Absolutely rinsed in this budget - almost £1k a year worse off.

My heart isn't exactly bleeding for you OP. I'm afraid I'm one of those people who believes the more affluent should be paying. And with your DH working in the private sector, I would have thought you'd understand that too.

@Mushroo

Can you clarify if you're sending your dc to private school. In your op you said you've accepted the VAT rise but in the budget you didn't mention fees? Is someone else paying for you?

140k divided by 12 is over 11 grand a month and your moaning ? Give over is this rage bait or just another humble brag post ?

140k a year combined and your worried? Some of us are genuinely living pay check to pay check worried that we won’t be able to heat our homes or treat the kids for Christmas. And here’s you worried about your private school and your 4 bed house 🙄

I work for in mental health. My colleagues have worked insanely hard to keep waiting lists short. (~ 3 months) We've been rewarded by having a funding cut of over 1/3. I've seen more services be closed due to lack of funding in the last year than I've seen in the last 20 years. So extra money VERY definitely isn't making it to mental health

Drinks are on you!

We are classic middle earners. And every calculator I've used is putting us at £45 a year better off.

"Rinsed" is a bit strong. I'm a middle earner. My next door neighbours are a pensioner and her son, a disabled gent. He lost any benefits due to ATOS, which was criminal, but they're not strong enough to fight it. They are cheerful souls but can only afford to put the heating on for an hour per day. In cold weather that means the house sits at 13 degrees, and so they're sat there in fleeces, hats and gloves. I think some of us in this country have forgotten just how privileged we are. Yes I work hard for my money, and I juggle, but many people, through no fault of their own, are living in dire hardship. I struggle to generate any sorrow at the numerous tax increases that will affect me. I'd rather it was taken from me than my neighbours, which is what has happened over the previous 15 years. 😔

To put it into perspective for you. On £8.5k/ month, you will be around £80/ month worse off. My own mortgage payments went up by more than that, last year, and in a year I earn approx 2 months worth of your income.
In no one’s world are you “middle earners”. Where would you prefer the money to come from? Who would you prefer to see pay more? The disabled? The poor?

Sorry but you are not ‘classic middle earners!’ You are high earners on that joint income. You are the type of people who should be paying more. There are those of us who would love to be putting more money into pensions and having a private education for our children and a band F property but we can’t afford to. We are classic middle earners.

So not currently affected by private school changes? So you're £100 worse off?

And yet there's a thread running on here at the moment that shows a mum in London with three children in London gets benefits totalling 6k - the net income of someone on £113k

So essentially @Mushroo of course you are struggling because you only have just enough to lift you out of poverty in London!

We need to decide what a tolerable standard of living is as a country and then apply it consistently.

It's absolutely unjustifiable to tax one parent to the hilt on £113k and withdraw all free childcare and at the same time dish out 6k a month to another parent who might live just down the street

We are in a similar income bracket. I'd like to keep more of my money, but we can afford to pay more. Given the outgoings you have listed, it seems that there are plenty of things you could cut back on to remain less squeezed but still comfortable. I don't necessarily agree with the way the government are managing the budget, but when you are well into the top 10% of earners you have to accept your good fortune and the tax burden that comes with it.

Who the op? She is more than politicians.

Jesus Christ, read the room.

You are at the incredibly difficult stage of life where you are paying a mortgage and nursery fees, but you are absolutely not a middle earner. Even people like you and your husband who are in the top 10% of earners can overspend, but unlike middle earners you can just pay a bit less into your pensions for 3 years until the kids are in school.

Thats not possible.

There is a lot of creative accounting going on at the moment.

How? Which tax increases are making you £4k worse off?

4k as a household worse off and we earn half what you do....

Worked bloody hard to get what we have and it really feels like we are being knocked back at every opportunity. Where is the incentive tto do well, work harder ....

Sorry forgot ..it's a labour government😅

That’s crazy. You’re still saving income tax on it. Why wouldn’t you still put it into the pension

@bridgetreilly how much more tax do you think op should pay?

I said that yesterday. I'm not a high earner, but I upped my contribution(which work match) as it is through salary sacrifice, I get a bonus(depends on how well the company does) which I can invest in my pension. It takes me over the £2k even without the bonus. It really doesn't incentivise me to invest my bonus anymore or to make higher contributions.

I'm 50 in 2 years time so made the decision when I changed jobs 3 years ago, to build up as much money in my pension pot because I only have 15 years until I retire (my other pension i can get at 65) and want to be comfortable enough to survive without worrying about how I'm going to afford to live.

She does pay more tax. You’ll want more again when people opt out and growth stalls.

My heart bleeds for you 🙄

I am a high earner and glad to pay my taxes for better public services. To lift children out of poverty. Feels very sad that the country is sliding into a place where everyone only cares about themselves.