Falling Standard of Living

[fannyahnnie]

Would people agree that they’ve seen a fall in their standard of living especially over the last 15 years or so?

The cost of living in the UK has become so expensive, even compared to other countries I’ve lived in. This means the standard of living has fallen. I really feel for young people in the UK.

My husband and I are both teachers. We managed to buy a 4 bedroom family home in a nice area of town. My parents were also both teachers and they could afford a 5 bedroom family home in a desirable part of town, a holiday home, boarding school for my brother. All of this on a teacher’s salary.

My daughter is a doctor and her husband is a lawyer. All they can afford is a 2 bedroom flat and a much lower standard of living.

How on earth people are surviving I don’t know.

If you compare what people were able to do in the last generation vs now, yes there has been a huge drop.

Most people will think about themselves though and will think their living standard hasn’t fallen in the last 15 years - aka they are able to do the same than before.
Except their living standard should have increased thanks to the fact their wages should have increased in that period (more senior in their role etc….). If you ask someone who was on MW and still is on MW, they would probably have a different story. There is a reason why the number of food banks have increased exponentially!!

Absolutely. Both my parents were teachers (now well into their 80s) and my father was a HoD. Money was average as was our standard of living. We generally managed a foreign holiday to Europe every summer - and they did this by house swapping with a family from Amsterdam, or Frankfurt perhaps, so that you got the ferry over, drove and stayed in someone else's house whilst they stayed in yours. It was cheap. They drove a second hand old banger.

The idea of a second home or boarding school fees is bizarre. Most of their friends were teachers and were in exactly the same position.

Not an average teacher to buy all that at any time

Lol at the idea that a lawyer and doctor must be rolling in it Btw.

Junior doctors are currently paid £15 per hour.
Many lawyers aren’t earning huge amounts either.

And yes those two professions used to be ones where you’d expect to earn well.

among those I know IRL, the single professionals I know all have family to support them

You must be mixing with people from affluent families! Most of my single friends (and myself) live on what we earn and would not expect to do otherwise.

Yes, economists said after the 2008 crash that it would be a decade of stagnation to "pay for" the costs of the house price/banking crisis. That's average of course, some people would have done better, some worse.

Then, with Brexit, Covid and now the Ukraine war, I have seen economists write that we're going to have another decade of stagnation to "pay for" the costs of the covid lockdowns and damage to the economy, then the damage and loss of opportunites due to brexit and now the increased utility and raw material prices due to the Ukraine. But again, that's average, so some people will do well in the next decade, others won't.

Personally, I think 20 years of decline/stagnation was obviously going to happen after the artificial "boom" of the 90s and noughties on the back of artificial gains on the commodities markets, artificial boom in housing, artificial gains on stock market investments, windfalls on privatisations, etc.

It all makes the soundbite "no more boom and bust" all the more ridiculous. We don't seem to be able to put a slow/steady economic growth in place, do we? It's always a see-saw of overheating artificial growth followed by an inevitable bust/recession to correct it.

The king is the largest land owner in the country. He could build over 200,000 homes and rent them out at 50% below market rent and still come out not only in profit but good will taking care of his commoners. He's just inherited £2billion tax free. Investing 10% of that in housing for key workers and charity sector employed will help. His generations to come will never know poverty and this is investing in his country Instead of pitting commoner against commoner.

People in ALL professions have always earned relatively modest amounts at the start of their working lives with a pretty steep income growth as they gain experience, promotions, etc., to peak earnings in their 50s.

I don't think there's ever been a time when newly qualified lawyers or doctors have been rolling in the money, but plenty of them are rolling in it in their 50s as they reach the peak of their careers.

I'm not sure about living standards, but my quality of life has definitely declined. People are obsessed with income, but quality of life hinges on much more than that. Crime, anti-social behaviour, etc, also affect us. For me, the absolute worst thing about the UK is how crowded it is. There are simply too many people jammed onto this little island. A vast new housing estate is being built at one end of my village (in fact, it's more like a mini town than an estate), and at the other end, my local woods have been hacked into to make room for blocks of flats. The traffic is now so bad I feel imprisoned in my own home. I've given up yoga, for example, because it takes me too long to get there. And in the Spring, I wouldn't dream of visiting a local beauty spot on a sunny day, because I'd never get parked. Everything is stressful, from shopping for food to driving to work, because there are just too many people. I'd happily take a pay cut in exchange for less traffic and more countryside.

