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

You’re not alone and I do feel sympathy for you. I try to put it into perspective. I am not going to a foodbank. Nor are you. I actually think that no one should lose their personal allowance. We should all have that. It’s not a massive amount and should be, imo, a universal benefit.

Already is, they’ve exceeded expectations this time.

and if you had a disabled child? As you've already said, there's no insurance for that.

I had a stressful job as a mental health nurse
But my life not working looking after my disabled teen is far more stressful ,than when I worked

Send me your PayPal hun or go fund me I only spent £99 on my hair cut this month so I’ve got £51 spare for you x x

@Frugalgal you got that totally the wrong way round ! It’s Labour who leave the economy in tatters and others have tomckme in absolve their reckless spending !

Will be the same this time !

How small is a small mortgage? Where is all your money going? Are you putting it all into your pension?
What does careful about holidays mean? Still going but not luxury?
Genuine questions because I’m baffled.

It will be your personal choice to spend it on private 6th form if your saving it for that most people don’t have that option.

I can't get insurance i was born disabled i have a progressive condition i have worked for 20 years full time paying tax and NI and have only the last few years gone down to part time. Check your privelage

If they have nearing £16,000 in the bank they have plenty of time to get back on their feet, they do not need to collect money from the tax payer to pay their bills, they have months upon months of a buffer there, possibly up to a year even. The threshold is way too high.

I understand some claimants won't have savings and that's fine, that is what the benefit system is then there for but giving money to people with potentially 6k, 8k, 10k, 15k etc already in the bank is madness. And they wonder why there is no money in the pot to sort out our NHS.

Wishing hard times on someone else just because they have an opinion on what their taxes shouldn't be spent on is hardly "understanding" on your part neither.

I totally get where you're coming from we only made a million pound this week and now have to choose between heating and eating. People just don't understand how hard people like us have it

I’m recovering from surgery, so day before surgery I did a big shop of things my DH or kids can make easily or self serve. $330!!! So now I’m stressing about what I’ll need to scrimp on to pay that back.

Meanwhile DH’s job had had several reorg’s this year and if he’s laid off we’ll be in deep trouble. MIL and BIL live in our basement apartment for no rent and we were getting ready to ask BIL to help us if DH loses his job, and maybe pay a bit more monthly on utilities…and he’s answered that he’s been loaning to another BIL* every month so not as much to go around.

*and DH and I are fuming because they had us babysit Sunday night before my surgery while they went to a fancy restaurant and day before we’d wanted to go to trampolines or indoor play gym and couldn’t because it would be $60-100 and kids would whine for snacks there. So we went to an indoor walking track….And guess where they went Saturday??

I have insurance for all of the above with the exception of a disabled child. It’s the normal thing to do. Do you expect the state to pay to rebuild your house if you cannot be bothered to pay buildings and contents insurance?

I hear you!

That higher tax rate threshold is set far too low for the cost of modern life and anyone in London or the suburbs. On paper, it sounds good, in reality, it goes nowhere.

A single parent could have a disabled child who can't go to childcare or school because they can't cope with it.

Who is making all the millions through nurseries??? The owner most be absolutely raking it in

It needs to be privatised

Because working isn't possible for everyone.

Why would they be living off benefits and not out working though? Benefits are not meant to be ‘lived off’. They’re a stop gap.

Fully agree here. We’re on £200K + with only a small mortgage (admittedly a large house so other costs are high) and we no longer eat out every week and think carefully about holidays. There is money left at the end of the month but we are at the stage where it becomes more difficult to get full time permanent work so are fully aware we may need to bridge the gap between losing our jobs and state pension starting - all while our kids (who we had late) are still at uni.
We may need to do private sixth form as well, since the local sixth form college isn’t very good at all.
It’s a bit scary, to be honest, even on what looks like a high combined salary.

Do you lot realise at anypoint anyone can become disabled, lose their job, lose their partner, have a child with disabilities. Some of you are in for a real reality check when it does.

I don't get this comment. You don't have any nice things in life so you don't want that poster, who is disabled, to have any either. How mean spirited.

What so if you became disabled tomorrow through no fault of your own you don't think you deserve any standard of living for the rest of your life.

I think the only groups winning here at the moment are the super wealthy or benefit people who don’t work.

I can asssure you that "benefit people" are struggling too, and have less scope to make economies because their income barely covers the essentials.

A single parent with one child will get £776.78 a month in UC to live on without the housing costs element. Unless they are lucky enough to be in social housing, they will almost certainly have to top up the housing costs money in order to cover their full rent because the local housing allowance rarely covers it all. In my area, the average rent for a 2-bed property is over £100 a month more than UC will pay. That reduces their disposable income to £676.78.

The council here don't give 100% council tax reduction so everyone of working age has to pay 20% of it. For a band B property, that's just under £400 a year after the single occupier discount, bringing their monthly disposable income to a tad over £640 a month. Free school meals will help a little, but only in term time and not at all if your child is not yet school age.

Our water company is the most expensive in the country, with the average bill now over £750 pa, so another £60+ a month, bringing the disposable income down to £590. When you deduct the monthly cost of energy bills, tv licence, internet, phone contract etc, there's probably less than £500 a month to live on, if that. When a family's margins are that tight, the cost of something as mundane as replacing a pair of child's shoes can tip a household's budget into the red for that month. Free dental treatment and prescriptions do precious little to make it easier.

They aren't in the same position though considering there's usually a reason why someone can't work.

I thought the thread was about people struggling on full time salaries. Also £200 is absolutely not the norm for your hair. And its comments like this why people have no money they think this is a normal basic expense

I would hope not.