To wonder what’s the point when I’m left with this after bills?

[ReLOa]

In a stressful job and single parent to nursery age child. I have 570 left after all bills and childcare and petrol, excluding food. What is the actual point in this?! We can’t do much at weekends and holidays are out of the question. I’m supposedly in a highly paid job (earn 70k) and I feel like giving up. Just been paid and looking ahead at the month I’ve already had to turn down some things like an adventure park day with friends as it was 28 pounds entry and a 35 mile round trip. I feel like I’m failing yet not sure what more I can possibly do?!

That's 160 a month btw not a week. I work full time and my kids are at school, I also get UC Topup. I'm on a 30k salary. I have 160 a month after bills. I am widowed. One child in wrap around care at 100 a month.

This is another "poor me on my high salary" thread and it's offensive.

You don’t have to read it.

You’re right. It is also ALWAYS the same posters. Same names, time and time again. Look at the posting history. Can’t help themselves. High earner - let’s go and kick the boot in. Can’t have high earning women. Should be eating porridge and living in a cave on a high salary. It’s so odd.

You're right. It's never been a requirement to work 16 hours a week on UC l. I think it goes back to old days when you could work up to 16 hours without benefits being affected or something. Yet people still throw it around. Same with the myth that a partner can't stay over more than 3 nights a week but that's an entirely different topic!

The rules now are that an individual claimant has to earn £892 or more monthly to avoid being called into the job centre for regular meetings. It also lifts the benefit cap. It actually equates to roughly 18 hours per week on the current minimum wage. How they earn that £892 doesn't matter in terms of hours though. They could earn it by working 10 hours a week with a higher hourly wage or by working a few hours one week then loads the next if they wanted as long as the amount is £892 or more per month. For a couple it's £1437 per month combined.

I worked with people who told me, so maybe the standard line was 25 but it can be less it's highly dependent on the work coach. I've haven't given out incorrect information at all. It does pay more to work more.

Well OP said she is buying washing powder every week so somehow she is doing way over the top washing to grt through an entire box of washing powder. Thays not kicking someone down that's saying how da fuck are you getting through that much washing powder you need to buy it weekly, same for dishwasher tablets and bubble bath. Sounds insane to me

It's to do with earnings more than hours really now. It's 30 hours at minimum wage, if you earn over minimum wage you can do less hours. It definitely hasn't been 16 hours at any point for UC though, although I think a small amount of people are still on legacy benefits so it may still apply to them.

Have a look and list all your expenses, use tax free childcare if not already. How old is your child?

Regards shopping - switch for a while to cheap washing up liquid, ditch dishwasher tablets. Don't buy bubble bath. Look at other food/shopping expenses and work out what you can cut back. Bulk cook if you can and portion control. It's not an amazing way to live but it gets you by..

If you have expensive tv/broadband/mobile phone/gym etc they can be cut back

Maybe she feels like it's every week, maybe it is, she does have a young child. However it defeats the objects on a wage like that she should be able to buy it every week if she chooses but no, nearly her entire income is spent on a roof over her head and childcare to acctually go to work in the first place! Mean while everyone who earns less, gets to sit here telling her, it's her own fault suck it up she's the lucky one and shop budget instead! And they didn't even say it nicely. Well it's about time people stood up for people like OP. Inside and outside of the government.

With regards to the 16 hour thing, when they introduced UC and the benefits cap, you could avoid the cap by working a minimum of 16 hours per week. That was subsequently increased to 20 hours.

That's why it's not worth working more than those hours because it's the minimum required to keep the old school uncapped benefits rolling in.

Almost everyone has been moved to UC now though, there's not many left still on legacy benefits.

Your absolutely right getting everyone into work will increase gdp and taxation income, lower borrowing and reduce borrowing repayments. Makes perfect fiscal sense. Speculate to accumulate, so to speak. Even if they had to borrow to fund this it would pay dividends.

Why do people on this thread keep saying the early years of a mortgage are hard?

Most mortgages start on a good fixed rate. If you took out a mortgage 10 years ago the interest rate would been a lot lower than it is today. I’m lost.

I know a lot of people on benefits, and those of us on UC are in the minority.

No but you do tend to live to your means, my own income has increased in the last 2 years and my spending has increased to match 😆 much to my dismay haha. It's natural. When she started out on her journey to motherhood she likely wasn't a single mother and had no idea nursery would cost as much as it does (it shouldn't it's scandalous) in my area it's no where near the amount she's having to pay, its half (something else that's unfair) it's not easy to adjust quickly to the exteme change in circumstances she has faced since needing childcare. I've been at the lower end of the budget, I know the struggles but should I go back to that tomorrow it would take time to adjust. There are loans you take out as a couple that still need to be paid back when it's over. There are credit cards you could easily afford when your income was more that still need paying when your income drops. It's not as simple as it sounds.