Honestly, we are much better off now than in 2008.

Our total income is double than then, I was PT and my pay was low to start with. My PT gross pay was 1/4 of mine now.

Our mortgage rate in 2008 was I think around 6% on SVR, at one point it hit £900pm, We pay just under £500pm at the moment even though we've since moved house and increased mortgage but the rate we now have is 0.99%.

Due to our low disposable income, we were always frugal and shopped in Lidl / Netto/ Aldi / Homebargains back when it was looked down on. The quality of products has improved since then.

My new job has also massively reduced our outgoings due to my company perks:

• Wfh: no breakfast/ after school clubs and £26pm allowance.
• Company car: no car/ insurance/ fuel costs.
• Health cash plan: no annual dental/ optician/ prescription costs.
• Annual gift vouchers £300
• Mobile phone, allowed for personal use too
• Home Broadband recharged
• Private Medical insurance

Although I do dread for my kids getting on the housing ladder. Our first home was £65k that we bought with a £5k deposit. That same house would be double with a £30k (25%) deposit.

But rolling in less of it than if their careers had started 20 years earlier, or 30 years, or 40 years etc.

@TheYearOfSmallThings I mix with people who have had similar opportunities to me, so graduates who have moved to London and are now in middle to high-earning careers, they also tend towards the geeky so lots of accountants/IT/software developers! Majority of these are from affluent families, and those who aren't have partners who can help divide the costs.

Ours has improved - started a business - it’s been harder work and longer hours but the financial rewards have made it worthwhile.

No, not for us.

15 years ago, we were on partial benefits (lived in London, both working but top up benefits as rents high and wages low). Everything went on rent, bills and food. I was killing myself working in a care home 3 nights a week, 13 hour shifts with an hours commute each side and not sleeping as I was looking after dd in the day.

Moved to the midlands 3 years ago, dh career has progressed to 50k wage so we have actually managed to buy a house here two years ago. And I am able to stay at home with our toddler. Obviously, it’s far cheaper than london, our 4 bed semi cost £170k 🤣

I mean, we’ve had one holiday in 15 years, but you don’t miss what you’ve never had. And actually, we could have had a holiday last year, but we spent the money doing up the house.

We’ve always lived pretty frugally too. But in the last year we actually have disposable income for pretty much the first time ever. I’m 44 soon and it feels nice to be able to just take dd to the cinema if I want to or buy the children clothes that aren’t from charity shops.

Mine has dropped drastically.

I was one of the over fifties who lost her reasonably well paid office job during the Covid Pandemic as a lot of companies used it as an excuse to restructure and get rid of their older workers (the over 50s were the hardest hit with redundancies).

I've never been able to regain my footing (I am 57) and have survived since then on a series of casual contracts, including evening hostessing for an Events management firm (which I enjoy). I apply for office jobs (often less skilled to the one I was doing before), get interviews but when they see how old I am (often interviewed by 30 something year olds) I don't get the jobs. It is soul destroying and such a waste of time. I recently read that only 4/10 managers would consider hiring an over 50 year old.

I'm not sure what one does as this age. Was annoyed that all my office experience has been thrown out the window and I've had suggestions like, 'Have you thought of becoming a Carer or working in Retail?'

I've adjusted accordingly on a financial level and luckily had a mental shift away from consumerism that enables me to survive on a shoestring with as much panache as I can manage!

I will get a semi-decent pension when I retire, but I am finding it hard to face the fact that I'll probably never get the work opportunities that I had before. I guess, I am just trying to get through now until then.

I have managed to maintain my standard of living as I had a lot of disposable income, prior to the cost of living rises, and I am at a point in my life were I have brought everything I need, so just need to maintain what I have. However it is clear to see that depending on individual circumstances there are many people who are experiencing a decline to their living standards. High rents/mortgages, childcare, student loan repayments, PCP/car loans, travel expenses and food continue to become more expensive but unless you are able to gain promotion, annual pay rises are not keeping up.

