To feel fed up of being poor.

[laptopba]

Just that really. Feeling rubbish about how my life has turned out in relation to finances. Its bloody shit.

@BuddhaForMary

I'm self employed and for those saying oh just do that, it's HARD. And the income isn't great if you can't find the clients. It's an insecure income, no sick pay, and if you have time off you have no income. Of course you can work your own hours around children, which can be great, but even that can be problematic. Any training you need to further your career comes out of your own pocket.

The problem with some posters on this thread is that while they're trying to be helpful, they're also coming across as patronising - like those who don't have much money also don't have the common sense to look for ways to better their income or access things like food banks etc. They don't seem to realIe they're talking to EMPLOYED people, some in rolls that we depend upon every day of the week, and they shouldn't even need to be accessing a bloody food bank to feed their families in the 5th richest country in the world!!

I was interested in doing VO work which is self employed as a friend does it, but the difference is she is on her own and works in a full time job, always lives in shared houses.

I am not, I am a mum, I live in a private rent paid from benefits.

for her its a nice little earner on the side for some extra cash which she can save up for whatever (normally with her its better quality recording equipment), for me it would fuck up my benefits and leave me with no where near enough money to pay the rent let alone anything else, even tho I have a much larger voice range then she does.

again its something your better off being in work to do because you have more freedom, you can start your side hussle in your free time unhindered and hopefully grow it so you dont have to work.

where as if your unemployed and you suddenly go self employed, well your not entitled to this that and the other anymore that were keeping you afloat in the first place and what you did get you are suddenly watched like a hark over.

in fact it surprises me how many people say go self employed considering how many self employed people got absolutely shafted by the government over the pandemic, its like everyone has suddenly forgotten.

hawk not hark.

HARK AT HER!

what are you talking about? the only difference between the NMW and the LW is age.

NMW is just that, the minimum that someone can legally be paid, the living wage is one that can, well, be lived on.

According to livingwage.org the nmw has been around £1 an hour behind the nlw.

Calling the nmw a living wage doesn't make it so, it just changes the name.

I have the same problem never any spare money outside of household bills for extras just working to pay bills. I wanted to say that due to mental health issues it's not easy for some people to better themselves.

If anyone needs clothes E5P has a £2.50 sale on at the moment.

I agree with Buddha, it has been very hard for self employed (yes I know it's been hard for others). I was talking to someone a couple of days ago, an accountant who is self employed but managing at the moment, and he was telling me about a friend of his who is also a client who was paid £1300 one month for a kitchen fitting job and his UC stopped. It will take ages for it to start again. Those who dish out UC think if you have a payment, you'll be getting the same every month. This guy hadn't had work for ages! You can't blame people for doing cash in hand jobs in those circumstances.

So many people have financial difficulties, we just don't generally hear about them.

I am concerned about the op and hope today is better for her in some way.

I most certainly did not get shafted by the government during the pandemic because I paid my taxes and declared my income so I actually did extremely well out of the pandemic.
For the first 12 months of being self-employed you aren’t required to earn the ceiling range in order to be entitled to universal credits so actually you could give self-employment to go for 12 months and still have the security that she got from being on universal credits you’d be no worse off

@Maverickess

what are you talking about? the only difference between the NMW and the LW is age.

NMW is just that, the minimum that someone can legally be paid, the living wage is one that can, well, be lived on.

According to livingwage.org the nmw has been around £1 an hour behind the nlw.

Calling the nmw a living wage doesn't make it so, it just changes the name.

no the NMW is for the kids, everyone over 23 is on the LW which is only about £1 more so its just a rename of the NMW for over 23 year olds (altho I think it used to be the over 25 year olds, just used to be 2 rates of the NMW).

its meaningless its just the tories corrupting a labour idea as they kept saying the people need a real living wage not a minimum one and promising to deliver a living wage if voted in. so the Tories just nicked the word to confuse the hard of thinking.

@Bromse

I agree with Buddha, it has been very hard for self employed (yes I know it's been hard for others). I was talking to someone a couple of days ago, an accountant who is self employed but managing at the moment, and he was telling me about a friend of his who is also a client who was paid £1300 one month for a kitchen fitting job and his UC stopped. It will take ages for it to start again. Those who dish out UC think if you have a payment, you'll be getting the same every month. This guy hadn't had work for ages! You can't blame people for doing cash in hand jobs in those circumstances.

So many people have financial difficulties, we just don't generally hear about them.

I am concerned about the op and hope today is better for her in some way.

