Who are the people who are actually doing well financially in the UK right now?

[BeAlertBrickFinch]

I feel like I'm living in two parallel realities. Everyone I know — including dual-income households in London — is struggling. Struggling to pay rent or mortgage, worried about job security, cutting back on holidays, etc.
And yet... I see people who seem to be thriving. They’ve got two properties (sometimes more), their kids are in private school, they go on multiple holidays a year, and they don't seem particularly high-earning on paper — not doctors or bankers. Some even appear to have fairly average jobs or are self-employed.
So who are these people? Is it inheritance? Family money? Do they just hide their real incomes well? Or is social media creating illusions?
Genuinely curious — not bitter, just trying to understand the mechanics behind it all. Because in real life, everyone I talk to is barely staying afloat

Importantly, never get divorced, no matter how many affairs (he has) It’s super important that you just grit your teeth and get on with it, Stiff up a lip and all that. Otherwise, financially you’re fucked

Fair enough, I wasn’t around in the 80s. I’m amazed there were fancy pilates studios back then. The town where my parents live only just got one this year. Also, were there festivals with tickets costing a month’s rent back then? It just seems like ‘fun’ is a lot more expensive these days!

There weren't fancy pilates studios, or takeaway except fish and chips or the odd curry.

We had supper parties, the occasional ball and teas at Juliana's. Sometimes dinner in Mossop Street or on the Fulham.Road where there were a few bars. There weren't coffee shops on every corner. Formica tables in the back room at the bakers outside the West End.

@Crushed , exactly as @RosesAndHellebores says. Only dancers did Pilates (for rehab) in the mid-80s, and Alan Herdman's studio was more sweaty rehearsal space than glossy zen hangout. We played tennis in council halls in Lillie Rd. My preferred restaurant/takeaway options were Indian and Vietnamese, but they looked like transport caffs. Probably a location thing, but our girlie treat work lunch was Julie's or a tiny place in St John Square.

It was also 10% unemployment.
So whilst these fun activities cost an arm and a leg They’re also providing employment for a lot of people who would otherwise be surplus to requirements in a world where half of manual labour we needed during the 80s. We quite simply don’t anymore.
its Swings and roundabouts

People went to pubs in the past. Younger generations today don't have more disposable income then previous ones.

"Households under 30 years of age on average spend 70% of their total budget on essentials, while over-65s spend just 56% of their total budget on essentials. For 30−49 year-olds this figure is 64% and 50−64 year-olds this figure is 59%."

"This has not always been the case. Compared to twenty years ago, young people today are spending 16% more of their total budget on essentials. Meanwhile, the expenditure levels of older generations remains relatively stable. Only recently, has age become the decisive determinant of the amount spent on essentials."

What is the list of “essentials”? IME the definition of “essential” is highly subjective.

One of the biggest daily life differences between now and a few decades back is the explosion of the leisure and hospitality industries. My young peers enjoy a variety and quantity of leisure activities that simply didn’t exist when I was their age. As you say, this replaced a lot of lost employment (albeit more precariously) but it doesn’t surprise me that young people spend a higher percentage of income on these activities. We couldn’t because the range just wasn’t there unless you were wealthy.

A list of essentials will be subjective (think they used COICOP), the report is looking at changes over time between generations using the same categories. Housing costs are the number one factor & wage stagnation is a big one. But I know a lot of people prefer the narrative that it's due to too many avocados!

But if we don’t know the details of content (including quantity) the comparisons become meaningless.

“Essentials” baskets these days typically include items and experiences which simply didn’t exist for most families a generation back, particularly under the headings for recreation/leisure/entertainment, restaurants/eating, personal care and travel.

The standard of living and opportunities enjoyed by my young adult DC is on a different level to those which were available to me. I’m glad for them that their standard of living and quality of opportunity has been so much better but it makes comparisons of expenditure on “essentials” pretty much impossible.

