Is anyone else's full wage just going on living expenses?!

[maria2bela1]

My partner and I both work, have 3 young children. We crunched some numbers yesterday and my partners whole wage (which is a decent one, over 50k) goes on outgoings! I just can't believe it, we pay high rent in London (2k) then our gas/elec bill is sky high at £230 a month. Sorry having a rant but this is insanity. How are we ever supposed to save for a house? I honestly feel like the only way around this is to leave London, but our family and friends are here so not nice for the kids.

I can't afford to live in part of midlands I was raised - 3 bed terrace house are going for £350,000 - my siblings are lucky to be in HA housing. Housing better price near DH family but there's no work. We've got on our bikes and moved for work - serval times.

We've had to marry up work and where we could afford to buy/live up. Yes there are consequences no family support and elder care much harder. We are living this and have been for last 20 years - it's not new.

The Telegraphy doing articles about how high house prices are impacting birth rates. House prices have been a concern for 20 plus years - we not been building enough for decades - it why Labour was about house building in last election. ONS census figures show family sizes have been decreasing and social attitude to more than 2 kids hardening - 3 is now considered a large family in stats.

Many think as baby boomer die off house prices will get cheaper and wages go up due to worker shortages - but while deaths will be out stripping British births for next decade our population will likely grow by 8% due to immigration - it's why that a political issue - public realise we need more workers to fill job and pay tax but at same time that adds to housing pressure and wage stagnation.

I think everyone saying none of this is remotely new - though steadily getting worse and worse - it's why there talk of inheritance becoming the biggest social divide between haves and nots. It's not just a UK issue either it an issue in Australia, USA and some European countries.

@trivialMorning we don't need more workers we need the population of the uk to work.

Too many not working. What happens if we import labour and then they decide they don't want to work?we cannot keep adding to the population like this, especially importing low/unskilled workers, we need to make sure we are maximising our current working age population,

We need more doctors and nurses - now - and we need to retain up more of our own. Plus benefit of more NHS staff in needed roles is also waiting list come down and thus more of population are in a position to actually work more.

We do need to fill skill gaps and also plan better and train up existing people to fill them and to stop losing ones we have trained.

We also have a decreasing native population - fewer workers to tax while at same time having more dependents - old and too young to work - and needing more tax. Now increasing children numbers won't help as they will be dependent for decades and a cost to state. Way round this is to import adult ready to tax workers (and get more of population working for longer hence ever increasing retirement ages)- so we get a slump not a cliff with aging population.

We also need young workers to come in for short periods of time and pick some farm crops work in low paid professions not have some fantasy about getting likely older sicker workers to do it who are likely in the wrong part of the UK and can't afford to so it at wages offered.

I don't think we need immigration at levels likely in next decade and do think we should have better careers advice than exists to better match jobs and people - but I think it's fantasy to say we can do without any immigration.

Though agree adding more to existing population isn't going to be great and I think there will be increasing push back to it politically but it's what ONS is predicting and in past they usually under predict immigration levels.

@IVFmumoftwo sometimes that is the case but most of the time it's people being feckless and thinking 'love is enough', you see it on here alllll the time 'oh you'll make it work somehow' and sometimes the somehow is a shit life relying on foodbanks

Exactly.

I see threads every week from people wondering if they can afford children, and 99% of the replies are from people saying "go for it, you'll find a way"

Yeah