The Costs of Being Single

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 825 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Almost 8 million people live alone in the UK and numbers are rising. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show it's more expensive to be single, so what are the financial penalties if you're not a couple? Inevitably, household expenses are more costly when you're not sharing rent or mortgage payments, energy or water bills. But outside the home, there are many ways that singletons pay a premium - whether it's more expensive holidays, hotel rooms, train fares, car insurance or even theatre tickets.

On Money Box Live, we want to hear how you can cut the costs of being single. Apart from the 25% council tax discount, where else are singletons given a price reduction? And, with the number of one-person households expected to reach more than 10 million by 2039, should the government consider new policies to ease the financial burden?

Share your views and experiences with Louise Cooper and guests. Email moneybox@bbc.co.uk or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on Wednesday 17 April. Standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply.

Guests: Professor Donald Hirsch, Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University Kara Gammell, personal finance journalist

Presenter: Louise Cooper Producer: Sally Abrahams

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.
0:08.0	But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA
0:12.0	was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.
0:18.0	Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family?
0:21.4	When lies are still being told to this day, who do you believe?
0:25.1	I wouldn't even know where to start.
0:26.7	And I'm with the IRA.
0:28.5	Steakknife.
0:29.7	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:33.5	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:37.8	Good afternoon. More and more of us are living alone. Almost 8 million of us in the UK living singly according to the latest figures. And that's an increase of almost 20% in the last two decades. Older women left as widows, as men tend to die earlier, increasing
0:56.2	numbers of divorcees living by themselves in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and more of us not getting
1:02.8	married or cohabiting at all. But various surveys suggest it can cost between one to two thousand
1:09.8	pounds a year more to live by yourself than as a couple.
1:13.6	So this week is all about the costs of living alone.
1:21.1	If you want to rent somewhere, something like a single bedroom property carries a premium,
1:31.3	so maybe a single bed flat might run you £700 a month and a two bed would be 850.
1:37.3	It's so different if you live with someone else, you can share the food, you can share the cost of the water, light, and these things.
1:51.0	And if you are alone, it's so expensive.
1:54.0	Two, you can't share bills with anybody, you have to pay everything solely on yourself by yourself.
2:22.0	And as ever, we want to hear your stories. So please call Moneybox live now on 0-3-700-100-44-geographic charges from landlines and mobiles apply or email Moneybox at BBC.co.uk. With me today is Professor Donald Hirsch from the Centre for Research in Social
2:29.2	Policy at the University of Loughborough. Welcome, Donald.
	...

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