to question if the squeeze on living standards will not be temporary?

[bindud]

"British families are facing the biggest squeeze on living standards for 30 years as surging prices and tax rises take their toll."

"The Bank of England forecast a 2pc fall in incomes after tax this year – the worst since its records began in 1990. In 2023, they’re set to fall 0.5pc."

Apparently things will get better in 2023, but will they?

We have the frozen income tax bands, ageing population, & most likely more wage stagnation after a decade of it after the 08 crash.

Is life just going to be more & more expensive going forward for the vast majority of people? or am i being too pessimistic?

Just been on the DM comments under the standard of living crisis and someone’s managed to squeeze in a rant about too many non white people on adverts. As long as we have assorted racists and useful idiots willing to vote themselves all the way to the food bank over bullshit reasons then things will only continue to get worse I’m afraid. France’s fuel inflation passed on to customers =5%. U.K. =54%.

A lot of people are fucked.

The average person can't cope with their energy bills doubling, the NI increase as well as other living costs increasing.

We are going to very close to the line and myself and my husband work.

Well this is the Tories fault but many mumsnetters vote for them " coz we couldn't vote for Corbyn/ Starmer/ anything that dosnt recognise a woman." Well ok but we now have to put up with this shit and Boris is soooo much better than Starmer isn't he?!
And voting Tory hasn't stopped unisex loos springing up everywhere.

@Stellaris22

I can't see it getting any better with the Tories in charge. House prices are unaffordable, savings will be wiped out and it's going to be hard.

Can you explain how any other political party will benefit all us? It is easy to say that but back it up please?

I just read that employees shouldn't be asking for pay increases as that will make it worse! Said by man who earns 500k

Without starting a bun fight, I’d like to know what the other parties would do different.
I’ve seen a lot of criticism but no alternatives.
Genuinely asking the question for future voting.

It’s not going to get better with the Tories in charge. They only care about filling their own pockets and helping their super rich mates and the rest of us can drown under bills for all they care.

Hopefully now more of the middle class is feeling the pinch they’ll be less inclined to elect them again. 🤷‍♀️

DH and I were saying the other day that when we were kids you went out for dinner maybe twice a year if you were lucky. Mostly for either mum or Dad's birthday and once a month we had fish and chips on a Friday.

Our kids generation eat out at least once a month. When I got my first flat I could afford to go out once a month on the lash, our kids are out every weekend on top of ordering Deliveroo and buying loads of clothes. Times have changed. On the flip side neither of our kids seem to want to prioritise renting or buying a place of their own like we did at that age.

Looking at societal trends younger generations eat out more in restaurants but don't go to the pub or clubbing as previous generations did. They also don't consume as much alcohol or smoke.

I think statistics show that younger people have less disposable income then previous generations.

We'll be paying for covid for the next 10 years. Furlough, testing, vaccines. I'm going back to full time work to pay for the increase in bills.

Everything we were told would happen under Corbyn has happened tenfold under Johnson.

Hundreds of thousands of people knew this was coming and tried their best - in the face of some very unpleasant debate - to warn and advise.

This is the Tory utopia you wanted. This is what you got. This is your precious "democracy" in action. This is what you are so proud of.

I suggest you all get with the program. You don't get an 80 seat Tory majority because someone put an "X" in the wrong box.

‘Well this is the Tories fault but many mumsnetters vote for them " coz we couldn't vote for Corbyn/ Starmer/ anything that dosnt recognise a woman." Well ok but we now have to put up with this shit and Boris is soooo much better than Starmer’

Well Boris ‘says’ he knows what a woman is and we all know that Conservatives ‘saying’ something e.g. ‘giving NHS £350m a week’, ‘levelling up’ etc means way more than actually DOING anything. I hope the ‘I had no choice but to vote for Boris coz he knows what a woman is’ crew have lots of firewood stocked up to heat their homes until spring.

Women will bare the brunt of this economic crisis from financial issues to violence from abusive desperate partners.

Will people still have their eyelash extensions and nights out and keep buying new stuff? Possibly, on credit. Meanwhile demand for food banks will rocket. I feel sorry for the children in poverty

@GeneLovesJezebel

Without starting a bun fight, I’d like to know what the other parties would do different. I’ve seen a lot of criticism but no alternatives. Genuinely asking the question for future voting.

Labour has said what they would do differently on energy prices.

