Living on benefits challenge raises protection awareness

Living on state benefits would require significant lifestyle changes for those found too sick to work compared to being employed, a team of bloggers has found.

The warning came from Unum after it challenged six bloggers to live on £95 Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for a week.

The seven day experiment produced a unanimous response that the participants would look at saving or protecting themselves further to help avoid the consequences of falling ill.

At present just 7% of those who claim ESA are found severely disabled enough to be awarded the full support allowance, with a further 17% expected to perform some part of work related activity.

If they do not participate in this work activity, such as missing work focused interviews, the government can cut the benefit as a punishment.

As COVER reported previously, the provider set the task to see what effect not being able to work and surviving on benefits would have.

Some participants ended the week suggesting they would have to sell a car or reduce the size of house to accommodate the change in lifestyle.

During the week, several bloggers were forced to break the budget or not include significant spending for special one-off events such as job interviews.

However this option would likely not be available to many people living on ESA, they pointed out.

And most also had to turn down things they would normally have done, such as traveling to visit friends or family across the country and meals out.

Jennifer Coles, a blogger at Money Magpie and one of the participants, realised how difficult it would be to rebuild a career after a time spent on ESA.

"Although ESA is designed for people who are too ill to work, if I recovered and was then able to work, it would be hard to find enough money for traveling to job interviews, buying a computer and broadband to help me search for jobs, or buying smart clothes so I'd look fresh and up-to-date," she wrote.

"These simple things help you to have a pride in yourself, and you become more employable as a result. I can see that unemployment can become a bit of a trap.

"I'm lucky, because I have few responsibilities and generous parents, so the challenge was a little easier. If I had children to feed or more bills to pay, I'd barely scrape by," she added.

As Vexinthecity explained, most people claiming ESA would also be expected to claim housing benefit from their local authority to cover any rent or mortgage payments "which can be a lengthy process depending on your situation".

"I'm thankful that I'm in full time employment, as the thought of being unable to work and still having to cover my current outgoings on £95 a week, doesn't bear thinking about," she continued.

"I've been forced to re-evaluate my spending habits for a while now, so this challenge has further reinforced my belief that it pays to have something stashed away for a rainy day."Other bloggers taking part were:

Average Joe,
Beauty and the dirt,
Sarah scribbles,
and That's yummy mummy.