I agree the system is not set up for people to do ad hoc work.

@HonestwithHope1

I am sooooo f sick of priveleged shit people. Well seen faux sympathy middle class are well alive on mumsnet

Oooh become a chartered accountant
Work in finance!
Education to get a better job stupid

Put a damn sock in it!

You miserable nimbys would be crying on BBC if people in my job quit en mass due to shit as hell pay for complex work

Privileged wankers.

Lets get it right

Every single f job out there should pay enough to have a good quality of life. No ifs ands or buts.

Rent/Mortgage paid- also preferably having rent max caps in place would actually help people -.-
Bills paid (heating, water, gas, electricity, internet- and yes internet is godamn essential!)
Good food
Transport costs whether that's public or petrol
Some savings
Some leisure

Jfc. Aged 60+ generation got all this AND A DAMN LOT MORE FOR LESS WORK, LESS OF A COMMUTE, LESS RESPONSIBILITIES

We aren't asking for much ffs.

The 60+ generation are just like you, still working for poor pay in physically hard jobs for at least another 7 years...

@Bromse

I agree with Buddha, it has been very hard for self employed (yes I know it's been hard for others). I was talking to someone a couple of days ago, an accountant who is self employed but managing at the moment, and he was telling me about a friend of his who is also a client who was paid £1300 one month for a kitchen fitting job and his UC stopped. It will take ages for it to start again. Those who dish out UC think if you have a payment, you'll be getting the same every month. This guy hadn't had work for ages! You can't blame people for doing cash in hand jobs in those circumstances.

So many people have financial difficulties, we just don't generally hear about them.

I am concerned about the op and hope today is better for her in some way.

Uc doesn’t work like that

It’s done on his monthly income

So if he earnt £1300 they will take off so much pence per £1 over the mini form floor fir that month

So he might have got less this month

Next month if he doesn’t earn that he will get uc again

It’s a monthly thing

If he is in the system it won’t take months to start up again, he will do his earnings next month and they will calculate on that

But they have now added minimum floor back in so has to work x number of hours x minimum wage

Which they didn’t do for the last two years

So many will get less this month and onwards

Friend works for cab and explained how uc works roughly

@LiveintheNow

Statistically, the majority are home owners, many are actually multiple home owners (something I completely disagree with btw) who have lower mortgages, a home, a secure home and know they will get a fab pension at the end from their full time for life job, oh and no uni debt, or probably car debt, or any type of debt that is now sadly common.

Forgive me for not weeping for the tiny minority of 60+ who didn't get all those privileges, and also my skepticism of what they were doing with their lives ...

In my family, out of 9 aunts/uncles in a poor northern town doing unskilled jobs for life, the only non home owner out of them, joined her husband in functioning alcoholism decades ago so booze was more important than home for them- she still has a great pension though!... My mum has a 28 year gap between siblings (change of life baby) . My mum is in her late 40s.

People this age and below have a much lower chance of getting everything 2 previous generations had....my generation will have a 1% likelyhood of having all those privileges.

It sucks.

no the NMW is for the kids, everyone over 23 is on the LW which is only about £1 more so its just a rename of the NMW for over 23 year olds (altho I think it used to be the over 25 year olds, just used to be 2 rates of the NMW).

its meaningless its just the tories corrupting a labour idea as they kept saying the people need a real living wage not a minimum one and promising to deliver a living wage if voted in. so the Tories just nicked the word to confuse the hard of thinking.

I think we're saying the same thing here, though for clarity I should have said 'real' living wage.

The living wage foundation calculates the real living wage at an average of the cost of living across the UK, the government calculates their 'living wage' and nmw at 66% of the median income (I think I've understood right), so not based on the actual cost of living.

The real living wage is around £1 an hour more than the government one. But the government one is the least you can legally pay someone per hour (though the rules around unpaid time are a bit murkier, especially when you're in a job where you can't just drop everything and walk out the second your shift ends because it might put someone at risk).

So I totally agree that the government calling it a living wage doesn't mean it actually is, it's spin designed to justify low wages.

@CarolinaStabril

Right, you say it's "my mindset" that's keeping me poor.

I'm disabled and am physically unable to work which severely restricts just how much cash I can have access to.

So basically, using your 'theory', you're telling me that I'm disabled because my mindset is telling me to 'think' I am and that there's no actual physical reason for my disability and by extension, my lack of cash?

@BlueSummerBaby

If anyone needs clothes E5P has a £2.50 sale on at the moment.

