AIBU to be totally confused (cost of living crisis)

[LittleBitHeiressLittleBitIris]

AIBU to not be able to understand/ grasp the scale of impending disaster that is building over the increased cost of living?

I genuinely don't see how millions of people with outgoings that are about to be actually higher than income is going to play out.

I'm not trying to be goady and obviously realise no-one has a crystal ball but am I missing something? Has this ever happened before in other recent times/ other cultures and what was the result. I can't even imagine what could happen.

I feel really clueless! Any ideas/ opinions/ further reading much appreciated 👍

@Unsure33

My dad actually had a knitting machine and made some cracking designs

My aunt had a knitting machine & we had some fab jerseys as kids! The boys all had their names on theirs (safeguarding was pretty non-existent in the 80's) but my name was too long!

Was explaining to 20yo DD last night about only having the coal fire in the living room & how my mum used to warm up our pjs etc on the fire guard. We don't have a coal fire but even if we did I'm not sure I'd relish the thought of getting up an hour earlier to get the fire going.

@fallfallfall

what did people do in the 20's; well simple meals, extra clothing and nothing new. homes were tiny and furniture sparce. people used their time making and selling. no tv, no "nail art", no phones in most homes, people added things to meat to stretch it out (oatmeal in ground beef, eggs and breadcrumbs). oil filled lamps for a couple hours after sunset and in bed by 8-9. awake with the sun. they used scraps of material to make rugs in the winter. but everyone was in the same situation (although some were very wealthy).

Whilst I agree with this to an extent, the job market was very different. There were jobs then that we don't have now due to improved technology. So many women didn't work past having children and most people had a job for life. The job market is more fickle now. That's what concerns me- mass unemployment

The scary bit is housing insecurity. If my landlord decided to sell tomorrow we could be homeless because on paper my income isn't high enough to satisfy estate agents that I can afford even the lowest rents available and they don't take the fact you've been paying your rent reliably for 4 years as proof you can afford it but want instead someone in full time permanent employment who earns 30x the monthly rent per year and they don't include child maintenance or universal credit top ups in calculations

When I lived in London, I always used to wonder who was renting all the flats and houses.

At one point, dh earned 29k and I was working 24 hours a week (2 nightshifts) as a carer while looking after the children and my dad who had been ill for some time.

The rent on our tiny house was 1,900 a month. And that was cheap. No where cheaper to move to. Dh actually has a good job, but it’s for a local authority so doesn’t pay well.

We had to claim top up housing benefit. But no landlord or agency would accept it, even though we were working, we would be laughed out of estate agents and told “no dss” like we were the scum of the earth.

We had to beg and plead for the flat and then the house we rented after that was sold under us. We had to jump through hoops, get personal references from the school to prove we weren’t terrible people who would turn the place into a drug den. It was the lowest few years of my life.

So how do others in London manage with the high rents? Sure, people knew there were high earners who bought there 700k homes, but how do other people rent? We weren’t a priority for local authority housing and even if we were, the list was a decade long.

Thankfully, dh local authority was one of the greedy ones who decided to sell all their buildings so dh was working from home, they agreed he could live anywhere and go in one day every few months so we were able to move away to a far cheaper area of the country where we can manage without any benefits.

I just don’t know who is renting all these houses when it’s like gold dust to find anyone who will take even partial benefits when people are also in fulll time work.

*loads of typos and spelling errors I’m not well, sorry

@lollipoprainbow

The scary bit is housing insecurity. If my landlord decided to sell tomorrow we could be homeless because on paper my income isn't high enough to satisfy estate agents that I can afford even the lowest rents available and they don't take the fact you've been paying your rent reliably for 4 years as proof you can afford it but want instead someone in full time permanent employment who earns 30x the monthly rent per year and they don't include child maintenance or universal credit top ups in calculations.

I'm in exactly this situation, after 9 happy years with a fantastic landlord he is selling up at the worst possible time for me. I'm in a constant state of anxiety and feeling sick. That's on top of all the other bills going up. It's hell.

Bless you, you're living my nightmare. Just desperate hoping they don't sell till ds is independent ish here. I have social housing forms to fill out but presume we wouldn't be any kind of priority.

Imagine having to pay B&B bills and taxis to school for people who are in employment and could afford to pay rent but can't access housing because of a messed private rental system of buy to let LL and estate agents and no social housing available? Presumably we are not uncommon in our position of being able to, and having paid rent reliably for years, but being being deemed unfit to rent by estate agents but not desperate enough by housing authorities.

