WTH is going on?!

[hungryhippo90]

This isn't so much about my circumstances, but more about the circumstances of others,

Growing up we were on benefits, our family seemed to struggle more than most others In the same sort of financial situation, but I don't remember things being anywhere near as bad as many who are on UC and are finding themselves without benefits, being evicted etc.

I heard on the radio yesterday that there are a large portion of teachers who believe many childrens families won't be able to buy enough food over the holidays,

Now I've just read that 2/5 don't have £100 saved up.

I know a family with a working mum and a deceased dad, they go to the food bank a lot.

What I'm wondering is, am I right in thinking that instead of things getting better that they've gone sharply down hill over the past several years?

I don't understand how things seem to have got so much worse.

Are things going to continue to decline?
Why is this being allowed to happen?

Within my circle of friends - mid-20s to mid-30s, the main complaint is housing.

Isn't the price of housing (whether that's house price or renting) extortionate these days? A lot of problems could be prevented if housing was more affordable IMO. That'd leave people with more money for other things.
Everything is inter-connected these days. For example, housing costs could be linked to supply and demand, which is linked to population and immigration levels, and therefore Brexit. So it's impossible to pin-point one single cause.

Same here RedneckStumpy we've been left the U.K. for 4 years. Best thing we've done.

The policy of austerity has hit the poorest the worst. It is a wrong policy.

Borrow and spend to improve infrastructure and housing and to create jobs is what is needed. The increased spending power of those who would be dredged out of the poverty trap would create wealth and incerased productivity.

The Tories got it wrong in a big way and the poorest are left to struggle.

Lyndor - what part of the country do you live in? Do you rent or own your own home?
£55k and fishfinger sandwiches every night is nuts.

Dragon I Daniel Blake is a great film. It's Loach doing what he does. And thank God for him.

Mark Carney raised the interest rates because: Expectations of a strengthening economy, solid employment levels, more consumer spending and the potential for wages to rise have all played a part in the decision.!!

LyndorCake. There must be other factors why your friends can't enjoy a healthy meal every night - we are on the same income and don't struggle to feed 4/5 adults every night. However, we live in a cheaper part of the country, don't spend unnecessarily and still manage to save a little etc. I wonder what other factors force your friends to eat fishfinger sandwiches every day.

In London & SE housing is a massive issue & childcare is extortionate. You could easily be paying 1.5-2k mortgage/rent & the same cost again in childcare.

I think peoples perception of a 60k salary is a lot more than it actually is. Don’t get me wrong, It is a good salary but I think some assume “I earn 20k so take home will be 3 x as much”. No child benefit & potential pension & student loan payments also take out more then you realise.

Yeah we’re SE, but in a cheaper part IYSWIM our rent has just gone up to £1250 for a 3bed house.
This morning out of interest I checked and housing benefit would cover about 1/2 of that. It would be so far out of reach, and no idea who could ever pass the 30x affordability tests.

I didn’t leave home until part way through the financial depression, Since then house prices have gone through the roof, I always hoped that I’d manage to buy at some point, but that looks like it’ll never happen, if these are the glory days, compared to what we have to look forward to.

It’s mad, during the time that I left home families were able to get tax credits until £65/70k a year, I hear the cut off is somewhere near 30 now, and there are people at £55k a year who can’t afford fresh food.

How much worse can it get?

It's the Tories austerity policy. We have the fifth richest economy in the world and it is being very badly managed, deliberately IMO.

All the protection and benefits we enjoyed have been slowly and silently removed over the past 30 years and we will never get them back. I am seriously encouraging my kids to emigrate, but God only knows where to!

I have recently started a zero hour contract job, the lady at the benefits section of my local council asked me why I accepted a zero hours contract.
I explained that I had no choice. My sons dla had stopped and his pip claim was rejected, even after mandatory reconsideration. So I lost carers allowance as well. He is still disabled though.

I am paying for petrol to get me to various places for work while payment is a month in arrears.
I did check if there were any schemes available to help in this instance and there isn't.

So, I go without food so my teens can eat. Currently we are on the emergency credit for electricity as the £20 I paid last week ran out yesterday whilst I was at work.
I cannot hoover our home or run the washing machine until Thursday when tax credits gets paid into my account.

Life is pretty shit.

We used to live in Australia and had decent amounts of disposable income but it's not utopia. We lived in Melbourne where house prices are ridiculous. Yes, there are options to move to cheaper areas, but those options exist in the UK too. Also, it's not really representative to do a direct currency conversion to demonstrate incomes. Exchange rate fluctuations can cause those comparisons to be flawed (I can remember when the $ was 3 to the £) and it doesn't matter how much you earn compared to the UK, it's what that buys you in Australia that is important. It's why Wanted Down Under makes me stabby, they convert a completely average salary in somewhere like Melbourne and it looks like a massive amount of GBP to someone in some northern UK town and they start celebrating how much more money they'll have while I'm screaming at the TV 'that's a fucking shit salary in Melbourne'.

