To , just once ,ask is anyone else fed up of being the squeezed middle?

[Wildandallthatjazz]

Thats it really. !

Yes , on mn , its seen as a privilege to have a mortgage, a job etc .

But sometimes it feels hard and you just wish that you got a break . Recognition of the hard slog maybe .

I am not begrudging those on benefits who got the extra payment support, its more about just wanting to have a treat / a bonus/ etc .. a spare bit of money.. a boost .. the heating on … or maybe recognition that the middle can struggle too ?

I totally accept that people can struggle and need help , sort of also feel the struggling middle are invisible ? ( and not seen to have the’ right ‘to have a little moan as it does you good sometimes )

I do think we are incredibly lucky to live in a county with a welfare state, nhs, free gp care I really do .
But sometimes, it just would be nice not to feel you are paying taxes , working as much as possible, and to be able not to feel squeezed all the time and the need to just have a grump about it .

sometimes it is good to let of steam .. when you cant IRL

and then you move on in a more positive fashion .

Such crap advice. If you go part time then you pay less into your pension so you’ll still be poor when your old 🙄

On one hand I can see your point, on the other I don't understand that the middle never get anything. I earn just above average full time salary so pretty much the definition of the 'middle.' In the last few months I've got/am getting £150 towards COL issued via council tax rebate (I understand nationally this was given to everyone in a band d or below, but in my council they used the additional discretionary element to also award it anyone in a band E, which altogether (a-e) makes up the vast majority (over 80%) of the housing stock in the county.

I'm also (as is everyone else in the country) getting the £400 off the gas&electric.

So that's a 'free' £550 already. I don't remember the last time the govt gave away that much free money to the vast majority of the country. Yes I know that for some people it won't be enough to meet the increased costs, but it does contradict the point that the squeezed middle/hard workers etc never get anything at all.

Also, not relevant to everyone but relevant given that the public sector is generally underpaid compared to the private sector, the local government pay award has been agreed at £1925 for this year rather than the usual % increase. This means that low and middle earners get a bigger percentage pay rise than higher earners, and is pro-rata so doesn't disproportionately benefit those who work part time/get top up benefits as was complained about by pps. For the lowest paid staff where I work this is more than a 10% pay rise, even for me as a middle earner it's still 5%, which is more than double the increment I've ever had working in the public sector for 15 years. Again, still isn't meeting the cost of inflation for many but suggests that money is being targeted towards those who work hard for low-middle pay.

That’s sickening to think us workers mugs are paying for that. She should be ashamed.

The most invisible of all is the single childfree person, who regardless of political party is never given any help. There are benefits for vulnerable people, poor people, families with children, the elderly.

The best we get is a meagre 25% off council tax, yet we still end up paying more than a household with 2 incomes who split the bills yet will use more services and pay less per person for it.

So any empathy for other sectors that moan just gets less and less now because there is alot of help provided. As a single childree free person the taxes I pay help pretty much every section of society and I barely get any help. Its grtting the point where anytime I here of more help to be given I just think fuck off.

Yes, you could buy more house - if you had the money - most homeowners I knew in my teens had purchased their council houses. I knew a couple more who were working professionals and one like my mum who was a single parent who had an existing mortgage with their ex-husband but many of my friends families rented - it wasn't this golden age when everyone owned a huge house and paid buttons for it.

I am not for one moment arguing that the current state of the housing market or rental market is great - trust me!

Those numbers don’t add up. Just working 40 hours per week is £20,000 per year on minimum wage, and you’re then getting over £5,000 per year for your one day per week.

How can your total income be only this if your husband is doing shirt work and also getting lots of overtime?

I'm likely to be poor even with a work pension, and already accept won't get a state one despite working since 16. And I'll probably be paying for everything because I'll have that. Unlike those who've never contributed, will get a state pension and likely free care, prescriptions, fuel allowance and a plethora of other things if snp are still in. But yes, of course I'm soooo grateful for that!

I do feel a little sorry for myself, to be honest. I know I'm not struggling as much as some people are. I'm lucky. I realise that.

We bought a house 2½ years ago, just as Covid had struck. We counted ourselves lucky, as the house prices exploded shortly after, and our house (or one like it) would've been way out of our budget range had we waited.

Our healthy and and wonderful son was born 14 months ago, after two miscarriages. Felt like a miracle.

But with the invasion of Ukraine and the increased prices of everything - not least heating of our house - we can't afford much more than to keep afloat, barely. We can stay in the house, but we had made a very realistic budget with the option of travelling AND saving some money every year. Both of those posts are gone with the increased prices, and we have to cut costs everywhere we can. It feels hard to me and it sucks, as we specifically budgetted this way because travelling is important to me, even though I recognize that other people are way worse off, and having to worry only about savings and lost travel opportunities is their dream scenario.

The UK and Germany have similar GINi coefficients, DE=32, UK=35, so no, our income distributions aren’t very different.

I don't think there will even be pension age when I get to that stage of my life😂

I am a JAM

Just....About.....Managing

By summer next year we will be in the not managing at all cohort.

Mix of increased mortgage, increased utilities, increased council tax etc etc etc.

What's scary is, we have a pretty decent salary! Yet I have less money now than when I earned £23k a year!!

Yes I do. I'm on my own with a mortgage and my dad has just moved in with me because he can no longer afford his rent. I'm not a bad earner, but feeling so stretched as I'm financially supporting my dad, my bills have increased because he's with me and I, still helping out my brother who is living in a flat after moving from the house he and dad lived in, but he's earning NMW so can't afford to be completely independent.
I get no help at all.

