Good morning. What does it cost to survive? If you’re looking for an answer in Britain, you might think it’s £85 a week: from April, that’s the new universal credit standard allowance for a single person, the basic unit on which the benefits system is built. If you have absolutely nothing else, you have that – and it’s up 10.1% on the previous figure. Except, in reality, it’s not enough.
I learned something new from Patrick Butler’s story, on the front page of the Guardian this morning, about the basis of that figure: it has no foundation in a robust calculation of the very minimum necessary to live. Instead, it is the product of years of adjustments to a number that appears to have been plucked out of the air. In recent years, the trend has been downward. The basic rate of universal credit is now at its lowest ever level as a proportion of average earnings. The result is familiar by now: on that money, you can heat or eat. You can’t do both.
That’s the context for new research by the Trussell Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which attempts to calculate the bare minimum cost of living for an adult in Britain. The report estimates it to be £120 a week – meaning many people on universal credit are living in destitution. In five numbers, today’s newsletter tells the story of that crucial shortfall, the choices that it forces people to make, and what it would take to fix it. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Brexit | Rishi Sunak is to hold a summit with the president of the European Commission on Monday to sign off a revised deal on the Northern Ireland protocol. But No 10 is braced for a hostile response from Tory Brexit supporters and the DUP as it attempts to sell the deal this week. Here’s an explainer on the key issues.
Immigration | A sailing boat thought to be carrying refugees from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan has crashed against rocks off the coast of Italy, killing 58 people, including children. There were thought to have been 140 to 150 people onboard, with 81 survivors.
Renewable energy | The Australia-based company Recharge Industries will take over collapsed battery maker Britishvolt after finalising a deal with administrators late on Sunday in the UK. The agreement revives hopes for the construction of a £3.8bn “gigafactory” in northern England.
Russia | Vladimir Putin has accused the west of seeking to “dismember” Russia and to turn the vast country into a series of weak mini-states. In an apparent attempt to boost support for the invasion of Ukraine, he claimed without evidence that a plot had been under way since the collapse of the USSR.
Cinema | Everything Everywhere All at Once reigned supreme at this year’s Screen Actors Guild awards, winning four major awards and breaking the record for most wins for a single film. The multiverse fantasy film picked up the night’s biggest award for ensemble in a motion picture, female actor for Michelle Yeoh and both supporting actor awards, for Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan.
In depth: Just how hard is it to get by on universal credit?
For years, the public discourse around benefits has been dominated by the idea that recipients are shirkers getting an easy ride, who must be pushed back into employment by a system that makes the alternative as difficult as possible.
“The idea that benefits might be too low did not have any traction for a long time,” said Patrick Butler. “But with Covid, millions went on to universal credit for the first time. Many of them were astonished to find out how little it was.” Indeed, as Patrick’s analysis notes, a typical worker who loses their job will find universal credit replaces just 13% of their earnings. “This winter, with energy and food prices through the roof, there has been a new focus on whether our most basic safety net is providing enough.” Few seriously claim benefits are adequate today: the argument is more that the state is too stretched to do any better.
The research published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Trussell Trust starts from the other end of the problem, by asking what a realistic bare minimum might be. “The debate on UC is always about whether it should be kept, or dropped, or what the percentage rise should be,” Patrick said. “This is something different: they’ve sat down and thought about a basket of items which nobody can survive without.”
Here are five numbers that tell the story of universal credit in Britain today – starting at the bottom.
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£16: the cost of essential travel per week
The so-called “essentials guarantee” is not exactly a cushy life, with the charities behind it describing it as an estimate at “the more stringent and conservative end of the spectrum”. “It excludes alcohol, cigarettes, Netflix, although it does include £3 a week for the licence fee,” said Patrick. “It assumes you’re a renter – there’s nothing for maintaining your house, or replacing your fridge. It really is a no-fripperies existence.”
What does make the list: £37 for food, £41 for utilities, £6 for clothes, £8 for phone and internet, £13 for sundries – occasional expenses like toiletries or cleaning products – and £16 for travel. That last figure emphasises just how lean this budget is – but also, that it’s been put together with the real needs of UC claimants in mind. “That’s two single bus rides, four days a week. It’s not enough to run a car. The researchers initially had a lower figure, but when they heard from claimants in focus groups, they talked about needing to get to the supermarket, to the job centre, for interviews – so it is crucial.”
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£85: universal credit standard allowance for a single person
Universal credit varies a lot according to the particular circumstances of the claimant, who might have children or need support with a disability. But £85 is a decent reference figure, as the money that a single adult claimant gets each week.
That is below £95, the figure that a separate piece of research by the JRF found was the threshold for destitution: the inability to even stay clean, dry, warm, and fed. It’s also worth noting that for more than half of households on universal credit, the real figure will be as little as £64 a week, because of monthly caps and benefit deductions.
It may be hard for those on decent incomes to imagine the difference that even that £10 a week can make – but there have been many accounts over the last year that have made the consequences all too concrete. “The story I always remember is the kid turning up at school with a lunchbox with nothing in it,” Patrick said. “It’s parents skipping meals so their kids can be fed. It’s severely disabled people turning off electronic equipment that keeps them alive.”
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£120: The estimated level of an ‘essential guarantee’
Add up those items on the essentials list and you arrive at a figure of £120 – £35 per week above the current UC minimum. The researchers note that this is only an indicative figure, and argue that there should be an independent process to determine the right level regularly. They point to bodies like the low pay commission, which sets the minimum wage, and pay review bodies that give advice on public sector pay, as obvious precedents.
