Who are the Squeezed Middle?

[Tambora]

I see this term a lot, both on threads on MN and in the media, and I would be interested to know what is meant by that, because there seems to be some debate. Who do you think they are and does it include you? When it comes to household income, from £x to £y would be the squeezed middle in your view?

But rents are also going up massively. And you cant always afford to move somewhere "cheaper". If you live in London, for instance, and work in London, and your rent increases exponentially, youll be squeezed.
Housing is not a choice. And you have to pay for it.
Kids are not always a choice, either. Sometimes life just happens. And then those kids will need childcare.

A big holiday is a choice. A fancy car is a choice.
As for housing, you either have a mortgage or a rent. Both will be high.

We live in London with an income of 120k between us and 400k mortgage on a very small house. I definitely feel like a squeezed middle. Assumed that we should be totally fine. But childcare is 1k a month and mortgage increasing to 2.5k. So our take home is around 6k and we are left with 2.5k. I think we are squeezed middle middle because we should be fine even in London but now won't be. And we only live in a two bed flat that we bought in 2019 for 530k.

I certainly didn't feel like our mortgage was a choice - we had to live somewhere. London has been expensive for years now. Can't move out of London as we both have to be in the office three days a week and the train is expensive

Childcare really isn't a choice if you have to use childcare in order to work full-time in order to pay the mortgage (or ridiculously high rent). A lot of people planned families relatively recently, have very young dc and thought they could just about manage, but that was before the current inflation and interest rate rises (which of course private landlords have to pass on to their tenants in rent increases).

Most people in their 30s and 40s who have children and a mortgage. Or people in that bracket who are single and trying to buy a house.

Which is crazy really but when you have kids and mortgage and live in London it leaves little

Caught between a rock and a hard place.

Us! I believe we'd be classed as the squeezed middle. Mortgage going up by almost £300 soon, childcare for 2 children to pay for.

Both working but will need to cut back on non essentials - holidays, beauty, day out, takeaways etc so like PP mentioned people like us will be spending less locally.

Agreed. The big mortgage and childcare are a choice, however

How is childcare a choice? A child needs looking after, unless you have access to genuinely free childcare like grandparents, you either have to pay for childcare or reduce your hours which reduces income so you're paying either way. I suppose if one of you works nights but that isn't viable for a lot of people for lots of reasons.

People with a household income of between £20k and £30k I think. Maybe £35k

It's the people who earn just over so that there's no support with childcare payments etc. So for us I need to work nights as can't afford childcare and then look after our two DS during the day, no help with childcare or any sort of top ups. Can just about afford to lay our bills, put food on the table, clothe the children, pay the mortgage but no room for holidays etc. However there are some families that can't afford the food shop etc so I am still grateful for what we have.

It's the people who earn just over so that there's no support with childcare payments etc. So for us I need to work nights as can't afford childcare and then look after our two DS during the day, no help with childcare or any sort of top ups. Can just about afford to lay our bills, put food on the table, clothe the children, pay the mortgage but no room for holidays etc. However there are some families that can't afford the food shop etc so I am still grateful for what we have.

@ASGIRC

you could say the same for mortgages.

“But ‘mortgages’ are also going up massively. And you cant always afford to move somewhere "cheaper". If you live in London, for instance, and work in London, and your ‘mortgafe’ increases exponentially, youll be squeezed. “

Absolutely. Housing cost is not a choice. We have to live somewhere, and that has a cost associated with it. Right now, those costs are going through the roof.

Possibly us.
We have a combined income of 45k in the north east. Our mortgage is pretty low but this will be going up.
We used to have takeaways or eat out most weeks, day trips maybe twice a month and a holiday abroad once a year.
Now we're thinking a lot more about what we're spending, takeaways / eating out is now down to once a month, a day trip maybe once every 2 months and sticking to UK caravan holidays for now.
I know we're still very lucky though as some people can't do these sorts of things at all.

I'm clearly wrong about this, but I had always thought that 'squeezed middle' referred to people who had young children and also needed to support or care for their own parents. So squeezed in time and energy. A squeezed middle generation.

Maybe it’s confirmation bias on my behalf.
Whenever those in poverty are in the media, it’s almost always a bias view that makes light of the reality. Eg it’s never the average representative benefit claimant, it’s always someone with multiple kids they claim for and at least one parent that doesn’t want to work, or a wealthy pensioner that feels hard done to because they can’t maintain their £500k asset as they’d like. Not the reality of many that are on the breadline.
Perhaps I’m only noticing similar unsympathetic scenarios when it comes to the squeezed middle in the media, and maybe they are providing an accurate representation. I doubt it though purely because of the amount of people that seem to think they are the squeezed middle when they really aren’t.

Just a different way of using the same saying? I think we all feel pulled in all different directions at once sometimes.

So I would say we are squeezed middle in terms of left over cash (pre tax household income of £80k, 2 kids in nursery 4 days a week and no other childcare support, £1000pm mortgage) BUT our mortgage is building equity so we are infinitely better off than the squeezed middle renter or interest only mortgage payer.

Other thing to note is how the income is divided, e.g. We have a household income of £80k but husband earns over £50k of that so we receive less CB so are worse off than two £40k incomes.

We have a monthly income of 12,000! My fiancé has worked form the bottom to earn that and I'm so proud of what he's achieved for a 34 year old!

I thought that was the sandwich generation? I may be wrong.

Yeah, not really the point of this thread.

It’s anti-benefit-claimant propaganda, isn’t it?

@StormShadow I was going to say sandwich gen too- those looking after dependent children and dealing with ageing parents, whilst still working ft to pay for everything and having no time to look after each thing properly

I think 'squeezed middle' in media is those families that wouldn't until recently have expected to struggle, so on paper good salary but with the combination of high housing costs on top of inflation, now have much less discretionary spending available and actually have to budget a bit more

I think 'hard working families' in the media are families only just earning too much to qualify for benefits or support, have always struggled a bit but now are in danger of defaulting on their mortgages, as it has got so bad