When will the cost of living crisis end?

[butternutsquashed82]

I am a single mother. I work full time, I don’t earn loads but enough not to be entitled to any UC childcare help which is what I need. Every day the news is more doom and gloom and every day I hear Labour wanting to do anything but help working people! I don’t see the point in working full time when I have to pay £1500 a term for wraparound care, but I also can’t afford to not work full time. I’m being pushed into debt as electricity bills rise, petrol rises and food prices rise! It is really effecting my mental health. I genuinely don't know what to do! I’m not sure anyone has any answers but instead of screaming into the void I thought I would post here!

Its the proverbial how long is a piece of string question.
If you are receiving universal credit are you getting help with housing costs? Single person discount for council tax?
Does your citizens advice centre do any checks to see if you are getting everything you are entitled to,?
Sorry don't know about childcare payments m
Sending hugs, its not easy right now.
Also you might get a £150 payment towards your energy bill.

You must earn a fair bit to not be eligible for any help on £1500 a month childcare. Have you looked into tax free childcare instead?

We had an Ocado shop last night, 8 carrier bags and a half filled fridge for just a tad over £200. No cleaning products, alcohol, no luxuries just meal ingredients, bread, fruit, veg and some cupboard items. It's terrifying.

I would see what you'd be entitled to if you dropped some hours? If you can't beat the system, join it. Millions of others are.

I don’t receive any UC! I am entitled to nothing because I am trying to sell my flat (I bought when single and childless). It had tenants but I am now trying to sell so I can get my own place for me and my daughter and hopefully cut down on rental costs! On the one hand I’m lucky to have the asset on the other hand it is stopping me from moving forward. I’m also not sure I’d get any help even if I didn’t have it, as I earn just above the thresehold!

There isn’t a ‘threshold’. Once the flat is sold hopefully you will get some help

So essentially, I can’t sell my flat! Because I have the flat I get no help towards childcare! Feel I must be eternally grateful for my asset I saved blood sweat and tears for in my 20/30 but now it’s like a ball and chain round my neck. The property market is dead!

OP said ‚£1500 per term‘, not month

Can you move into it to save on rental costs?

@ToKittyornottoKittythere is a thresehold as I spent over two hours on the phone talking through my finances and various situations. Even if I sell I won’t get any general UC help but I might be entitled to costs towards childcare

I missed that. Although it doesn’t affect the outcome as it’s her assets stopping her being eligible

@ToKittyornottoKittyno! It is not where I live (where I moved to be with my then partner and then we had our child etc)! She is settled here and in year 3 at school. Believe me, if it was an option I would.

If you were able to get help towards childcare from UC then you’d be eligible for the other basic elements too. Use entitled to and play around with it. In the meantime look at tax free childcare as your flat won’t matter for that one

@ToKittyornottoKittyyep, at least can get tax free childcare BUT it is a small dent! Thanks for all your suggestions

It's only set to get worse as confidence in the £ weakens due to lackadaisical fiscal management. Labour as you've rightly deduced is only interested in giving away tax payers' money. So they're spending without even considering those who contribute into the pot.

@Maggispice😭😭😭😭 genuinely don’t know what I can do!

It might not end in your lifetime. People talk about economic cycles but that was before AI and climate change.

So asking when it ends is the wrong question.

You either need to drop the flat price low enough that it sells, or get tenants in again.

Do you get support from your ex?

It won't end, unfortunately. It's now baked in. Inflation figures are a rolling 12 month view. We will see periods when the rate of increase of prices will slow and others when it will accelerate but we won't see deflation which is prices actually coming down.

House price inflation - which you are seeking to leverage to your benefit by selling your flat that you had been using to generate passive income - means that an increasing proportion of salaries are consumed by accomodation costs. House price inflation is also baked into the UK economy, so this will not change either - it will only get worse and put more pressure on household budgets.

You've also seen how fragile the UK energy market is and how easily affected it is by geopolitical headwinds - and how that elevated energy unit cost becomes the baseline moving forwards.

This is it, I'm afraid. The new normal. All we can do is face up to it and course correct accordingly - and put particularly emphasis on how this tracks for your daughter's ability to live independently when she has finished education, and how you can mitigate that.

@FrauPaigeim not seeking to leverage house price Inflation. I just want to sell my flat. But the market is dead. Not incentive for first time buyers to buy! My property has no leasehold and is lovely I’m not asking for a large inflated price! Agent says there are barely any enquires across the board! As I said, probably not looking for more negativity just wanted to post my frustrations!

@GingerBeveragethe hassle to have tenants in again, doesn’t bare thinking about! I will lower the price if necessary x

It will only get worse. Food is still cheap in historical terms and the destruction of farmland for housing/solar farms and the undermining of the farming industry means we are becoming increasingly reliant on importing food from a unstable world. And the huge increase in population through immigration encouraged since Blair (over 7 million since 2000) has made it a lot worse. This immigration also drives increase house prices through demand that can only be satisfied by more housing on agricultural land making us even more reliant on imports. Then there is Net Zero giving us energy costs way above other countries forcing up prices for industry to unsustainable levels….

the more you earn the less UC you get - this seems simple when you are sat a computer typing away. Your rental income (?) is treated as earnings is my guess.

@butternutsquashed82 Have you not asked for the property to be disregarded if you are taking steps to sell ? UC can disregard it for 6 months and you can ask for an extension . But once you do sell you won’t have any entitlement to UC if the proceeds are more than 16k unless you are using the proceeds to buy a new property

@Burningbud1981tjis is really interesting. It has been on sale for six months. But I guess (hope) they might be able to start this from now? I’m not too worried about after, as I will be looking to buy ASAP. And ideally I don’t want to live off any UC just help with childcare would be a blessing.

Things would get slightly easier if we rejoined the EU.

I'm sorry that you are in this predicament. I was not suggesting that you were profiteering. Rather, I was giving the macroeconomic context as to why the current situation in the UK will only get worse, as opposed to being an anomaly with a return to 2005 circumstances over the horizon.

Not all countries have house price inflation where property is treated as an appreciating asset. In some countries it is a depreciating utility with values falling much like when you purchase a car. In these countries property prices remains relatively stable and accessible for families and younger generations, however negative equity is the norm.

Similarly, in those countries being a landlord is often treated as being a service provider, so rental income is slim with high overheads and anything other than passive. My reference to house price inflation was relating this.

I hope you find a buyer and can resolve this trying situation, with one eye on making provisions for your daughter for the future.