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 .

Invisible?
The “squeezed middle” don’t shut up.

I work and claim benefits as a single parent and have I a mortgage to pay. I definitely don't go on any holidays and I haven't and can't afford to put the heating on. Plus I worked throughout covid so not everyone who gets help is better off!

So there’s a few that get away with it but the majority are quite heavily taxed? I would call 30% heavy taxing, under 10% would be too lenient in my view.

Absolutely this. And I was actually wrong about the £60k - the average house in 1985 cost £30k according to Land Registry data. People then had it easy compared to young people trying to buy now.

I’m not sure where people get the idea from that the top 10% or 1% aren’t paying their fair share.

Of course they aren’t. Their income is largely derived from other people working for them. Almost nobody is capable of being in the top 1% as a sole trader. And those at the bottom end of the salary scales tend to be subsidised through the benefit system. Wouldn’t it be simpler if businesses just paid ordinary workers properly in the first place? Even if it meant the upper echelons being paid less.

But they WoRk ReAlLy HaRd - as if the HCAs, care assistants, retail workers, people that pack their Amazon parcels don’t

As I keep saying @Cuppasoupmonster it's skewed because those on paye will pay more than those who are not.

I am a single parent and have a full time job and a mortgage and I’m eligible for the payment. It won’t be used for treat money, if will just get swallowed up so don’t worry about that.

On the question of net payers and receivers, it’s all taxes and benefits / tax credits.

This page from the ONS should have all the data.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth

amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/07/uks-top-01-earners-have-annual-income-of-over-half-a-million-says-ifs

Completely agree.

Me and DH run our own business working all the hours of the day, 7 days a week. 3 kids. Mortgage. We get no help in any way shape or form, in fact we are taxed more! We pay more for trying our best and being entrepreneurial.

Yet our close neighbours get a new handout every week it seems!

He works a basic warehouse job, 5 days, not 7. She doesn't work. Stays at home with their FOUR kids. I see her on the doorstep having a fag in her dressing gown as I leave my house for work each morning.

It's laughable. Work hard, earn your own money, aspire not to raise your kids on government handouts and foodbanks and your reward? You get fucked at every corner.

But people in professional or MC jobs have often
studied for years to achieve those jobs. I don’t want a nurse or doctor treating me to be on the same salary as somebody who packs parcels. It isn’t greedy or selfish to say that higher stress jobs should come with a higher reward.

To be in the top 1% in the UK means you are on an income of around £160,000. A huge number of people in that bracket are salaried people in “normal” jobs such as doctors and lawyers.

This idea that you have that you are hard done-by and that those subsidising you have it too easy isn’t tenable.

Have you tried being gainfully employed? Surely if it requires two of you working seven days a week, all hours, it’s not as viable a business as you think, love.

Agreed. They absolutely aren't. But you can guess who'll be targeted again on Thursday can't you? Not the rich, it'll be hammering higher paid PAYE employees in the middle yet again. These are the people who've already been hammered for the last decade. It's not sustainable.

As you seem determined to pull “facts” out of your bottom, please do try to educate yourself here;

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth

Me .. The company I work for has just told us that they are giving a £500 cost of living pay out to those who are earning under Xyz... I'm so disappointed in them . I earn more than XYZ because I have to , it keeps us afloat .. 7 days a week varied shifts but to them I don't need to help .

I assume you support the strike action then?

I agree with you, but then there’s threads like this, with that haughty “let them eat cake” attitude and it’s so grim.

I have a PhD and busted my ass the entire pandemic, but I’m not here feeling pissed off that others got furlough, because my entire job is Public Health, thems the breaks. Nor do I resent people on criminally low wages, living in unstable housing getting extra help.

Perhaps the moaners could take their own advice that’s doled out here constantly recently?

• Be gainfully employed not self employed
• Skill up
• Take a second job
• Start a cleaning business

@VillageCottageEmo

It's a young business "love". So, yes, it takes all hours, 7 days a week at this stage.

Still, we turned over nearly £600k in our last financial year, so pretty viable and very gainfully employed.

Now, go back to your doorstep, light another fag and ring your mates to bitch about your benefits being late. Idiot.

And yet you lack the ability to look past your own set of circumstances.

What facts am I pulling out of my bottom? That the "rich" don't tend to be on paye? Or that people who are payed via a company pay less tax than those on paye?

From the article I linked

"According to the report, business income – from either self-employment or owning and running a company – accounts for 21% of total incomes for the top 1% of adults and 29% for the top 0.1%, compared with just 9% for the rest of the population at large."

"It said business owner-managers could effectively choose to take income out of their company through the form of a salary, dividends, or capital gains – allowing them to benefit from lower rates of tax."

The report pointed to a preferential 10% rate of capital gains tax, called business asset disposal relief, while saying that company owner-managers were able to access tax rates of just 27% on income taken in the form of capital gains."

"In comparison, the average tax rate on wage earners in the top 1% is 42%"

600K but you live next door to a NMW worker and SAHM who smokes? Cool story, bro.

The super rich are bleeding everyone dry. They also massively increased their wealth during covid.

Exactly. People are pointing the finger down, not up.

Turnover is not a profit (sadly😂)