Bare minimum costs calculation shows how UK benefits fall short

theguardian.com:

How much is just enough to get by? According to new research, it is £120 a week. After housing costs, that is the bare minimum required for an unemployed single adult in the UK to eat regularly, heat their home, have the odd shower, take the odd bus trip, use a mobile phone, and, well, not do too much else.

If you are one of Monty Python’s four Yorkshiremen or a certain kind of backbench Conservative MP, £120 a week will seem an absurd luxury. If you are a poverty researcher, on the other hand, it’s a relatively modest sum that offers a big upgrade on current benefit levels while only scratching the surface of the UK’s “deep poverty” problem.

The “essentials guarantee” basket of costs drawn up by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Trussell Trust sets aside £37 a week for food for a single adult or £67 for a couple, £35/£44 for energy; £16/£32 for travel, and £13/£23 for sundries such as toiletries, washing-up liquid, toothpaste, hair cuts and bank charges (£23). Water bills, phones and internet, and clothes together account for another £20/£31 a week.

The intention was certainly to aspire to the austere – “the more stringent and conservative end of the spectrum”, the charities say. It is modelled partly on official data that tracks what low-income households actually spend, and has been reality-checked with benefit claimant focus groups.

The estimates exclude alcohol, cigarettes and Netflix subscriptions (though it includes £3 a week for the BBC licence fee). It assumes the person rents (nothing for house maintenance and insurance or replacing broken fridges and cookers). Travel allowance is the equivalent of eight bus rides a week, precluding running a car.

Whether you think £120 a week is frugality gone mad or