Don't get me wrong, Australia was hugely kind to us, it does have good standards of living and I'm eternally grateful that I will always have the option to go back.

On another note, I completely accept that mumsnet is not a single entity, and different people post on different threads, but I'm continually astounded by the number of posters on here who are vehemently anti union/strike action when I see threads like this. But I accept I work in an industry which is heavily unionised so perhaps there's an element of me being particularly sensitive to such threads and again, I do realise that it isn't necessarily the same people posting on both threads.

I wonder what other factors force your friends to eat fishfinger sandwiches every day.

High rent would be my first guess.

It’s sadly the perfect storm of mass uncontrolled immigration pushing the demand up for everything, the introduction of zero contract hours (spurred on by my first point), Tories pathetic austerity measures which hit the hardest working to try and clear up the mess labour under Blair and co made of everything.
Brexit is as easy blame but it’s just the end result of all this other crap.

Zero hours here as well.

Added bonus, I'm NHS.

Yes. As a Band 2, I've received a £1.05 an hour pay rise.

Also, as zero hours, I remain at the bottom of the band.

I will never progress.

After a large inheritance, I am mortgage free. My hours are unpredictable and there have been weeks where I haven't worked at all.

I complain about a lot; the shithole neighbourhood, the scumbag neighbours, the rubbish council, but by comparison, I'm so lucky.

I could never afford to keep a roof over my head, pay for food, utilities, council tax, clothes and travel on my current wages.

Kill the unions - who needs them? We hate them, off they go taking a hundred years of workers rights with them. Bye to them, hello call centres, uber, zero hours contracts and working 2 jobs to try to get sufficient income for one. Dismantle the welfare state and nhs. Who needs em? We hate them sucking up our taxes, giving handouts to the workless and saving lives. And look how much we spend on immigrants, giving them free houses stuffed with flat screentvs and overflowing bank accounts. Lets all look at them right now and not notice how everything built since 1945 is being stolen from us by the people pointing the finger.

Fascinating thread, OP. I read the savings one too.

@TopBitch, crikey that’s so awful is any way of going to tribunal for appeal against the decision? Apologies if that is a stupid question.
The worst part of all this that, it seems too me no way of changing the country we are becoming, that only the deserving poor should be given any help & that everyone else is feckless & should just work harder.
It’s fucking depressing & even though I’m raging quietly about the sheer hypocrisy of this government & wringing my hands in despair, what can be done? Because I can’t think of anything.
💐for everyone on this thread dealing with such awful circumstances.

@dontcallmelen yes we could have gone to a tribunal but I decided not to. I can't put my son through anymore interviews and humiliation, which is which I got the job I am now doing. This first month is very hard, as I am paid in arrears.

@TopBitch, totally understand why you wouldn’t want too put him through it, I’m so sorry I truly hope things getter better for you both.

Top that sounds hellish. I hope your luck changes soon.

Yawn

People thinking they don’t have make choices based on the income

When I was 16 I fell pregnant was on IS however my son never went with out never went with out breakfast or dinner or lunch but it taught me a valuable lesson that I couldn’t have anymore children until I was working married and could afford my own housing the gap between my son and his sisters is 14 years for. Good reason
What people think they should have and what actually need are foster two different things

Although I mainly blame austerity compounded by the Brexit-caused fall in the pound/uncertainty, it should be mentioned that wages grew by more than productivity from the late 90s up to the crash. This was true for some other countries, too, e.g. Ireland. What this means in effect was that people were getting paid more than could be justified in purely economic terms and looking at us as a country compared with others it will take a long time to get back to a place where productivity justifies wage increases again (this isn't true across the board and things have been very uneven - DH works for a manufacturing firm which had no pay rises since about 2005, was within 6 weeks of going into administration for most of 2009 and only really started paying cost of living increases again in the last couple of years).

There is no austerity - taxation is the highest is has been since the 80's

Under current plans, the share of national income raised in taxes is set to reach its highest level since the early 1980s by 2019–20

Govt spending is the highest since 1989.

Yes. It’s ‘austerity’ the government spends less on the poor leaving them to try and help each other out and call it a success.
Less people are off benefits (because they’re dead, dying or relying on food banks) yay success!
More people are in work (0 hour contracts, not living wage and relying on food banks and benefit top ups) yay success!
It’s absolutely bloody ridiculous that this country is ignoring its own people. It’s horrifying that we’re reliant on food banks just so people don’t starve to death. It’s barbaric that people are paid to declare the disabled fit for work.
Whenever me or my family and friends have a struggle we always say we’re thankful that at least we’re in this country where we’re looked after but soon we’ll be back to poor houses and debtors prisons.

The Tory’s are trying to recreate the sucsessful American dream model whereby everyone is responsible for their own success.

But, the UK doesn’t have the landmass, It’s over populated, and doesn’t have the ability to sustain itself. Which means unfortunately the UK will end up a socialist state.