Are other full-time working families finding there is nothing left?

@JasmineTea11 why do you pick on the pensioners yes some are wealthy they probably had good high earning jobs, but some like me when I get my pension next year will be living on the state pension only, so what is that around £240 a week ? I suppose I will have to work till I drop as I've been told that is not enough to live on.

This is false. If you quit a job for no reason and refuse to work you are not entitled to anything
On UC you can only not work if your child is under 3.
You either need to be very poorly, caring for someone a lot, or have a qualifying disability to not work.

The old system tax credits was the last time people could just not work and also cheat the system as it was paid in basic guesswork over a year and then "checked" after the year.

UC is tied to yoir national insurance number so you cannot lie about how much you are earning or not earning and you cannot qualify for things like prescriptions or free school meals by lying.

You cannot choose to not work and get UC.

And each year the work threshold for couples and single people go up meaning you have to earn more to qualify for a top up

All I can say is, it doesn't last forever. The cloud will lift, just hang on in there

It’s been years though

If you want to lower your tax bill, you salary sacrifice from your gross income (and employers contribute as well this varies on the generosity of their pension scheme but it’s a percentage of your salary) - you sacrifice some of your gross salary into the company pension scheme tax free so you are only taxed on the remainder salary. Up to £60k - meaning you can’t put in more per year tax free.

That pension pot increases and you can draw from it from the age of 57. You then might have to pay some tax as usual income tax.

But it’s a very useful way to save tax efficiently and when you save enough for your lifestyle you can retire on this income up to 10 years before state pension age. And then get your state pension additional.

I think you are quoting the wrong person re the savings. I’m not bothered about that at all but was just trying to clarify the figures from all of your assertions as they don’t meet what the ONS reports

Trouble is this has been the case for 30 years - high bills and cost of living. It has been the same since 1997 ish

Maybe it passed me by but I don't remember this level of resentment towards those on benefits. I think it is fuelled by a feeling that there are an increasing number of people on benefits that do not need to be. Many people have mental health issues but continue working (myself included) and feel unfairly treated. I do know people that are unable to leave the house due to mental health but equally I know of people that lead a normal life while not working at all! The most galling thing is when people are already on benefits with no intention of working and then go on to have children! Who do they think is going to pay for them?! And no - I don't have children myself for the reason I'm not mentally resilient enough to have them.

If you are working and claiming the housing element, you have a lower work threshold meaning you start loosing UC sooner (you can only earn around 450 before you start getting deductions) if you have a mortgage you get a higher work threshold.

A working family would not recieve that much as a top up. Someone who couldn't work, would therfore have disabilities of some kind, yes, but bare in mind with their disabilities comes extra costs involved too.

My experience of working with families on UC in my area is that they are not receiving that much money as a top up, even if they are claiming the rent element, and that the rent element doesnt even meet the amount they pay in rent.

As your point is about people having 15k in savings not deserving benefits, there is no way that anyone with 15k would get that much in UC because they would be loosing £652 a month in deductions.

So are you bothered about ppl on benefits getting that much money or those on benefits with 15k in savings, which is it?!

Plenty do 🤷‍♀️

I'm not angry, i'm saying the policy is wrong. The benefit bill could be massively reduced by that threshold not being in place.

If you don't have a job and something happens to your house or your car then it stays unfixed or broke until you do have a job quite frankly. Why is anyone thinking it's okay that they receive benefits when they have thousands of pounds in the bank. If you have money, you should not be going to the state for money, it's as simple as that.

The original post was asking people how they are managing with the cost of living and my point was that many people are struggling to save due to the cost of living that are working, yet the UK government allow people to have up to 16k in the bank who are on benefits, it's wrong. Maybe if they reduced it they would be able to increase the tax thresholds and then everyone who works would have more money.

I’ve doubled my income since I had DC1 8 years ago and yet our standard of living is slightly worse if anything. We live in the same house and cannot afford to upsize. Our mortgage is about to increase significantly when our fix expires.

I’m a high earner and pay a huge amount of tax but have nothing to show for it except declining public services. When the top 2% of earners feel hard done by there is a serious and fundamental societal problem with taxation and something is going to have to change.

@OneShyQuailisn't the average UC top up £1270 a month according to the ONS? If you even look at the general claiming criteria, add in housing benefit, child element, childcare element, even before any disabilities etc it’s way over a £30k salary in total.

A £30k salary is just over £2k a month. Top ups are beyond this

Very few of the people I know feel like they are winning - at anything
Either they’re working every hour they can to meet ever increasing bills and having nothing left to show for it or they’re never getting to see their partner and/or children and still having nothing left to show for it
Food bills seem incredible
Given what’s going on in the world it seems shocking to complain but by everyday standards people are having a tough time

This.

