Low salaries not actually low?

[highchairhell]

I'm probably being unreasonable here but it really frustrates me when people say 'we manage on a salary of £24k' etc but conveniently forget to mention the tax credits, child benefit, subsidised school lunches etc that bumps the salary up considerably.
On threads where someone says they struggle earning £50k there are always posters who are incredulous and outraged that people aren't living like kings on that but fail to realise that there would be little to no help for families on that wage whereas the lower wages are propped up with tax free benefits and housing pay that means they have more disposable income than the on paper huger earners!

That's a massive amount of help Back. Presumably it is only because your DC is disabled though?

I do find it slightly upsetting when people say retrain etc. I have worked as a hca in a nursing home looking after people with advanced dementia and very challenging behavior, its a minimum wage job and some of us (granted not all) work very very hard, are extremely skilled and take all the possible training. It breaks my heart to see people doing a wonderful job have to move to another field because they can't afford to live. Imagine if nobody did these jobs? The job and often the people who do them are very under valued. More should be done to ensure jobs are paid fairly i have done all possible training and I'm qualified to deliver manual handling and person centred dementia care training and spend a lot of time studying things like extended feeding techniques, diabetes training, nutrition and dysphagia and so on and get paid the same as an 18 year old who hasn't yet completed even basic and compulsory training.

Stillmedusa That's a good salary for a TA!

I am single and earn £16,600 a year (£1100 a month) and I am not entitled to any benfits and also pay for my own perscriptions and dental work.

I rent a large 2 bedroom apartment which for its location is very reaasonable at £372 per caladaer month, although the heating is antiquated since I still have storage heaters. Utilities, food, coucil tax cost me an additional £280.

I then pay £138 per month to insure, tax and fuel my 14 year old Seat Arosa in order to get to work. A good runaround that does its job, but practically a banger in the seamlessly endless waves of HPF BMWs, Audis and Mercedez that seem to litter the roads.

Things like a cheap SIM only contract (£12.50 a month) and a WIFI only internet connection with no line rental (£15), plus my cheap rent allow me to live relatively well for my low salary.

I can afford a £70 gym membership and still have just over £200 a month left over to do as I please, but only because I am extremely smart and efficient with my money.

nipintheair - why is it sad that poverty has been redefined. Do you think that we should have families existing in Victorian conditions and levels of poverty?

Long time ago @cantsleepclownswilleatme.

Was paying a mortgage so no help, worked in a bank and a bar.

Not anywhere near that situation now.

Try living on a pension

I did retrain. Hasn't helped in the end.

I despair, all inclusive holidays, feeling “proud” at the level of support and yet draining every drop.

Meanwhile those single , struggling to make ends meet get sod all?

Do you mean families where both partners are on 24k?
Or families with just a single parent/one main earner on 24k.
With two parents on 24k there is no way the family would be getting extra benefits/working tax credits etc.

I used to be on £100k and my DC had free school meals, while those on £20 didn’t

.... because mine were Year 2 and under.
Not a sensible use of tax payers money ime.

“People in high flying jobs and with massive wages are often as skint as someone on 10k because with that job and money come with expectations of how they are supposed to live. You need certain car, certain house, certain clothes, kids should go to certain schools etc otherwise you won't get that level of respect you need to do your job and keep on that position.”

The level of delusion here makes me so sad and I say this as a high earner. High earners are not skint because of the choices they make to buy nice things. They have the income to make choices. It is an insult to people on lower incomes to claim they are at the same level of ‘skint’.

Yes I have high fixed term commuting costs but so do lower earners commuting in. Yes me and my husband have probably spent money on nice clothes but that was a wardrobe built over time as our salaries rose. And let’s me honest buying nice clothes is fun.

Anyone who feels forced to pay for private schools that they can’t affoed because of perceived status is an idiot. If it is the right school for the child then that is a completely different thing. No-one at work has a clue what my house is like because I am not crass enough to boast about it when lower earners are struggling to pay their rent for a boxroom.

