Why won't any political party focus or help the squeezed middle

[Winterday1991]

Off the back of another thread, has got me thinking about the next general election.

Why is there not a party that will focus on the middle earners in the squeezed south east , where both partners work full time, who are struggling juggling mortgages, cost of childcare and self fund everything and are over threshold for any help or subsidies ie child benefit, cost of living payments, free childcare via universal credit?

We are a middle/highish income family and are just so sick of paying into the system and getting nothing back! The amount of tax we pay is insane, certainly not anywhere near value for money. Labour just seem to want to focus on single parent families and those on universal credit.

Any party who focuses on the middle will surely win the election?

Where is the father of your child? Why is he not paying for childcare. Why should almost one income out of our partnership go towards childcare whilst you pay very little? In my case my son's father raped me muptiple times so is no longer in my life. In my frienda case the father of her 3 children died, left no will despite her begging him to and his family have taken the majority of everything apart from small amounts for each of the children.

Well no obviously they’re not free. They’re paid for by taxes. Some people do not pay tax under the current system, and some people pay very little. Some people pay a lot. But they are universal services available to everyone regardless of how much you earn and how much you pay tax.

You seem to equate hard work with high earnings. What about nurses who earn £27k? Teaching assistants? Care workers? Should they not be able to access childcare or healthcare or whatever? The person I know who earns most is a high up exec in a design/advertising company, he works no more hours than the teachers I know and his work is definitely less useful to society. Why shouldn’t he pay proportionately more towards public services?

The current system has a LOT of issues but you can’t just say people need to “work more”. Universal credit currently props up a low wage economy. How do you fix that?

I do think it’s weird that a lot of rules are based on earnings not hours worked. Like to be eligible for the 30 hours free childcare, in my job I would have to work much less than 30 hours to earn the required amount to be eligible because I work in a job that pays the equivalent of a high hourly rate. There’s so many issues that could be fixed.

This is extremely frustrating and do not see this ever changing in this country. On top of that there are forecasts of many more people immigrating here very poor that would make things worst for taxpayers. ( Due to benefits and welfare laws) If someone in government try to protect the middle classes they get vilified. Think of leaders who have tried this in the past? It means taking from the poor because the government heavily rely on your taxes for the benefits. They would tax the right to live, the air you breathe anything. Wait and see more and more taxes because of climate change. In the meantime we work like never before and have a shit quality of life. Can’t aspire to more than to pay bills and taxes. People blame the tories but conveniently forget that the top up on low income was introduced by Tony Blair. Ever since business can get away with paying the minimum wage.

Whilst he should not be in your life, nor your childs that doesn’t exonerate him from child support who is pursuing him for that ?

My heart bleeds for the squeezed middle who might have to cut down on the spending on their naice ham from Waitrose, why won't the government help these poor souls!

Yes there's many, many children who go to bed hungry but I think you'll all agree while they may still be starving they would sleep easier knowing little Tobias in private school still get his prosciutto and artisanal sourdough bread packed lunch.

@Vegetus the squeeze middle can not longer afford to send their kids to private school. Go and troll somewhere else with your politics of envy.

@Vegetus is the prime example of why the high rate tax payers have had enough.
Dickiah mocking, and blatant hatred!

Her life sounds awful. Why are you jealous?

I guess DH and I would be classed as “the squeezed middle” - both teachers (upper scale but no TLR). Daily life is a struggle but I attribute that to firstly, the shit that comes with teaching and secondly, the shit that comes with parenting.

I grew up in poverty - real poverty where there was no food, no electricity and sometimes taken into care. I may feel ground down at times, but my life is a million miles from when I was at primary school. (My ire is nowadays I can’t see how kids like me can ever get to where I am now, but that’s another thread).

Yes, my pension will be small (I can’t teach at 67) but hopefully I can still work but in another role. DH and I will own our house. We’ve saved the DC’s child benefit since birth in ISAs so that’ll go some way to help them at 18. My parents counted the days til giro day. That’s what life is really like on benefits.

I too know a mum who has had 3 kids by 3 fathers, never worked. Her youngest is now in reception so she will have to find a job. It won’t be something she enjoys. Or she’ll have another baby. Again, not the life I want. Childcare is a killer but look to the future. My DD is in Yr 8. She makes her own way to school and back, no childcare (or driving around!) needed. Just got to wait for DS to be in Yr 7!

