To think wages should cover the cost of living?

[KeepYourCup]

I'm a single parent, I work full time and pay for childcare for my primary school ages child. I physically can't work any more hours and my salary is just above the NMW.

I rely on top-up benefits from Universal Credit to get by. We have a nice life - nothing fancy but there is food on the table, a comfortable home, car etc. I realise I am in a better position than many people who claim UC but it pisses me off that I am left relying on it each month.

Last month they wiped out my entire payment with only a couple of days warning. I am appealing that decision but in the meantime I ended up having to borrow money to cover a couple of bills and a repair on my car.

Single parent families are normal, and households should be able to get by on one wage. My rent alone eats up almost half of my take-home pay, and I only live in a two-bed flat so not a huge house with a garden or anything.

I realise its all relative and that everyone's circumstances are different, but there is something very wrong when an adult working full time doesn't earn enough to cover the costs of simple living when there is only one adult and one small person living at home.

AIBU?

The problem is rent, not wages. 50% of income on rent is absurd, it shouldn't be above 30%. We need to build houses.

Couldn't agree more x

Can you get a better paid job?

I live in a two bed house in London, single parent, three kids under 5. Rent is £1250 a month and childcare is £1100. If you count other essential bills too (council tax, water, gas, electric, food etc), I'd have to take home 3K a month after tax if I didn't want to rely on UC. It's just not possible.
But I bloody hate it and they're always fucking up and leaving me without money at the last minute. This month their fuckup meant I genuinely didn't have a single pound to my name. Not one pound. The house was full of food, my car was full of petrol, so it wasn't the end of the world, but I came on my period and had no money for sanitary products so had to use the inserts from my babies cloth nappies. Just felt so humiliating & dehumanising. No one should feel like that.

The rent is the problem. Are you in a private rental? Can you register for whatever system your local council/housing associations use and start bidding on some social housing?

I agree, it’s ridiculous how hard some people work and still struggle.

I agree. But if you listen to my parents it's the younger generation who should "budget better, like we did" I think the problem is that average wages haven't kept pace with basic basic living costs for years (i.e. roof over head, clean water, obligations like council tax, basic heating etc).

House prices have been a major problem in the making for years too; it's all very well older people cashing out their 500k basic family home for the care home fees or cruises... but some young worker is then literally working an entire career to pay it off. It's shocking as a state of affairs.

But also some big employers (who make big profits, and in some cases know how to play the tax system) will RELY on the fact that UC or Working Families Tax Credit top up money so they get away with paying close to or minimum wage. More profit for them.

I agree, wages are notoriously low, and have been for years!
I think it's a combination of many things, but while the government lobbies for 2 parent working families & is subsidising 1 parent families, employers get away with paying the bare minimum. Yes, inflation has risen while wages are stagnant and house prices / rent are astronomical. But once again, it's the government substitutions and easy, cheap credit that allows this to carry on.
But than, I also believe that the market (labour & housing) will eventually have to regulate itself...

YANBU.

You always get the "Can you re train for something else" or "Can you earn more money?" Stupid answers Ffs.

Its ridiculously hard for some people and I dont think everyone understands that.

MrsJosh Yes, I can get a better paid job, but I thought it might be more fun to stay in a low-paid one and challenge myself to scrape by every month and claim benefits

I'm in a private rent, there is no way in hell I'll be near the top of the housing list any time soon - council housing has a long wait in my area and we dont meet any of the criteria which bump ypu up the list any quicker and even if I was, the areas they would offer me are dangerous and incredibly rough.

I've just conn Mc e from a thread talking about someone's DH earning £200k whilst she earns £30k PART TIME. Then I read this.

The rich/poor divide is getting bigger and bigger and it's just so frustrating

Come from

I worked with a charity helping out UC claimants earlier this year and it was a real eye opener. Appalling that so many people rely on it while in full time work. Utter disgrace.

I have to agree with a pp that the price of rent is an issue (and mortgage payments if you're buying!)

I know two people who rent... One has a 2 bed bungalow and pays £285 a MONTH for the rent (housing association - nice area.) And the other rents a 2 bed house - with the same amount of room in as the bungalow and a smaller garden (private let decent area.) The 2 bed private-let house is £600 a month. More than DOUBLE for the same sized house that's owned by a housing association...

