Page 14 | My professional salary only just covers my rent. How can this be?

Rentmakesmepoor · 2023-09-19T08:20:41+00:00

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?

Wakintoblueskies · 19/09/2023 13:29

Teenangels · 19/09/2023 12:50

Yes,
rent element let's say £1200
4x child element if all born before 2017 £1100
single person element £375
total 2675
wages £1900 minus £373= 1627
£1627x0.55=£873
so you take
£874 off the total UC entitlement
equals £1802 UC per month.
so wages and UC plus child benefit equals around £3800 plus child benefit.

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Rent then is approx 46% of disposable income?

£3800 - £1750 (rent) = £2050 per month disposable income per month?

JamSandle · 19/09/2023 13:30

Oiyouoverthere · 19/09/2023 13:28

The OP earns the same as teachers, social workers, nurses and lots of skilled professional public service workers. Do we just say that those people don't need to be in certain areas of the UK? That only teachers married to wealthy people can work in the SE, London, parts of Cheshire and Manchester?

YANBU OP. It's dreadful.

Exactly. It makes no sense. London weighting is supposed to reflect that London is an expensive area.

HideTheCroissants · 19/09/2023 13:30

gogomoto · 19/09/2023 09:28

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

And where I live a three bedroom (one of them a box room) end of terrace is £2000 per annum! That’s what the house over the road from me costs. It’s only a high rent compared to what you see in your area! The problem is outrageous house prices. If the landlord put that house on the market it would be at over £500k - not a big house, not a fantastic area but he would get that for it! We are lucky we bought our house a very long time ago - DH is highly paid but we wouldn’t be able to buy our own house at its current market value so heaven help the younger generation.

Wakintoblueskies · 19/09/2023 13:32

Oiyouoverthere · 19/09/2023 13:28

The OP earns the same as teachers, social workers, nurses and lots of skilled professional public service workers. Do we just say that those people don't need to be in certain areas of the UK? That only teachers married to wealthy people can work in the SE, London, parts of Cheshire and Manchester?

YANBU OP. It's dreadful.

It isn't JUST (some) public sectors workers who earn low salaries. Its always the same on these threads when so many posters are public sector. What about supermarket assistants, cleaners, bin collectors, bus drivers?? Is it so hard to include other people in similar circumstances or don't they matter???

horseyhorsey17 · 19/09/2023 13:33

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countrypunk · 19/09/2023 13:34

Some of the posters on this thread are utter, utter dicks. No wonder we've got a bunch of useless, self-serving idiots running the country.

Hope you're OK OP. You have a really tough situation. It must be very stressful. And I agree, it's utterly wrong that cost of living, property prices and shitty public sector salaries have combined to create areas of the country where many people cannot afford to live and do their jobs.

horseyhorsey17 · 19/09/2023 13:34

Wakintoblueskies · 19/09/2023 13:32

It isn't JUST (some) public sectors workers who earn low salaries. Its always the same on these threads when so many posters are public sector. What about supermarket assistants, cleaners, bin collectors, bus drivers?? Is it so hard to include other people in similar circumstances or don't they matter???

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Most of those are public sector jobs.

Fightyouforthatpie · 19/09/2023 13:38

countrypunk · 19/09/2023 13:34

Some of the posters on this thread are utter, utter dicks. No wonder we've got a bunch of useless, self-serving idiots running the country.

Hope you're OK OP. You have a really tough situation. It must be very stressful. And I agree, it's utterly wrong that cost of living, property prices and shitty public sector salaries have combined to create areas of the country where many people cannot afford to live and do their jobs.

Agreed.

Wakintoblueskies · 19/09/2023 13:38

horseyhorsey17 · 19/09/2023 13:34

Most of those are public sector jobs.

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Yes to bus drivers but I've yet to see public sector supermarket jobs and there are private bin collections companies too.

Mammajay · 19/09/2023 13:42

I am truly sorry that things are so tough for you. I recently posted about horrendous childcare costs. I think people like you who work so hard and have children to look after need more support. Things need to be easier than they are for working people.