I thought that. I wouldn't want 4 kids by different dads even if I got a million quid a year.

Again, a load of bollocks. I work full time and get UC, I get nowhere near the equivalent of £65k salary, I also do not get free school meals or any of that other stuff. Free school meals and pupil premium are for those on a VERY low income. Sounds like you really don't know what you're talking about.

Also bollocks. If you don't work you get 15 free hours, if you do work you get 30 free hours.

Clearly we have. We should ring up and ask where our £100k benefits are!

The best help with mortgage rates would be reduced interest rates. So anything to help reduce them including things that reduce inflation and stop banks making excess profits will help.

A lot government could do in this regard. A maximum gap between savings rates and mortgage rates, laws to stop some of the consumer rip-offs, specific action on fuel prices, are three that come to mind.

Surely you know that the government does not care if absent dads pay or not? The CMS will send out the odd letter or 2 and that's it. No real consequences.

Go and look at the yearly figures for the unpaid child maintenance bills. It might shock you.

To me this is the exact same short sighted thinking that makes women decide not to continue work in professional jobs as it’s not worth it due to childcare costs. Most families will have one or two children. They will be paying very high childcare fees up to child starting school (the free hours after 3 make a difference but they are so underfunded childcare remains expensive). In general you’ll mothers go back to work when child is around one so will be paying those fees for 3-4 years per child. Likely in many cases with two the elder will get a saving in the cost at some point due to maternity leave for the second. So you’ll have ~3-4 years where you are paying very high childcare for a child and another 3-4 for a second (if you have one). At the time that’s hugely hard and expensive. For us when both kids were at nursery together it was significantly more than our not inconsiderable mortgage. It’s temporary though and comparing what someone in a minimum wage job on benefits has at that exact point and saying it’s not fair isn’t looking at the full picture at all. When my two were both in nursery together the cost of that on its own full time was slightly over my take home pay and slightly under my OHs. We were immensely fortunate that my parents were able to cover a day at least 2 weeks in three, which was a massive saving but even without it we’d not have been better off quitting those jobs and working for minimum wage on benefits

We would have lost my private pension contributions for those years including the part that’s paid by my employers.
We would most likely have had to sell our house and move into a rental so we wouldn’t currently live in a house we could sell for 1.5x plus what we paid for it.
We would have lost all our progression at work over the period the kids were young. For me in particular that’s massive as I’ve been promoted twice and earn getting on for double what I did when I returned to work after child two. Even accounting for inflation that’s more than a 50% increase in my salary.
We wouldn’t be done paying off student loans, which makes a significant difference not only to current pay but also every pay rise.

I’ll accept for a few years a family might not be any worse off on universal credit vs having a £60k ish income but only for that time period. Overall they’ll be better off working though as once kids get to school age they will no longer be paying an absolute fortune in childcare (wraparound is a lot less) and they will find their income suddenly rises where those on benefits will continue to have just enough to manage as the significant childcare funding will no longer apply.

why is this such a race to the bottom? 95k is two less than 50k jobs. Yes that’s decent but it’s a typical salary for a senior teacher, a junior doctor or a mid ranking civil servant.

These are the people who are key to the holding the structure of the country and our services together- of course they should have decent disposable income.

Why should they be left with £100 or less after housing and childcare costs or be forced out of work?

To say they should instead work in tech or banking, move up north or not have kids is a reductive argument,that addresses the symptom but not the root cause!

I do sympathise with the post author - same here. Although I can't complain, I find that we are getting more and more "squeeezed" - our mortgage has gone up considerably, as did pretty much everything else. However, the tax thresholds have remained the same, although you get much less for your money then a few years ago. Of course, we are lucky to have professional jobs, but we also worked extremely hard to get where we are now. Raising 3 kids in London and working full time is not easy!

Because the issue is global and linked to capitalism

and the fucked view that to thrive we all need aeons of Consumers goods , holidays and 24/7 entertainment

no political party can fix this

The UK needs to start taxing income from wealth like it taxes income from work.

Stop lying about housing benefit being exempt from the benefit cap.

By the way, the freeze in LHA allowances mean many families are having to pay a large chunk of their 'free' rent out of their living benefits.

I agree. @Crochetgril23 seems to think that she would be better off but most of us are like you.

The more you work the more you get? What about disabled people then?