Problem is, as has been said, social housing is like gold dust! Very rare, and hard to come by, and only the lucky few get it!

But I do agree @KeepYourCup that wages need to be much higher.

A 3 bed semi in the west midlands for instance was £12,000 in the early 1980s, and taking inflation into account, it should be £45,000, but it's not - it's £150,000. THREE times what it should be.

Also, again taking inflation into account, WAGES are only half of what they should be. Like in 1985 I was on £5.25 to £5.50 a hour in a factory. Today that would be £16.00 an hour. The average unskilled labour wage now is less than £8.00 an hour.

It's no wonder people can barely get by, and need tax credits and food banks to survive. It's also hardly surprising that people stay on benefits if they can, as working for a living doesn't make you any better off.

NO-ONE who is working should need tax credits, or help with health costs or rent or council tax. Wages should be decent enough to not NEED help.

These days, if you DO work a few more hours, (and earn a few dozen quid a week for several months,) you get penalised/punished/ generally fucked up, by being overpaid tax credits and housing benefit. Then the following year, your wage goes down again, and the tax credits 'award' and housing benefit 'allowance' goes down too, so they can retrieve what you owe them from your remaining 'wealth!'

It's not a case of getting a better paid job - which incidentally often needs extra training which we have to pay for now. The op's point was that any full-time work should pay enough to be able to live in this country. YADNBU, op. Honest day's work, honest day's pay.

Well put @LavendarGreen!

FACT: there aren't enough 'better paid' jobs for everyone who'd like, or more pertinently, needs one. Even if there were, the type of jobs which are typically lower paid would still need to be done. They may not carry much value in terms of pay but they are valuable to both society and the economy nonetheless. Who's going to do that work after we all get 'better' paid jobs huh? It's disgraceful that huge numbers of full time workers still can't earn enough to support themselves in a basic standard of living without state help. Though just how helpful that 'help' often is is debatable given the numbers of working households living in poverty and using foodbanks in spite of receiving benefits as well as their wage. So much for a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

Norathepessimist@ you can’t blame the older generation for this or presume they all have houses, many don’t. Also those that have to sell to go into care homes I am sure would rather that their life’s work should go to their loved ones. However that would mean the tax payer would pick up the bill.
I agree that the cost of living is crazy these days. I don’t really understand how universal credit works but it is clearly causing a lot of problems.

Exactly Lavender.

Universal Credit is supposedly meant to encourage people to work more... I did an extra shift the other day, and by the time they deduct 63p from my UC for every extra £1 I earned, I was working for £3.66 an hour. If I had needed my childminder on that day, my earnings wouldn't have even covered the cost of using her.

I also receive a Christmas bonus in my December pay - £44 will ve deducted from my UC to compensate that, whereas people who don't need to claim any benefits won't be any worse off.

It's a shit show.

I wasn't suggesting you work more hours, but that you could look for a better paid job.
Or find out what you would need to do to be able to apply for a promotion within your current job. Even if you need to study whilst the kids care in bed, it's surely worth it.

YANBU
It's a dreadful state of affairs. Britain has turned into an ultra capitalist country. Wages are too low whilst the cost of living is too high.

This is, however, what the population has voted for and keeps on voting for. The Labour party have policies designed to address all this but sadly I fear the population will vote for the Conservatives in the upcoming election - a party which has become the servant of the elite. Delivering policies which mean the rich can get richer on the backs of the poor.

I'm so sorry to hear that you are in this situation. Women and children suffer the most from austerity / ulta capitalism

FACT: there aren't enough 'better paid' jobs for everyone who'd like, or more pertinently, needs one. Even if there were, the type of jobs which are typically lower paid would still need to be done. They may not carry much value in terms of pay but they are valuable to both society and the economy nonetheless. Who's going to do that work after we all get 'better' paid jobs huh?

Couldn't agree more. Anyone working full-time should be able to afford a reasonable quality of life, decent housing, food, some money left over for treats/entertainment/day trips etc.

I completely agree. UC etc is just the government subsiding companies that put profits before paying staff a decent wage.
There should be no need for tax credits etc.

Plus childcare should be subsidized.