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 👍

@Keepitonthedownlow

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

Of course it isn’t. Not unless we reverse all the medical advances we’ve made in the last 100 years. Average life expectancy was over 70 in the 1950s. It might not be a bad thing if we returned to the obesity levels of the past, we’d have a much healthier population.

[quote VampireMoney]@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. [/quote]
Try home hunt . It would not let me link it. But put it into Google. I have attached a pic so you know its the right one

[quote VampireMoney]@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. [/quote]
homefinderuk.org/

Also that one

@parboil

Minor point, but my kids still do wear older sibling's hand me down clothes, shoes and underwear. Isn't that just sensible?

Yes! As long as they are still in good nick, why not? Though I would draw the line at knickers.

I think wearing hand me down underwear is unusual. I am amazed kids shoes are in good enough condition to be handed down though.

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.

That's terrible. I don't live in the UK, but here landlords aren't allowed to ask private questions of a tenant, including regarding employment. I recently looked at a flat and mentioned to the real estate agent that I was unemployed and she told me that is private information and none of her business, which I've since found out is correct. The next day I was offered the flat.

On the references etc it tends to be credit checks which letting agents use which require details you can prove you can afford to rent a property in the UK That is partly because it is hard and expensive and can involve thousands of pounds of legal costs to evict a tenant so the other side of that is a landlord should not have to take someone in who may not pay a penny of rent as they have no job or are lying about their job.

On the references etc it tends to be credit checks which letting agents use which require details you can prove you can afford to rent a property in the UK That is partly because it is hard and expensive and can involve thousands of pounds of legal costs to evict a tenant so the other side of that is a landlord should not have to take someone in who may not pay a penny of rent as they have no job or are lying about their job.

There was no credit check either. Presumably they check with the landlord/real estate agent of your last property and if they say the rent was always paid on time that's good enough.

Incidentally I didn't take that flat I mentioned as I found one which was cheaper and in the part of town where I wanted to live. All my current property manager did was phone the previous one - I completed no paperwork at all prior to the tenancy agreement.

@RedWingBoots

Imo though it's not down to the government to ensure people have good lives .

Who runs the welfare state?

Who raises taxes?

I'm a CS and it IS down to the government to ensure I can afford to live! When CS are paid so poorly they can claim benefits then you know we're all going to hell in a hardcart...

@meloncolic

Also I think it is helpful in some ways to point out how many people survived a hundred years ago, I think it’s dangerous to present it as some kind of super stoic era where people just got on with it. Read ‘Working Class Wives’, ‘Round About a Pound a Week’, Our Spoons Came From Woolworths (truly heartbreaking), Tuppence to Cross the Mersey, etc. Times were insanely hard. We should never, ever go back.

There were reasons many parents ‘wanted’ their kids to be domestic servants, a secure roof over their heads and food on the table being two of them.

I think PP are pointing out that although no, it really shouldn't be the world today, you CAN survive it. Part of the problem is that in those days (and I was around then as I'm old) most houses had coal fires. So you could warm one room by burning stuff, now that isn't an option as few houses have coal fires.

Imo though it's not down to the government to ensure people have good lives .

Why pay tax then?

@Xenia

On the references etc it tends to be credit checks which letting agents use which require details you can prove you can afford to rent a property in the UK That is partly because it is hard and expensive and can involve thousands of pounds of legal costs to evict a tenant so the other side of that is a landlord should not have to take someone in who may not pay a penny of rent as they have no job or are lying about their job.

It’s not just credit references they use. There wouldn’t be a problem if that was the basis for their decision. They apply ridiculously unrealistic minimum income criteria.

You’re not in the UK, are you @SquirrelG?

It's not credit references Xenia - I have a seriously excellent credit rating and a landlady who could tell them I've never been a day late in 4 years of paying rent at this property. It's that they want you to earn 30x the rent in a full time permanent position.

That rules out a hell of a lot of people who work as eg. supply teachers, agency nurses, freelancers etc. It also rules out people who work part time due to disability or caring responsibilities but receive top ups in tax credits and/or child maintenance or widow's pensions. When I moved back to the UK about 6 years ago and was working as a supply teacher I could not get to view places because they'd ask these questions on the phone before you even got to view somewhere and at that point I was offering to pay 6 months rent in advance if necessary but apparently the computer says no on most of their affordability systems even to that despite the fact that they are way better off with the full rental contracts rent in their bank account than with someone who is apparently 'safe' because they're in a full time job but could be sacked, get ill, do a runner etc tomorrow.

I would have no problem with credit checks, references, even paying a higher deposit as I still have some savings despite no interest rates and ever increasing cost of living - the issue is the rigidity and senselessness of the systems they use. One place the estate agency really wanted me to have the property I was interested in and the landlord was loving the idea of the rent in advance but it turned out it would invalidate their landlords insurance if I wasn't in full time permanent employment.

