Are things in the UK really that bad?

[namechange10022002]

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.

I am not sure it does. If you are rich and healthy, your partner is rich and healthy and your kids are also healthy, perhaps the NHS collapse isn't so bad. You have money for expensive gym memberships (and also childcare during your gym sessions) and a good diet. Your parents are also in fairly good health as they can eat well and have a comfortable lifestyle post retirement. Perhaps they also have a summer home in Spain so they can use Spanish healthcare (with the correct visas so that they can access healthcare as residents).

Perhaps it is possible to be completely blinkered if you are in that situation. I have private healthcare but I worry about the NHS collapse as DH's sister has a chronic illness.

Ten years of sabotaging public services and the economy with austerity, followed by sabotaging the economy with Brexit. That’s all on the government. Then throw Russia and Covid into the mix.

You’re right. I have some friends who are fairly well insulated from the cost of living crisis in the sense that they both have great jobs, lots of equity in their house, private medical insurance through work, etc.

But their two year old broke his leg badly (freak fall at home, as toddlers are prone to do) a few weeks ago and required emergency care. Their experience was horrific and they are all traumatised by it. It was so indescribably bad I don’t think you’d believe it if I typed it out. And our local hospital is generally considered quite good - it isn’t even one of the ones that has declared a critical incident.

When my friend told me about it she said that she’d seen the stories on the news but somehow thought our hospital would be different, that it wouldn’t happen to them, etc. But it did. It’s very real. Healthcare is just rolling a dice at the moment.

Has it changed their mind about the government? If they previously supported the Tories, that is?

Seriously? Who lives here and is wealthy but has no friends or family here? That would be a total outlier. Even then do people actually walk around seeing people struggling and not care?

I think my original point was sound really that you can't be living here and unaffected by this unless you don't care about anyone else. Really the third option of whisking everyone away to another Country is impossible anyway.

@AngelinaFibres
This is true for lots of people. It isn't true for lots of other people. My high street has no empty shops. The food I want to buy I can afford . Some people are struggling, some are not. The situation is no different in Europe

Yeah, my impression is that while the UK is probably among the worst affected in Europe (blame austerity and Brexit for that) it is by no means alone in going through a very shit period: due to Ukraine war, the cost of Covid, huge slowdown of Chinese economy etc etc.

The advantages of elsewhere in Western Europe is that their governments aren’t by and large ideologically driven to making things even worse than they needed to be (the Tory masterplans of slowing economic growth and wrecking public services with austerity, and then further crippling the economy with Brexit) … and also mostly have better weather.

I answered the question re not reading media or SM - we socialise etc and I based my answer on that

The situation will be different for different people depending on their circumstances, and things will vary a lot by region too. On a personal note I'm happy with things, due to having a good job in medical/tech area. The last decade has been tough for UK overall, and it certainly looks like that will continue to be the case going forward.

Working remotely for almost 12 months now, I'm based back in the area I grew up in Northern Ireland (north east) to help out with some family care issues. Being based here after 30 years for has been an eye opener for me. Apart from the "traditional" rampant sectarianism in these parts, there are a lot of things that seem much worse than our home area in south east England. Aging population with not so great hospital care and subpar outpatient/home support (thus the main reason I'm here), limited opportunities for talented young people, poor quality local schools, lots of school drop outs, serious drugs/crime, what was a fairly prosperous market town is basically a sh1thole with about 2 nice coffee/tea shops . There is so much potential being wasted in an otherwise lovely part of the country.

Selfishly I'll be happy to be back "home" in England later this year. So in my personal experience location can also be a factor.

Does it make any difference whether you state you’re affected or unaffected, when the outcome is the same? Like most people, I go about my life as best I can and I pay my thousands of pounds a month in tax and NI without complaint having been told this is what provides the services the poor and vulnerable I know exist need. I’m not personally affected much by things in the UK; I “care” in an abstract sense about others, hence see my previous point about paying my dues without complaint. What, if you walk around caring deeply about everyone you see struggling, does that deep care actually achieve that my abstract but somewhat disinterested caring doesn’t? Your tax and my tax all go into the same pot.

You are personally affected though, neither here nor there whether you realise it or not.

The real issue isn't necessarily if you can afford your lifestyle on 90k.

It's what type of lifestyle you could have.

For example, teachers actually earn 15% less in real terms than they did in 2010. Budgets have just been restored to 2010 levels but you have to bear in mind that's still a 15% drop. So their work load has changed and increased, the budgets to do their job are decreased and their quality of life has decreased. We have a recruitment and retention problem. But yet the government cannot work out why.

