General Chat

It wasn't in the tabloids Dermot ( as far as I know) it was from the BBC... the Rowntree Foundation has, as I'm sure you know, been around a long time.

From my own pov now living where I can get a bus every ten minutes to a wealth of supermarkets etc , it is a huge change from a place where I could get a bus every two hours if lucky ( and not after six) or a train roughly the same times, to a small town with limited ( and therefore more expensive) shopping.

If I have to get a taxi to the nearest town here for eg for the Dr it is £3.50, where I was it would have been £15.

Phew Dermont, I'm glad I don't have your philosophy in life. The words Hari Kari, readily come to mind.
Julia in Derbyshire

Beware of tabloid indoctrination.

That was my thought too Liz... even taking into account council tax benefit and the like, it comes nowhere near that figure.

Strange then that people on benefit get a letter stating what they will get and it says (or used to)
This is what the government says you need, to live on.......


and it's nothing like the amounts quoted above!

There's living and there's existing!

Lizx

As can be seen from my board name, I live in Derbyshire. This morning on local early radio, they featured this article, as it is obviously of interest to those living here.
The part of the county in which I live is what can be called a post mining/heavy industry area, but which is now being 'cultivated' for want of another word. However, we only have to go 10/15 miles down the road and we are really in rural country.
As part of this morning's story, they interviewed a local councillor, from further up the county, in a rural locale, married and with two children, and addressed the findings to him. He was about to take his two children for a swimming lesson. From what I understood, it is the cost of transport, from anywhere to anywhere, that the rural people are finding prohibitive, thus putting up their cost of living. A car is a nessesity, not a luxery, in this situation, with petrol/deisel, tax and insurance.
As in many other counties, that are away from the industrial areas,Derbyshire is a series of small villages and hamlets, with rural public transport practically non existant, if they were ever on a bus route. Many of these villages and hamlets struggle to maintain, even an infants school, because of dwindling population, so the children have to be bussed elsewhere. Cost again.
Not all places are beauty spots, garnering monies from tourism. Some people have no choice as to whether they live in the countryside or not, no matter how beautiful it is. It is where they make their living, and where their roots are.
The report I was listening to, stated that people in rural locations need about another £60 per week, as opposed to their urban counterparts.
Yes, as someone living with their feet in both troughs, as you might say, I can fully see, where this report is coming from.
Julia in Derbyshire

Presumably a necessity is food and some form of heating. So utility bills, food and transport but not plasma TV, washing machine, dishwasher. But then to somebody who is maybe disabled or has a disabled member of the family then a washing machine might be a necessity. I think it depends on individual needs and you can't generalise.

And 18000 does seem quite low, but they do say to 'get by' which infers to 'exist'.

Absolute nonsense. £18,000pa would only get you by round here if you stayed living with your parents for the rest of your days and didn't reproduce.

Presumably transport means a car as there is a lack of public transport in country regions and fuel is mainly the petrol to put in the car, although I have heard people mention oil for heating so possibly fuel could refer to this too.

That makes sense to me as often the car is the only form of transport that is regularly available to those living in the country, whereas for a lot of people in more urban areas a car is more a convenience than a real necessity.

For example, if I drove it would take me about 20mins to get to a friend of mine. As I don't I have to take two buses and it takes me an hour, this doesn't make a car a necessity but it would make things more convenient if you see what I mean. Often people will say I need a car to get to work, and sometime they do, eg they work nights so there is no public transport, but for some having a car just means that they can get to work more quickly and easily using a car.

Not entirely sure this is what you mean as I've focussed on transport rather than what is needed in general. I'll give it some thought and come back to this because I have to admit that I find it interesting what some people think is necessary. People seem to think that certain things are essential when they are relatively new inventions that many of our ancestors had to do without because they didn't exist, or if they did they couldn't afford them.

What is a "minimum acceptable living standard"? Does it include just the "basics" or does it include things that make live a bit easier/nicer?

interesting in the current climate of benefit cuts,

"People in rural areas in England need to take home up to 20% more than those in urban areas to reach an acceptable living standard, according to a report.

The Commission for Rural Communities said someone in a remote village needed £18,600 a year to get by, compared with £14,400 for an urban dweller.

It means a villager must earn about 50% above the minimum wage of £5.93 an hour to reach a minimum living standard.

The report cited transport and fuel as the main extra cost burdens.


A team from Loughborough University that calculates the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's minimum income standard index carried out the research for the CRC.

This index is based on what items people think households need to be able to afford to achieve a minimum acceptable living standard."

Can't get back to reply for a bit, but interested to know what YOU would say the items were for a "minimum acceptable living standard" ?