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?

Of course it’s the answer. Three bedroom houses in my city in the north west average £1.2K per month in rent.

Newsflash - wages for healthcare workers in the UK have always been shit.

It’s a huge issue that a single person can’t afford to rent/buy on their own on a so-called professional salary. We definitely need two salaries to be able to afford to pay our mortgage - essentially one salary is the mortgage and council tax and the other pays for everything else. As a couple (admittedly now with DC), we are much worse off now than we were 20 years ago, in terms of savings, disposable income etc. Our salaries have gone up but not as much as everything else. It is very frustrating! Our parents had a much better lifestyle than we do at our ages now and all retired early 🤯

I guess that student loan isn't cheap either!

I be agree with PP. I'd rent out a room to a student OT or PT. You'd have your house to yourself in holidays and you could ask for a mature student.

Rental in the South is so expensive.

Exactly this! The answer on here seems always to be “don’t live in that area”. However, a lot of jobs are, and need to be, based in expensive areas. Rents shouldn’t be so high, or wages so low, as to mean the South East (for example) is left without basic services.

It's wrong and I'm sorry. Triple penalty of being a single parent, working for the public sector and living in the SE. Change one of those and life would be easier.

Nearly 2k pcm isn't an average rent though is it? So moderate income and extremely expensive rent is always going to result in you being skint.

Have you researched how far out you'd need to live to bring that down to a more manageable cost?

But if they are not paying a viable wage for the location then that should happen. The op could earn the same near me and pay half that for a property giving the family a far better standard of living. Ok it may not be possible in the ops position depending on her ex and family situation but yes if its possible people need to move away. They shouldn't have to scrimp and save to survive simply so the south east have ot, that is not the ops responsibility.

In my nhs fields most of the younger staff live in a house share until they couple up and move in with a partner which helps wirh affordability. Also we aren't in South East which is a very expensive part of the country. But generally yes rents have risen more than income

Weird argument. Do you move and pay half rent for the same wages and have a decent life for your family, or do you imagine it is your personal responsibility to uphold the struggling system by staying in a place where your wages don't cover your rent?

Oooh, tough choice. Not.

In any case, if everyone does the same the system will have to change and pay better wages. You're not really helping propping up the status quo anyway!

If there was a Venn diagram of people who blame OP for living in the South East and people who don't understand why there is a shortage of professionals like OTs, SALTs, nurses etc, it would be a complete circle.

In 2010 the conservatives argued that the public sector were being paid too much compared to the private sector And as they have been in power ever since they have redressed the balance. They did not think about what would happen to services because Tories either are rich enough to buy in services, believe they will be or are short term thinkers. And they only care about services when they or very close family are using them. As more people are getting affected by gaps in services there are now fewer people saying they will vote conservative. Also the case that the loss of social housing has allowed private landlords to charge what they like as no competition.

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

What a nasty post this is

Some landlords have rising expenses too. The mortgage rate has increased for landlords the same as it has for owner occupiers. Its not always greed, just market forces.

But how can this be?

Well it is pretty obvious, you have a low salary and high rent.

Although I'm assuming you have a partner to split the bills with so this thread is pretty pointless, I can't imagine UC would be topping up your rent by that much to make a massive difference at that price point.

I agree OP. My DH is on £1,900 pcm and his wage literally pays rent and council tax. My income covers everything else. And they wonder why our generation is saying we can’t afford to have children!

Yeah exactly. And London doesn't need teachers or nurses, only the North East of England

So, traditionally, you wouldn't be stuck in the private rented sector. You'd be able to either get a council house, or buy a house. This isn't the case any more, as houses cost a fortune, and in many areas you can only get a council property if you are utterly desperate.

But - salaries are still set as if this was the case! An awful lot of people on normal salaries are basically subsidised by family or partners. This is not sustainable.

It is hardly nasty to point out that two incomes is more than one, it is just reality.

it really wouldn't. We all understand why there is a shortage, and it has no bearing on the fact that OP needs to move somewhere cheaper if she wants to have any salary left after her rent.

Surely that's exactly the point? People in the south east of England need occupational therapists too!!

Not sure how you got approved for this rental. For our rentals, our agent does an affordability check.
Those shouting for landlords to sell up, now that they are, all it means is more demand for each rental and rent rises.

YANBU, it's a skilled job that people have to train for. It's not good enough.

Could you go down to a two bed? I'm in south east and two beds are more like £1200 that would be a lot more for bills etc each month. Even if this means kids sharing etc

Any chance of applying for housing benefit?