My professional salary only just covers my rent. How can this be?

[Rentmakesmepoor]

I am an occupational therapist in the NHS. I am a single parent. After tax, student loan and pension I take home roughly £1900.
I live in the South East of England. My rent is £1750 a month for a 3 bed, SMALL semi detached house with a courtyard garden

How is it that we have got to the point in this country that my salary literally just pays for my rent and nothing else??

I am permanently skint. I am not looking for solutions as I do nd claim everything I can (which is not alot).

But how can this be?

Sounds rough OP.. but possibly due to your location and market rental prices.. I won't ask if moving is an option as I can imagine if you could you would.
Is your salary topped up by UC?

It’s because of where you live. A three bed semi in my town would cost £800pcm.

OTs and SALTs are very poorly paid in the NHS

That's very high rent, we're I used to live it's about £750 for a 3 bed, where I currently live it's around £1000

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. A 2 bed flat in my town is around £800 per month. Before Covid it was £500 per month.

wages haven’t increased in the same way

Could it be because you live in the south east of England?

The point of this thread is what, exactly?

‘It’s because of where you live’ isn’t really the answer. Are we saying there are areas of the UK where it would be fine to just not have any OTs, SLT etc as they just can’t afford to live there, no biggie?

Rents have increased to a ridiculous extent. Greedy landlords will suffer when the housing market crashes.
Can you get on the social housing list?

Ask your parents and grandparents when the jobs were being moved from the North to the South and the deliberate running down of northern town/cities/industries was happening didn't they ever envisage what it would do to property prices? It's a complex subject matter going back to the 80's and linked to Tory policy.

You'll get posters suggesting you move somewhere cheaper. But surely the south east needs occupational therapists too. The answer to the cost of living crisis shouldn't be to insist that everyone except the extremely wealthy vacate certain parts of the country. The wage disparity is what needs addressing in the first place. The pay for most health care workers in this country is absolutely appalling.

It's getting to the stage in lreland where health care workers, teachers, police etc cannot afford to rent as their salaries are not high enough. Its a huge problem especially in Dublin and there was actually a shortage of teachers this September as they moved back to live with their families or into less expensive areas. Its a huge issue.
It's very stressful for you.
Could you rent out one room ..maybe to a student OT at your hospital. And l thought you only had to pay your student loan when you are earning a decent amount. In lreland so not sure of the details.

The reason is that we don't build enough new houses in this country.

Its all very well blaming OP for living in the south east, but how at a society level are we tackling that essential jobs cant afford to live in the south east.

I also live in the south east. My son has OT. I dont want to travel to a cheaper area of the country once a week for OT because all the OTs moved.

I'm slso suspicious if all the OTs, SaLTs and everyone else moves to cheaper areas of the country, they won't be cheaper areas of the country anymore.

Its also not OPs fault that decades of government have pursued london centric policies.

3 bed semi are £1700 ish where I am as well. South east /Kent

It is a huge amount of money

Used to be £1300 but guessing col and interest hikes ans landlords raise

Because we continue to allow the relationship between working and being able to afford a basic standard of living to fray.

Then you need to rent a 2 bed unless you can claim the housing element of UC - have you looked into that?

Location location location not rocket science is it. Renting a 3 bed family home also implies "family" as in 2 income adults in the home - as a single parent unfortunately you have to make concessions and sacrifices

House/rental prices are going to cause a massive brain and skills drain in many areas if we aren't careful.

How many kids do you have ? Can you go to a 2 bed

Or one with a living room
And dining room
Separate and make one into a bedroom

Losing one bedroom would save how much in rent?

Maybe if ot start moving to cheaper areas then lack of being able to recruit ot in certain areas might push the wages up which quite frankly is needed.

Could you move to another area? I bet your take home salary will be similar elsewhere too. SE England is notoriously expensive. I quickly looked on Right move and 3 bed houses with back garden are currently under £800 where I am. They used to be lot cheaper not too long ago. I don't live in the South.

It's not that easy with an organisation that uses structured pay bands. NHS staff have had some increases in recent years though.

Well we can all say here that its not fair ,and you are not paid enough .However this is true ,if you want more disposable income you have to cut costs! Can you move to a 2 bed somewhere ? or a flat maybe .Live a little way away where its cheaper ? Only £150 left to live on is not sustainable long term. Housing is extremely expensive everywhere ATM.

How much is your total income though? Universal credit, child maintenance, child benefit?