my area, I decided to check out what I'd be getting. With my disabilities, and what the government have placed me in with ESA, I'd be getting £73.14 a week. My utilities come out at ~£33 a week (Mobile - £5, Internet - £10, Council Tax - £6, Elec/Gas - £12) meaning I have a grand total of £40 a week to live on.

£40 to feed myself, look for a job and expected to travel for interviews. Thankfully, I have a car so it isn't as bad as someone who'd have to get buses to interviews. In my local area, I'd be paying around £5 to £10 going for an interview with buses. How the fuck do they expect people to live off that? Espcially disabled people who have it hard enough looking for a job that we can do. I have mobility issues, so my work is limited to somewhere I can sit and work, which is surprisingly little where I live in a 20 mile radius.

Guess it's true that the government would rather disabled and old people just kill themselves......

Oh yeah, DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) has no targets and treats everyone's case on it's own merits, right? https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reque...20response.pdf

yeah its bad if you have a disability...You want to work but they throw up roadblock after roadblock.

But to your question: its about 45 euro's.
Lets say 50 km a day driving ( not a interview everyday). In a decent care that is like 1 tank of fuel a month. witch is about ( here where i live) 50 euro's...divided by 4 weeks. So thats about 12 euro's for gas.

Where i live if you shop correctly and do it cheap you can eat for about 3 euro aday ( but it will be bare min).

7 x 3= 21 + 12 (fuel) = 33...so you have about 17 euro's left. You either could go out with your friends...or ad 2,30 euro to each day for eating...

So yes its doable. And its a problem non disabled people have to.

But it all depends on where you live, how much the food cost. Per example in my city ( 500k) each Saturday there is a market. If you buy veggie's there you can by enough greens for a week for 5 to 7 bucks. If you do not eat meat everyday. Buy cheap bread and cheap pasta, rice, potato's etc...food should be doable. but again..if you live in london or a smaller city will make or brake you.

[endersblade]

That's like, what, not even $30 USD? I could survive on that if my rent and all of my bills were paid for. Otherwise, not even sort of close.

Though as it currently stands I'm sitting on about $100,000 in Magic: The Gathering cards, maybe more...I've sold several hundred dollars worth just to make rent before, so I wouldn't have to deal with that low amount a week anyway.

[Holofernes]

why the fuck does a disabled person gets a free car?