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?

I aspire to be the squeezed middle! I’m more the squeezed upper working class. My mortgage and all my bills are paid but savings are lower and it’s harder coming up with money for things like house repairs and a safer car.

Middle class to me is someone who buys new clothes fairly regularly, has 6 weekly salon visits and has a car no more than a few years old. None of those apply to me even before inflation.

We do ok, income around £40k before taxes, (London) me and two teens (one lives on his own but I still help him financially). But the increases have coincided with my youngest turning 18, so this year I've lost child benefit, Widowed Parents Benefits and the single person council tax discount - that's about £7,500 gone. I'm surviving as I only have a small mortgage, though the fix did end this year so almost doubled but manageable.
And though I've never been extravagant and have kept an eye on things, I've found myself, for the first time in many years, saying 'I just can't afford that' quite a few times recently.

@bluetongue my house is worth around a £1 million but our cars are older than a couple of years old (five and ten years). Our neighbours cars are even older. I get my hair done every three months and I can’t remember when I last bought new clothes for myself. I do buy a lot of clothes for my DC’s though as they keep bloody growing.

Well my energy bill is 3 times more than it was pre pandemic. It won't go down that much & my salary hasn't risen that much. So it's all relative.

@bluetongue I don't think the squeezed middle means middle class, it's just "middle" is the term used between those that get a safety net and those that thrive without needing one so I suspect a lot would be from "upper working class"

I think it's fair to say the group has got a lot bigger too, especially over the last 3 years, but also during the Tories with wage stagnation and house price increases.

I'd say it's probably us. We earn about 50k between us. We don't qualify for any benefits but are coping as we deliberately bought in a cheap area. We don't have spare money for holidays or doing up the house etc. It's not great but at least we have enough for food and can keep the heating on when needed.

I'd say me. 41k single with2m 2 teens and do get some UC due to being in rented house, which im beyond thankful for but any changes to my take home wipes that out - always a worry.
We don't tend to have takeaways, I was going to for my birthday but it just seemed a waste. Daft things like we went to a university open day yesterday and it was so expense, I didn't eat any mthing other than a twister and a banana, I still managed to spend £40 on food and drink for us all and we used refillable water bottles.
There won't be an overseas holiday, I'm dreading the summer holidays and trying to book days out with my tesco clubcard vouchers (already booked when 3x) and rail cards.
I haven't had my hair cut in over a year, don't buy clothes etc.
Feeling pretty fed up with it all

I am a single parent of a teen (16) so no childcare costs, which I agree are huge. Mortgage of £850 per month (lucky to have got a new 3-year deal just before Liz Truss), income of £35k per year before tax. Living in London. Getting CB and the 25% off Council Tax as a single adult.

Holidays are camping or visiting friends, DD has an amazing holiday each year as part of our church that is heavily subsidised. I am lucky as my mother contributes to DD's fairly expensive sporting 'hobby', she is training quite intensively but trades some training costs against helping coach the younger ones. If my mother couldn't/wouldn't help DD couldn't participate at that level. I am glad she can, but it is a privilege not a right.

I was surprised to find I was eligible for the Warmer Homes grant, as I think I am quite well off compared to many.

£120K per year and 'struggling'? Sorry, I don't buy it. There are choices in there.

I would have loved to have had another child, but the cost was prohibitive. So I didn't.

I agree with those saying the 'squeezed middle' are those just above the benefits line.

@Milcar £800 mortgage is pretty low for London thought isn’t it?

On £35k you will have around £2260 income after tax per month plus child benefit, so around £2350. So approx £1500 for bills and food. Someone on £120k will earn around £6000 after tax. Let’s say they’ve got a £350k mortgage (not that high for London). At an interest rate of 5.5% they will be paying a mortgage of approx £2150. Now suppose they also have one child in full time childcare and are paying £2000 per month (again not unusual for London). This leaves them with £1850 for other bills and food, so a bit more than you, but not that much. And you have said that your mum is helping to fund your DD’s hobby and you got the warmer homes grant.

You don't have to live in an expensive area. You don't have to have a house instead of a flat. You don't have to have a spare room.

Yes, I'll give you childcare as a time limited high expense.

Here are 803 two-bedroomed flats for under £300K in London Properties For Sale in London | Rightmove

I think your post really sums up for me the reason why I started the thread. It seems that for certain newspapers (the DM springs readily to mind) when talking about the squeezed middle, many folk think of 'middle class' rather than middle income. For most people, certainly the majority of those who have shared their experiences and finances on this thread, class really doesn't come into it at all, does it?

Being the 'squeezed middle' seems to be classless.

According to the Office of National Statistics Average household income, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) the average household income after taxes is £32,300 pa. It is decreasing for the poorest fifth, and increasing for the richest fifth.

The richest fifth have had their disposible income increased to an average of £66,000. So a household on £132,000 pa disposible income - i.e. after tax - has double that of the average richest fifth.

Hardly the 'middle'. Double that of the average of the richest 20% of households.

I am sorry my heart isn't bleeding.

Why should someone on 41k get top ups off the government?

Well plenty of them do! Usually for childcare costs. In a society where we don't have enough workers, that bit is a no brainer really.

I’m not sure I am in the squeezed middle now after reading these posts with people on much much higher incomes. I am probably not any better off without the tax credits I received when my income was lower. No idea where I fit in, in this.

Upon thinking a bit more about it, it could also mean previously very comfortable people who used to spend their money effectively creating other people’s jobs, gradually have to cut down their lifestyles and this is also negatively impacting other people’s livelihoods - professions like gardeners, cleaners, hairdressers, independent cafe owners & staff, artisan food makers, yoga instructors… all the stuff that goes when times get tough.

Ofc this all looks a bit vulgar compared to many many people living hand to mouth, but it does need thinking about. Destroying the middle class has a very big impact on other people’s jobs (and they are usually good entrepreneurial people who took risks setting up their own independent service).

This concerns me a great deal too. Choosing the tactic of increasing rates to try and force people to curb discretionary spending means fucking over the people whose livelihoods depend on those activities. I don't actually think it'll work as planned anyway, too many people essentially immune. But if it did, this would happen.

Not rtft but for me it’s not about income as such. It’s those who…

• don’t have family wealth/inheritance to get a leg up
• have bought main home in the last 15years
• earn too much to get any kind of benefits
• often have childcare costs
• often have other associated costs of 2 adults working full time

I agree, it's not about income nor about class, it's about what expenditure you have, and a lot of that depends on the age of your children (re childcare costs etc) and when you bought your home (re mortgage repayments).

I also think that interest rates are the wrong "lever" to tackle inflation. Lots of people, probably over half, won't be affected, i.e. those on benefits who get rent paid, older people who've paid off their mortgages, etc. The same people who aren't as badly affected by other "inflation" due to their inflation linked benefits, such as the state pension.

It's really creating a split in the population of those who it's going to cripple financially and those who are barely (if at all) affected.

Agree with all this.

We are on £120k combined, own a 2 bed flat (bought for £392k in 2019 in our 20s) and while we aren't struggling the way other people are, we are the squeezed middle in the London context..

I posted over 800 2-bedroom flats available today in London for under £300K (some have restrictions though). No reason why you should choose to live in any of them, but they are a choice.

I’ve been thinking about the same. My usual hairdressers closed last week and I can see why if others are behaving like me. I’ve stopped colouring my hair, bought a nails kit to use at home, fake tan at home etc.

I feel panicked to prepare for our fix coming to an end next year, currently 1.8% and at today’s rated it’s an extra £1,000 p/month. Fingers crossed I’ll also be on mat leave too so less coming in temporarily.