I do worry how my DC are going to achieve the standard of living that they want. Both in decent grad jobs but still within the family home as they are saving for their own place. I would rather they did this then waste their money on rent. The future looks very scary especially if you are single and are at the mercy of landlords. A secure home should not be for profit, it is a basic right.

It makes me so angry that successive governments have done nothing to boost the number of affordable homes. How is it possible that a starter 1 bed flat in the area I live is 6 times as much as average salary and that is on top of the £21K deposit.

I'm less well off than I was 10 years ago because I've gone from a two wage household to a 1 person household but my bills have stayed the same or gone up. I'm lucky I'm in my own flat and paying a mortgage. I also took a pay cut when I switched jobs but it will open doors for me in the long run. I've just had a pay rise and bonus so Christmas wasn't so daunting.

Life is harder, energy has gone up, petrol has gone up, food has gone up (butter being nearly £2 being just one thing), travel has gone up. Wages aren't going up at the same rate.

we can all look back 10/15/20 years ago and say how much better we were back then but we are paying the price right now for Brexit, covid, lockdowns and an incompetent government or two.

People need to look at whether they could afford their own house now if they were at the same stage of life as they were when they bought it. So for us, unexpected inheritance aside, no, we would not be able to afford to buy our own house if we were 30 and buying it now. We bought it 20 years ago with a hefty deposit from a previous sale of our first one bedroomed flat and it was easily affordable. DH and I are both public sector and our wages have gone up WAAAYY slower than inflation. Combine that with house prices going up WAAAYY faster in the years since we bought in 2003 and no, we could not afford to buy our own house.

i know a lot of young professional 2 parent families both with FT jobs and lots of them live in far smaller homes than what they'd have been able to buy 20-25 years back both working those same jobs. It's weird by me when you see a row of terraced houses (built for the working classes) with a mixture of older adults with very working-class jobs/incomes and in amongst them are much younger families with senior teachers/doctors/lawyers in them.

The housing market is its own special category of fucked, in this country, above and beyond general wage stagnation.

We are definitely worse off than in 2008, we were just talking about it yesterday! Dh is a hospital Consultant and his pay has been eroded by about 30% since 2008. He had years of pay freezes and if he got any rise it would be 1%. But of course the cost of living carried on going up whilst his wages didn’t.
Because of course the banking crisis was definitely caused by public sector staff 🙄

I'm an above average income earner, mid 30s, single, live in social housing and I'm broke!!
No savings whatsoever, small debt accrued from looking after family members which is being paid off, and I compare my lifestyle to my European friends and I am poor. They can afford children, cars, holidays, their own homes with land, we earn roughly the same on paper.
I don't understand what's gone wrong. I done everything I was told to do since day 1 (do well in school, study, get a good job) and yet I've not seen the rewards I was told was a given. I feel like my generation have been well and truly screwed over.

I think it's more our generation were brought up being taught that if we worked hard at school, got our work experience and uni education, we would be set for life. And that's not really the reality.
My parents were teen parents (eldest at 16) and had 5 kids by 25. They owned a 3 bed house at 22 and by the times my youngest sibling was born, they'd had the house extended to 8 bedrooms. They were mortgage free by 31. I on the other hand didn't manage to get onto the property ladder till I was 33 despite having a career with several managerial points, and that was in the rough end of town on a council estate. I think if I compare that, then yes, our money doesn't stretch as far as what previous generations does.

I earn half as much as my U.S. colleagues doing exactly the same job and working the same hours (adjusted for time difference). I do get more holidays but their medical insurance is far superior to my BUPA cover.

Unlike them you have the NHS for emergency care.

However depending where you live you are screwed for some other conditions.

Regardless you can't be bankrupted for medical bills, and if you have young adult children they have health coverage.

I've noticed a fall in 3 years. 3 years ago I was on maternity and everything was much cheaper. We were looking at buying a 4 bedroom home and then the prices shot up and interest rates too. Now we are looking at a 2 or 3 bed (we already own a home but looking to move area).