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?

can you do any private work as an addition?
lucky you get some help

do a bit of dyslexia work?

oh you are not looking for a solution?
yes rent is crippling

Trouble is, it's not just 15 years, more like 20-25. Most of those things you mention were happening under Blair/Brown, in fact Brown's tax credits pumped money into the economy causing house price inflation and higher rents.

We, as a country, have been heading down the wrong track for 25 years or more.

www.schroders.com/en/global/individual/insights/what-174-years-of-data-tell-us-about-house-price-affordability-in-the-uk/
😊
Worth a read

Your tone is very aggressive- did you mean it to be?
I think the OP is justified to feel incredulous that her professional salary only covers her rent. That's her point. I would agree with her.
Are all professional single people meant to move North then? Away from family, friends? Who would do the job in the South if they all move North?

oh also you can apply perhaps to housing association as a keyworker?

Yes.

Rent then is approx 46% of disposable income?

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

Edited to remove - posted to wrong thread!

It's really sad to move away, but a lot of people either have to be skint in an expensive area or move to a more affordable area.

moving away is not the answer, though is it? there is a need for qualified professionals of all kinds in the south east, just as there is everywhere else. The point the OP is trying to make, I think, is that she should be able to live on her salary as a qualified professional, regardless of where she lives. Obviously, she is going to have more spare cash if she lives further north than the SE. If everyone leaves the SE, what then? Loads and loads of high earners with no childcare, no one to serve them coffee, no nurses to care for them or teachers in state schools.

What is this figure?

Let me guess - it's a sum that you and some other pearl-clutching right winger on here have imagined 'worked out' the OP actually brings in every month so you can feel justified in bitching about how she really should be able to manage?

Hopefully I'm wrong but given the poisonous responses on here so far, I bet I am not.

Benefits entitlements are hardly a secret. Anyone can enter the info OP has volunteered and make an educated guess at what she receives...
We're allowed to discuss the adequacy of salaries but not benefits?

How have you worked out that non-Londoners subsidise London?

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2100345/amp/Londons-taxes-prop-rest-UK-One-pound-earned-capital-funds-rest-country.html

Just in case you want to just talk about TFL:
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/how-we-are-funded#:~:text=The%20main%20sources%20are%3A,set%20annually%20by%20the%20Mayor

Its pretty clear that London subsidises the rest of the UK…

We're allowed to discuss the adequacy of salaries but not benefits?

Absolutely agree, it’s a south east housing issue, too many people for the available housing. Organisations operating in such areas really need to provide housing for their workers, just like the military do for its personnel or schools/hospitals in Dubai etc, accommodation comes with the job else they just wouldn’t get the staff

Assorted thoughts on this thread.

If you want sympathy for being a widow with 4 kids, maybe state that earlier than page 7

National NHS pay bands with no adjustment for market rate in different areas is a ridiculous and inefficient waste and the fundamental cause of OP's problem

Tories aren't the problem with housing, NIMBYs are, it's just confusing because some of the NIMBYs are Tories

We need to teach economics in school if people seriously want to introduce rent controls

I’m not sure the rest of the country would be very happy about subsiding expensive childcare and coffee shops for high earning Londoners, but housing should be provided for key essential workers

London has been subsidizing the rest of the country for decades... Only London and the south are net contributors in terms of tax revenue.

It's a guess, as you yourself say, and you're using it as a stick to beat her with. Classy.

I don't think that's what's happening at all.
But why are we not supposed to discuss benefits? It seems rather relevant in this instance.

To be frank, the only person who is not demonstrating any class on this thread is you and with your numerous repetitive name calling posts, some of which have even been deleted by MNHQ.

It's not a guess even not knowing the OP area you can do a benefits calculator.

Over 2 grand income once rent is paid would be a dream to some.

Benefits calculator on the GOV website.

Not hard try it yourself.

It's clearly inaccurate as your child benefit figure is wildly out.

Also - you have no idea what she's claiming and what she isn't, and frankly trying to guess in the worst possible faith isn't casting you in a good light.

Yeah including her as that figure is absolute bollocks.