Rather, it produces what the anti-poverty charity Joseph Rowntree Foundation classifies as “destitution” – not being able to afford certain essential items, including food and heating. This makes the rising use of food banks unsurprising, and it shows how the the “safety net” offered to someone in this situation does not in fact guarantee any form of safety.
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In our research, we estimate that food alone costs a minimum of £7 a day. £41 a week is less than £6 a day available to spend on life’s necessities, compared to £9 a day before the cut in universal credit. It’s sobering to realise that the £20 weekly temporary universal credit increase, which seems modest to most people, has given some people half as much to spend on these items. This leaves only £41 a week to cover everything else –- food, heating, clothes, household goods, toiletries and other everyday expenses.
#Universal bus charter plus
Many will also need to travel to shop for food.Ī bus pass, plus any expenses to travel further afield to look for work, typically costs about £30 a week. If they cannot show this, their income will be zero. Most out-of-work people receiving universal credit will need to show that they are looking for work, across a wide area, and they need to travel to do that. Then they will need to cover travel costs. They will typically have to contribute about £3.50 a week to council tax, not covered by the rebate. Let’s look at what they can afford on that £74.70. This is only about a third of what they need to reach the £213 minimum income standard. This is to cover all their costs other than rent and a partial rebate of council tax, to which people on very low incomes are eligible. Case 1: a single person, driven to destitutionĪ single person over the age of 25 and out of work will have their entitlement cut from £94.70 to just £74.70 per week. The following cases illustrate how this cut could impact the livelihoods of two different households – with and without children – in urban areas outside of London. The £20 cut to universal credit will place many hundreds of thousands of households below this minimum income standard.
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More than one in four people in the UK do not have enough to afford these budgets, but they represent what people think is needed to live in dignity in the UK today.
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This minimum income standard is compiled by asking groups of members of the public to discuss and agree on a detailed list of items that should go into a minimum household budget.Īfter costing and adding up these lists, we estimated that in 2021 a single person would require £213 a week, with different amounts specified for households according to how many children and adults live in them.