To have no clue how to refer to "average people" in this country

[missingmiddle]

I'm new to the UK and I am really struggling with understanding what people mean by "middle class" here.

To me it means - an average family, house in the suburbs, commuting to a boring suburban job, maybe accountants or teachers with kids in state schools or maybe a smart kid on a scholarship. Not struggling too hard to pay the bills and not on benefits (aside from perhaps the wide-ranging ones like child tax credits) but they're expecting to take all 30 years to pay off the mortgage. Enjoy going camping, cinema, dinners with friends etc

In the UK it seems to mean - City professionals/lawyers/bankers who shop at Waitrose and go to the opera and take multiple foreign holidays a year. Children at private/public school, skiing and piano lessons... To me this is upper middle class.

I suppose here the first family is called "working class" but then so are families who are really struggling with money? Do British people just not observe the difference?

Why does it matter?

All the people you have described are more or less 'middle class'. Its a big group, and fuzzy at the edges.

Why is it so important for you to understand what people mean by middle class? It's a wide bracket. Besides, such labels vary in meaning according to the perspective of those using them.

Both of those would be middle class. It's slightly more complicated due to wage stagnation/cost of living so the salary of some professionals, like teachers, doesn't go as far as it used to.

I just keep going around in circles with people because I'm clearly using the wrong terminology.

Example

Me: the cost of living crisis is really hitting the middle class now

Someone: oh please, those City bankers are hardly struggling, poor them they might have to buy Waitrose own brand
Me, confused: why are we talking about bankers...

Etc

Is there a term which WOULD be less prone to misinterpretation

No you are right, I think most people would call the first group lower or middle middle (depending on the details) and the second group upper middle class

Middle class is a big group that traditionally divides into lower, middle and upper. It’s got additionally fuzzy as now people who would have been traditionally upper working call themselves middle class, and I certainly know some upper class people who do

I have managed to reach the grand old age of 53 without having to put people into a "class". It isn't that hard.

I think the people you are talking to are weird!

What if you're a city profession but have kids in state schools and prefer football to opera?
People don't fit into meat boxes.

Don’t try to talk about people in terms of what class you think they are in. I have never needed to do that and never thought too hard about what class I think people are. I couldn’t even say for myself.

Depends how much meat there was in it 😂😂

Neat boxes. Meat boxes sounds gross.

60% of UK population identify as working class. Working class is not a euphemism for poor, as it is in the US.

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-06-30-most-people-britain-today-regard-themselves-working-class

Why bring class into it at all? Class in the UK has at best a loose relationship with income, and you can earn more in many "working class" professions than in many traditional "middle class" ones.

Well your theory is wrong because I am neither rich nor poor. And I cannot imagine that any reasonable person would describe me as “too rich” or “too poor” either.

And I did not say class was absolutely not a thing. I said I have never felt the need to discuss others in terms of what class they are or think too hard about it.

The problem is, the jobs you described aren't middle class and it depends on whether you're talking to someone who believes they're underneath, and looking upwards, or whether you're talking to someone who believes they're middle class. Class isn't defined by job alone, it's all sorts of other things too.
There's also a peculiar thing in the UK which my DH and I take the piss out of regularly, which is a diehard, "but we aren't middle class!" said by people who really are. Take my uncle. Shops at Waitrose. Retired on £100k. Drives a Merc. Has three cars on the drive. Massive house. But he is ADAMANT he isn't middle class.
Utterly baffling.
Personally I'm quite proud I worked hard at school and as an adult and have a nice middle class life compared to the godawful council estate I grew up on where we lived hand to mouth. But in the UK you're not allowed to say you don't like council estates or that you got anywhere through hard work because that's not fair on the working classes who work hard in different ways that are less financially productive. You're never allowed to be openly proud of anything including class mobility.
And you're absolutely never allowed to "put people in a box" or they get so terribly offended even if what you've said is true. People here really don't like to be stereotyped or categorized.
British people are a lot like cats. Which might explain why we have so many haha.

Oh, this is helpful.

So my family #1 is potentially... Lower middle class but may even identify as working class. Family #2 is upper middle class or just middle class

Can I ask... what ARE the euphemisms for poor then? 60% is a big chunk of the population to have no subdivisions

Previous searches directed me to Marx's lumpenproletariat concept but surely people don't talk like this in normal life!

Oh, you need to say "hard working families". Everyone will nod and assume you mean people like them.

Don't use class. In the example your gave say "middle income groups"

But as a rough guide, the class system goes roughly:

• Upper class = the Queen and nobility and almost noone else.

• Middle class = about half the rest of the population, generally those in professional jobs and/or with university degrees. Can be sub-divided into upper middle and lower middle - a distinction that is more about income than anything else.
• Working class = everyone else (skilled manual, technical jobs plus unskilled jobs)

Peekaboo... Wait, does your uncle think he's actually upper class, or working class??

Imo talking about class isn't just about income, jobs & education. It's about values & morals, about the way you speak/interact with peers, the language you use. And your home decor

If you are not from the UK I would just keep out of the whole class thing OP. It seems like a minefield to those of us not brought up with it (and aren't we the lucky ones).