Why is pension potential the only yardstick of financial success or happiness on here? If I could go part time and get a top up I would - fuck the pension, why spend my life busting my ass for what will be an underwhelming retirement anyway?

I’m lucky but feel like I’m stuck between a rock and and a hard place. Both me and DH work FT. I’m permanently exhausted from having 2 under 5. Stuck with paying full nursery fees for the next 10 months until the funded hours kicks in. Can’t afford any help e.g. a cleaner to take some of the load. I’m the higher earner so if I drop to PT we will take a massive hit on our finances and it won’t be worth it. If I did drop my hours we wouldn’t qualify for any extra help.

Ironically, once DS gets the funded hours I may be able to cut my hours but from now until he’s 3.4 it’s a slog. Paying nursery fees since 2018, having a pandemic and losing my job, etc has reduced our savings to zero.

For those who think loads of people are playing the system, benefit fraud makes up a tiny percentage of the overall welfare spend and by tiny I mean around 1-2%.

The total number of people claiming DWP benefits is around 23 million. Of that around 12.5 million are pensioners, 9.5 million are working age, and the remainder are children in receipt of Disability Living Allowance.

There will be some.overlap where people are claiming more than one benefit but of that 9.5 million working age adults, around 1.9 million are in receipt of ESA (what used to be part of Incapacity Benefit). 1.3 million are in receipt of Carers Allowance. Around 2.7 million are in receipt of PIP.

Around 5.6 million receive Universal Credit. Around 40% of these are in work. The remainder are either in the 'looking for work' category meaning they have requirements to meet or else face sanctions, or they are in the 'no requirement to work' category meaning they are unable to work for specific reasons (e.g., caring responsibilities, disability, etc).

There are only around 301,000 claimants in the 'looking for work' category who have been unemployed for more than a year - a small percentage of the 5.6 million in receipt of UC.

So did I, but benefits are a lot more generous these days than they were then

Sorry but I can't begrudge any scheme that benefits children, particularly those from demographics known to be at a disadvantage. Improving outcomes for these children is vital.

I don't think anyone begrudges children help, but there are adults who also need help to support them now. It's all very well considering future tax payers, but to do so at the disadvantage of current tax payers seems ridiculous.

For those who think loads of people are playing the system, benefit fraud makes up a tiny percentage of the overall welfare spend and by tiny I mean around 1-2%.

if the government know these people must be easy to stop, or is that number those who are actually caught and convicted?

Thank you for posting this - honestly the number of people on MN who think people on benefits are all workshy and lazy is frustrating.

also the current estimated cost of HS2 is £106bn - for comparison - still it makes my journey to London 5 mins shorter! yippy!

The stats are something like this:

68m population
12m pensioners
8m in education (not including higher)
0.5m disabled

Then of the working population:
6m receive UC

In total 23m people claim some form of DWP benefit (and can receive more than 1). That’s a third of the population.

—

Everyone pays tax on goods bought but do the maths on income tax and the people who don’t receive direct payment benefits (ie. the middle and higher earners) and who aren’t baby boomer pensioners have a huge tax burden, along with corporation tax, stamp duty and IHT etc.

I've been both and its far harder and more miserable being a single parent topped up by benefits, renting. Yeah it is tough not being completely loaded like some but would I swap and be in the position I was in a few years ago? Absolutely not, and if everyone was honest, none of you would swap.

That's what makes me laugh about all those complaining about benefit claimers living the life of riley, yet don't do it themselves because truth is if they were genuinely convinced they would be better off they could all jack their jobs in tomorrow and join the housing register but they dont because deep down they know full well they wouldn't be better off.

Only on MN are the professional classes this open about envying the poor. I had a flirtation with poverty. I agree nobody here would like it.

find people often quote the house price judging it on today's income - yes it looks like anyone could buy a house - but the reality was different. Many people stretched themselves like they do today, and 15% interest rates caused many people to lose their homes.

The point is the disparity between houses & income & the fact salaries have seen hardly any growth in the last 20 years.

I'm really curious what makes you think you are in the 'squeezed middle'? If you can't afford heating and food you sound pretty poor to me, not 'middle'. Are people like you just the 'aspirational middle' when you are poor but don't want to think of yourself that way?

I'm not in the UK but we have a below average income right now due to some health issues I am having and we live better than you. If you are considered 'the middle' in the UK then what is poor?

I'm not picking on you inparticular your post just stood out.

Yep I agree,

I mentioned something on here a while back about how those with a two working parent household who aren't entitled to any help with childcare costs will struggle in current climate...and honestly it became a competition of who was worst off between everyone.

I got told just because me and my DH both work (although I'm on mat leave atm) and we have an affordable mortgage we worked hard to get and we live within our means that we are lucky and aren't allowed to complain that we will struggle with current cost of living.

Everyone will struggle, some more than others. There is always someone better and someone worse off than you. Doesn't mean you can't complain about how you are feeling or your personal circumstances. Everyone's situation is different.

Of course I feel for those reliant purely on benefits, especially those with ill health who aren't able to work or try better their situation, but that isn't to say I can't also be allowed to say actually as a two working parent household I'm scared to put the heating on with a 4 month old baby who is currently asleep beside me in two vests, a sleep suit and 3.5 tog grobag...and that I'm worried about not being financially viable for me to go back to work because of the cost of childcare taking all of my salary effectively meaning I'll be working full time just to cover cost of someone else looking after my DD.

I think everyone just needs to have a bit of understanding that most people will suffer in the current climate one way or another and that we all need to be more gentle with one another.