To be irritated by this £100k a year whiner

[Viviennemary]

On Question Time tonight they were talking about subsidised childcare and the new benefits for younger children. Then a woman came on with a boo hoo sad face and said she wouldn't be getting it. So I think Fiona Bruce said because your income is £100k a year plus Then she said that it wasnt fair as there was only one wage. And their household only had one earner.

Well tough. Folk on just over £12k a year are paying tax and this cheeky woman thinks her child care should be subsidised. It made me mad.

If your name is anything to go by, you sound like you may be quite old, the 'penny piece' wording also suggests that. So you had no help was this when buying a house was not 8 fucking times your income by any chance?

Yep.

And if it will be more palatable to those of you who require lower income examples to accept the point, the personal allowance hasn't increased with inflation in recent years either. There's a deliberate attempt to bring more people up into every tax band because of fiscal drag and inflation, without that policy ever having been spelled out to the electorate or been in any manifesto. Its very dishonest and is poor governance as well as risky financial practice.

Both the £100k limit for losing childcare benefits and also personal allowance have been in place for over 10 years now.

Talk about fiscal drag...!

@Porridgeislife I still maintain it’s a life choice. It is not some kind of legal requirement (thank god). So have a child to keep the NHS and police going?! It’s that easy is it.

Sure about that? Have you seen their prices?

At the moment, it may look like a poor investment, but investors would not be putting their money up for nothing.
Once the competition is all but gone, they'll be free to charge whatever they like. They're starting to do it already. The "free" entitlement allows them to take the edge off it a bit for parents, but they're still being asked to pay extra to make up the shortfall.

YABU.

If you're on £100k salary, with no pension contribution, your take-home pay each month is £5,587.75.

If you have a two-parent household earning £50k each with no pension contributions, your combined take-home pay each month is £6,337.36. They take home £749.61 more each month, and they receive subsidised childcare.

If you have an income of £100k but two kids in nursery in the south-east then your outgoings on childcare are going to be upwards of £3,000. I couldn't find a nursery in west London within an hour of where I lived for less than £1,850pcm back in 2020.

Maybe £100k goes a very long way where you live, but in the south-east – contrary to popular belief – it doesn't make you 'rich', only comfortable.

The parents.

It's nobody else's job to fund your child. Having children is your choice.

There seems to be a lot of anger on this thread about low-income families and the help we receive.

Luckily 🤔in some ways, I was forced (abusive ex) to be a SAHM when my children were small, so didn't have the issue of nursery fees - although it was a struggle living on one income, as my XH spent a lot on his alcohol addiction. It meant I lost out on a promotion I'd been offered and financial independence.

It was helpful when it turned out my children have SEND and they needed me at home.

Then, my Ex decided to FO and leave. I did get a good job (apx £22k pa), but had to leave as he won't provide school holiday 'care' and there is literally nothing in our town to provide this for working parents unless they are preschool age. Everyone I know has family to help. Mine are dead, Ex's made it clear shortly after our first arrived that we were never to ask for any help.

Barracudas were in our town for that year only, but it was costing me (not him, he refused) £200pw. I believed my salary meant I was above all thresholds for help so didn't apply.

Work were getting very cross as I had no reliable school hol cover, and I had an (at the time) undiagnosed health issue that was affecting my work.

I found another job at a school and I do have the most amazing term-time childminders. This costs a maximum of £250pcm.

Yes, the pay is shit (£14k pa before tax), but I have no childcare costs for school holidays- although no money for anything fun. The mortgage (Ex insisted 'she who stays, pays') costs me half my salary. The gas/electric almost a quarter. Council tax, a tenth.

Thankfully Ex does pay CM (only after I got CMS involved). Although youngest qualifies for FSM, they can't eat them due to health issues.

Your descriptions of people on my salary 'living it up' sound like a cruel joke. We have no holidays or trips and regularly need to use the food bank. A luxury is choosing which scent of cheapo soap next time we need it. Or an own-brand herbal tea.

My health is declining and we are facing homelessness (a long, other, story). My health will not allow for a second job or retraining as I get extreme exhaustion and pain.

While I don't pay as much tax as some of you, I believe I pay proportionately what is affordable. Although I can't contribute financially to my community, I give everything I can to the children I work with (often to the detriment of my own).

The Government has decided that there is a benefit to society in helping to pay childcare costs, so more people can work.

I know this reads a bit like a 'woe is me'. It's not intended. I'm hoping a house move will help (lower costs) and a possible job change.

I don't want to be on UC, but at the moment it means we can eat. Seems that some begrudge us that.

I think life is unfair for most people now in general. Whether you’re earning 12, 50 or 100k. The only people who have any kind of safety net on those salaries are those who have fully repaid their mortgages, so no mortgage or rent costs…

This, wake up and smell the coffee people. I really don't believe posters that feign that don't understand how we are subsidising the rich, they always post one liners, are lazy and know full well how to use Google search. The problems of the wealthy becoming incredibly so is impacting social stability and democracy and the rise of populism, how do you think the rich got wealthy from Brexit, why are the super rich the only ones to get even wealthier after Covid.

