Who are the squeezed middle?

[Thisisanewnamename]

I know the squeezed middle is a bit of a contentious term here on MN but as it’s common parlance, let just roll with it for the thread.

In terms of household income who are the squeezed middle? Obviously there’s variation here for location, children, mortgage/ rent. Given that the average uk mortgage is around £750 a month. What is the salary range (before tax) for the squeezed middle. DH and I have an average life I’d say (average mortgage, average usage bills wise, average family size you know) but I think we’re probably a bit above average in terms of household income and yet we can barely make money stretch. I think maybe households that earn under £100k?

am I the squeezed middle? I think I must be, household income is definitely under £100k. Is there a definition of the squeezed middle?

It isn’t spending money. That 250 is public transport (I can’t drive so take it fairly regularly), birthday and Christmas presents, anything that needs replacing, clothes, any day trips we do, shoes for DD, basically anything that isn’t mortgage or bills/food.

Considering we both work full time, DH in a highly qualified job with 20 years experience, it’s not that great is it? And how much of it will be hoovered up by energy bills soon?

As far as I can see they're the ones who tell 'The poor' that they need to cut their cloth accordingly, make better decisions, take personal responsibility for their decisions, get better jobs, work harder, have less children, have children with better people etc etc.
And then complain it's not fair when they are struggling on 'middle income' and being squeezed by price increases, partly because of their mortgage/childcare/cars/holiday choices, and fail to see the irony in it.

Although I do realise there are some who aren't like that of course, but it's funny how suddenly there's a problem now it's affecting people that matter.

We have household income of 140k mortgage is £350 a month and no childcare bills bar breakfast club which is £4 a day. We have noticed things going up but aren't really stressed by it. I think if you have really high outgoings things are going to hit harder.

We also own our modest cars outright not on finance I have a Peugeot 108 and DH has a banger with one fun car.

Gosh that’s terribly cynical and prior to using MN I’d have probably recoiled in horror but I’ve seen enough of those posts criticising someone on PIP for taking a holiday… I guess all in all I can’t believe it’s come to this really. The lower end of the squeezed middle must be truly bricking it in addition to all of those that get ‘help’ that doesn’t really touch the sides.

all those posts that I’ve read that say sell your house and downsize really confuse me too, as you could barely buy a 3 bed for what we bought our 4 bed for and with interest rates higher, we’d be paying more, can’t imagine I’m alone in that. And I like in one of the cheaper safe areas in a major city, it’s currently undergoing gentrification so can expect house prices to rise more and the cheaper areas are pretty dire

We are the squeezed middle. Joint income £93k. Everyone is squeezed aren't they?

This! Some people have no idea!

So @Fifife you have well over twice the average income (assuming you both work full time), with less than half the housing costs, no childcare, and three cars?

Thanks for your contribution to this thread on the squeezed middle 🙄🙄

That depends where you live. We are certainly squeezed on that income living in London.

That’s because your income is quite high and your mortgage is quite low and you seem to be out of the expensive childcare phase of your life. I absolutely don’t resent it for you, I’m sure you’ve worked hard to get where you are but I’d be fibbing if I said I wasn’t envious x

And this! And the poster who thinks that you can earn 125k and be the squeezed middle! You people are mad! Utterly barking mad!

Depends on where you live and outgoings. Surley a better way of working it out would be on percentage of income and percentage left over after essentials (and we probably have a difference of opinion on essentials too).

My gut feel is 40k-75k total income so two working parents on average or slightly above average wages, won’t get anything extra in hand outs but will be feeling the squeeze for the first time in a while. If you have a high mortgage and childcare costs?

Well we live within our means we could have easily been the squeezed middle if we mortgaged to the max and had cars on finance and had lots more children.

But it’s easy to live within your means if your means are £140k a year.

And presumably you bought your house some time ago, to have such a tiny mortgage?

30-50k people I think. The ones that earn too much to get any form of help but don't earn loads.

It IS great.

i can't believe you can't see that.

Single parent, income of 40k per year. Mortgage 380 (paid a hefty deposit back in 2016), no childcare costs thankfully! I think my days of luxuries are gone though!

Another one baffled at some of the very high incomes on this thread being described as 'squeezed middle'. I'm a lone parent of two, in London, earning £54k. My combined mortgage/rent is £1500, my childcare averages to around £1000 across the year (varies depending on termtime / holiday). I feel the pinch hugely, sure, but I don't think I'm the 'squeezed middle', I'd feel embarrassed calling myself that, I earn too much. I might be squeezed but I'm not the fucking middle!

(LOL at an earlier response to someone in a similar position to me, saying 'but do you receive benefits?'. Personally, yes I get around £500 UC. That's an additional £6k a year tax free, which I suppose equates to a theoretical total pre-tax income of around £64k. Still a lot less than the £80k, £100k, £125k being thrown around here.)

I presumed we were the squeezed middle because we're not poor but definitely have no spare money each month. My income is £33k plus DLA for son, no childcare costs for autistic son as we opt to have SAHD, mortgage £500/m. The increase in gas and leccy costs has come out of any savings we might manage.

To those that are saying the squeezed middle are not those people who can no longer afford holidays and extra bits and pieces, that is exactly what the middle is. Middle income people who can afford those extras and squeezed means that can no longer afford those. I can see why people who have not been able to afford extras prior to the economic crisis would be pissed off that those in the middle are only just waking up and smelling the crap! But it's answering the OPs question.

We consider ourselves to be squeezed middle. Both DDs get minimum student loans so the bulk of my salary is subsidising them. Yes we should have saved but we were never in a position to, as we bought our house with no help and our mortgage is above average and have both retrained since having kids.

But...I know we'll get by with serious belt tightening and consider ourselves fortunate. We may not have much spare but we're better off than many.

We have a household income of mid 50k single income household so start to loose child benefit and pay higher tax. I’ve been a sahm as despite having a job that paid fairly well it almost all of my income would all have been wiped out by childcare. We have a mortgage of £800 a month and are fairly careful with money. Very few meals out, camping holidays etc but due to the work I previously did I’m really aware that we are lucky compared to many so I choose to see it that way. We are starting to feel the squeeze though I hate seeing the food shop price increases week on week but always remind myself that we are in a much better position that so many. I hate that child benefit isn’t means tested on household income though and that many families who have a joint income of £40,000 more than us continue to be able to claim the full amount.

£250ish each left over isn't great?! Give your head a wobble.

Isn't it when you're earning just slightly over the threshold for benefits, so you don't qualify for example for things like free school meals and so when inflation is running high that's the extra cost of that to find on top of anything else.
Paying a mortgage in London perhaps when everything is going up, such as tube fares, and your salary isn't being increased and everything's going up in cost.
I'd put professions such as nurses into the squeezed middle if they live in the capital.

However everyone might be struggling now and rather try to fight each other shouldn't we be using that energy getting annoyed with those in charge who have the power to solve this mess? It's not a race to the bottom.

In all honesty I don't think £250 each is a particularly fantastic sum for two professional adults working full time in a well paid job, no. Obviously it's better than a lot of people, but when I think of the ratio of disposable income to earnings we had as a couple 10 years ago, it was dramatically higher than it is now.

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway because MN, that having any disposable income is a bonus compared to life for a lot of people, but if I had built my career for 15-20 years and only had a pretty low amount of disposable income to spend a month I'd feel a bit fed up too 🤷‍♀️ It's not a race to the bottom.