How do people on low incomes manage to live in London?

[YourPithyLemonUser]

How do ppl on low income survive in London?

I know some ppl with low incomes i.e. cleaners, creative types, freelance artists etc.

Yet I see them eat out, go on holiday, have a good time etc.

How is this possible? Only with financial support from their parents does this happen

Increasingly, families can’t afford to live in Zones 1 and 2 - shown by the amount of primary schools closing / reducing classes.

I think you have v low income who get social housing / additional help and then a gap before those who are not well off, but have enough to get by, maybe bought a place a long time ago. The rest usually move out.

Around a quarter of Londoners live in social housing, so they won’t be struggling with high housing costs. Many younger people live in house shares. Freelancers and creative types may well be earning a lot more than you assume they are. And whilst it’s tough for single people in low incomes, a couple can do reasonably well - a couple each earning only minimum wage will have a household income of £50,000. You can save on a lot of costs you’d have elsewhere: you don’t need to run a car, public transport is affordable, there’s a lot of accessible choice for e.g. food shopping including markets which are often incredibly good value for produce.

If they have children they will probably be getting top up benefits.

Or maybe they earn more than you think.

Family helping them

Debt

Gen Z-ers may be riding the property wave if they bought early enough.

housing benefits?

freelance creatives are not known for their high salaries

My adult DC both fall into this category. One has an average salary for her age in London, but it’s still nowhere near enough. The other has an arty fatty job and a shit salary.

I send them regular money to keep them in the black. I also pay for each of them to have two holidays a year. A city break each with me and a week away with their DP/friends.

edited to add, neither of them has any debt aside from student loans and both live in a room in a shared house. Neither has DC.

It’s the bank of mum and dad. It’s much more prevalent than you realise.

Benefits. My sister comes out with far more than me and I work

I had a an arty farty business and used to draw 150k + a year and sold it after 10 years for a significant amount. Please don’t be rude about an entire industry and yes the other poster was correct there are many creatives in London earning upwards of 80-150k in senior creative and CDs roles.

We had a high income (circa £150K) and had to move out of London after our first child. You have to be poor enough to qualify for social housing or really pretty well off to live as a family in London, I think.

Lots of creative types have family money.

If they are a bit older/got on the ladder early then housing costs could be very low.

council housing, social housing is a fraction of the cost of private housing in London. As another pp said, sometimes benefits can work out to give some families more than those not claiming. Not always but sometimes. Also how much is earned in cash?

Our income is less than this and we live very comfortably in London. We bought our house a while ago though so I think that makes the difference

My dc lives in London in a room in a shared house and does creative stuff. I sub him.

he goes on working holidays (and seems to enjoy them!)

I imagine freelance creatives have a cushion, probably family money to fall back on whilst they create.

London can be surprsingly cheap to live in if you take away housing costs. No need to run a car, warmer than many other places in ths country a lot of free events and cheap eats type places, even holidays we can get to airports and the Eurostar in a short train or taxi journey - no need for hotels or expensive parking/train tickets.

As people have said low earners may be in social housing, claiming housing benefit, have paid off mortgages if they are older or have had help from parents to rent or buy

Mr Monkey would fall in to your category if you met him - he works in specialist retail and events connected to his hobby and it is relatively low paid. We have holidays, nice clothes, own a flat in zone 2, eat out a lot. What you won't see is his previous 30 year career as high earner, the very very low mortgage we have due to using substantial equity from a previous property he owned and the fact I am a high earner still.

I often wonder this. Not about ‘arty farty’ middle class creatives with access to the BoM&D, but the millions of ordinary working class people in minimum wage jobs. Retail workers, hospitality workers, delivery drivers, care workers, cleaners etc etc. How do they afford a place to live? The sums just don’t add up.

Also some of us lower earning Londoners are happy to stuck with a smaller property or flat. Not all Londoners want or need a four bed place with garden

I do a minimum wage type job....my DH has a good career so my work is a nice top up. My colleagues who I work with all have different situations. One is a single mum on top up benefits, she struggles quite a bit. One guy lives in a shared house but has to be quite frugal. Some live with parents still. It's a mixed bag.

I’d bet on the freelance creative types having family money. Others may have council or housing association housing. I know it’s hard to get but it does exist and you don’t know their individual circumstances like if they went up the list due to being a DV victim or something awful.

But also, take the housing cost out of it and the areas with the cheapest council tax in the country are in London, the schools are well funded, kids and retirees get free travel, you don’t need to run a car because public transport is so good, there’s loads of free stuff to do like museums, parks etc. I don’t think it’s inaccurate to say it’s cheap to live in London so long as you have your housing sorted by other means.

Property (rent/mortgage) is comparatively more expensive in London, but I find pretty much everything else cheaper - travel, council tax, abundance of shops/markets, not needing to run a car etc.

Good for them. As I said, my DS has a shit salary…

That doesn't explain anything. The rent for a one bedroom flat is two or three times somewhere else.