Wakintoblueskies · 19/09/2023 13:50

I think people like you who work so hard and have children to look after need more support. Things need to be easier than they are for working people.

As a mum, I agree but many will say child benefit and UC is the support.........

Zoning salaries won't help in the long run. More affordable housing for all should be the answer but the affordable housing is generally in areas that people wouldn't choose to live in. I don't know what the answer is but things are 'broken'. Not just in the UK but in many countries.

BlueMediterranean · 19/09/2023 13:54

I also live in the South East. I'm a teacher and a lot of my single colleagues have to live in a shared accommodation.

A lot of my students who are "very vulnerable" because low income they actually live in nice council houses and have holidays abroad!

Zebedee55 · 19/09/2023 14:04

OP - forget the snide comments. Being widowed with 4 children is very sad.

Not sure if any of these links will help, but they are targeted at London keyworkers, looking for affordable housing:

https://a2dominion.co.uk/en/services/Key-worker-homes

https://www.peabody.org.uk/find-a-home/rent-a-home/key-worker-accommodation/

https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-does/questions-mayor/find-an-answer/housing-support-key-workers

best wishes.💐

whatwasthatgrandma · 19/09/2023 14:06

For clarity OP did not say she was widowed with 4 children.

Teenangels · 19/09/2023 14:17

Wakintoblueskies · 19/09/2023 13:29

Rent then is approx 46% of disposable income?

£3800 - £1750 (rent) = £2050 per month disposable income per month?

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Which is actually after rent, is a lot of money

charlotte361 · 19/09/2023 14:19

Rentmakesmepoor · 19/09/2023 10:44

He's dead.
I said I claim all I can hence of course I live on more than £150 a month.

Moved here when we had 2 salaries and it was £850 a month.

I have pondered moving and posted about it but was destroyed but the usual people like you for considering upping my kids away from their schools and grandparents and people disbelieving my situation. I do not understand this recent pattern on mumsnet to instantly disbelieve and discredit

This is my situation whether you believe it or not

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I am very sorry to hear of your loss, OP . you must have all been through a terrible time.
Presumably though with 4 children, he had decent life insurance?

Begsthequestion · 19/09/2023 14:22

moneyplantnation · 19/09/2023 13:27

Oh do bore off another one who cannot handle opposing views. Sadly this is now the new snowflake norm, moan and blame every one else and shout abuse rather than take control get of your arse and do something.

What does who I vote for got to do with anything? you really are coming across as a bit of a sociopath yourself. 😂

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It seems more like you can't handle me having a different opinion 😆all those cliches you're coming out with, and you sound quite riled up!

Free speech until someone comes along and says something you don't like, eh.

With your race to the bottom attitude, it sounds like you're just parroting Tory propaganda. Which explains the dearth of empathy in all your posts.

Presil · 19/09/2023 14:25

Wages have been devalued and housing costs inflated for over 15 years and the UK is now a low wage economy with high living costs. This is a structural problem that won't be solved by a physiotherapist moving from Kent to Pontefract.

As for how it happened, fifteen years of printing money, freezing wages, and encouraging credit based demand in house purchases.

What did a physiotherapist earn in 2002? I bet it wasn't a lot less than you are on now OP. But a physiotherapist in 2002 would have much lower living costs than you do, even in the South East.

Regardless of individual people making coherent choices there are more and more people for whom the economic structure of this country isn't working.

ukgot2pot · 19/09/2023 14:28

@Rentmakesmepoor - my mum was in a similar situation to you many years ago. My dad (her husband) died suddenly from a heart attack, leaving her a single parent bringing up 4 young children alone. I don't know how she did it - genuinely. I think she thankfully did have some kind of pension from my dad's work etc. She was a social worker - so a professional salary and managed and survived - but it just goes to show the difference between back then and now.

It's utterly shit...

I don't want to tell you to move - because that has to be your call and you must do what you think it best for you and your children..I'm just wondering if you could perhaps find a better paid role outside of the NHS. I know that OT's are very flexible in terms of moving from one sector to another, so perhaps that is the way forward? Or could perhaps think about going it alone - setting up your own practice maybe, or work alongside an already established private practice for better pay?

