In America, welfare isn’t as generous and more selective. In UK, I know it’s more generous. I’m just curious if you could make it by off welfare benefits in the UK.

28 comments

  2. If by survive you mean literally stay alive, then yes. But whilst it may be more generous than America, it’s still not a lot of money, so it won’t provide you with a great life. Especially if you aren’t in social housing (in many parts of the country the housing benefit rate is below average rents).

  3. i survived, but i had to do things im not exactly proud of lol, nothing too dodgy i took .3 off of an 8th when i got one for peoples

    it aint easy, and must be aloit fucking harder since covid, i moved away from there about 6 years back now.. very accustomed to min maxing things tho.. Hell i lived in a car when i had full time employment, i just couldn’t ever afford the deposit from what i was being paid and spending to live

  4. Yes and comfortably with kids and as a single parent. I know a few people that say they live alone when they have a partner so they get more benefits.

    However in recent years with introduction of universal credit they have been less generous and making the benefit claim process much more difficult deliberately.

    But if no kids there’s very little help available and it’ll be bare minimum surviving.

  7. When I was unemployed all I got was £56/week. This was 2012.

    Hide under bushes and sleep in a bivvy with a decent sleeping bag. Wood burning stove to cook on. I have used all this kind of stuff before but not while homeless. Could afford it on that much money.

    Problem is, camping in England is illegal unless you specifically get the land owners permission. No one is going to give you permission and there is no publicly owned land that you could use either.

    So what do you do if you get caught and what happens to you next would have a big impact on it. An outdoors knife is probably going to be illegal to carry as well unless the police feel you have a good reason to be carrying it.

    Oh and you need to show you are spending 40 hours a week looking for work and have to apply to at least 10 jobs a week. If you don’t the welfare stops. They may also require you to work for a company full time in order to continue receiving your welfare, you only get the welfare payments and no actual wage. Work 40 hours, still get £56.

    Is it possible? I guess technically you could survive. But would you want to?

  9. It all depends on how much you’re entitled to, if you’re a single person you may struggle but just about survive but would definitely be better off in work, even if it was part time as they would top you up. . If you had a child, an illness or some other circumstances you may be entitled to more and many live comfortably on it.

  10. In the UK, its called “Social Security” but there is a subtle deliberate renaming of this to avoid the positive connotations of an actual society existing and one which has interest in giving people any sense of security.

  11. You could exist, but it wouldn’t be living. Alos, why is welfare your go-to? Shouldn’t it be “could I survive of a minimum wage JOB in the UK?” Which funnily enough is the same answer, you could exist but you wouldn’t have a life.

  13. You can survive on welfare, my sister gets close to 1800 a month, single mother 2 kids. Her rent is £320 a month for a 2 bed semi detached council house.

    One of the kids is a slow developer so she gets money for that, she gets more money because the other kid has ADHD. She gets PIP due to anxiety and depression.

    She regularly uses food banks to save money on food, she is terrible with money, easy come easy go. She has all the latest gadgets, she has no intention of working.

    She “earns” more than my fiance who works 40 hours a week, once the kids hit 18 she’ll be fucked but untill then it’s easy living.

    Oh and it’s almost impossible to get kicked out of a council house, my mum’s been in the same council house since I was little (30 years ago), she in a 3 bedroom terrace as a single person, the government pay her rent just as they’ll pay my sister’s untill she dies, no worry about being evicted.

    Edit

    On the other foot, my dad lives in a 5 bedroom HMO full of drug addicts (he’s also one), he has nothing and gets nothing and I wouldn’t wish his life on anyone, he “survives” on benefits and that’s about it.

  14. Depends. If your an honest decent human being, you can SURVIVE. But thats it. You cant do anything.

    However if your one of these people who is dealing, wrongly claiming other benefits and are also working cash in hand, you can be reasonably comfy.

  15. We do as a family, got made redundant 3 times in 10 years so have given up work for a bit. We get £2100 universal credit, £600 pip and my wife works 2 days a week and get about £470 a month. Child benefit is £160 a month. So we get about £3300. Does us just fine, we save most months.

