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

Too generally a question.

Depends on where you love, what type of housing you have, any previous debts to pay off, ages of children, if you need a car to get to work etc

I'd probably use the relative poverty definition tho.

"Its a possition of increadable privilege."

Made even more jarring by my obvious inability to spell- when so many literate people are out of work

2%

• dh is doing a masters so we live on student loans. He also works as much as he can non term time so that boosts the income but we have to make that last across the year.

We're very careful with money and as such can scrape nice things (kids will have a good Xmas but mostly stuff from charity shops/eBay)

We try and grow our own food too and are looking at getting chickens.

The reason it's not despairing for us is because dhs potential earnings are nearly in reach.
We've sacrificed 5 years of living in the bottom 2% but in a few years we will jump - we hope! So hopefully it'll be worth it.

It does irk me slightly though that the financial support that we get for working v hard with family/uni is less than we'd receive on benefits. I'm not a benefit basher at all and have been on benefits when dh had a brain tumour so can't thank them enough and benefits IMO aren't enough but Student finance is worse. Student finance is the shittiest shit in the world.
Not long left now

But those who say it depends on where you live - that's your choice.

We moved far away from any family/support and in another city to where dh needs to be because it's cheaper. Dh cycles 20 miles a day because it's cheaper. That's ok. There are people worse off than us and people who are lonely. We're very lucky

I think you can earn more than the minimum wage and still be on a low income.

If you were just earning the Living wage, I'd consider that low income, because it's only just enough.

I'm really surprised by those posting that outgoings are irrelevant. Of course they are relevant.

If your mum lives next door and you have no childcare costs, that's relevant.
If your 'commute' to work is longer/more expensive and your mortgage is huge because you can only find work in your field in a large city with exorbitant housing costs - that's relevant.
If you have caring responsibilities for aging relatives and that restricts where you can live - that's relevant.
If your parents helped you buy your first home years ago and you've benefited from significant housing equity, that's relevant.

Housing, travel and childcare are the biggest costs for most families. Shopping at Lidl and buying secondhand toys is just tinkering round the edges if you live in an area where those three outgoings use up most of your income.

Individual circumstances differ, that's why discussions about the level of a national living wage are a bit meaningless. Eveyone can probably agree on a rock bottom figure but the middle bit varies enormously.

I did the calculator last night and think I need to redo. At £2073 PCM, with three kids and £106 on council tax it was coming out that 17% earn less than us, which is lower than a PP who said her income was £1100? Huge dip if it's because of the kids!

We have debts which we are slowly chipping away at no child are costs and no car. Also no travel costs as I walk to work, DH is out of work. Our mortgage is £390 a month - if I was paying what my sister pays (£1200) PCM I would have cleared our mortgage in less than ten years.

Our income is made up of salary, tax credits and child benefit. We would just about be able to cope without the tax credits, but only just as we would be paying the bare minimum on debts.

We live in the NW, I still have family in the London area so I don't think things like food bills and utilities are lower, mortgage certainly is though.

It's all relative. We don't have savings and yes I would like more, but I don't feel particularly deprived.

X- post with Million - I think my post is a perfect example of what she is saying!

Half of Londoners are on less than £25k a year or less

working two or three low paid jobs, living in shared grotty flats and relying on higher pay rates on weekends and bank holidays to make ends meet

MN posters are MUCH richer than the country at large

I think we are on a low income..... Dp is on £14k pa, and i am on about £3500 pa. We get a small amount of ctc too.
however, with careful budgeting we manage ok.

Dash what was the documentary called?

I think the calculator is wrong but in the other way

Unless I've put the figures in wrong which is more than likely we are in the top 83%

I can't believe that the children pull us down

Going to check what we would be without children

we bring in 40K between us and it has just said with a 19 year old and twin 8 year old's we are in the poorest 1%? utter rubbish, we aren't well off but by god we are the best we have been in twenty years, we are comfortable, so I cannot say I am convinced by that .....We have been on our arse for years, so excuse my terminology but I am only too aware of the difference.....

Below £18,000 for a family?

We come in at 37% which I'd imagine is fairly accurate, although in real terms our lifestyle is probably a bit more comfortable as we have a relatively tiny mortgage and no childcare costs.

We are both support staff at schools (DH is ft, I'm of) & can manage on combined term time only, pro-rated salaries which I think is a pretty fortunate position to be in.

Can't complain really .

It would be nice to have a bit more disposable income, but tbh reining the amount we spend on food & clearing the credit card would help with that

Single £9k
Family £20k

We are on a low income, and I think what people don't understand is money gives you choices. Yes you can earn a zillion pounds and still feel poor, or be crippled by childcare costs, but we don't have the choice for me to go back to work at all until next year. It would be a choice between working or eating. Likewise, we don't have a massive mortgage or council tax bills, because we have a tiny house. A bigger house and a massive mortgage sounds lovely- want to swap? By the way, our house has water running down the inside of the walls and mould, because we don't have ANY spare money to get it fixed. We don't have a car, and yes we really do need one, I have had to turn down a job due to no car and dp's train fares are crippling.
And still we are pretty happy. But can those of you who have choices about how to spend your money not see how lucky you are.

I live in inner London. It's expensive and private housing costs are astronomic! A family for four, assuming working parent/tax credits situation, would need not less than about £25k before tax. This is based on the family living in some form of social housing and for this to be enough to pay bills, for public transport to work and for food, clothing and contingencies.

We thought we were in the squeezed middle. Turns out we are, we earn more than 40% of the country. We live in the south with 2 kids and a mortgage on a net income of £28k.

We don't feel rich but we certainly aren't poor. We manage our money well so live debt free (except mortgage) and can pay all our bills. We only receive child benefit.

I think we expect more from our money these days, eg mobiles and internet are considered essentials just as a couple of examples of things our parents didn't have to pay for.

As a single person in our city I was earning £15k gross and struggled to pay rent, bills and run a car. So that would be my figure for a single person.

For a family in our city a low income would be less than £25k gross I reckon. And it would be a struggle.

We are a family of 4 and are on about £24,000 a year. We definitely aren't poor. So I'd say about £18k would be a low income.

I guess it's also down to your disposable income. My outgoings are all relatively low so no matter how badly paid my job may be esp if part time I always get by with my DD and DS esp now there are no nursery fees. I haven't upgraded my house or mortgage which I sometimes regret but it means I can always afford pretty much what I want and will never lose my home. Some of my friends earn 3 times as much as me and struggle to pay the bills as they have a high mortgage or rent. I have a modest 3 bed terraced house which I decided upon at the time 7 years ago so I would never be stretched come what may as with the DC s I wanted to be sure I could support us all.

It entirely depends on where you live. I have friends who collectively earn just under 30k and even though they have subsidised rent and almost no bills (live in work accommodation) they struggle hugely.

Whereas I know another couple who live much further north and have a lovely life on pretty much the same salary but more commitments.

Trills yes, a minimum wage that reflects that the absolute basic in surviving day to day is not a 'living wage' would be something I'd support. there are so many low income jobs that are essential or beneficial to society as a whole and people should be given more to do them. Working for charities, carers. Working for most large shops and companies at the lowest level is often minimum wage. These jobs aren't bad or unskilled but people in them are scraping by and unable to survive. There's a horrible culture of blame at the moment in the current government that being poor is somehow a moral defect. If the cost of living is rising so dramatically the. The minimum wage should too. If that means taxing people like my DH more because he has after a decade of work now got a higher income so be it.

I think in the SE a family of 4 would have to live pretty frugally on less than 30K gross.
That table was interesting - such a gradual increase up to the 90th centile then massive leaps in income at the top.