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

Let's be honest Blossom. It has got much worse.
The number of homeless families is at record highs. An industry has grown in food banks.

The other poster is correct and has been extremely patient with you. Why don't you look at the link that was posted.

That entirely depends on your location. In my area, unemployment went through the roof in the 80s as people were made redundant from the factories, docks and shipyards, and things didn’t begin to pick up until the early 2000s when the last Labour government created jobs here, and there was a lot of EU funded regeneration happening.

This is a disgraceful thing to say. The previous poster made a more than reasonable comment and you respond with an ageist, spiteful statement like this.

Yes, it’s not a nice thing to have to say is it.

Do you claim UC though?

20k between you? And no UC top up?

This one is just what her self employed husband is declaring to HMRC, not how much he actually receives.

@MyFairLady27 and everyone else who wants us to believe they get by on 20K and other low sums can you please give a monthly breakdown?

20K is about 1400pcm I think.

Many people have at least £900 to pay in rent or mortgage - so that’s at least 2/3 of their salary gone instantly.

Pay your council tax, mobile phone/broadband, energy and water bills, insurance, travel and the rest of that money is gone even before they’ve even got their food or personal items

Again people making these claims are leaving out important information like they live in a house they don’t pay mortgage or rent on. It’s so deliberately misleading.

I cannot imagine being able to afford to retire
Recently took on a new PT job which I can do till I’m 75, that will hopefully give me enough to live on with state pension and tiny private pension
75+ I will have to downsize or leave the country

Sounded odd to me as well

Well apparently it was a joke that we should all have got instantly but I still can't see the reference.

To me it looks like someone who is clueless with a DH who's income is 'tax efficient'.

Clearly they're not living comfortably on £20k pa even if they're mortgage free so either the rest of his income is going through a limited company, as could a lot of their personal expenses eg 'company' cars, it could also be the case that poster is employed by the business to do the admin work that backs up his trade.

Or its out and out tax evasion which she'll be colliding with by paying for things like groceries, petrol etc in cash.

Well apparently it was a joke that we should all have got instantly but I still can't see the reference.

To me it looks like someone who is clueless with a DH who's income is 'tax efficient'.

Clearly they're not living comfortably on £20k pa even if they're mortgage free so either the rest of his income is going through a limited company, as could a lot of their personal expenses eg 'company' cars, it could also be the case that poster is employed by the business to do the admin work that backs up his trade.

Or its out and out tax evasion which she'll be colliding with by paying for things like groceries, petrol etc in cash.

I couldn’t afford to be a sahm. The most I could afford was job share.

So what you mean is hes self employed and on paper earns £12.5k, not even going to ask about benefits.

For the billionth time, this reply was NOT from the poster who said they were living on £20k combined. It was a joke by another poster!

Doesn't match up at all. TA's for example do not get paid double what they did 14 years ago.

Well, if you actually RTFT….

They probably do because it's always been paid at NMW typically, which has doubled in that time period

NMW 2012 was £6.19 ph, now it's £12.71, ie more than double.

No. Somebody already asked me this and I replied. We don't get any benefits except for Child Benefit.

Its called living with your means as best you can. I've been a single parent on £35/week because universal credit decided they'd paid me in advance for 2 years, to a household with £8k monthly income and everything in between. When I was getting basic unemployed single parent (was about £110/week and rent back then) i could pay my basics but there was no fancy clothes, holidays, food, anything. I paid my gas, electric, food, CT, phone and everything was second hand. I didnt smoke and rarely drank. This lasted 6 months as I do like nice things and working a ft job always gave me enough money to have a few nice things. But certainly couldn't have afforded foreign holidays/nice car/copious nights out when I was a working parent nearer the nmw rate which is what I see now in my circles.

It’s simply not true. 1 full time wage is more than 20k even on minimum wage and they’ll be receiving a significant benefits top up.

Plenty of people on minimum wage do not revive benefits

Exactly what I was going to say! That amount is basically all you have to claim as “paying yourself”