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?

People on UC who get 85% of childcare paid are SINGLE WORKING PARENTS. It is there to enable us to work and earn money. It's not to do us a favour or give us an easy life, it's to get us working and paying taxes so we aren't sitting around unemployment. We literally could not afford to pay childcare if we did not get this help. You don't get it because you can afford childcare on your combined salaries as a 2 parent household. You don't know you're born, honestly.

Multiple disabilities, chronic severe pain, and living on less than £8k a year is pretty stressful.

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Highly bemused by the economically inactive having less stressful lives. Will share this with my social care colleagues on Monday. They will be relived they don’t have to provide support to the squeezed middle on 95k as it must be hellish.

High earners pay more tax.

You are not squeezed middle if you can afford several holidays and year and £1k overpayments a month on your mortgage. Get a grip, honestly.

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Basically we all want good quality subsidized childcare. Right?!?! That's what we want and need in order to make work feel worthwhile. That is a universal need, and it should exist as a universal provision.

I don't know how it could work, and I doubt the OP does either. But I suspect it's what she really means with this batshit

Honestly I'd be in favour of free universal childcare but how to implement that without everyone paying more tax?

Never really thought about it like this. Makes you wonder whether a lot of posters on here that villify the Tories as Westminster rich boys are actually railing against the party that best represents their demographic.

I think the point is everyone except the very wealthy are being impacted by the current economic climate. Political parties are only interested in getting votes, there’s no long term plan for how to turn things around and improve the NHS/education etc. It’s a mess and I can understand why the OP feels frustrated at paying a huge amount in tax and seeing it wasted.

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?

Tbh, I don't really feel I get a whole lot back from what I put in. I sometimes consider just saying fuck it and taking cash payments at work.

Is it that difficult to figure out?

Who is focusing on them? It is just rhetoric, just like the conservative part that care so much about the oppressed lower income people on speeches but then treat them as benefit scroungers, remove benefits, screw up the only medical service they have access to, reduce budgets for schools and universities and yet… they get their vote again and again.

So I kind of agree there are some policies that feel inherently unfair.

Means testing child benefit (particularly by individual income vs household) is one of them, losing personal allowance as your income grows is another. In both cases the overall net gain is really not that massive and the resentment the policy creates among higher earners is huge.

It’s utter bollocks that someone on benefits has same net income as a family with £60-100k joint gross salary though. I have no doubt there may be some criminals claiming benefits who are better off overall due to their illegal earnings and I have no doubt some benefit claimants on lower earning sometimes buy things that higher earners don’t as everyone prioritises different stuff. Our gross household income is similar to OPs & we have a £1,300/month mortgage so not so little it wouldn’t buy a modest house in most parts of the country and we have plenty of disposable income we can choose how to spend.

OP, I am sympathetic to your feelings, just not to your analysis. I too feel I should have a comfier lifestyle than I do: I have been working and paying tax for 38 years, yet I still live in a crappy damp home where I have to sleep in the sitting room. I don't have a car or take holidays abroad. Everything in my house is second hand and I'm always feeling the pinch at the end of the month. It seems to me that a very basic social contract has been broken, that people who work hard and pay their dues should be financially secure and decently housed.

But at the risk of sounding like an old Marxist, look up and see who is to blame. Poor people are not responsible for the mess we are in, and they have not been doing OK. If ever there was a time when solidarity across the working and middle classes was needed, it is now.

Oh for fuck sake you must be a troll.

Maybe the father of her child is dead. Maybe he's disabled. Maybe he's just a deadbeat who won't contribute.

None of that is the fault of this poster, none of that is the fault of women in general, yet she should be made to feel bad for paying "very little?"

I think that high horse of yours would start feeling a lot closer to the ground if your "partnership" collapsed, especially considering only one of you is a higher rate tax payer.

Anyone with kids in childcare or school is being subsidised by the welfare state. You think childcare is expensive now? Imagine how much it would be if the people who look after your children had to be paid enough to live on without claiming any benefits.

Government funding for schools is approx £5k per child per year and many school staff earn so little they also claim UC. If you had to pay for your child's schooling with staff paid a wage they could live off the cost would be astronomical.

Then there's the fact that part of the tax we pay means our rubbish is collected, our streets relatively safe and if our homes catch fire we can call someone to put it out for free. You benefit without even noticing, but you'd definitely notice if that was removed.

Anyone on £95k isn't squeezed middle. If your home is already "modest" I bet you'd have more disposable income if you move to a cheaper area.

I earn £25k, single, no government top ups. DD at university - yes she gets a student loan but I also support.
My income doesn't go that far after tax, rent and household bills either. I'm in a council (well, non for profit housing association) place and I can assure you, it's not free, I pay a few quid a month less than the market price for a similar place and don't have the trappings of private rent as in a lot more of the regular upkeep is down to me, and it was literally a bare shell when I moved in, not like most private rent where there's carpets, white goods and it's usually decorated. I am absolutely fine with that, pay less get less.
I manage by going without in all honesty, I work 45-50 hours a week in hospitality, and I come home to a cold house, eat at work and I can't remember the last time I had a holiday - unless you count the national express tickets I got for my birthday to visit family in the summer. All clothes are given or charity shop, all furniture is same as well as TVs, I have internet because DD needed it for college during lockdowns and I got a good deal.

I actually feel quite well off compared to some points in my life too - like when I was a care assistant earning minimum wage, supporting society with the work I was doing for shit pay but still thought of as not contributing because I didn't have a 'professional' job or earn much.

It's not just the middle that's squeezed, people like me were already squeezed and now being squeezed tighter. There's not much left to be honest!

But then when people like me complain about it we're told to get better jobs, move house, cut our outgoings......... maybe the squeezed middle might try some of those things?

Remember op, you should be grateful you pay lots of tax, spend lots on childcare, rent, bills, mortgage etc
You're the lucky one. Imagine how awful it would be not work, being a SAHP, having to receive benefits, getting your rent paid for you and hundreds a month...

Come on people please stop feeding it 👹

Almost all these problems are cause by housing/private rentals/sell off of council housing with no replacement/ difficulty in getting a mortgage without a huge deposit

Or

Absent fathers expecting the tax payer to pay for their DCs.

Both of these problems are relatively easily fixed but there's no political appetite for it.

@Winterday1991 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?

Wow OP you really are not doing yourself many favours on this thread are you?