In case there are any high earners reading, not all people believe in a polarised society as portrayed here and do recognise the unfairness in being worse off than those you are supporting.

Qualifying for free childcare allowed me to spend time with my child and work PT. Before that I worked FT to see £200 of my wages after nursery fees. Which is not a privilege that the woman who's been berated has. It's likely work to see no extra come into your home and pay more in childcare than your wages, or don't work at all.

I don't for one bit resent some people earn more than me as their contribution supports people like me. Like my contributions in other ways support them.

Well, yes, but if you have two parents working, then you NEED childcare. If you have one 100k earner, and one non-earner, then you don't. The tax advantage that the couple with two workers gains is massively cancelled out by the childcare needs.

So not feeling sympathy for any "I choose not to work, but it means I don't get tax breaks" whining.

On the other hand, I do think some benefits - e.g. child benefit, NHS dentistry, state pension - should be available to high earners just the same as low earners. We all pay in, and we should all get something out.

So no societal benefit whatsoever.

Again, one line responses which by all accounts seem to just stir things up.

How many single parents are earning £100k, have two children in ft nursery and no financial contribution from the other parent? I do agree that would be a shit situation to be in, but can it not be sorted for most (obviously not widows) with better child support arrangements? Or if the other parent is present but is a dependent themselves (ill or disabled) then by fixing those benefits.

Interesting. Hard to comment as I don’t know anyone on UC or have any knowledge of UC.

If you're a single mother and earn £100k then surprise! you NEED childcare as well.

@Goldenbear no, not to stir things up. It's my opinion, or am I not allowed to have one?

I just think people need to pay for their own childcare. For their own children. That they chose to have.

I’m probably not on the same page as many but feel that we are in a privileged position to earn more and therefore be able to put more into society than we take back. If we can help others less fortunate then that can only be a good thing in a progressing society. Yes you take a hit paying childcare for a short time but once that’s paid you can rebuild savings far faster at 100k than you can at less than that.

everyone should be entitled to childcare. They are children of our country’s future. shortsighted policies result in this denial of basic care. In most of Europe they are subsidised, and there is a link to mothers returning to work and paying tax as a result.

Basic fact is that there are far too few net contributors in our tax system.

The cliff edge in the tax system at £100k is ridiculous (loss of personal allowance and loss of childcare)

They also dropped the higher 45% tax rate to £125k last year from £150k it was barely mentioned.

Yet posters expect 'high' earners to pay more when they are already subsidising lots of others

Regardless of whether anyone thinks everyone should pay for all their own childcare or not, that is not the system we have. We have a system where there is some help, but it is filtered through various cliff edges and bottlenecks that can act as a disincentive to work. And we clearly aren't about to remove all financial help for childcare either. There's zero possibility of us implementing that idea.

This means that what's relevant is the system we have now, the impact it has and how best we can mitigate any downsides.

Unfortunately taking a hit in the short term for many isn’t affordable.

One parent, usually the women still these days, has to give up work ( as I had to as an architect ) they then find they are back at the bottom professionally when they return to work. As I did in the days before any paid childcare and our childcare costs were more than half our joint income and I was paying to work basically ( that’s not even accounting for transport costs ). I’ve also lost out on lost pension payments.

It’s better to keep everyone working, both parents, if one chooses not to then they can care for their kids as they have chosen that job because they want to. Not because they have been financially forced out of the workforce.

Lol at 'bitter'. You don't know a single thing about my personal circumstances.

Are you saying that every person in work is on an even playing field and that everyone owns a home? Sure it should be, but it isn't, you'll not see a mum who's been a carer for £11 an hour suddenly be able to even interview for a £100k a year position will you?

Unless I'm misunderstanding your outrage at what I said?

@Naptrappedmummy I don't think you understood my point.

1. The rich are subsidised in countless ways, from hidden subsidies, tax breaks and direct grants (estimated to cost each household £3,500 a year 8 years ago) to business, a tax system that favours the wealthy (see capital gains) to things like private schools getting charity status.

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2023/nov/27/uk-spends-more-financing-inequality-in-favour-of-rich-than-rest-of-europe-report-finds

We have fully paid out mortgage and therefore should be ok ( although neither on great wages ). However we have two kids at Uni. No one wants to employ them when they are only in Uni town half the year - dd had interview terminated mid interview the other day once they sussed she was a student. Their student accommodation is more than what they receive for a loan and they still have to live and eat, so around £800 a month of our earnings go to pay that. Most of my dd's friends that she has made in her first year are leaving to transfer to courses closer to home so they can live at home. They have already accumulated huge debts and parents can't afford to support them - probably because they are still paying huge mortgages. So it's not really great for anyone right now. You have years of paying childcare, then a bit of a lull, then kids going to Uni, then you try to work out how to save enough for retirement if you don't want to be working until 70 +.