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

It's not £27k. It's less than £25k (£12.71ph x 37hrs pw x 52 weeks per yr = £24,454)

No it really isn’t, I don’t care one bit…you’re the one who has made it personal.

Have a nice day though 💐

Agree ❤

I wouldn’t engage. Poster appears to have taken a general conversation personally. I’ve been told that she doesn’t like me 🤷‍♀️

You obviously live in refined circles! I have minimal private pensions (v. small defined contribution), still paying my mortgage until I'm 70 and then will need to release equity or move to a cheaper area (can't downsize as I'm already in a one-bed. There are plenty of us that can't afford any luxuries. The average single pensioner has an income of just over £17k per annum - that is not a great deal to live on, and definitely not enough for three holidays a year on top of utility bills and food!

Edited to say these figures are inclusive of state pension, benefits etc and from the Government website.

Thank you SO MUCH for explaining this about self employed business owners. As someone who has always been salaried, I have been mystified as to how some of the wealthiest people I know are enabling their children to qualify as pupil premium at school. It must be that they are drawing a 12k salary from their (extremely lucrative) business.

I don’t know much about it but someone upthread did post about the amount that people can put down as being 12570 and so this is what many do. I’m not sure how the wealthy get away with it if they have huge incomes, but those working trades etc can work cash in hand.

It is harder to deposit money in the bank now without having a source of funds though, but presumably people are finding ways around it.

Oh yes it’s terrible, all we care about now is that despite working 4 times as hard as your generation we cannot live half as well. There are people struggling to live while working full time. Youngsters working all hours who can’t afford rent. Working people are struggling to live. It is not a trivial problem.

Is this going to be the latest new thing your generation comes out with to justify yourselves? I’ve been listening to it endlessly for 30 years, there’s one excuse or whining misdirection after another. It’s tiresome.

I think you are in the minority (if you are very close to retirement age) because everyone I know is/was working class and are in these positions. I did post their general jobs further upthread but it wasn’t high earners, probably the engineer earned the most but he had to retire at 50 due to ill health so didn’t get chance to benefit from his higher wages toward the end of his career.

I would say though, all but one is with their first spouse, and so didn’t have to separate finances and rebuy properties at a later time when things had increased in price significantly. I would imagine that would also be something that could make things more difficult and prevent the retirement I’ve been seeing.

Maybe you are in the transitioning group where it is getting harder - in that gap between those now retired and millenials

This!

There are people struggling to live while working full time. Youngsters working all hours who can’t afford rent. Working people are struggling to live.

It’s nothing new.

I am in my sixties and working full time on £32k salary. I have greatly benefitted from being able to buy a modest house. Without that I would really struggle.

How many hours a week is that? You just gave me a right fright. Have employed someone in Scotland on more than the Scottish living wage and they earn less than that! 35 hour week.

120k and "things are tight". Do you have a massive mortgage, private schools, cars on finance etc?

This ⬆️. My wife and live on a combined net income of approx 27K per year . Also live in the area, N.Wales and Merseyside,with the highest fuel costs in the whole of the UK ...sigh !

I was paid £27k in 2015.I'd need to earn around 35k today to earn the same.

So no, it's not crazy at all. Inflation, cost of living crisis and wage stagnation are skewing your perspective.

Funny this should pop up today. I was just thinking today about how my kids' generation doesn't stand a chance. My first house cost 50k in 1992 with a salary of 14k, deposit 9k, mortgage 41k, so just under 3 x salary. It was a proper 3 bed semi (classic bsy window, bix room above front door, one reception large kitchen diner) with a garage and 110ft garden, in Reading. Today there's an identical house on the very same road on Rightmove for 400k. So no, the living wage is nowhere near enough. As others have said, it's house prices that have ruined it. Its criminal imo. A young adult today would need a salary of over 130k to afford it at the same multiplying factor.

Even when you add up all the free rent , council tax , prescriptions, dentists , food banks, special low rate utilities etc etc !!
I can’t even afford a dentist and I desperately need a filling - but I will have to go private as no nhs dentists - such basics should not be unaffordable to some one who works full time !

We live in £3200 a month for a family of 4. £1500 of that is rent (we live in the south), but we make savings everywhere. We have just one streaming service at any one time and swap it out when there’s a series on that we want to watch - Amazon always gets December so we can take advantage of prime shipping for Christmas.
We buy clothes on vinted and charity shops. We sell the kids old clothes on vinted to make back some of the money. If we want a new computer game, we sell an old one to CEX and use the credit to buy a new one second hand. Our car is 8 years old and all paid off. We don’t eat takeaways, we take packed lunches for days out, we look for vouchers/discounts for museums (we always use the free NT vouchers every summer). We meal plan and batch cook to save on food. I cut everyone’s hair (including my own), we buy toys and books second hand. We use the library a lot. Nobody is sad, nobody is missing out (in fact one of our biggest expenses is the kids theatre school and dance classes every month).
It’s definitely possible to live on less if you avoid lots of the expectations of modern life.

Not everyone on benefits rents. Some areas don't have discounted CT, and if they do it is only up to a certain amount. Not everyone needs regular medications (and some people don't pay due anyway due to certain health conditions... and anyone can get the £10pm prepayment thing), NHS dentists are rare as hen's teeth so even people on UC are having to go private.
What low rates for utilities? My electric and gas costs the same as everyone else. My water supplier offers capped rates, but I don't use anywhere near the cap anyway.

Not all pensioners are rolling in it, just the ones the wealthier mumsnetters know I think! At 77 I do need to retire properly but can't face my income dropping to less than half when I do.

Minimum wage in the north is £12.72 ph that does not work out at £27000pa, even at 40hrs a week

Oh for goodness sake! For a start I see you've failed to answer the question of where all these jobs for life are? In my region the industries that offered jobs for life such as steelworks and oil refineries are going bust hand over fist! I get news alerts to my phone everyday of all manner of companies in the UK going bust!

And as for saying anyone younger than you deserves a shit life! That's a disgraceful thing to say and wish for! Older generations did have some things easier! You weren't taxed as hard and as crushed by the cost of living as people are now, you didn't have it as tough trying to get a first home as people do now! I didn't have it as tough as people do now as an 18 year old getting my first mortgage in 1998.
For those families that want kids, a lot are turned off the idea because they can't afford for mum to not have a full time job, your generation never had to juggle that! If you wanted to be a stay at home mother you could afford to!

@FlyingCatGirl you were lucky as the nineties were the easiest decade. The country was in a big economic boom.

Civil service and NHS still have jobs for life.

You don't know the people I am referring to! One or two had part time jobs at 16, like many teenagers today, but the ones I know were studying, not working full time at 16. They also did not receive family help.
Please stop making things up.
Back in the 70s, most couples, even many single people, were able to marry if they chose, buy a home and start a family by 25 or so. That is clearly very far from being the case now.