To ask what mumsnetters think is a low income

[Pimmsoclocknow]

Totally inspired by another thread, but what do you think is a low income. - for a individual and for a family of four

Forgot to mention my husband works 4 hours a week at minimum wage, he can work a maximum of 16 hours a week and was previously, but it was bad for his health. When he was working the 16 hours we got closer to £30,000.

Having somewhere to live is a necessity and I live in an area where a 3 bed house is around £1k a month. I could move, sure but I'd have to get a new job, which isn't easy in the current climate, disrupt DS and lose my support network of familty etc. It's a choice, yes of course, but not an easy one.

Likewise with childcare. It's about £50 a day. I could give up work, so it's a choice, but again not an easy one.

I'm just saying it's relative I think.

I know we are better off than a lot of people and have theoretical choices, but they are not simple or easy ones and would take a huge lifestyle change to implement. That might be more choice than some people have got (and I have been properly skint - l once cooked a tin of tomatos in some flour as that was the food we had and we had no money) but, it is relative.

But yes, I will grant you being shit with money is a failure and in some ways a peverse luxury and something I am very much trying to rectify.

You would struggle to rent a three bed house for less than £1500 a month in the town I live in. So you would probably struggle on £35k a year...

Thoughts on the IFS calculator:

5% of UK households earn more than £1,100 per week.

So if you fall in this category, you earn more than 95% of households. It's about £67,000 plus, assuming no kids.

Within the top 5% there's a wide range eg I played with the calculator and you need a NET income of approx £127,000 plus to be in the top 1% if you had no kids. It would be even more if you had lots of kids and/or payed v high council tax. I can't see how anyone can argue that £127,000 net income is not high. Calculator seems pretty solid to me.

Yabu

catgirl if rent is £1k PCM and childcare is £1k, you still have another £2.5k for bills, debts etc. How you can suggest you are skint is really quite shocking to me!

cat, I do see that, but you didn't actually mention that first time around!

My two-bedroom house is 1495pcm, so I do know what you mean. However, I wouldn't consider myself 'skint' because I was bad with money or simply because my income was less than what I spent. I'd consider myself skint if there was no way for me to reduce my outgoings and I still struggled. Which is not the same, surely?

If you are a family with two adults and 2 kids an income of £1100 a week puts you on the 85th percentile (or thereabouts) though. That's a big difference from the 95th percentile.

Obviously I don't think £1100 a week is a low income, btw.

Sorry, I don't know why but I conflated your post with chipping's post below.

But, my point stands. To me, 'skint' means you can't economise - not that you know you're bad with money but you're carrying on.

Correct, you will drop down centiles quickly if you have more and more kids.

circa £1k on debt, £500 on bills leaves about £200 a week for travel, food and living. It's not a fortune. It's more than a lot of people but it's not a lot. Maybe £120 of that is travel.

I'm not saying we aren't lucky, just that it's relative. Going on holiday is, for example, tricky. And of course that's a massive luxury, it's just if you'd told me ten years ago what our income would be I would think a holiday would be easily affordable.

If the car breaks down it can really rock things (and yes of course having a car is a big luxury and not something I take for granted)

catgirl76 - you're not saying that £1,000 per month rent is above average for a 3 bed house are you?

No Mintyy

I'm saying (I think) that the cost of living is far above what people are earning.

What I pay for rent is probably incredibly cheap to some people, especially those in the South East. I;m NW - so it's not an expensive area. I just think rent, fuel, energy and food have become really expensive compared to wages.

I agree that incomes are relative but I remain staggered that someone can bring home circa £4k and say they are "skint" on a thread about low income. I shouldn't be surprised though, this is MN!

Agreed. Skint means you have nothing left to cut. You can't downsize your shopping or put on a jumper instead of the heating or sell things - you're skint, broke, poor. Up the shitter

But you can have high outgoings and be skint - some outgoings aren't possible to cut, or it's a long game - students for example are often referred to as skint but it's not the same as being broke/bankrupt. They are making the choice to remain on their course and exist on a student loan, not to drop out and get several jobs. Of course, the idea is that the course leads to a qualification which leads to a better job.

I'm slightly bemused by the single person needing a lot less than a couple. Single person pays full rent/mortgage, gets 25% off council tax (not half!), pays water, gas and electric - uses pretty much the same amount of heat, maybe slightly less for cooking, and less water
Car costs/transport still have to be paid, etc etc

I just think rent, fuel, energy and food have become really expensive compared to wages.

This is absolutely true.

good - yes, I don't follow that at all!

I live in London and curious about Londoners. I can't see people surviving in London on some of those numbers (without benefits top up).

One beds in my neighbourhood go for 1400 pcm, and I am not in zone 1.

I shop at Lidl and Aldi. We do drink too much but we don't smoke (we do vape which isn't free, but still), hardly ever go out and I can't remember the last time I bought some clothes. Make up is Boots 17, not MAC.

I'm not moaning there btw, just saying it's not like I'm shopping at Waitrose, wearing designer labels and getting a weekly manicure or anything.

skint means i don't have 4k spare. I cant believe some of these posts.wow :(

single- £12K
family- £25k

But if what goes out is less than what comes in, then all is well.

It's not spare kipper

Spare is £200 a week for food, travel and getting DS a comic or a trip out a weekends. £120 on travel, £70 a week for food, toiletries and cleaning stuff leaves around a tenner a week for "spare". So more goes on the credit cards and round and round we go (yes, I know - down to me to break this stupid cycle)

But it's fuck all really. I went back to work when DS was 5 weeks old to maintain that. It's shite. And I'm better off than most, so I think the standard of living in this country is pretty diabolical tbh.