  16. Takeaways every night, latest consoles and flat screen tv’s, constant pub trips and unlimited cigarettes and all bills paid for- sign me the fuck up;

    HEAVY /S here guys

    Fuck having to go on welfare where you are treated like scum of the the earth for needing a helping hand

  17. I have a child, so yes, but I would have to move to a cheaper area of the city I live in. I live in an extremely middle class family area right now & that wouldn’t be affordable. I wouldn’t want to have to survive off welfare though, my family has a good quality of life right now & while I love that I have the luxury of 12 months maternity with my kid, I will really need the mental stimulation of work when I go back next year

  18. No. Those making it work have some other source of funds. Could be family buying stuff for them , side hustle, non cohabiting partner, baby daddy, dealing, otherwise the math simply doesn’t work

  19. Keep your heart beating? Yes.
    Live? Not really.
    The government does the bare minimum to support those who are the most vulnerable.

  20. You can survive, but barely, and it’s inhumane. Unless they have a backup plan e.g. savings or family support) skipped meals and no heating is the norm. The long term ill are treated like crap here. The cut off point for being ill “enough” to qualify for a higher, liveable rate (and liveable means just that, it doesn’t mean having a nice quality of life) is extremely stringent too – you have to be fully disabled to be eligible. If not, but still unable to work, you’re expected to live on £368 a month. It’s not possible, and it badly impacts people’s health outcomes. Again, inhumane, because the long term ill are not in a position to be able to change their circumstances and chances of recovery from chronic conditions are massively reduced with a higher stress burden, insufficient nutrition etc.

    The UK is a really awful country to fall ill in. We’ve dismantled any sense of community obligations (i.e. in poorer countries disabled people would be looked after by families or the wider community) because we’ve set it up so that the state is supposed to step in and do that job instead, but compared to other nations with a welfare state, the financial help that is offered is nowhere near enough to actually live on.

    It’s hard to believe just how bad it is – and how punitive – until you go through it yourself.

  21. Its a stretch but probably not for long no matter what your circumstances. Best getting a proper joab with prospects.

  22. Not really. I don’t see how it’s possible for someone already in privately rented accommodation.

    I’ve been unemployed for at least two periods I can remember. Both lasting some months. If I didn’t have any redundancy money, it would have been terrible.

    Housing benefit IIRC only pays something like a percentage of the rent since they go off some old market value.

    That means on a 1 bed flat you could easily have a big shortfall you magically need to cover.

    Then job seekers was around £70 a week. I remember that around £30-40 went on food (depended what basics and staples I already had at home).

    Then you’ve got water, electricity, gas, and at least a basic mobile phone, and internet connection to maintain. The last two are crucial for job searching, and remote interviews.

  24. No. I pay huge amounts of taxes to subside other people’s lifestyle choices.

    It’s a glorious system!

  25. When talking about benefits in the UK, the people on benefits will tell you the money is not enough and those not on benefits will usually tell you people who claim benefits get too much money.

  27. Well, US welfare is an extremely low bar. A recent study by various very well-respected organisations have calculated that each adult in the UK needs about £120 a week for basic survival (food, energy etc) but have to manage on £85. Under 25 year olds £67 a week.

    My husband and I are pensioners and if it wasn’t for my husband’s occupational pension (which isn’t big) we would be really struggling. Since retirement we don’t ever get takeaways, go on holiday etc. Before retirement our holidays were usually staying with friends on the coast and we also have friends in Europe. We don’t have a car or anything and have always lived within our means (no debt etc) and our families were not well-off. No generational wealth passed down , we inherited photo albums, crockery and some very good saucepans made before WW2. Our families were used to being frugal. We still have a small amount of savings so if our washing machine dies, we could get a new one without getting on hire purchase.

    When we were both working we topped up our elderly widowed mothers’ income as best we could. They both died before we retired and they were living very frugally too. The UK is a wealthy country but the gap between the richest and the poorest widens more and more every year. There is a lot of poverty in the UK. Many parents go without food so their children can eat. This applies to parents who are in work too.

    We are not so poor that we can’t have a small dog and a cat and although we don’t have house contents insurance, we have pet insurance. I do know people who have had to rehome pets because they can’t afford to feed them any more.

  28. Survival is a very low bar.

    It’s been a while since I’ve heard of anyone on benefits dying of starvation although extreme poverty can kill you in a lot of different ways so the failures of the benefits system safety net do have a significant mortality rate, I’d say the survival rate is high, but a long way from 100%.

    The importance difference is that for the moment we have the NHS, so nobody is left to die because they can’t afford the treatment.

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