Hopefully now more of the middle class is feeling the pinch they’ll be less inclined to elect them again.

I looked at some of the DM comments & there were quite a few top rated of "I've worked hard, I've cut back, etc" Some seem to be slowly realising they have more in common with the "benefit scroungers" they blame for their own misfortune.

Why does everyone generalise about new clothes and eyelash extensions?

If you have to save 25,000 for a deposit it seems unobtainable in your lifetime and people would rather have a few small treats that make life worth living whether that is a meal out or eyelash extensions!

Without starting a bun fight, I’d like to know what the other parties would do different.

Some people were scared to vote Labour in case they were worse off....

I actually don't know enough about other party policies currently but we need more social housing, tighter rent controls, far higher SD of 2nd properties & levies on foreign ownership. higher cgt & a NHS funding model more similar to France. The levy is not going to improve anything & won't be enough with the ageing population.

@malificent7 It's an interesting question, I think people feel more secure if they blame others for their "bad choices", it won't happen to me because I did X. And then some don't even see the advantage of having choices. I only got on the ladder with help from family despite making all the "right choices".

The danger now is that we need to increase interest to combat inflation. I read today a 0.25% increase means 500 pounds a year more for the average mortgage. So if we end up back at 7% that would mean about 12k a year more on the average mortgage????? Which I'm assuming would lead to a massive property crash?

I fear that there are likely to be more interest rate rises to come, @CovidCorvid. Because of the pressure on prices for some things (energy and fuel especially) there's not a huge amount that can be done nationally that will offset them. (A reduction in VAT would help, as it would reduce the price paid overall, but I can't see the government doing that. They'd have to raise taxes elsewhere to compensate, or reduce spending on services even more. I don't like to imagine the impact of more cuts on top of 12 years of austerity.)

Thankfully, most people have fixed rate mortgages these days, so the impact of the rise will be deferred. And it will be staggered, it won't hit all mortgages at once like the rises of the late 80s/early 90s did. This should at least make any impact on house prices more gradual, and not a catastrophic crash like we saw at the end of the 1980s.

But the number of people looking to move will dwindle, which will have an impact on prices. At the very least, they will stop rising like they have over the last few years.

People who don't have a massive mortgage, and don't have a pressing need to move, will be able to sit it out. The people who will find it tough will be those with a high LTV mortgage, who could find themselves in negative equity, those who desperately need to sell because they need a bigger house or to be in a different location and anyone who suffers a drop in income.

If we start to see job losses at the same time as rates rise, things could get very unpleasant indeed. I can remember the massive numbers of repossessions and the rise in homelessness, and it was awful. And there was more social housing then, as right to buy had only been in place for a few years.

We moved last year and we only fixed our rate for 2 years because our mortgage broker was so certain that in a couple of years we'd get offered a better rate.

I have to admit, I am now feeling pretty terrified. If the mortgage goes up by even a few hundred pound, we are going to really struggle.

For the first time in my life, we don't have enough money coming in to cover everything and we have a new baby on the way. We both work full time for really good salaries so it feels like this shouldn't be an issue, but it is.

I feel as though we aren't entitled to complain because we aren't the people on the lowest incomes. But I also feel forgotten and frightened. I regret us upsizing last year and I am worried about having this baby and how we will afford it.

I am going to have to cut my maternity leave short to 3 months and I'm finding the prospect of it very upsetting.

I saw a thread on here yesterday about food bills and it just made me feel guilty. We are a family of 4 (and 2 cats) and we aren't able to live on £75 per week. I don't understand how other people are doing it.

Also when people say others are wrong to want any disposable income & particularly to spend it on frivolous items we have a service based economy. There are consequences of not spending.

@Changedmane

Interest rate hike means it’s not temporary. That is a long term move.

I agree. But I'm also hopeful that a small rise now might mean we don't see rise after rise like we did 30-ish years ago.

Didn't some of the voters want to increase rates to .75?

The BOE seem to be a step behind on growth forecasts & true inflation figures.

I think another increase this yr is likely.

I saw a thread on here yesterday about food bills and it just made me feel guilty. We are a family of 4 (and 2 cats) and we aren't able to live on £75 per week. I don't understand how other people are doing it

It's really tough. I can remember a friend being so skint that they lived on porridge for 3 days a week.

This is your precious "democracy" in action. This is what you are so proud of.

Are you...opposed to democracy?