I certainly think things are different . In the 80s I went out to eat maybe three times a year , birthday , ex husbands birthday and wedding anniversary , holiday was abroad for a week, certainly didn’t have odd weekends away . Mobiles and Sky/Netflix etc weren’t around - and there was no expectation of £100s spent on kids activities /clubs - I’m not saying it was better, just Les opportunities to get through cash and no one to compare with as likelihood was your mates life was similar and no social media

Hmm I think it varied even then. As a young single in 1981 with a deposit for a flat, my mortgage was £23k and my salary was £9k (huge then). I recall my mortgage being £282pcm, and putting away £125pcm for gas, electricity, phone, rates, service charge and insurance. My net salary was £497 and thankfully I had a lodger £120pcm. £407/497 x 100 = 82%. 407/617 x 100 = 67%.

I also had to find my car costs, fares and food. There wasn't much left for anything discretionary.

Noting this was in London and that was a high salary for the time.

You can just use the “entitled to” calculator to enable you to see what different circumstances offer. E.g

adult PIP - £800 every 4 weeks
Child DLA x 3 - £2400 every 4 weeks
this is £3k in isolation PLUS you need to then ADD the following components (some of which varies by area of the country and some won’t be seen directly by person as is Housing benefit):

carers allowance
UC - standard rate
UC disabled child component
LCW rate
carers allowance
Housing benefit
council tax exemption.

this is response to @youalright

You don' miss a trick do you?

The numbers claiming large amounts of benefits are tiny and not the subject of the OP... but well done on trying to make it yet another benefits bashing thread.

Second properties and private schooling thanks to state benefits? 😂

I know and then stating that it wasn't making any sort of judgement about people on disability benefits. They must think we are stupid.
And the only families I know who have several claimers tend to be people like Foster carers or shared lives carers who are looking after several disabled children or adults.
And they are in fact saving the country an absolute fortune because the cost of keeping people in residential care is eye-watering.

I knowwwww !!! Home sense everyone I looked at had Halloween in their baskets and tik tok people are going mad for Halloween cushions , some people are going to 4 and 5 home bargains stores looking for Halloween stuff .
I think it’s actually really sad that people are drawn into all this crazy stuff personally …

The problem is that if you go to buy halloween stuff in the second half of October, it's all gone and the shelves are full of Christmas stuff. This has been my personal experience.

With the greatest of respect if another human is entitled for disability living allowance for three disabled children they have my respect and sympathy.

I have two close friends with one severely disabled child and it has compromised their adult lives. Gone swiftly were their girl hood aspirations and their marriages.

We’ve got a household income of £110k and we’re both civil servants who work from home. We’ve got a little more debt than I’d like (£11k 🤦‍♀️) plus the mortgage (£262k) I feel like we’re doing OK. We go abroad twice a year, we’re off to Florida next month. We try to do a date night once a week and don’t worry too much about bills. Two of our kids are grown up and one is 15 so no expensive childcare.

In that situation you are describing an adult sufficiently severely disabled to qualify for the max PIP also caring for three disabled children, all sufficiently disabled to qualify for the max amount.

In other words, a significantly disabled adult saving the tax payer a fortune in care costs for three disabled children if they were not providing all the care.

Anyone, disabled or not, looking after three severely disabled children full time deserves a medal not being subject to the nonsense talked about disability benefits on most MN threads.

Exactly.

Not to mention the fact that it is a pretty extreme situation for a parent to be on the max PIP and not 1 but 3 children on the highest care levels of DLA.

That's got to be a difficult life. Would people really want to swap and have 3 disabled children and be disabled themselves?

I really don’t see parents as ‘saving the state a fortune’ because they’re caring for their own children which they chose to have. Parents with very disabled DC should absolutely received benefits and help, but they’re not ‘saving the state a fortune’.

PIP/DLA isn’t a great indicator of disability. There are a lot of hard evidence disabling conditions which are usually not granted, whereas ADHD is in about half of cases. So I take it all with a pinch of salt tbh