What's the min. you can live on in London?

[breasticles]

depends on getting your housing costs paid though. my rent's £425/month.. my council tax is covered by c/tax benefit, but my housing benefit is £90/week - the maximum LHA allowance for a room in a shared property apparently.
their letter about why they turned down my discretionary payment application (to get the difference covered) stated that it's because i 'get the maximum LHA amount available' atm.
erm, that's the reason i applied for the discretionary payment

so the £35/month difference is meant to come out of my ESA. which is the minimum amount of benefit i'm meant to be able to 'live' on...

expect a 'WTF?' thread to be started later (along a request for housing advice).

offtopic, but i reckon this is happening loads with LHA and not just in london. i'm looking to move and can barely find anything in central bristol where i wouldn't have to top up the rent, which i really can't see myself being able to afford. LHA is a joke, especially seeing as it was supposed to stop the whole 'no DSS' trap- people are still putting no DSS on their ads, so if you want to live with them you're kind of doing it on the basis of a lie. anyway, off- topic, like i say.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

I got somewhat in debt earning £17,000pa in London in my early 20s, but then that was with going out a fair bit (after a year in Northampton I think I got a bit giddy at the bright lights ) and putting holidays on credit card. I think it kinda depends on what stage of life you're at and what compromises you're willing to make - despite being older I reckon I could live a lot easier on that now as I'm more settled and tend to socialise in a cheaper way, but in a couple of years time it (hopefully) won't be feasible.

 

[pinkmonkey]

^^^
Thats exactly what happened to me. I do spend less now I'm older - I'm hardly dashing down to Oxford Street to buy a new top to wear on Saturday night, anymore. The days of buying coke are long gone as well...

 

[keithy]

I'm 23 and I live on fuck all. And go out. And have drugs. And joy.

I'm a miracle

 

[Epona]

tbh even though I am experiencing difficulty in finding suitable part time work (in terms of my physical problems) at the mo, we could live quite comfortably on 1 income if it weren't for debt built up earlier in life (both of us are guilty in that regard). I had already bought a flat in London when they were cheap in the early-mid '90s as it was far cheaper (about half the monthly rent I was paying for a smaller place beforehand) and easier than renting at that point in time, then moved a few years later, consequently I now have a fairly small mortgage - it was just lucky timing in terms of when I needed to move to London for work and saw what rents were like compared to mortgage on a similar sized place, and luck in moving to an area that was a complete shithole but became trendy. Fuck knows how anyone would do it these days.

So our housing costs are actually quite low, and day to day living costs not too bad, it's debt that is crippling us. We spend as much every month paying off debt as we do on mortgage and living costs combined. Shit that's fucking awful really

I suppose the main lesson I have learned is Don't get into debt, even if you think you can pay it off when you borrow, you don't know what may be around the corner. If it weren't for debt we could be living really quite OK despite the physical problems I developed - not luxuriously, but with far fewer worries and enough for the occassional treat.

 

[bouncer_the_dog]

I would consider London for less than £35k (which is why I don't live in London!!)

 

[Oswaldtwistle]

I do think that £5.80 or whatever the minimum wage is in London is nowhere near enough unless you are sharing a room or have a parent or partner to subsidise you.

I reckon you could just about live on the minimum wage and have your own room. IIRC it works out about 180 a week for a full time week after deductions. If you got an all inclusive room for 100 you'd just about have enough for food and clothes, providing you had minmal travelling expenses.

I can't see what the point of choosing to do so would be, though. You wouldn't be able to enjoy much of London, and you'd constantly be surrounded by expensive things and wealthier people. Recipe for misery IMHO.

 

[_angel_]

I reckon you could just about live on the minimum wage and have your own room. IIRC it works out about 180 a week for a full time week after deductions. If you got an all inclusive room for 100 you'd just about have enough for food and clothes, providing you had minmal travelling expenses.

I can't see what the point of choosing to do so would be, though. You wouldn't be able to enjoy much of London, and you'd constantly be surrounded by expensive things and wealthier people. Recipe for misery IMHO.

So, you could nearly/ just about manage to get your own room on a fulltime job min wage in London, if you were lucky. Bloody hell.