I phrased that badly. My apologies. I was just trying to say that what is thought of poverty now would have been regarded as utter luxury when my grandparents grew up. Even in the 60's I recall families who were exceptionally deprived by today's standards. Yes, it's good people don't live like that now on the whole but I do think knowledge and insight into the lives of others that wasn't available then has eroded happiness and in a converse sort of way has made mud, camping and sand in your sandwiches a middle class domain.

For the lady who looks after dementia patients, I think you do the job of an SEN of yesteryear and get nothing like the acknowledgenent and reward or respect that you should. Thank you.

Completely agree with user

I used to be on £100k and my DC had free school meals, while those on £20 didn’t

.... because mine were Year 2 and under.
Not a sensible use of tax payers money ime

And yet it seems that you were happy to take advantage of it Barnaby.

And yet it seems that you were happy to take advantage of it Barnaby.

You don't get a choice: if you want your child to have school lunches and they are year 2 or under then you can only have them free - there is no facility to pay for them. I suppose you could donate the equivalent in money to the school though, they'd really benefit a lot from that with the cuts to already meagre school budgets.

I stand corrected Brizzle.

I've not read the full thread, scanned through and I see this has been mentioned a bit but -

whereas the lower wages are propped up with tax free benefits and housing pay that means they have more disposable income than the on paper huger earners!

I earn just under £14,000 a year before stoppages - yes I pay tax and NI.
I also get £6240 a year with working tax, child tax and child benefit. I live in a housing association flat, however I pay the rent, I don't get housing benefit, and it is market value for this type of property in this area, I would pay a similar amount private renting, and probably less on a mortgage. I pay council tax, 25% discount for single occupancy (child under 16, 1 adult) the same as anyone in my situation would. No free school meals, pay for prescriptions, dental treatment etc (for me not DC obviously)
So how do you work out I'd have more disposal income than someone on £50k? I'd lose tax credits on £50k a year, but I'd be £29k up so actually that'd be fine! And I am a single parent.
I've never been lucky enough to earn £24k a year, even with top ups, but I do think that if I did, I wouldn't be getting what I am now.
YABU - I honestly don't know how you came to that conclusion.

When I was a single parent I was on a starting salary as a teacher so around about 24k. I wasn’t propped up by anything other than child benefit. I don’t know how or where you have got this idea that people on 24k receive tax credits, the threshold is much lower.

So promotion in banking depends on wearing a £1000 suit, not talent, skill, intelligence or experience.

Yep, this is very true. My ex is a banker and he told me you won’t be given a job if you turn up to an interview in a cheap suit and shoes or if it is blue or brown .

I think it depends on the reputation outpinked. Over the years DH has saved the bankers millions due to his professional advice. He also now does a lot of after dinner speaking. To be honest they couldn't care less if he turns up dapper or in a clown's outfit providing he keeps their attention and keeps saving them money.

His wife is also not in the least bit interested but even if I have a pair of fake diamonds in my ears nobody would think they were unreal. I think you may find that the bankers who have been around as long as we have and who are now running the banks and hedge funds couldn't actually care less. They know who has endured and it has nothing to do with width of the cloth and everything to do with the cut iyswim.

My husband is in banking. He has never owned a £1000 suit in his life. If you ever go into the City, suits are now few and far between. DH bank has recently gone completely casual and most of the banks are business casual where the outfits of the day are whatever has been pulled out of the wardrobe first. Nobody could give a stuff about the price of the suit

@Buswankeress
You are actually getting net almost exactly the same as someone on 24K with no top ups would.
Salaries of 50K usually come with full hours and extra expenses, all depends on where you live, what you do and how old is your child (children). A single parent of a primary-aged child on a 50K / 45+ hour job, with a long commute to central London, could easily be financially worse off than someone on your level of income with a school-hours job around the corner.

@Buswankeress
You are actually getting net almost exactly the same as someone on 24K with no top ups would*

Posted too soon. silvercuckoo 14k is about right for full time minimum wage salary. Why don’t those earning 24k get a minimum wage job if they’d be better off and less stressed?