Downs Shifting - Form 60K Job Brighton To 16K West Wales

[needsleep]

A couple of things:

1. Moving to a place where nobody else wants to live is a seriously bizarre way to bring your spending impulses under control.

2. Most people in the countryside don't live the good life. Sure it's nice to learn the skills and a bit of land in case you need it but add up all the time and effort and yo're paying yourself £1 an hour to grow veg. It is more cost effective to have a proper job. But jobs in those areas are hard to get. And if you do get one you don't have time to spend on the smallholding growing the veg.

3. Point 2 is why nobody wants to live in those places. They are economic dead ends.

[Longtermrenter]

FRom the comments

What you fail to mention is where your £16,000 income actually comes from:

Assume partner works 16 hours at minimum wage = £4938.96

Working tax credit (as one person works 16 hours a week) = £3872.28

Child tax credit = £5662.02

Child benefit =£1752.40

Total income = £16,225.66

So the £16K income is likely to include £11,286.70 of benefits!

As you have no savings you'll also get council tax benefit on top of this which is likely to be about £1,500 a year.

So it seems to me that the taxpayer is subsidising your lifestyle whilst you write your book.

This is a mistake a lot of benefit bashers make. If you claim housing or council tax benefit tax credits are counted as income and your benefit is reduced accordingly.16k, inc tax credits would mean almost zero council tax benefit if any at all. In fact, generally you would find that any tax credits you earn are taken off of your council tax and housing benefit thus making the tax credits hardly worth claiming except to get the nhs exemption card I guess.

[The Preacherman]

Well, journalism is 'trade' - I guess the vast majority of us are working class, because we have to work for a living, with a large proportion of this working class being the underclass.

Define it however you want. People like this couple claim to be working class i.e. life is a struggle when the opposite is true they are well educated and have the skills to earn more than what you call the underclass.

[Si1]

A couple of things:

1. Moving to a place where nobody else wants to live is a seriously bizarre way to bring your spending impulses under control.

2. Most people in the countryside don't live the good life. Sure it's nice to learn the skills and a bit of land in case you need it but add up all the time and effort and yo're paying yourself £1 an hour to grow veg. It is more cost effective to have a proper job. But jobs in those areas are hard to get. And if you do get one you don't have time to spend on the smallholding growing the veg.

3. Point 2 is why nobody wants to live in those places. They are economic dead ends.

point 4 is these people in this article get benefits having put all their cash into their property

[needsleep]

point 4 is these people in this article get benefits having put all their cash into their property

It's the system that is wrong not them. Legally maximising benefit revenue is no different than legally minimising tax paid (i.e. tax avoidance). Both are a drain on the state. Both morally questionable.

[Rare Bear]

It's the system that is wrong not them. Legally maximising benefit revenue is no different than legally minimising tax paid (i.e. tax avoidance). Both are a drain on the state. Both morally questionable.

However the guy who minimises tax paid (i.e. tax avoidance) is doing his best to keep his own money. The guy who legally maximises benefit revenue is doing his best to get someone else's money.

[Si1]

It's the system that is wrong not them. Legally maximising benefit revenue is no different than legally minimising tax paid (i.e. tax avoidance). Both are a drain on the state. Both morally questionable.

indeed

[Brave New World]

What a load of shite.

The aspiring classes do country living. Feckless w*nkers.

Still got a mortgage, relying on state benefits and still writing pieces in the Guardian to make ends meet whilst also writing a book about it. Feck off.