UK cost of living is beyond miserable

[bookworm8500]

I'm just so sick of it and to read that council tax may be increasing where I live by 20% has sent me over the edge. I don't know where the government think people like us will keep getting extra money from.

It's pay day today (NHS). My pay covers our mortgage without much left over, so on 1st Feb my salary is gone. Both my husband and I have good jobs, but salaries have never gone up like other things have. Food, energy, mortgage, council tax, bills.

It honestly feels like we just work in order to pay for a house we are hardly in because our mortgage went up so much.

I find it all utterly miserable without a way out.

I don't need advice on how to make our money stretch further. We have a modest 3 bed semi, we both work full time, not alot of debt but everything has gone up to the point that it's utterly miserable. I know we are in a better position than many too

I remember being excited for pay day about 15 years ago, when my salary actually covered everything nicely and I had money left.

Anyone else find it relentless?

The reason why is all the business rates from shops and offices in the council areas. High retail/office rent means lots of business rates for councils. It used to be the council kept 20% of the rates and 80% went to government - it might have changed.

The other difference is the wealthier areas have less to spend money on. Councils are generally under funded for social care so have to use money from council tax to pay for it. Lower income levels are highly correlated with higher social care needs.

The argument for keeping some business rates locally is to stop councils shafting businesses and encourage them to be nicer - if all the money went into a national pot then that incentive to be business friendly is reduced.

Utterly wrong.

They are leaving the UK at the quickest rate ever. There are more millionaires leaving the UK than any country in the world except China. They have been shafted by the last and current government.

Since Rachel Reeves started threatening tax rises in opposition a year ago, 11,000 millionaires have left the UK. The amount of tax they paid was the same as the entire city or Manchester. We have basically lost the tax contribution of Manchester everyone will be poorer, it will make it harder to pay benefits and teachers because we have less tax now they have left. More are leaving too.

Everything feels very miserable atm. Isn't that sad, how could we get this all so wrong?

I think it's all a massive shit show and sadly unlikely to change . Even if people hold onto their jobs it'll take years to recover personal finances with a view to getting ahead and growing savings , pensions etc to secure a future .
Childcare costs are totally extortionate and I've never understood why large employers don't have crèche availability on site .
Things we used to consider incidental bills like council tax and electric are now equivalent of mortgage payments , my council tax is going up 15% according to the news , which is unfathomable expecting people to magic that out of thin air when they don't have a pot to piss in .
Young people are consigned to living in childhood bedrooms or flat shares and unless they are high earners or have bank of mum or dad how can they get a home of their own . The government is on the drive for more housing but who can afford to buy . Where I live a new build 3 bed is about £500k and as for social housing we've all seen developers wriggle out of that .
I hate to be so negative but every aspect of what we have taken for granted and enjoyed has gone .

Well put Hattie
The idea of being able to advance and get on is sadly lost and the council tax is a scandal and those who are paying the full amount are again discriminated against ( so that the CEOs can earn six figures )

Also it's easy to see why events of the last few years have made flats feel riskier.

There are still people being fucked over by the cladding scandal as we speak. Homes with private outside space taken on a new value when people's access to the outdoors is controlled. And I know some flats have gardens, but lots don't and the proportion is lower than houses that do. No flat I lived in ever had more than a balcony. There's also people getting stiffed with leasehold service charges.

Ours has gone up 15% couple of years, thats in London, so yes it can go up more then 5%

I didn’t used to agree with this but now to an extent I do having understood more about the costs per person of adult residential care per annum per person. However I do still think my local council has wasted large amounts of money on pointless schemes as well.

There is also the staff costs relating to DB pension schemes which I don’t think will ever be changed.

I will add what really made me not want to come back to the UK (in Switzerland now) - when covid happened the industry I worked in collapsed. My employer went into administration. We had just bought a flat in the UK, I was pregnant and I was completely screwed - i couldnt claim maternity pay because i was stuck in Switzerland - found out i was pregnant the weekend before lockdown whilst visiting and because i hadnt completed a mat1b form I was not entitled to receive statutory mat pay. Fortunately as my DH was already in Switzerland and had saved alot of Swiss francs over there, I moved over. Had I stayed in the UK I have no idea how anyone is supposed to survive on job seekers allowance. It's unrealistic. Here in Switzerland if you lose your job for whatever reason, then as long as you have been working for 2 years, you can claim an unemployment benefit of up to 80% of your salary for 18 months. And that's what stood out to me, a country that cares for its citizens, that helps you get back on your feet. What concerns me with the UK is that if you're a young person now looking for a professional job, then you are required to have a degree and not most employers seek a masters/post graduate qualification as a base level but tuition fees are so high and then entry level grad jobs salaries are not well paid. I don't know how anyone is supposed to get on their feet. At least pre Brexit you had the option of studying elsewhere in Europe.

