Iain Duncan Smith's new challenge - £53 a week

[Peteaud]

I'm sure he could manage for one week, it's doing it for 52 weeks a year that's the problem

The petition is £53 per week for at least a year.

 

[P.H]

I don't think it covers Council Tax, there's an additional benefit for that, at least there was last time I was on the dole a few years ago.
A quick calculation shows that my essential bills come to £18 a week, leaving £35 and I don't have a car or TV to pay for. I could live on that for a few weeks, if all I had to buy was food and household stuff, but after a few weeks it would drive me mad. And what about job hunting? That can get expensive, 50p a stamp, phone calls and for me at least £3 if I wanted to get into town without cycling, say for an interview. I couldn't afford to do much job hunting on £35 a week.

 

[ColinJ]

The petition is £53 per week for at least a year.

It should include the rule that no debts can be carried over at the end of that year and no essential spending deferred. (All bills settled, no loans, credit card usage or overdrafts.)

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Couldn't we just have him put down?

 

[User6179]

£53 will just about cover my fags, luckily I work on the side and I rent the spare room out .
Unfortunately thats what people will be forced to do !!

 

[Arch]

Indeed - £53 is way more than I spend a week on food and drink so I would be happy as long as I had more than £53 in the weeks that I paid the utility bills, council tax, insurance etc.!

I generally spend about £15 a week on groceries. £20 if NT and I are eating well at the weekend (IE, not just pasta!). If that leaves £33 a week to cover everything else, that's £132 a quarter...

In a warm summer quarter, my leccy bill comes in around £40. But in a winter quarter, it could be nearly all that £132. And that's only a little flat (albeit with inefficient heating).

 

[ColinJ]

Couldn't we just have him put down?

There are rough pubs in Manchester where you could probably hire someone for £53 to bump him off!

 

[RedRider]

After a few months of £53 a week you'll be left with threadbare clothes and shoes that let water in. You're probably paying through the nose for an expensive pay-as-you-go fuel meter, unable to visit friends or family in other cities unless they pay for your travel, you're social life will have dwindled, you're written off as workshy scum and you're probably depressed so cheap cider or cannabis will be increasingly attractive. By this time job prospects will seem remote at best. You'll probably stop opening 'official-looking' mail, you'll get sanctioned by the dole who'll stop your money for a week and housing benefit will be stopped until you can drag your sorry arse upto the housing office providing a fresh heap of evidence about your non-existent income. At least after a couple of years, if you're lucky enough to live in a council area that's been forced to cut council tax benefits, you'll be taken to prison for non-payment and get decent food for your short stay. Upon leaving prison you will be homeless. Unfortunately homelessness services have been cut to the bone. That's just tough.

 

[Peteaud]

 

[cyberknight]

I assumed that it was supposed to be all bills other than rent or mortgage. I doubt that you could buy or rent even a small property for much less than £53 a week anywhere in the UK these days!

I could definitely live on £53 a week for food, drink, travel, household items and essential clothing. Once you start adding in council tax, home insurance, gas, water, electricity, phone line rental etc. though, you'd really be struggling. My council tax is in the bottom band and even that is about £16 a week.

an i move to where you live ? my council tax is £28 a week for band b in a relativley cheap area.
As for living on £53 a week the mortgage advisor told me lenders use a set of formulas to work out how much you need to live on before a mortgage.
For a family with 2 kids its ...£258 a week

 

[Herbie]

I can't live off that and, living in a 2-bedroom flat, I can't exchange my flat where I've lived for 25 years for a smaller one because the council has been forced to let them get bought at discounted rates. And, I tell you what, I don't think I can face living in such a world.

I foresee a growing number of people trying to get themselves imprisoned. For a meal and a bed.

This is just another Tory policy in a long line of Tory ploys to keep the poor poor etc etc Its hard to take that they're back in power after being as good as dead in the water for all those years...gawd elp us

 

[Crankarm]

The Party for Arrogant Toffs or simply the Nasty Party.

 

[Crankarm]

What about when things go wrong? The cooker stops working or the plumbing springs a leak? What kind of world do those who say, 'I could live on £53 a week' actually live in? Take away all the savings safety-nets, and also all the store-cupboard items like bulk-bought staples and household essentials like toilet rolls. Then you try and live on such a pittance. IDS is a moron.

How frequently does your house plumbing spring a leak ? Never that's how often. And if it did those on benefits are in rented accommodation so the Housing Association/Landlord is liable to fix it and make good. But yes IDS is a moron. However those on benefits always have a 5ft wide flat screen TV, can afford to chain smoke, are invariably fat which means they eat too much which means they in turn spend too much on food. They all have pets which cost £££ to feed and maintain. Scum benefit cheats near me have a newer car than me and I work! So perhaps some are not as poor as is thought. Drug dealing on the side.

 

[marinyork]

I don't think it covers Council Tax, there's an additional benefit for that, at least there was last time I was on the dole a few years ago.

Point being that changes today. Up and down the land there will now be 300 different "council tax support" policies. In general a large number of people who did not pay a penny towards council tax will have now to pay a % of their council tax bill (albeit a relatively small percentage of a large total to someone with not much money which equates to a fair amount of change). If you're very lucky you won't have to pay it. The policies vary quite wildly as it is upto LAs to decide where the shortfall is made up. Because a lot of pensioners are protected and say if you live in a city of half a million people and they make up half of the 60,000 units receiving supposrt, as a local paper wisely pointed out, that effectively means that for the other 30,000 people the 10% cut the government has given effectively becomes larger.

 

[P.H]

Point being that changes today. Up and down the land there will now be 300 different "council tax support" policies. I

I just Googled it as I couldn't believe even IDS could do something so low, I was shocked that he has.
What makes it even more disgusting is that the Gov can just say it's not them it's the local council.... and of course the worst hit will not be the Tory ones, disgusting and clever, I'll vote IDS as the next Bond baddy.