“To my knowledge, there has never been a serious attempt to link benefits to the cost of living in this way,” said Patrick. “Instead there’s been a succession of debates in the political arena that have chipped away at the amount. George Osborne (above) froze it for four years, for example. The real value has constantly been eroded – and that means benefits are at the lowest level they’ve been for 40 years.”
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£190: The ‘relative poverty’ threshold
If destitution is below £95 a week, that shouldn’t be mistaken for an assertion that anything higher means easy living. In the UK, relative poverty is defined as living in a household bringing in less than 60% of the median income that year. The JRF’s estimate for 2023/24 put that at £190 for a single adult. A January report by the charity said that about 22% of British residents are living in poverty, or about 14.5m people, and 31% of children.
“None of this is saying that at £120 a week, everything is suddenly fine,” Patrick said. But the terms of the debate mean that fixing “ordinary” poverty is viewed as a pipe dream.
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£20bn: The cost per year of filling the gap
In one sense, £35 a week isn’t much – but tot it up across the whole benefits system and it adds up to a significant sum: about £20bn a year, the JRF estimates. It is unlikely that the same government that made £30bn of spending cuts and £25bn in tax increases in November is going to find the money.
“There’s probably zero chance that the government will contemplate it,” said Patrick. “And you have to wonder if Labour in its current mode would look at this.” In its defence, the government points to emergency help like cost of living support payments: a spokesperson said that £1,350 of “direct, targeted support” would go to millions of vulnerable households in 2023/24.
“They would say, we’ll help as and when people need it,” Patrick said. “The problem with that is it doesn’t really address the underlying fact that benefits are very low, and keeping them there is storing up all kinds of social problems.”
Even if an immediate change is implausible, there may be some value in seeking to shift the terms of the debate, Patrick said. “It clarifies things to talk about the minimum amount a person needs. It takes the discussion out of the realm of academia and poverty campaigners and sets it out in terms anyone can understand. The events of this year have made the reality of destitution inescapable. There has to be some kind of response to that.”
What else we’ve been reading
A special US edition of Dining across the divide sheds light on the depths of disagreement and prospects for compromise in American politics. They’re all worth reading, but I especially enjoyed a conversation between Heidi and Janalee (above) about guns, abortion, and American history. Archie
There are more than just five senses that help us perceive the world that we are living in. Ashley Ward writes that there are as many as 53 senses that condition and alter our realities and ultimately, “make life worth living”. Nimo
Helen Pidd spoke to Ewan Frost-Pennington who gave up his high-paying consultancy job to be the custodian of Muncaster castle. His goal is simple: make Muncaster the first zero carbon castle in the country. Nimo
Considering questions from “various pleasant people on the internet why I am so ungrateful to the country that naturalised me” and the “low expectations” of a prospective Labour government, Nesrine Malik reflects on how her sense of what life in the UK might be was formed in the mid-noughties, “cultivated in a country that doesn’t exist any more”. It’s a very good piece. Archie
Daily life in East Palestine, Ohio was upended after a 50-car freight train derailed and spewed potentially lethal chemicals into the air, water and ground. Three weeks later, the incident has been picked up by rightwing commentators and politicians as an example of white communities being “forgotten” by the Biden administration. Ed Pilkington and Nina Lakhani take a look at how the right racialised this disaster. Nimo
Sport
Football | Manchester United (above) beat Newcastle 2-0 to win the Carabao Cup final, a result which Jonathan Liew wrote revealed how many Newcastle players “still feel like placeholders, honest triers, temporary solutions”. In the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur beat Chelsea 2-0 thanks to goals from Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane.
Cricket | Beth Mooney’s impressive performance guided Australia to a sixth Women’s T20 World Cup win, its third in a row, comfortably beating South Africa by 19 runs in Cape Town. Meanwhile in the second test, England bowled New Zealand out for 483 and reached 48-1, needing another 210 to win on the final day.
Rugby | A breathless, brilliant encounter between France and Scotland in the Six Nations finished 32-21 to France despite a spirited Scotland comeback. Both sides had players sent off early in the first half.
The front pages
“Sunak and Von der Leyen to hold ‘final talks’ on revised Brexit deal” is the Guardian’s splash this Monday morning. The Financial Times packs the keywords in: “UK and EU set to seal Brexit deal on bitter Northern Ireland trade dispute”. “Can Sunak sell his Brexit deal?” asks the Daily Mail. The Daily Express says “Rishi: this new Brexit deal is ‘best for Britain’”. “Brexit: Ursula von der way to Britain” – thanks to the Metro for having a bit of fun with it. “I’ve won big concessions from EU, claims Sunak” – that’s the Times, while the Telegraph has “EU chief flies in to seal Brexit deal as revolt brews”.
Away from Brexit, the Daily Mirror reports on the “Energy nightmare” and tells the government to “Act now … or millions face bills hell”. “Justice for Joanna” – the Sun campaigns to stop hammer killer Robert Brown being released.
Today in Focus
Rewriting Roald Dahl
The latest editions of the author’s books for children have had extensive edits made to update the language for modern sensibilities. Lucy Knight and David Baddiel take a closer look
Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett
Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett’s cartoons, the best Saturday magazine content and an exclusive look behind the scenes
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Growing up, Maggie Zhou never saw her parents kiss on the lips, and says that physical affection “didn’t come naturally to them”. Zhou noticed that conservative attitudes around sex meant that many of the middle-aged Asian women she knew were discouraged from sexual and sensual exploration. That all changed, however, when her 61-year-old mum enrolled in Zumba classes in Melbourne, Australia, and learned to be in tune with her body. In a joyful feature on the “aunties” getting in touch with their sensuality, another regular gym-goer, 50-year-old Thida, tells Zhou about her newfound sense of freedom: “It encourages us to let it all go and be sexy … It gives us confidence.”
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
