Moving to London

[Italwayshappenstome]

I have copied this thread from the Lone parenting section, thought it would make sense to post in multiple areas:

Hi, I had no idea where else to post this topic so thought here would do.

I am a lone parent, have ds who has just turned one. I currently live in the north of England and work here. My salary is ok and I receive tax credits due to being SP.

I don't really enjoy my job and it feels like a daily grind and I can't see me wanting to stick it out any longer than I have to. There are no prospects for me at all.

I have seen a job advertised but it is in London. I need to find out what the salary would be (waiting on a call back plus loads of other Questions I'd like to ask them about the position).

My question is has anyone moved to a completely new area miles and miles away from friends and family as a lone parent and succeeded? Is the cost of living in London expensive and would it be worth my while since I am on my own with a baby. I am anxious about the cost of living and childcare more than anything else, plus being miles away from my family and friends.

Anyone have any advice?

We couldn't live on £18k. However we live more central and both work so no help with rent. Our rent is almost £20k a year! ( one bed)

I wouldn't do it for 18K if you don't have any support in the area, unless you can indeed get a good amount in TC/HB.

Once you're settled in London you can live more cheaply than you think, but getting set up can be really expensive. It can take you a while to set up childcare and what will you do in the meantime?

Honestly, I can't imagine living in London on 18k. We left SE London a couple of years ago because it was too expensive. Our household income was more than 3x that. We wanted to buy, which makes a difference, but still...

I know nothing about tcs, but you'd have to be getting a LOT of money to make it doable IMO.

Crystal palace is nice though.

18k - ok, what would you get in top-up benefits for that?
Child benefit, tax credits, housing benefit, childcare vouchers - I'm sorry I'm no more help than that. 18K isn't going to be the only money coming in.

Yes! the poster who mentioned Sydenham, that's nice.

Everyone has a bit of postcode snobbery about them; you'd be surprised how warm and welcoming some of the less salubrious areas are.

I live quite near Thamesmead which has a god-awful legacy reputation. Today, the old blocks are being torn down and proper houses built and it's a thoroughly different environment

A lot of people will say you need like 40K a year to live in London -- we managed on half that, so it is doable, but that was without child care and already knowing the city well and having some support. We're now thinking about moving back but only if we can line up at least 30K.

You can live on less obviously but then what quality of life do you want? The excitement of living in London fades rapidly when you're in a crappy damp flat in a super dodgy part of town and living on toast.

Yes, I believe childcare will be a nightmare. I am fantastic at budgeting for things but I reckon I will be short at the end of the month based on all your comments

The best thing for me to do would be hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I can apply for this job, hopefully they will interview me. I will have to work my notice period at work if I do get this job which will hopefully give me some time to make arrangements. And If I genuinely can't afford it or it just wouldn't be feasible I'd have to say thanks but no thanks and look for other opportunities.

My job here is secure, I just wish I could advance but really my problem lies with the management of this place, they just don't seem to care and I feel like I've wasted three years here already. The only good thing about it is they have an onsite nursery which my son loves, the nursery staff are brilliant and the environment he is in is a safe, happy secure one so I would feel bad about pulling him out of it. But that's not a reason for me to stay. The only other reason I stay is because whilst it's not the most convenient place to commute too (40 mins away by car) the wage is decent-ish and I'm guaranteed that steady income each month and KNOW I can survive on the money I get plus I have managed to save some whilst being here.

I feel 'ready' for a new challenge, a better working environment and something more stimulating than what I am currently doing. I don't feel I have achieved any of my potential whilst being here and the job in CP sounds like something I would really be interested in doing - I looked into it whilst on mat leave and asked about it when I returned to work. They had no vacancies at the time but now it has come up, I feel 'fated' to apply for it. But I'm face with the headache of making all the practical arrangements and whilst it doesn't really phase me it is a minefield and then my support network will be gone too. But it still seems like something I would love to do.

Essay over

Also, make sure you check out childcare. Friends of mine who had full time nursery places were paying £1200+ a month.

£1200 a month? It would be £2000 a month for full time at our nursery! Although you won't pay that much in most places.

OP, are you NHS? There might be subsidised childcare.

This was a couple of years ago. That's a hell of a lot of inflation, but I can believe it. Scary prices.

It would have been the same two years ago. Nurseries are a licence to print money round our way. Most people would pay around £1500 for full time private nursery I reckon.

Currently I receive working tax credit that has the childcare element to it since ds is in nursery. The wtc pays for his nursery fees, I siphon it away into a separate account to make sure I don't spend it on anything else. I get CB (80 pm) and ctc - (170pm). No HB but I survive cos my rent is cheap

Crystal Palace, as in the streets around Westow Hill, is very buzzy and trendy, and on the edge of the magnificent park. There are loads of much cheaper residential areas within good easy travel, such as Penge, Sydenham, Norwood (S Norwood), Annerley.

It sounds as if you are up for a challenge that pays dividends. I have no idea what benefits you would be entitled to towards childcare and housing, but it is possible to rent a flat for £111pw. You could start modest and move into a bigger place as your money rises.

Blu, that's a single room in a share!

I agree with sid, £18K would be very tight. Would it be likely to increase a lot very quickly?
Also, AFAIK, childcare is more expensive here.

But London is fabulous I have lived here all my working life, miles from any family support! It wasn't a problem when the DC were small - our friends are others in the same position so we all supported each other.

Ooops, just realised I missed a whole page!

I think it is unrealistic, sorry. We had a similar thread recently where someone was pondering whether it was worth moving to London as a lp on a salary of £40,000 and that would have been a stretch too.

Oops, sorry.

Presumably hb would pay a lot of the housing and ctc a lot of the childcare?

Mintyy I am a lone parent last year I made less than OP I also live very nearby to CP further into London. So it is doable. If you live is social housing try and swap

We pay £900 a month for x3 morning childcare only for 2. So £450 per child for 9 hrs a week

As a lp who lives in the Midlands I turned down a job in London paying 28K as I worked out it wasn't do-able. Sorry to be negative but I think 18K is too low to live on in London.

I wouldn't move into London with kids unless extremely well off, having grown up there, and then moved around, and then gone back, I would say quality of life there as a kid is extremely shit compared to almost anywhere else.

Hi OP. I lived near Crystal Palace in South Norwood and sold my flat there last year. The flat was on Selhurst Road a stones throw from Selhurst Station. I must say i thought that area was a right crap hole. Fried chicken/kebab shops, Bookies and Offies, 2 rough pubs and 1 alright one were the local shops. We had quite a few issues with an upstairs drug dealing neighbour and many neighbours just parking on our drive and telling us aggressively to fuck off and being quite threatening when we asked them not to.

Norwood Junction was slightly better, in that it had a decent Thai and Indian and a supermarket, but still lots of fried chicken places and a couple of really rough pubs. I used to get the bus from there to work and it could be quite 'earthy', a couple of times i was threatened and abused - you would get a lot of twats who thought they were 'hard' type of thing.

The rental we were told we'd get on our one bedroom flat was £850. When i was looking into childcare, everywhere had a waiting list of quite a few months and was about £55 a day.

Crystal Palace is much nicer, as is Penge - but more expensive. I would avoid going towards Croydon personally. I used to work in schools in Croydon and they weren't great.

Avoid Thornton Heath like the plague.

Don't move to London unless you will earn a lot more in the future. You would struggle to make ends meet even if you get help with tax credits or other benefits. Rent and childcare is probably much more than you are currently paying (likely to be double)