For some time I've been wondering just how I would manage if I had to live on benefits. Job Seeker Allowance is £56.20 per week (or it was in 2005 which is the only year I can get figures for). Someone on this tiny income would also get housing benefit to the full amount of their rent, free prescriptions, pay reduced Council Tax (or maybe pay none at all - I'm not sure). There are probably other benefits I don't know about. If they were registered disabled they would receive more money in benefits and would have free bus travel and free disabled parking.
Anyway, £56.20 does seem to be an incredibly small amount of money to live on. How much of that I wonder would someone be expected to spend on food? Would £2.50 per day be enough? I think I'm going to try and find out. I'm going to see if I can possibly do it. The problem is that I've already got food in and I'm going to be using some of it, so it might work out more expensive. I've also got fruit and vegetables that I grew myself, and I'm going to be using them, so that should make things cheaper. Maybe the two will balance out. What I'm going to allow myself, at least to start with, is £35 for two weeks, although I may have to increase that amount, depending on how things pan out. At the moment, I think I spend about £60-£65 a week on food, as I buy mostly organic and I also like gourmet foods.
I'm thinking this is going to be very difficult.
If anyone can supply me with more up to date benefit figures, I'd be grateful.