Lower working class???

[primitivemom]

Following on from the class threads? Can anyone tell me what constitutes lower working class? Is this benefit street class lol? staffies and job centers ?

That's interesting abilockhart; you might be right about the downwardly mobile thing and also the fact that it's generational.

I have had this conversation with several friends; basically that we will not achieve the lifestyle we grew up with (lower middle-middle middle class I guess you could call it-no private school but nice area/house/school etc) and that we have to find fulfilment in a different way and get used to having less. Because we graduated into the recession and the working world has changed we will most likely not be as successful in a career as our parents were and so have had to learn to define ourselves differently. Lower mc is a class that is not often mentioned, someone earlier mentioned C1; it's that category on the socio economic scale I guess.

I'd class myself as lower working class -

• unskilled occupation with min wage and no job benefits (and anything above entry level gained through 'working your way up' rather than education)
• earnings 'topped up' by benefits
• subsidised housing
• no or little education above secondary school
• smoking/social drinking regularly
• struggles with addiction and/or mental health

Suddenly coming into money would admittedly change a lot of those, I could afford to live without benefits, afford time away from work to retrain and therefore up my earning capacity for the long term and could get on the housing ladder.
But my mindset isn't all 'council estates and staffies' I like to read, real books not magazines, can't stand watching Jeremy Kyle and try and make the best of what I have. I'd have said I was brought up working class. My parents owned their home, worked in skilled professions, and did their best. I think I'm doing the same but because of lack of foresight and mental illness in my late teens and early 20's I'm on this sort of treadmill where I need to earn to live and there's very little left over to save or use to better my position. My aim is to keep going every day and try to give my dd the opportunities she needs and deserves to do better than I have.

My cleaner is lower working class ( I don't think she'd mind me saying so). She is a single Mum to 4 children (aged 20,18,14 and 9- the eldest lives away and has 2 children) she does multiple casual cleaning work for just above minimum wage, they live in social housing and are reliant on in work benefits. Her youngest has never been on holiday.

Interesting post beerwench do you think a good job can make you go from underclass to proper working class? Neither me or dh have degrees and had very different upbringings to each other but we've both have what id call good jobs although I'm not working at the moment (I did further training and he left school at 16 with little or no GCSEs). He's worked his way up from a family that actively encouraged him and his siblings to leave school as early as possible and get a job.

Although he jokes about coming from an underclass family he would proudly call himself working class now.

DH is very proud of being working class - he considers them more intelligent than the middle class! As he is now a graduate professional, he doesn't exactly fit in the working class any more?

Your cleaner is WC, It's bloody insulting to call her lower anything.

A friend of mine is very middle class and gets working benefits she is a professional but a lone parent so works less hours than she used so to say MC people don't get benefits is a bit niave

Ok I think of upper working class as people with a trade, but not a profession so hair dresser, mechanic, electrician etc.

Ah right, so social class has nothing to do with inherited wealth estate and privilege; nothing to do with housing tenure/property ownership and so on; nothing to do with father's occupation (thank goodness!) and nothing really to do with attitudes values and 'culture'.

I agree with the evaluation that we will not have the opportunities for acquisition and social mobility that our parents had. Yet it was my parents' generation that laid down the foundations for the welfare state because the social disparity in their generation meant the difference between children living or dying. In fact my mother remembers children coming to school with no shoes and no food during the Depression.

Sadly, it is our children who will probably see the end of the welfare state and the security that, if you fall on hard times, you will not starve.

In this thread and the "working class" one, what strikes me is how articulate many posters are although they play down their abilities at times.

On this thread...

nina working class people went to school and can string a sentence together

More recent research on the subject says that the notion of upper, middle and working class is outdated and there are now 7 groups.

This quiz tells you which group you fit into!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973

Is anyone really arsed?
I wouldn't know what class to put myself in...
I watch Jeremy Kyle if I'm off work poorly etc, feed my DSs fish fingers & chips out of the freezer more than I probably should and live in a council house.
On the other hand, DH & I both have decent jobs, I love eating quinoa and avocados and often spend time walking around national trust parks...

Have just done the quiz. I am in the elite group, apparently.

I came out as emergent service worker.

That quiz states that I am technically middle class. That's not true - I'm common as muck!!

Elite here

But its obviously just done on income

If not just income then mainly income

And whether you rent your house or own.

I get elite or traditional working class with very slight differences in the 'jobs in my social group' which is mostly my diving club - I don't know what they all do, but there is a diverse range such as (retired) teacher, accountant, lorry driver, electrician, university lecturer, big manager job at a multinational, secretary, care worker, really all sorts. That plus the value of my pension and nearly mortgage free but cheap northern ex council estate house. Does visiting stately homes but only ever walking round the gardens and woodland count or not .

I own a house but my great uncle lives in it - I know, I'm kind like that!😂 so I currently rent until he kicks the bucket. So maybe that is why I'm technically middle class!!😂

I'd have thought if you were going to split working class into upper/lower, the upper would be those with skilled blue collar jobs and the lower would be those with semi/unskilled jobs. That makes me lower working class before anyone thinks I'm being sneery about it.

Bit at people jumping to JK comments. We're on benefits, lots of people I know are on benefits, doesn't mean we shag around and start fights.

Technical middle class.

Because of technician/engineer type profession I suppose.

In this thread and the "working class" one, what strikes me is how articulate many posters are although they play down their abilities at times.

Yes I was thinking how articulate you're managing to be @nina2b

Well done you! Have a pat on the head and a

*RedStripeSorry

Interesting post beerwench do you think a good job can make you go from underclass to proper working class? Neither me or dh have degrees and had very different upbringings to each other but we've both have what id call good jobs although I'm not working at the moment (I did further training and he left school at 16 with little or no GCSEs). He's worked his way up from a family that actively encouraged him and his siblings to leave school as early as possible and get a job.

Although he jokes about coming from an underclass family he would proudly call himself working class now.*

Redstripe - yes I do, I've never really heard the term 'underclass' but if you were to take that as meaning not working, with no aspirations to work and struggling to make ends meet and lower working class as working, or with aspirations to (made redundant etc) and struggling to make ends meet, then to me you're working class because well, you're working. And work can and does bring opportunity of promotion due to experience rather than qualification, so you've worked up from the shop floor rather than entered at a higher level due to education. If that makes sense?
I think possibly it's down to attitude rather than wealth or position?
I know someone who started in a job as a warehouse worker for a large company before he left school. He had no qualifications on leaving. He is now a branch manager for the same company. To meet him I'd think 'middle class' two beautiful cars, 4/5 foreign holidays a year, well spoken, due to retire early, 2 homes etc. But he's worked his way to where he is with experience and attitude, he took advantage of the opportunities available and worked hard, had he not he could still be the warehouse lad, on minimum wage.