Wakintoblueskies · 19/09/2023 14:40

OP - forget the snide comments. Being widowed with 4 children is very sad.

The OP had split up with her boyfriend/partner a year before he passed away.

It is very sad that four children are growing up without a father.

Out of interest, would the OP have received a widow’s pension if she had been married and then separated? I have tried to Google this but can’t find this answer.

MaryMcCarthy · 19/09/2023 14:47

I have a bit of money left each month after paying my rent and bills.

Unlike the OP, I don't rent a 3 bed semi detached or have a garden.

KnittedCardi · 19/09/2023 15:03

A radical solution would be the ability to pay flexible salaries linked to supply and demand and living costs in various areas of the country, rather than holding on to the old fashioned national pay bargaining/pay scales. Unions would never go for it though sadly.

lavender2023 · 19/09/2023 15:08

Presil · 19/09/2023 14:25

Wages have been devalued and housing costs inflated for over 15 years and the UK is now a low wage economy with high living costs. This is a structural problem that won't be solved by a physiotherapist moving from Kent to Pontefract.

As for how it happened, fifteen years of printing money, freezing wages, and encouraging credit based demand in house purchases.

What did a physiotherapist earn in 2002? I bet it wasn't a lot less than you are on now OP. But a physiotherapist in 2002 would have much lower living costs than you do, even in the South East.

Regardless of individual people making coherent choices there are more and more people for whom the economic structure of this country isn't working.

this

Anewnamea · 19/09/2023 15:10

BlueMediterranean · 19/09/2023 13:54

I also live in the South East. I'm a teacher and a lot of my single colleagues have to live in a shared accommodation.

A lot of my students who are "very vulnerable" because low income they actually live in nice council houses and have holidays abroad!

yep, I noticed this when I worked in education in my 20s.

This shows how much housing costs/situation has such a significant effect on living standards. More so than income in some instances.

Someone who is earning more can have much less disposable income than someone else earning less that is in social housing, if the former has to pay high rents to private landlords who can and very often do raise rents at a whim

The housing system needs to change.

Plantymcplantface · 19/09/2023 15:12

Anewnamea · 19/09/2023 12:53

This.

It’s absolutely outrageous and the fact is people should be able to afford to live on one income for a variety of reasons.

I am single, no kids and found it difficult working in London when I worked in the education sector due to excessive rents . People shouldn’t be expected to either flatshare, take in lodgers or have a partner when they’re working full time in a professional job they are still paying student loans on.

I remember a landlord I had for a flat in Brixton telling me they hadn’t changed the rent for a while and had noticed the rents on the street had risen so they’d have to put them up to. They didn’t have any extra costs they just wanted to take advantage of rising rents.

I looked at the history of that flat and it was initially a council flat sold for a small amount in the 1990s. It’s disgusting they sold off all the social housing stock in prime areas and people are making their fortune off it.

There are huge safety implications about taking in lodgers when you have kids and even as I as a single person no kids had some concerns living in certain flatshares and I had to move out sharpish in some situations . I’m very fortunate to be able to live in a two bed flat myself now.

There are far too many people with or without kids who are in bad relationships because they can’t afford to live alone and it’s often women who are putting up with a lot as they know they’d struggle without a partner.

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Thank you @Anewnamea

No wonder the OP has dropped off this thread. They’re are some nasty replies here - for goodness sake where has the humanity gone.

Upping pay is not the answer - UK PLC and the public sector simply can’t afford it. The problem is the cost of housing, due to an unregulated and uncapped private rental sector and the lack of any volume of quality social housing in all its forms - shared ownership included.

On a personal level we put our money where our mouth is: we have one rental property (inherited) and we self cap the rent, charging the equivalent of the mortgage payment over 25 years at 3.5%. This is fair - we still pay to maintain the property, insure it, and try to be decent landlords. We don’t make very much monthly but we have an investment for our kids future without screwing another family into the ground.