[user104658]

Originally Posted by jaxie

I don't know TS, tbh, I've never been on benefits in my life. It just sounded a lot on paper.

£20k for a family is not a lot of money, sadly.

It's £1660 a month. Take off (easily) £600 for rent and £120 for Council Tax/water, household bills realistically another £150, that's £790. "Little" school costs (they're always wanting something) another £50, then throw in a little debt (because whilst it's avoidable, let's face it, most people have some and you can't just wish it away) so another £50 and you're at £690 a month, which is about £160 a week to support 4 people - £40 each for food, clothing, toiletries, travel...

You could just about scrape together an existence I guess but throw in an unexpected repair or emergency plumber callout and you're screwed. You're one bad week away from going under. That's without even considering little things that are sort of essential these days like TV license, mobile phone (even if it's a cheap one on pay as you go) etc.


Put it this way... without wanting to give away too many of my own details, we have a family of four and our monthly household income is almost double that figure. Slightly less rent (Scotland), slightly more debt (lulz) and we run a car which all things considered probably costs about £200 a month. We don't struggle and, being honest, we probably "waste" a fair bit on frivolous / spur of the moment things but hardly living it up.I have absolutely NO IDEA how we would survive if our income was cut in half. I literally don't think the math works out .

The absolute lowest "all things considered" income we've been on as a family was just under £22000, and that was with only one child (aged under 2 so very little expense)... and at that point we were struggling, badly. "Ripped jeans and holes in the shoes, raiding the change jar to scrape together £5" level bad. "£80 bill lands on the mat and it's panic stations" sort of bad.