I don't think people in the 1920s had jobs for life. Employment conditions were far more precarious and far more fickle. Lots of people had zero job security, working as labourers, dock-hands, factory work etc. Easily let go if there was a downturn in business.

I'm finding this romanticization of poverty a century ago very weird. Yes, there was community but other than that it was really really shit. It's not much fun being poor now but it was so much worse then, with so few protections and safety nets. Life was very very hard.

I have social housing forms to fill out but presume we wouldn't be any kind of priority.

The social housing lists in on use bands 1-4, band 1 being the most priority. Band 2 being high priority. Band 3 being low priority and band 4 being no priority.
I'm currently band 2... Have been for nearly 3 years. I look on the bids I've made over those years, 100s and 100s. I never even get a viewing.

If you've got social housing applications, get them in ASAP and get bidding ASAP, you may end up on lists for years and years.

@FarangGirl

I don't think people in the 1920s had jobs for life. Employment conditions were far more precarious and far more fickle. Lots of people had zero job security, working as labourers, dock-hands, factory work etc. Easily let go if there was a downturn in business.

I'm finding this romanticization of poverty a century ago very weird. Yes, there was community but other than that it was really really shit. It's not much fun being poor now but it was so much worse then, with so few protections and safety nets. Life was very very hard.

I agree - no benefits and no NHS. Women especially had shit lives.

Whilst I agree with this to an extent, the job market was very different. There were jobs then that we don't have now due to improved technology. So many women didn't work past having children and most people had a job for life. The job market is more fickle now. That's what concerns me- mass unemployment I don't think many people had a job for life in the 1920s. I think most working class women worked, certainly the women in my family did. Their work wasn't really recognised, cleaning, taking in washing, serving in the corner shop. All worked round kids with fairly young kids having responsibility for younger ones.

My GGM was a single woman, she worked on a country estate in exchange for a pittance plus a cottage. Long hours 7 days a week caring for animals. I think she got a small army pension as well. One of her children was sent to live with distant relative without children as she couldn't feed them all.

I mean she was a single parent as she was a war widow.

The scary bit is housing insecurity. If my landlord decided to sell tomorrow we could be homeless because on paper my income isn't high enough to satisfy estate agents that I can afford even the lowest rents available and they don't take the fact you've been paying your rent reliably for 4 years as proof you can afford it but want instead someone in full time permanent employment who earns 30x the monthly rent per year and they don't include child maintenance or universal credit top ups in calculations.

This is what keeps me awake at night too. I was hoping to move last year as I'd heard whispers that my landlord intended to sell and I wanted to pre-empt that by moving out on my own terms first. Absolutely impossible. Single parent, only one income and that's low and topped up with TC, credit score is crap due to exh leaving me with massive debt, and I have zero savings. Couldn't even get as far as a viewing even though I have 8 years of perfect rent payment and the places I was looking at were less rent than this so I'd clearly manage it just fine.

We'd be on the street if my landlord decided to sell up. It's as simple as that.

@VampireMoney

The scary bit is housing insecurity. If my landlord decided to sell tomorrow we could be homeless because on paper my income isn't high enough to satisfy estate agents that I can afford even the lowest rents available and they don't take the fact you've been paying your rent reliably for 4 years as proof you can afford it but want instead someone in full time permanent employment who earns 30x the monthly rent per year and they don't include child maintenance or universal credit top ups in calculations.

This is what keeps me awake at night too. I was hoping to move last year as I'd heard whispers that my landlord intended to sell and I wanted to pre-empt that by moving out on my own terms first. Absolutely impossible. Single parent, only one income and that's low and topped up with TC, credit score is crap due to exh leaving me with massive debt, and I have zero savings. Couldn't even get as far as a viewing even though I have 8 years of perfect rent payment and the places I was looking at were less rent than this so I'd clearly manage it just fine.

We'd be on the street if my landlord decided to sell up. It's as simple as that.

It's awful but you would not be on the actual street. As the council would have to help you.