And to the lady saying you wouldn't be homeless - I'm not sure my son would agree we weren't homeless if we were moved to a b&b 10 miles away and he couldn't get to his school or be anywhere near his friends. I also don't drive and currently walk to work and would likely have to leave my job and become unemployed as I wouldn't be able to get to work bar spending over £40 a day on taxis which wouldn't be viable. My dog and cat definitely wouldn't agree and all of my possessions would be lost. You don't have to be sleeping on a park bench to lose everything and be forced into unemployment and isolation and watching your child's life be destroyed.

Housing should not be this insecure - especially for working people who have never defaulted on rent and had zero control over the fact that their landlord decided to sell.

@swallowedAfly it's disgusting isn't it, My anxiety is through the roof, I'm calling the estate agents every day for news on my flat being sold and all I get is 'try to relax' ! Not easy when you are looking at being evicted within months without a hope in hell of getting anywhere else. I'm even looking at one beds out of desperation but even they are expensive. It's bloody awful.

@swallowedAfly are you on the council’s waiting list ? It sounds like it’s pretty much now or never whilst you have a child to have an opportunity to get a council house wouldn’t you’re not responsible for him that’s it game over

All my autistic daughter wants is stairs and a garden ! I feel like such a crap mum that I can't provide something better for her.

I looked at one beds thinking I could sleep in lounge but they're only about £30-£50 a month cheaper and realistically who would rent a one bed to someone with a teenager?

No, I have one form filled in for housing and the medical one (I find it humiliating having to share so much personal information) still to fill in. My reasons for needing housing don't sound great but it's literally one decision that I have no control over that could see us homeless and tbh it wasn't ever really very sustainable to be paying over 2/3s of my salary on rent but I didn't have a choice - add in the threat of surging utility bills and council tax and it becomes ridiculous.

My elderly parents live here who are going to increasingly need support, my school which is also my son's school, is here and I need to be here - I'm hoping proper local connections still count for something. It is entirely bonkers though - I would be paying less for a mortgage than I am here and have a deposit but wouldn't get a mortgage because income. They don't take into account really that when you factor in that I don't run a car, don't have any debts or buy expensive stuff on hire purchase etc I am probably in the same boat as the people they're happily lending fortunes to.

You're not a crap Mum Lolli. It's a crap system where the profits and having a mortgage paid for them of the few outweigh the need for realistically priced and secure housing for others.

When you think about it as well my landlords mortgages (they have two houses they rent out here plus their own house owned outright) are being paid by myself AND the taxpayer with universal credit/tax credits having to subsidise rent payments. Then such landlords complained that they were going to have to pay income tax on all of the rent rather than just the income over the interest repayments - as if they shouldn't be taxed on what is essentially income going directly into the best investment account EVER subsidised by taxes in the form of benefits to tenants and artificially low interest rates that prevent others from saving meaningfully.

You'll see them on this thread talking as if they're selflessly providing a public service rather than being in the extremely lucky position of having existed in a brief window of time where people without capital could borrow money and have somebody else pay back the loan for them with help from the state.

You’re not in the UK, are you @SquirrelG?

No, I'm in NZ.

@swallowedAfly - it sounds as though you are having a real battle. Best of luck in finding somewhere. If I had to show I was earning enough to be able to rent I would be out of luck - I'm unemployed! (but have a small inheritance - not enough to be able to get a mortgage especially at my age, and how do you get a mortgage when you are unemployed?)

@alltheapples

I think wearing hand me down underwear is unusual. I am amazed kids shoes are in good enough condition to be handed down though.

Really? Why wouldn't underwear be handed down to siblings? My kids (same gender) often get their underwear mixed up in the wash as it all looks similar and my youngest most certainly gets the hand-me-downs. It's all clean and washed and in good condition. I can afford new udnerwear but don't see the point! That said, wouldn't buy it second hand but definitely pass on within the family between siblings. I didn't think it was unusual!

I always find with things like this that we are all pitted against each other. The 'rich' blame the poor for bad money management, nails, sky and holidays. The 'poor' blame the rich for not paying tax, inherited money, luck.

All in all we all live in a failing society. Can't see the gp, year long waiting lists for hospital appointments, terrible road infrastructure, underfunded schools, underpaid and over worked nurses, teachers, etc.
Rent and mortgages are stupidly expensive, the older population can't afford to stop work, therefore less help with childcare for younger generations.
Food is expensive, energy is expensive, fuel is expensive. Wages aren't enough.
All house that are built now have tiny garden (or none) so we can't even try to be self sufficient.
I always wondered why my local council plant thousand of flowers every year, why not plant blueberry bushes, apple trees, etc?
I don't know what the answer is, it's shit, I'm worried. But blaming each other certainly doesn't help.