I believe that the minimum wage should be enough to enable a working couple to feed and clothe a family of four and keep a roof over their heads.

[Mamarsupial]

I don’t think I am BU for a moment, interested to see how many agree with me.

3k seem pretty good to me and I'm not a poor Ukrainian!

And if you have a mortgage? Even a low one, with interest rates as they are, mortgage payments are sky rocketing. Also most of us are not lucky enough to have a "tight knit community" where we are offered free childcare

I agree. People should earn enough that they don't need to rely on top up benefits. Perhaps for small businesses the gov could pay the employer to top up the wage, but only for small businesses that struggle to pay the minimum wage.

But yes, help towards paying childcare. Or maybe even free childcare for all or people earning under a certain combined income.

One issue of trying to do away with top-up benefits is the issue of people who only work part-time.
And this is where people get caught in a trap, part-time & top ups can mean people as well off as someone, who's full-time and just over the top-ups cut off.

I don't know what the answer is but their has to be an answer.

People on MN also have a romanticised view of the 70s and 80s that everyone had cheap housing and benefits were plenty. I remember seeing kids in school who were visibly poor, lanky unwashed hair, ill fitting clothes, adults with glasses held together with sellotape, wearing clothes until they were ragged.

You just don't seem to see that level of poverty yet food banks weren't a thing either.