I have certainly not suggested the 1920s was fun. We are well away from that time particularly in my family where most people were not in a good position financially.

on the question of who rents properties in London today and can afford it - it just varies. My sons let out a small house each - very much end of a tube line so NOT inner London and rent on each about £1100 a month. Both houses have a couple with one child in them in jobs like teaching and both people in the couple despite having a young child work by the way (as indeed did I when I had babies - worked full time as did their father as the only way to afford life but certainly very hard). In fact the teacher in one house is leaving to buy a new built house much further away (and I am glad they are getting the chance of that and it is nearer family too). My daughter's tenant is a single lady who does not want to buy yet. I think places like London do have a transient population eg doctors who will be moving around in the early stages of their careers, my sons' friends who graduated in 2020 - most have ended up sharing 2 or 3 bed paces in London and are in first obs and would not want to buy even if they could afford it.

[quote Oldtiredfedup]@Ariela

You’re ‘right’ choices required the means to make them in them first place.[/quote]
Yes, I absolutely agree with you: we have been lucky to be able to chose between holidays and buying a bit more double glazing, not subscribing to Sky or Netflicks and buying another roll of loft insulation, confident in the knowledge that fuel costs will only go up in the future as coal/nuclear power stations are shut etc. It is those that haven't ben prudent at a time of being able to afford to take action and future proof as much as you can who will suffer too, perhaps more so if they've over-stretched themselves (we have retirement looming, hence our thinking)

@UKRAINEwearewithyou look at square foot gardening. Our most successful are our trailing cherry tomatoes - grown in a hanging basket. 2 baskets = plenty for us.
@lilac57 if you have horses passing by (we do, lots, also some horsey places let you help yourself to their muck) then adding bits of their droppings to your compost bin really helps. We have 2 compost bins, each no more than 3ft square, we sweep up leaves and add to it in autumn too.

It's awful but you would not be on the actual street. As the council would have to help you.

The waiting list is miles long here, I'm in an already overpopulated and quite deprived area of the north. My friend was in a hostel for over 6 months with her children, and then was given a one bedroom flat. She lost all her furniture etc because she couldn't afford to put it in storage. It's not quite as simple as the council helping. I also have 2 much loved old dogs I'd need to part with if we lost our home.

Anyone without dependent children may very well be on the street. You may think your 18 year old still needs to be housed alongside you, the law does not agree. You would both be homeless.

There wasn't even benefits like tax credits until the 1970s. And no minimum wage. You had to live on what you earned, even if it was very low. It was properly shit.

I have primary aged children so obviously they'd be homed with me but that's not really the point. I lost everything when I took my kids and left my abusive Exh. I had to leave everything apart from their clothes and a few belongings. I've worked hard and built everything back up again in the last 8 years and I'm terrified of losing it all again.

@VampireMoney

It's awful but you would not be on the actual street. As the council would have to help you.

The waiting list is miles long here, I'm in an already overpopulated and quite deprived area of the north. My friend was in a hostel for over 6 months with her children, and then was given a one bedroom flat. She lost all her furniture etc because she couldn't afford to put it in storage. It's not quite as simple as the council helping. I also have 2 much loved old dogs I'd need to part with if we lost our home.

You would still not be on the actual street though. I'm in temporary accommodation in London myself have Been here over 3 yrs. I did not loose my furniture though as my council has a place that people can store their stuff. I'm not saying it's easy its really not . I'm just saying you won't be sleeping on a park bench

@alltheapples

There wasn't even benefits like tax credits until the 1970s. And no minimum wage. You had to live on what you earned, even if it was very low. It was properly shit.

Yes, there was FIS (Family Income Supplement) which was introduced in the 70's I think. My sister got it. This didn't include any child care help though, that came in with Tax Credits in the 90's. Such a different world.

@alltheapples

There wasn't even benefits like tax credits until the 1970s. And no minimum wage. You had to live on what you earned, even if it was very low. It was properly shit.

Tax credits weren’t introduced until the beginning of this century. And all they’ve done is allowed employers to pay lower wages.

It’s swings and roundabouts. Housing is the worst with the ridiculous income criteria mentioned by a pp. An immaculate track record of a couple of years of comparable rent payments should be more than enough. The private rental market is like the wild west with some appalling practices by agents. It should be a priority for the government to regulate it properly.

@Cookiecrumble22 but I'm not in London. I'm in a shitty place in the north where people are just shoved in hostels and forgotten about. And after losing everyone once I just don't think I can face that again.

I said until the 1970s in my comment. Family income supplement was the forerunner of tax credits. Before then there was no top up however low your wage was.

@VampireMoney that is properly shit and I totally uunderstand you being worried about losing it all again. I hope that does not happen to you.

Do we want to go back to life expectancies of 50 and people dying of exhaustion? Is that where we're gleefully heading?