@TheYearOfSmallThings interesting your neighbours moved back to the UK. I think it's subjective, depends where you live and where you lived before. I loved living in London bit couldn't imagine being there with kids. I lived in North London and remember one day waking up to find a crack addict had pooed on my doorstep. No part of London feels safe. Switzerland is definitely quieter, more conservative, more conformist but I like that I don't see any antisocial behaviour, that I can go running in the park at 9pm, that I can walk home from town at 2am and feel safe, that there's no glass/needles/rubbish in the sand pit in the park, that it's clean, less polluted.

If it’s so bad who are buying all the new cars, booking all the restaurants and going to winter light show events etc?. Where I live in a non posh, average income area shops and coffee shops are packed and when I travel the airport is full of British families, houses are being sold quickly and people are moving.

@Dogsintheyard

all council tax rates for England are published here - showing figures all the way back to 1992. plus with a tab showing the annual percentage increase.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-council-tax

so on the point made by another pp

Band D in Knowsley £1880, Band D in Kensington and Chelsea £1058

Band D in Newcastle £2017 Band D in Newham £1253

And for a real kicker on Council Tax scroll down through this link to the graph showing annual real terms change in local authority spending power by deprivation and time period

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/local-government-funding-england

People who aren't fully exposed to the worst of the COL, usually because of housing situation. And people who can still afford it anyway.

My household travel more than we did before the credit crunch, because we have more disposable income than we did back then. It doesn't mean there aren't more people who are really struggling.

Also, you don't get a full picture of someone's spending from one snapshot. Maybe the people in the airports are going for 1 week when they used to go for 2. You couldn't tell just from looking. Maybe the people in the restaurants are choosing pasta when they used to have steak. Just because someone is spending doesn't mean they aren't tightening their belt.

I disagree with this. I work in a very deprived area where parents claim they can't afford to feed their dc and use the food bank, christmas toy appeal and get vouchers for gas/electricity. Many of these mothers have nice hair and nails (which they get done in salons) and new on brand trainers, as do the dc. Different people have different priorities, there are parents who feel it's more important for their dc to be 'kitted out' or have the latest computer game than to eat properly or be warm at home. Credit is so easy now, and I know in my area payday loans are very common, although they are excruciatingly expensive. It isn't the case that people drinking coffee aren't affected, this is seen as a norm/essential now, it isn't a treat, therefore goes on the card. Spend now and worry about it later.

In which case, the people you know are additional to the segment of society I mentioned, and a separate point. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, because it certainly does. Some people using food banks won't tell us anything about the disposable income of others.

Basically, increase in cost of living doesn't mean nobody can afford anything ever.

Buying meat in a supermarket is expensive. I buy from a local butcher and there is such a difference in the quality and price. They are always doing deals. I bought two big packs of minced beef for £15, divided it into 4 portions to freeze. One portion is enough to make 4 individual portions of minced beef with onions, veg etc. Works out at just over £1 per person when potatoes added.

I was always the first to say ' be frugal ' but when a deposit for a mortgage where I live can be 20 to 30 k or more ( I know cheaper areas exist and I don't live anywhere that posh ) I can understand why people think ' blow it ' !
I know it's not the right idea, but with nothing to really aspire to , then what's the point?
Especially if they don't have family to help out or a particularly well paid job or many prospects.
It's not always black and white with how some might think at times.

See I live in east London and it is far from perfect, but there certainly aren't crack addicts pooing on my doorstep, and in all the years we have lived here and spent hours in the many parks of Walthamstow and Hackney and Haringey, we have never found needles or broken glass in the sandpits. Coffee cups and the odd plaster, certainly.

I often notice when people are extolling the virtues of other countries there is a very extreme narrative about the UK being a dangerous and filthy place. I just don't find it so - I moved here from Ireland and I choose to stay here. I have spent time in Germany too, clean, orderly, etc and I was not tempted by it at all.

Well it was hard
MANY people lost their jobs and houses.
It was a bleak financial time in the UK
Yes house prices were lower but people missed one mortgage payment and the house was repossessed.
There were no credit cards or mortgage holidays to fall back on.
Negative equity meant people lost their houses and owed the bank tens of thousands still.
Taking one element and poopooing people's experiences based on that is blinkered.
It was a hideous time for many.

No part of Lodnon feels safe? You can't say that unless you have lived in all parts of London. Where I live in have walked home at all manner of hours and never felt unsafe using night buses too. We don't have needles, broken glass or rub ish in our local parks. Where i live yhe area is clean and I'm in a borough rated with highest clean air quality. Now with ulez across London air quality is improving. I haven't seen anyone antisocial behaviour in my area either I'm sure it happens but it's not obvious.

There is no perfect place to live there are always compromises.

Interesting when people say about housing etc- on recent trips to Majorca and southern Spain it has been far more families and couples from the midlands , wales and 'up north' than those in mainly more expensive southern areas - several telling me it was their 3rd or 4th holiday of the year- I think housing costs and nursery costs are a huge part of this - people getting by far better even on a bit lower earnings

Nowadays life is extremely hard.

I can well believe it.

@2dogsandabudgie agree but unfortunately for a lot of people working full time they won't be able to get to a local butcher. Supermarkets do well partly because they are open before/after people finish work.