Are things in the UK really that bad?

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I’ve been living overseas for about seven years and I am lucky to have a very safe, easy, comfortable life here but for various reasons I really want to move back home to England. However I keep hearing about how bad the situation is over there, with the cost of living crisis, housing, energy bills, health service, etc. For example I was watching Triggernometry and the hosts were saying the next few years are going to be extremely difficult for everyone there. I was just wondering, is it really as bad as they say? If you never watched or read the news or looked at social media, would you notice the difference in your quality of life? What is the general feeling on the ground, so to speak?

I guess I just want to know if it would be a mistake to move back there.

In a word, yes. And I don’t consider myself a drama llama or a ‘WE’RE ALL FUCKED’ type. All the redeeming features which offset the shit weather and lack of space - like good public services - no longer exist. Stay where you are!

Yes. It really is.

Even higher-middle earners are struggling at the moment, let alone those on the poverty line.

The UK is not a wealthy country, there are few opportunities for the young and an entire generation (millennials) have been shafted.

Stay away if you can. I'm looking to get out.

Yes down the swanny.

Yes it does seem pretty grim for lots of people at the moment. scared of getting ill as the NHS isn't functioning, scared for my grown up kids future with unobtainable house prices, high childcare costs etc, scared for my 85 year old dad who is well at present but things can change quickly at his age and i imagine I will need to provide care when the time comes and he becomes more frail. I also work in a job with people who are struggling to access GP care, hospital care, social care, benefits, sitting in cold houses, needing food parcels etc and for those people it's very grim. I'd say if you have a secure job, adequate savings and housing you probably need not worry but for many this is currently unachievable.

Where are you at the moment OP?

Honestly, things are awful here at the moment. I'm generally an optimist and generally like living in the UK and am not given to hysteria but it seems to have become a Third World Country overnight.

It it literally, no word of exaggeration, impossible to see a GP where I live at the moment. I had to give my daughter out of date steroids over Christmas because it was the only option (the alternative being a 12+ hour A&E wait). I'm relatively lucky in that I'm well paid and have a secure job. A lot of people who don't have this are really struggling to stay afloat. Public services don't work at all (education system is a nightmare, things like the courts have basically stopped working). Trying to get hold of anyone, public or private sector, on a telephone is a full time job. Trust in politicians and public servants is unbelievably low.

I used to be married to someone who had grown up in an actual Third World Country and he used to marvel at the efficiency of the way things got done here (this was in the noughties so it wasn't exactly halcyon days but things were a lot better). And he is considering moving back there permanently to a typhoon-stricken hellhole where corruption is so bad people don't bother to vote.

I'm genuinely for the first time in my life considering moving my daughter overseas just in order for her to be able to access healthcare.

I wouldn't move here for all the tea in China if I wasn't already pretty tied down.

Yes, absolutely awful. We are looking to leave

We also live abroad - Europe. I’m worried about the Uk at the moment.
the NHS particularly is dreadful at the moment. It has been for a while. I’m horrified by some of the stories I have heard.
Wait a few years. - 5 or so. See if it’s any better.

Where are you?

I read quite a lot of international press and no-one anywhere is saying how great things are. It is a sliding scale of Global Disaster.

But someone will be along shortly to tell you that if it were this bad refugees wouldn't be coming here in rubber dinghies. These are the people who put us where we are today.

There was a similar question asked recently www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4697166-are-things-in-the-uk-as-bad-as-it-sounds-in-the-news

We live abroad in the Middle East.

This summer we were looking at moving home to England, we have a house, we were interviewing for jobs, and we looked at lots of eventualities with the aim to be moved by the end of 2022.

Various reasons meant jobs fell through so we kept looking. Went home this Christmas and on our return I have no desire to move back. At all. Stark difference to the summer, the weather, the mentality, the freezing house with utilities bills stacking way up even though I had the heating on. Massive reality check.

Granted the kids weren't in school and spending more time on screens which probably paid a part but it put our plans on hold!

Yes, it's bad. I'm concerned about the pledge to half inflation. This is done by raising interest rates.

I've lived in six countries - three are considered "third world" so I have some comparison. We're now looking at moving abroad - and I never thought I'd leave permanently. It's very bad.

I feel we still act like we are a rich country with an empire.

We want great healthcare, great public services and nearly half the population on welfare.

I would love to find where the money is coming from in future to pay for these, we have very few natural resources, we have very little manufacturing.

Can we carry on borrowing to fund our lifestyle like we have for the last 30 years?

I don't feel the country is a right off but think our standard of living will never be like it was.

If you’re worried things are bad in the UK, you should see how awful they are in Mumsnet world.

Public services have been underfunded for more than a decade, many areas are now close to collapse. That alone would stop me coming back

It’s fine

My db had to wait for more than 2 hours for a Category A ambulance when he had a heart attack between Xmas and NYE. It's pretty bad, yes.

No. Media scaremongering as per usual. We’ve just had a lovely Christmas, I’ve had no problem getting GP appointments for my children, currently pregnant and my maternity care has been fantastic and my childrens school is still great.
We’re financially very lucky as to not feel the difference in bills and price rises but the shops, restaurants, pubs etc are all still packed so I’m sure the reality for many is not the poverty stricken image you’re all being shown.

The NHS is up the spout. If you need an ambulance or A&E, be prepared to wait and wait and wait. The 4-hour A&E wait target was ditched ages ago because it is unachievable. If you want an outpatient appointment, also be prepared for a wait so long that you might die in the meantime (eg friend was given ENT appointment for Dec 2023 and I was quoted a wait of 41 months for an autism assessment)

School buildings have had so little money spent on them that nearly all of them have major maintenance issues and many are probably dangerous. You can't get a qualified maths teacher for love nor money in many areas yet the gov wants to make maths compulsory post GCSE.

Public transport is shit.

Everyone's on strike.

Inflation is high.

It's shite.

If you own a good house, preferably outright and prefereably some further property as well, have a secure income, don't need public schools for kids and can easily afford private healthcare, you might be OK.

Short of that, don't move here.

It's bad. We live in a naice area and it's very noticeable here, even amongst people who are very well off. Healthcare is particularly badly affected. Education, police, social services, have all been chronically underfunded for years. If I could leave at this point, I would.

It's not disastrous yet because people are just about surviving. To be truthful in my personal experience I've been "just about surviving" ever since I left school. It's a gradual but persistent decline usually, the difference this time is that inflation and energy prices are so high the decline in standards is more stark than usual. Year after year my wages have been rising at a lower rate than inflation, usually at half the rate at best, so when I got a 2.5% increase last year the 10% inflation or whatever is really noticeable.

I don't think things are that bad though in the sense that most people can't afford to eat or have the heating on for an hour or two a day. It's just that people who were used to a high standard of living thought their new car every couple of years and foreign holidays were the norm. Now they're having a more normal, less luxurious life, and obviously the further down you go the more you're affected.

If you never watched or read the news or looked at social media, would you notice the difference in your quality of life? What is the general feeling on the ground, so to speak?

If I avoided mumsnet then it would really only amount to a bit of grumbling about rising food and fuel prices amongst friends and colleagues. We're also having the exact same sorts of conversations with our family who live abroad (two different countries) so even that doesn't feel particularly UK specific.