The current COL situation is nothing new.

They come and they go.

The government need to sack off the triple lock on state pensions, before coming after middle earners for more tax.
And sort out welfare reform. I'm a lefty, and I'm becoming resentful of how much tax I pay towards others who either don't need or deserve the funds they're getting.

As an example, how much money do you think a single parent, with 2 dependant children working part time around school runs, with a mortgage and a little car gets from UC?

I can guarantee you its less than 22k (as in thats what they get in work income and benefits) and from that they are paying the same bills as everyone else with the only exception as a 20% reduction on council tax.

So even if your "only" earning 30k (which by the looks of this thread is f**k all as people on here are saying they have a household income of 40k, 60k, 100k etc and are complaining theres nothing left) then you are already 8k up on a single mum working and receiving UC top up (and shes doing it all alone!)

JKR "The 2026 Sunday Times Tax List has revealed that JK Rowling contributed £47.5 million to the UK exchequer last year, securing her position as the third-highest taxpayer in Scotland and 36th across the UK."

That JKR? The one who keeps dropping herself down the "Rich List" due to all the charitable donations she makes?

Is that JKR the JKR you mean?

https://www.scottishfinancialnews.com/articles/jk-rowling-contributes-ps475m-in-taxes

What about the others on the Rich List above & below her - did they also fail to talk about "the genocide"?

So you are aiming your anger at hardly anyone then?!

whats the threshold then? If you have 2k is that ok? 5k?

Says its set at 3k then.
if someone has 15k in the bank, and then they suddenly become really poorly, or their partner suddenly leaves or they are suddenly made redundant and they have so very little in earnings each month, or no earnings at all and their expenditure is 2.5a month.
They are allowed 3k in savings. So they need to live off that 12k....so for 4 months they use their 12k to live off....still no job, still ill etc, then they can claim?

But they have a mortgage? A car? Then something happens to the house or car? They have no buffer to fix it. Then what?
UC really doesnt pay a lot, youll never build up another buffer on UC youll have none left over to save.

I am sorry but if you have a household income of 40k or more and youve had that income for several years you really should have more in your savings than 15k come on 😂😂

I have a very modest income of nowhere near 40k at all and 2 dependant children and I have some savings, not 15k but if I had double my income I would certainly be able to save a lot more a month

I think this is a really good point and one I have made time and time again on threads like this.
The years when you are bringing up your children have ALWAYS been the most expensive and hardest years. There is nothing unique about today's struggling families that others have not been through.
Yes, we have a 'cost of living crisis' at the moment, but, as pps have pointed out, we went through a pretty rough patch in the late 80s and early 90s too. At one point, my mortgage went up from 7% (higher than now) to 14% in a matter of weeks. Yes, my mortgage was only £22k, but my salary was £6k.
I think one of the biggest issues today is 'lifestyle creep', where people have been able to spend lavishly on non-essentials which they have come to expect as basics. An example - when my oldest (32 now) was little, soft play had just become a thing and was a very popular option for birthday parties - in other words it was considered to be a treat. Now I read on here that it has become an expected weekly morning or afternoon out, along with baby sensory and all of the other clubs and activities that are now considered as bordering on essential for young children and babies.
Grooming is another area that has become normalised. Manicures used to be the preserve of the well-heeled only. Now every high street has at least one nail bar and usually a beautician too. Someone must be using them.
Yes houses are more expensive then they were, but what is considered a .basic lifestyle' has risen at just as high a rate.

Which genocide? Sudan? Burma? Lebanon?

Anyway why do you think you can decide what she talks about online/in public? @Suncatch

Genuine question why don’t you hire a nanny at that cost?

I'm not saying being on benefits is cushty and I know the majority of people on benefits won't have any money saved. I'm not benefit bashing, if people need it, they need it, happy to pay it.
But if someone has 15k in the bank, they don't need benefits, come on, seriously, they have more money in the bank than the majority of people in the UK have. It's wrong. The threshold is way too high.
Not one person on here has put forward a reasonable argument as to why people should be allowed to have that much money in the bank and then still go cap in hand to the state.

Don’t act so high and mighty.

Most people don’t have any real concept of what we pay in tax across the year, why do you think self-employed people get themselves into so much trouble? What people understand is there is less money in their pocket and constant inflation pressures meaning the money they have is worth less and prices/taxes/rates/fines/bills only ever go up and once they go up, they stay up.

People are tired and pissed off and Labour have heaped on more pressure whilst being sanctimonious and self-righteous.

This. But of course the benefits bashers will be out in force...

That just made me laugh😆

My son said to me on the way home …. When is Keir Starmer going to stop being prime minister. How long do we have to wait? That’s totally my fault that I must slag him off constantly 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️