There are children in developing countries without food on the table, clean water or healthcare. How dare you come on here crying poor me? You have roof over your head, running water, you're not starving!
There are mothers with 3 or more kids who live only on small benefit payment. How dare you complain on your salary of 30k and UC top up? Don't you see you're being offensive?

See where that goes?!

The fact is that a man on 70k would pay same tax as OP while not paying 1700 in childcare. If he was married he would get double tax allowance while same is not granted to OP even tho she's a sole breadwinner with high nursery fees.

The fact is UK is extremely stuck against women and especially against working mothers to the extent that just doesn't happen in other first world countries.
If someone on 5% top salary still is not comfortable where is a chance for you? Or me?
And it's people like OP paying taxes for your UC top up. Do you think it makes economic sense they don't feel like their job is worth it? I know several women who left their high flying careers and now work less while claiming UC top up. All admit to being happier and less stressed, and because they rent they are better off with UC then paying full time childcare for 2 kids.
Do you think it makes fiscal sense for high tax payers to leave their jobs and go on benefit top ups? Because I can tell you it doesn't happen anywhere else except UK and it's bad for economy which means it's bad for all of us.

OP never complained that she is impoverished or that there are no people in worse predicaments. She simply questioned whether her stressful, demanding job is worth it. People don't become high earners by chance or in order to be grateful they can afford food. People motivate themselves and make many sacrifices because there supposed to be a reward.

But of course on those type of threads there is always army of women who have unstoppable need to tear other successful women down. Sometimes I wonder if it's just understandable bitterness or some toxic case of vulnerable narcissism.
Honestly this behaviour is so ugly and distasteful that even if I had those type of urges I would just shamefully hide them to myself.

Oh and I unfortunately had experienced being a poor single mother on low income. I understand what it means to skip meals and cry when something breaks. Don't assume people are clueless.

So sorry, I've been back and re-read I miss understood what you were trying to say. You were trying to say you were better off working and you were absolutely right my apologies. Really sorry

I have to agree with @SilentSilhouette- with a take home pay of that, after mortgage and nursery fees you have £1700 left. I'd look at the expenses you have, with your bills because if your bills alone are taking £1200 a month, there has to be something there you can cut down on.

Look at if you can reduce any bills

Sim only phone
Freeview tv/internet
Shop around on insurance/utilities

Do you have single occupancy council tax?

Are you using tax free childcare and saving 20%?

Food - get supermarket brands only , shop at Aldi or Lidl

Get clothes from Vinted- cheaper and better for environment

Remember childcare will get cheaper, can you condense your hours at all?

And wash powder dishwasher tabs nappies and wipes. Could easily be bought for less than£20 . Don't buy bubble bath waste of money!

16 hours was mentioned because I specifically know someone who only works 16 hours a week, therefore has no need for childcare. I had no idea it used to be a specific limit.

The person I know is taking home in the region of £2700 a month before CM because she’s getting around £1700 a month in benefits for her and her two kids and she’s not paying a penny in tax. Compare this to the OP, who is paying close £20k a year in tax.

Because you borrow less each time you renew. So if you bought for £200k and paid off £40k of equity in 10 years, you only need to borrow £160k at your renewal and you should be earning more than 10 years ago.

I hear you @ReLOa i am sorry it’s a race to the bottom with some of the posters on here. Yes things are incredibly tight for you financially and you will not be able to afford a decent style of living on that disposable income. Hang on in there, childcare will get better once dc is at school. Your wages will rise. Things will get better.

But the term of the mortgage is shorter than before....

Borrowing £250k over 25 years is the same as £150k over 15 years.

But you actually pay off more capital towards the end of a mortgage, due to interest. So, in the example above, you wouldn't actually pay off £100k in the first ten years.

Inflation and pay rises are the things that make a mortgage easier over time, but the only people that are guaranteed to get above inflation pay rises are government workers.

Ha ha ha, er no. Over the last decade or so, 'government worker' pay has fallen way behind inflation and that of the private sector.

What do you think all the strikes were about a year or two ago? There's a massive recruitment crisis in the public sector because graduate professional jobs sometimes pay not much more than NMW and it can take years for any meaningful progression.

On the matter of length of mortgage term, it doesn't necessarily have to be shorter. That is the ideal of course, but it can also be lengthened to help with the change in circumstances eg the OPs temporary high childcare costs.