How do people afford to live? ?

It's not nearly as depressing as doing this at 32. Don't worry about getting an apartment now. Have a plan for where you want to be 10 years from now. 

On a take home pay of £1,200, even less if that figure if before tax!. You won't qualify to rent your own place at £700!

On top of that you will be paying:

£100-150 council tax

Water - say £30

Electric / gas - £50

TV licence. - over £145 a year

Internet 

So that could be £250 on top of your rent.

Then on top of that you need food, clothing, transport, Xmas, birthdays, nights out, holidays, mobile phone..... It's just not happening I'm afraid.

Everything is so expensive, especially for people on low income in expensive parts of the country. I would suggest though checking out if you can get any help towards your rent... They can only say no.

You need to earn more money. In the US, you can't even rent an apartment if the rent is more than 1/3 of your income. Get a second job or find a job that pays more.

Reality is you will not get a rental for £700 as you simply can't afford that....... landlords work on one third of your income, so you could only apply for up to £400 rental.

So depends on where in the UK you live will depend on what the private rental market dictates and there are plenty of counties in the UK where you could rent a 2-3 bed house or a flat for £400 and many other counties where you will find nothing at all for £400 a month rent......... what you can do is get a better job earning more money and that may mean you need to return to learn and get a better education in order to get a descent job

they get a better education, job training, work their way up the employment ladder...don't get prego with a kid you can't support while being unmarried..

dont get depressed about it.  only the rich kids can get a place by themselves at 22.  for the rest of us we usually do it at about 26

The most common way people do it is to do the very smart thing which you have done: they live with other adults who can share the load. 

Some people do this by getting married or living together with a partner. Some do it by living with their parents. Some do it by sharing a home with friends.

In order to be able to live on your own in the future, consider getting the training you need to work in an in demand trade, such as plumbing, or getting the degree you need to work in an in demand field such as engineering or nursing.

If you go this route, beware of one thing: some schools offer degrees that are not useful for actually getting hired. They are all classroom time, but to get hired you'd need to spend at least one school term getting on the job training of some sort. I'd hate for you to waste 2 years before finding out that the school with a slick TV ad is not acceptable. Go to the type of place you'd want to work, and ask a real nurse or plumber or whatever, where should you go to get training in this field?

In the future, when you've gotten into a higher paying job, then you'll have more options for your living arrangement. 

I wish you all the best. 

If you want to rent an apartment, you will need to move to the USA, in the UK we have flats.  We don't have paychecks either.  Most 22 year olds share, even university grads.  On a low wage you will never be able to afford to live independently unless you qualify for council housing.  Learning English might help you get a better job.

Minimum wage jobs are not meant to support an adult or a family over the course of their lives. 

Stay in the shared housing situation, keep working full time and invest the extra rent money in bettering yourself.  You need to learn a trade or get some higher education so you can earn more than minimum wage.