How are people surviving

[Truthseeker456]

I don't get it. One income and I am on a what was a good wage 53,000. My mortgage is likely to double next year I have nursery fees and 3000 take home and always in my overdraft. How are people surviving, we don't hear anything in the media. Rents are also though the roof

How would you be faring if your rent/mortgage was £1000?

Of course they can discuss it - I'm also in a fortunate position regarding income - but when people in our position pretend things are "tough", that will inevitably get people's backs up.

Yes but presumably you get government too ups (child benefit, UC, free school meals) I bet my bottom dollar the OP has less disposable income than you as everything by is self funded on that salary.

It essentially all goes back to the cheap credit boom of the noughties. Stamp duty receipts trebled between 200 and 2010, which just tells you the extent of the rises.

Yep. I was talking to my Dad about mortgage rates and he recalls his variable mortgage during that period got as low as 0.29%. That's basically a free loan.

15 years of low rates means he went from having no home equity (result of divorce and other decisions) to owning his current (very large!) £500,000 house outright within about 15 years on a combined income with his wife of about £55k.

I'm happy for him, but it's hard to see him as anything other than very, very jammy.

There's too many "I don't need his money! I can do it myself!" people out there who quite clearly need the money but seem to deny their child of it.

and no before the independent women wailing starts..not the fathers who manage to piss the system about but the resident parents who just refuse out of principle putting their child at a disadvantage.

Absolutely, I wouldn't trust the BBC or rest of fakestream media. All run by same vested interests.

Indeed it is. I have a brain injury, chronic migraine, I'm neurodiverse and have panic disorder. I also have a medical condition that causes urinary incontinence. I'm on a shed load of medication every day. They rejected me twice and I just don't have the mental strength to go to tribunal. PIP is an utter disgrace.

Essentially yes. Hence the generational wealth divide.

@3BSHKATS
No, it wasn't subprime. I always thought it had been 16%. Perhaps it wasn't quite so high, but I don't think it was far off 16%. According to this article, the highest SVR rate at that time was 15.4%
https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/mortgages/22-years-since-mortgage-rates-peaked.html

Agreed.

I'd be embarrassed to have such little awareness.

The op is eligible for help with childcare costs

wealth and income are two very different things. In our current world, you are not 'well off' if you don't have at least £1 million in investable liquid assets (not property) or £3 million net worth (top 1% of wealth in this country).

I consider myself to have a lower middle class household income at £120k. I would say middle class income in London is around £200-250k. It means the majority of the country are poor- just varying degrees of poor. I have been on £18k before (with DH on £25k) but it just meant i went on fewer holidays, ate out less and walked more and didn't own a flat. Now I own a flat, have more stuff, go overseas more often and buy clothes from Boden (only sale section). But these are just trappings- we are still not rich and actually below average in wealth.

Middle income, arts sector. We feel pretty lucky. We left London and moved to a cheaper area. We were hoping for a house with a garden but we’ve gone for a Victorian terrace so we can have a small mortgage. Affects DS (7) - pets and playing outside are going to be more difficult for him but we have a nice affordable house on an OK fixed deal so it’s a no brainer reallly. Holidays are things we can tag onto work events so travel is paid, or house swaps in the UK and DS has not been abroad yet. I am doing work that prizes stability over ambition which means putting some personal goals on ice but people have it much worse!

Middle income is relative! We earn 60-70k between two of us.

I can understand why people get frustrated when people claim PIP / any disability allowance for themselves but are capable of working

I agree with you @Nellodee I can’t work out how they’re doing it either. Must be buying kilos of lentils or something. my shopping bill has doubled, I’m just amazed at cost of everything now. It was my birthday so I invited a couple of friends over for dinner. We had a pretty simple veggie meal and they brought pud and I still spent over a hundred quid. It’s ludicrous

I think most people are feeling the pinch yet inflation is still high. I think the BoE is going to raise base rates again. I feel so sorry for people coming out of a 5 year fix from under 2 percent and facing their mortgage going up to 6 percent.

What MNs never seem to understand is WHATEVER your income, up until last year people were living to their means. So they could afford their mortgage / rent, utility bills, fuel and food. THEN quadruple wammy ! All have gone up massively. No one could have foreseen that at all. So if you earned £30k or £50 k most people would spend up to their income. There is very little people can cut out to cope with these massive increases 😢

Its awful. I worry where this is all going to lead to

It frustrates me that people are so certain that anyone earning a decent amount of £50k plus can be struggling. Unless you have been in that position yourself how can you be sure? My sibling and their spouse are both on around £60-70k each. They live in London for work reasons so their mortgage is over £2k per month and about to increase. They don’t live next door to work so like most people they have expensive travel costs for their commutes. They have always had to pay full whack for their two DC in nursery which I know is over £2.5k total for two full time places. So with just mortgage childcare travel for work and basic bills they would be spending in excess of £5.5k a month before they’ve even started living or eating. They don’t live in an extravagant house - standard 3 bed semi. Obviously no child benefit or anything like that.

people are very quick to mention how little they earn in comparison to other higher earners but unless you compare outgoings you can’t possibly know that you are worse off.

It's a law of Mumsnet that these threads always fill up with people on six-figure incomes complaining that they're hard up.

I feel for you, it's not fair on the people that genuinely need pip like yourself.. Some people are capable of working but yet get accepted for PIP.. Smh

Most people I know seem to be doing fine, but I guess that may change as the impact of mortgage rises hits. The restaurants, bars & theatres are rammed here in my part of London.

No holidays abroad, an occasional Haven get away, no eating out, no take aways, no drinks with the mates and no BBQs. All the money goes on mortgage, cars, bills and food. When everything is paid for we have around £300 each month to put fuel in the car, pay for after school activities, uniform and save for birthdays presents and celebrations … oh and bloody PTA!! We live in an expensive area though. So far, we’ve just been doing bike rides and picnics, paddle boarding, NT gardens, parks etc. for fun. I’m off with the little one atm so only one salary. To be honest, as long as we’re warm, fed and have access to free healthcare I’m pretty content.

Ah so people shouldn’t be struggling, or even talk about struggling, if they’re not paid as much as you? That’s completely nonsensical. You have no idea about their commitments, debt or general financial situation. It’s not a race to the bottom. If you take it to the logical conclusion, then there are people far worse off than you sleeping rough.

Why is there so much vitriol and a huge lack of empathy on this forum?

PIP is not affected by whether you work or not - it isn't means-tested for that reason. It's supposed to cover or contribute towards whatever adjustments people need to function in their daily lives, whether that includes working or not.