It's a similar situation in healthcare.

My friend who is a lawyer has had a pay rise of just 4k (about 5%) in 12 years.
Maybe that doesn't sound as bad but again - that means her actual quality of life has decreased - but the worst bit? She's had 2 promotions in that time and if she hadn't she'd be worse off in real terms iyswim?

So I'd look beyond actual costs to what pay is like, will it increase, will you have a better standard of living (than you had or you had now)

Because it isn't as simple as "but covid" as our government like to try and boil it down to. It's a culmination of 12 years of cuts and bad management of public funds and a pandemic speeding up the crisis we were already heading to.

op if you’re really thinking about it it also depends where you’ll be living and working

Though some of these replies were in answer to the specific question of whether you could tangibly feel the difference on the ground.

Yes.

Brexit
Pandemic
One of the worst, most self serving Governments in living memory
Everyone on strike, so public services barely providing even an emergency service
A population that doesn't like paying for public services while at the same time demands the Government sorts out everything.

It's really, really bad.

Yes, it feels like the country is slowly disintegrating. The 2008 financial collapse, Brexit, COVID, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have left the UK reeling. Even if we had a government that wanted to fix it, I think it will take a good 10 years to turn it round.

traditionally the middle class have been the ones to fight for change within the system. Spreading awareness of the poor is important. Particularly because there are many people who may not personally know any poor people. i don't personally know anyone choosing between eating and heating (I do know people cutting back on heating) nor do I know anyone who is starving. But I know they exist somewhere so it helps to know their stories.

I know one homeless person but she technically can stay at her dad and also suffers from addiction issues so not straightforward. the state spending more money on her is not an automatic solution either since she has frittered away 160k due to her addiction issues! Though it would massively help if nhs mental health was better funded but at the same time, she has to want treatment! What would actually really help is if there was less easy access to street drugs (she uses it to self-medicate with disastrous effects) but neither Labour or the Tories are going to do anything about that!

I think the general mood of the country is low and people seem more tetchy than before (or maybe that's just me 🤔) I'm certainly noticing massive increases and am living paycheck to paycheck each month, even though we're on decent incomes for our area. I honestly don't know how those on NMW/disability benefits are surviving.

For me though the biggest worry is the NHS. Luckily we are all healthy at the moment but the thought of requiring any sort of healthcare the way things are is scary. My DD has a chronic condition so we've spent a lot of time in and out of hospital - luckily she's been ok for the most part throughout covid and since - but even before covid things were dire so I dread to think what it's like now. It genuinely scares me.

The other thing that i find really frustrating about the UK is the apathy....it really worries me that no matter how low we sink people will just carry on voting for more of the same.

So I'm a nutshell - unless you're in somewhere like Afghanistan I'd probably stay put.

Exactly

I think the worse things about the UK are a) it’s self hatred b) it’s liberal ideologies that prevent any government from taking measures to get things done c) it’s belief that somehow it’s supposed to stand apart from the rest of the world when it comes to moral progress and social justice like it is exceptional somehow.

the media underpins all of it: slagging off everyone and everything in order to make headlines

in truth the uk is comparatively a great place to live but you’d never believe it if you listen to the very noisy and vocal minority on social media and the press.

Agree!

Yes, the UK is in a dreadful state at present. Most people seem to realise this, even if they are not currently affected because they are wealthy/ healthy, etc

I will say though that my DGS(5) has additional needs (still undiagnosed) and his primary school couldn't cope with him. Within 6 months he qualified for an EHCP, was given a place at a fantastic local school for kids with SEN and is thriving. Actually makes me emotional seeing the change the right support has had for him.

I know reading on here his experience isn't universal across the country but I have only positive things to say about how the system in place worked for him; so that is a massive plus for me.

Unless you are very, very wealthy and can afford private medical care then yes they are that bad, sadly

The other issue is that you get a very similar salary as a teacher in Doncaster, where you can get a house for £300k compared to where I live where a house costs £600k minimum. London weighting is only a couple of thousands, so barely covers the additional stamp duty.

Surely it's much easier to attract someone to teaching when you can afford your own house, especially if you're buying with a partner, compared to where you feel even two teachers together may never afford to buy a house together.

With all due respect, which other of the world's major capital cities would you fare better in on a below average salary?

Or are you meaning you'd be paid more elsewhere (which is obviously quite possible)?