To think it’s crazy that National Minimum wage is £27k

DH and I live off around £50k gross between us and we have a very comfortable lifestyle (we have two children in primary school). It's a perfectly reasonable household income in inexpensive areas (I realise it wouldn't go far in London or much of the south). In my area the problem is lifestyle creep. People's expectations are crazy compared to when we were children. When I was at school most families didn't have one foreign holiday a year, but now a lot of the families I know expect to be able to go away 3-4 times a year. Families often shared one old car - now most people I know have a luxury car per adult, often on PCP. Meals out used to be a rare treat - whereas now a lot of my colleagues feel entitled to coffees, lunches, takeaways and meals out every week.

@intrepidpanda self employed declared income then. No-one works for £50 day. You're absolutely not living on £20k. We won't talk about tax and NI....

Yes, thatcher decreased the power of the uniions but also demonised them. By doing so many turned their backs on them and by doing so have decreased there wages.

teachers have bucked the trend and it’s made a big difference

I see the ‘ooh it’s just that people’s expectations are higher now’ crowd are out. ‘Ooh back in the 70s we were happy with a sandwich on a park bench in the rain, kicking away the roaming packs of dogs after our sausages. People’s expectations are just too high now. Ooooh’

Honestly, just go away! It’s not unreasonable for a family with two full time working adults to want to be able to take the kids for cake at a cafe on the weekend. It’s not unreasonable to want to be able to but the kids a lunch of soup or a sandwich at a cafe on a day out instead of carrying around a heavy bag of a days worth of food or drink. It’s good that people have these expectations. Also, kids don’t go out and play in groups on the streets anymore. It is more expensive to take them out now ( in money and time). Things change. Just like no one in the 70s had the cosy of a mobile phone contract.

Also, it’s not just expectations. Housing just is much more expensive. my first property in the late 90s was 47k. I bought as prices were starting to really rise in the late 90s and it felt stupidly expensive for a small property. I sold a few years later for 110k. Fuck knows what it would cost now.

And it’s good that people expect some reward of treats for working full time time, like coffee and cake in a cafe. It’s not a sign of a good economy if families work full time for subsistence only.

Just like its good thise bloody free roaming dogs are gone ( history note for young people People used to shove their dogs out the house to wander the streets all day.)

Of course he does. I’m sure you live quite comfortably on all the cash he doesn’t earn. 😂

It's fine if you don't have kids. Just rent a one bed and split the bills.

He is a tradesman
He earns £12, 570

The average private pension for current couples who are pensioners is £500 a month.
People on MN seem to know mainly wealthy people

Quite. This idea of us all rattling about in big houses and swanning off on cruises 3 times a year is quite alien to me.

Inflation is insane. I was on 36k 10 years ago exactly and was feeling very pleased with myself that after several promotions I'm now on £56k only... my BOE inflation calculator tells me this is exactly the same as my ssalary 10 years ago in real terms, despite my role being several rungs above. Actual roles at my preivous level are still paying around mid 30s, so the same, but of course much less due to inflation so more like what 25k or so would have been 10 years ago.

We've all been royally shafted.

Exactly. This in addition to all the things I said above.
It's dishonest to pretend that the average pensioners has the same outgoings as the average family with children or the average younger, working adult.
It's even worse than the poster on the first page pretending that she has a household income of 20k with children and lives a very comfortable life.

Some pensioners are poor for various reasons but they are, overall, much better off than the generations that followed them and certainly have much lower outgoings.

Average age at inheritance is 47 peak is 55-65
average amount unt is £65k
tjats over the last 10 years and is at 22% of the population

in the next 20 years that will change to 55% of the population will receive an inheritance and £5.5 trillion will be inherited in the next 30 years

If the
£5.5 trillion in projected inherited wealth were divided equally across the entire UK population, it would amount to approximately £79,000 per person

£3.84 is from property

My main gripe with the level of minimum wage is about other salaries in comparison!

I work in the NHS, am a band 4. MW has risen so much that band 1 has disappeared and band 2 now only has 1 pay point else it would be the same at band 3 (and is actually the same as the bottom of band 3, it's just that 3 can increase). It won't be long before band 2 gets removed too due to being below MW.

So my main issue is that every time MW increases, the differential between it and the other bands reduces, to the point where it's barely worth doing the job with more responsibility as you get less and less reward for taking it on! How long til it catches me up on band 4?

It's my biggest irritation with agenda for change scales and no doubt affects other public sector salaries too. We should all get an equivalent uplift when MW goes up, PLUS whatever raise we were going to get else what's the point in different bands??

Yes, thatcher decreased the power of the uniions but also demonised them. By doing so many turned their backs on them and by doing so have decreased there wages.

teachers have bucked the trend and it’s made a big difference

Want to know why it’ll change to 55% getting an inheritance…wealthy pensioners 😂

This…100 times over!

Obviously there are poor pensioners, but comparatively few.

I agree. There needs to be an uplift for the middle bands as well. The gap between what are often unskilled jobs and jobs in health care and education is getting smaller.

Although a substantial portion of pensioners do own their house outright, 18% of pensioners are in rental properties, so certainly have housing costs. Additionally not all mortgages are paid off by retirement. Pensioners do have all the other costs associated with housing though: council tax, heating bills and maintainence. A large number of the poorly maintained properties that come on the market were owned by an older person.One reason for this is that paying maintenance e.g roof repairs, gutters, painting, window repairs etc etc is unaffordable if living on a modest pension.The average income for a single pensioner is £333 a week, so many will have much less than that.Just as there are rich and poor people of working age, there are rich and poor pensioners.

It's house prices. With much higher house prices people are far more likely to leave an inheritance.

Well we get by nicely with kids,pets, new cars, holidays,no credit owed to anyone or anything. And get around £20k a year between us as I'm part time atm dh full..Takes good balancing and communication and we do fine and dandy