And where are we meant to find a spare £2.50 per item from, when we're struggling to feed ourselves and can't afford to even turn the lights on?

@Libraryghost

This might just be me but the wealthiest people I know didn’t go to university. I know some bricklayers and plumbers etc that are living a more affluent lifestyle than say a teacher or a nurse. I know plenty of graduates that are struggling especially those who have got the ten a penny degrees like business studies. Having a good education is a must for so many reasons but please don’t think it guarantees you a great salary, far from it.

Absolutely true The builder working on my house is not an educated man ( doesn’t have GCSEs, ) but is earning a small fortune and lines in a five bed detached in Kent

Thanks to the poster who mentioned acts435
I have just donated

I find it an interesting look into the mindset of some that their immediate reaction to this topic is to immediately judge, patronise and give unsuitable and unsolicited advice to people instead of empathy and compassion.

That's how it looks to you. It's your perception. Its not necessarily how people feel. I'm a "fixer" always have been, I'm proactive if I or a friend have a problem. The compassion and empathy is along the lines of thinking OMG this situation is awful, how can this be fixed, what possible solutions are there and trying to give help and advice (not knowing the person on the internet at all you don't know if they've heard of the basic stuff, so you include that). Putting your thinking cap on and giving up some time to try to offer someone hope. Some ideas might seem unrealistic because the advisor doesn't understand the situation but most people are just trying to help, not judge. It's really not always obvious when people only want to vent.

@BlueSummerBaby I think you need to self examine why you do that.
It is often a very patronising response because often people do know what needs doing and are trying to do it, but it is very difficult to actually achieve.
I suspect it is about your discomfort if you simply acknowledged personal situations that are difficult.

@VelvetChairGirl it's certainly not the bed of roses people make it out to be. I've been self employed for 7 years now, pay my taxes yadayada. I'm a single mum on legacy benefits, and after my marriage ended I decided to put my degree to good use and became a freelancer. For the first 4 years it was great, but the pandemic was awful and I still haven't recovered from loss of clients. I've got some tough decisions ahead if it doesn't pick up soon.

[quote Harmonypuss]@BlueSummerBaby

If anyone needs clothes E5P has a £2.50 sale on at the moment.

And where are we meant to find a spare £2.50 per item from, when we're struggling to feed ourselves and can't afford to even turn the lights on?[/quote]
Some people reading will have a little spare cash, not known about the sale and be glad I posted.

If that doesn't apply to you just scroll by, instead of being oversensitive and taking every post you personally don't find helpful to be a personal insult aimed deliberate to upset you.

My intention is to help.

You getting angry/upset/a bit miffed etc because you didn't find my information helpful only hurts you. It has no impact on me, so what's the point of it? (That's a rhetorical question, I'm not asking you to explain yourself.)

I think is what is so sad about these threads (or one of the things) is the insults to those trying genuinely to help. Some can be patronizing but not all.

[quote alltheapples]@BlueSummerBaby I think you need to self examine why you do that.
It is often a very patronising response because often people do know what needs doing and are trying to do it, but it is very difficult to actually achieve.
I suspect it is about your discomfort if you simply acknowledged personal situations that are difficult.[/quote]
I don't need to examine why I do it. I already know. It's a desire to help people. Nothing wrong with that. If people find a desire to help patronising that's on them, I'm not responsible for their warped IMO emotional response.

Act 345

Just checked the charity commission site for financial accounts

Hands down the BEST charity financial accounts in terms of how much they ACTUALLY give away that I have ever come across

It will be my new charity of choice

I agree with the other posters who have said that the cost of housing is a big problem, house prices and rents are now so high, they have skyrocketed in the last two decades. They hoover up so much income, leaving less for everything else. Wages and benefits haven't kept up with the price increases, and everything essential like food and energy has gone up so much. It's not sustainable if you have already cut back to the bare minimum and I'm really worried about how people are going to cope.

I know this isn't the answer, there really needs to be a major change in our society to enable everyone to be able to pay for a comfortable life (by comfortable, I mean being able to house, heat and feed themselves, being able to have a few treats and not live under the constant stress of poverty). Anyone, on any wage in the UK in 2022 should be able to afford the essentials, it is a travesty that they can't and the explosion of food banks since 2010 is a testament to how much people are struggling. There is an earn £10 a day thread on here, it might help a tiny bit, things like online surveys can help with a few pounds and they don't take up too much time and there is no risk involved.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/4493783-Earn-10-a-day-Marching-into-March