What is your household income, how much is benefits, and how are you coping?

@rosemarble use the IF calculator.

The median full time salary is about 37/38k.

I used Google 😃

Which I now understand is out of date.

I clearly don't.
I'm can't imagine anyone saying "we're on a low household income of 90K".

I thought the average was well below that.

If the household income is £90k they are eligible for child benefit payments.

What’s the issue with them receiving something they are eligible for?

About 5.5K a month and we manage fine. We struggle to afford an overseas holiday every year but I'm sure if we cut back in other areas it could be doable.

Our mortgage is under 1K, the only childcare we need is school holidays but they go to breakfast club once a week so I can go to the gym.

We definitely don't penny pinch but if we had a bigger mortgage for a bigger house we would struggle. Ours is adequate but I think most people in our position would have moved to a bigger house by now and will be feeling the pressure and finding money doesn't go as far.

...and this is how you stand by your claim than 90K is not a high joint income?

But it isn't a high income. We are a low wage country & 90k today is 48k in the early 00s. Why don't you understand wage inflation or inflation or tax @rosemarble?

I don't get any benefits whatsoever and it's become clear to me the past few days that I am in fact the only person in the whole of the UK who doesn't get any.

Single parent...currently on maternity leave.
Once I'm going back to work, I'll be on about 60k. I get approximately £500 in child benefit (live abroad) and should be getting about £900 in child maintenance from ex but he's not playing ball at the moment and it'll go through the court.
Not getting any other benefits.
Mortgage is 1k, older DC is currently at an independent school and that's £800/month (but will change to state school next academic year). Younger DC will start nursery for around £400/month.

Now...the cost of my divorce lawyer will be extortionate...

@rosemarble Why do you think it's 160k?

It's probably around 200k net for a couple to be in the 1% which would be approx 340k gross.

Exactly.

OP living in a not particularly special area of the south east probably has neighbours who bought their homes on much lower relative incomes than she did. They're a completely different ball game, because the housing was almost certainly much cheaper in real terms.

...and this is how you stand by your claim than 90K is not a high joint income?

And yes I’d be a lot better off if I rented because I’d have an extra £900 ish per month that the state would cover on top of my other money

I'm trying not to sound too negative but I think everyone's quality of living has dropped significantly over the last 20 years. Real wages have not kept pace with inflation. 90K sounds like a lot but it's actually worth around 45K back before 2008 crash.

This is exactly it, we never recovered from the 08 crash. But many who are now mortgage free or have a very low mortgage don't understand that.

OK, then what is it?

I take household income as the total amount of money coming into the house (wages, benefits, investments).

Of course if you have children then your expenses will be more than someone who doesn't, but I wasn't considering children.

This. I don’t know why the OP can’t see this? I am saving the state a huge chunk of money because lucky for them I got severely disabled after buying a house..

Joint household income of 110k. One dc. This year only £300 in CB. No other benefits and never have been unless statutory maternity pay counts as a benefit?

Relative to the average income of the country, it is high.

But this is skewed because of an ageing population who will have earned a lot less but would have lower house prices etc.

It's more practical for the state to disregard the equity in claimants homes than it is to expect them to run it down, potentially lose the house and then be on the hook for private rental. We all have a collective interest in benefit claimants not having any rental costs

The same people who are supporting a 3k benefits a month on another thread will be bashing the OP on here! Mumsnet never disappoints

It's classic Mns

To put people's feelings about 90K into perspective:

A lot of our persepective of what is a good salary are heavily influence by what we grew up with, and how the job market was when we first started work. Our lifestyle aspirations and expectation do not get adjusted in line with inflation over time.

If you ever have the joy of looking at real wages vs inflation graph since 2008 (pre-financial crisis) real wages have not increased at all (in fact it has fallen) but the cumulative inflation over this period is 80-100% depending on which index you look at. Most of that has actually come in the last few years and our psychological expectations of what money buys just hasn't caught up with the high speed of inflation.

Taking inflatation into account: this means the lifestyle we think we should have on 90K is actually a lifestyle we can only afford on 160K - 180K.

Conversely the lifestyle we can actually have on 90K is akin to 45K in 2008/2009

The face value of our salaries looks good but has far less purchasing pwoer than we think. This is the disparity that a lot of people are feeling right now, the paper says I'm comfortable - why don't I feel comfortable?

Yeah, I don’t see as much entitlement anywhere in real life as I do on mumsnet.

Doctors, senior lawyers, finance directors, engineers, senior business development/marketing professionals, management consultants, coders, IT professionals, C-Suite or 'Head of...' or 'Director of...'.

A house you live in isn’t an asset.

to quote from Shelter:

The value of the house you own and live in is not counted as capital. The value of any other houses you own (and you don't live in) is counted. If you're eligible for benefits it doesn't matter if you own a house or not

if I didn’t own my own home, UC would have to pay my rent which In my area would be £1500+ a month. On top of everything I currently receive, so actually I’d be better off financially. Or I’d quality for a council house etc which the LA would have to keep me in until I die, upgrading kitchens bathrooms the lot and adaptations etc.
me owning a house is saving the state money- maybe direct your anger elsewhere?