What is your household income, how much is benefits, and how are you coping?

[Gabrilla]

Genuinely curious after so many threads on here about benefit changes. Please feel free to name change!

I’ll start:

Salaries for both of us total 90k. Only benefits are £102 month child benefit, though we also get tax-free childcare and 15hrs free at nursery.

Total income is about 6k a month, mortgage and bills 3k, nursery 1k, commuting costs £500, groceries cost £500, husband pays CMS and other bits to his children totalling about £500 leaving us about £500 for everything else.

Feels like we’re constantly penny-pinching.

I'm trying not to sound too negative but I think everyone's quality of living has dropped significantly over the last 20 years. Real wages have not kept pace with inflation. 90K sounds like a lot but it's actually worth around 45K back before 2008 crash.

This is exactly it, we never recovered from the 08 crash. But many who are now mortgage free or have a very low mortgage don't understand that.

And yes I’d be a lot better off if I rented because I’d have an extra £900 ish per month that the state would cover on top of my other money

...and this is how you stand by your claim than 90K is not a high joint income?

Exactly.

OP living in a not particularly special area of the south east probably has neighbours who bought their homes on much lower relative incomes than she did. They're a completely different ball game, because the housing was almost certainly much cheaper in real terms.

@rosemarble Why do you think it's 160k?

It's probably around 200k net for a couple to be in the 1% which would be approx 340k gross.

Single parent...currently on maternity leave.
Once I'm going back to work, I'll be on about 60k. I get approximately £500 in child benefit (live abroad) and should be getting about £900 in child maintenance from ex but he's not playing ball at the moment and it'll go through the court.
Not getting any other benefits.
Mortgage is 1k, older DC is currently at an independent school and that's £800/month (but will change to state school next academic year). Younger DC will start nursery for around £400/month.

Now...the cost of my divorce lawyer will be extortionate...

I don't get any benefits whatsoever and it's become clear to me the past few days that I am in fact the only person in the whole of the UK who doesn't get any.

...and this is how you stand by your claim than 90K is not a high joint income?

But it isn't a high income. We are a low wage country & 90k today is 48k in the early 00s. Why don't you understand wage inflation or inflation or tax @rosemarble?

About 5.5K a month and we manage fine. We struggle to afford an overseas holiday every year but I'm sure if we cut back in other areas it could be doable.

Our mortgage is under 1K, the only childcare we need is school holidays but they go to breakfast club once a week so I can go to the gym.

We definitely don't penny pinch but if we had a bigger mortgage for a bigger house we would struggle. Ours is adequate but I think most people in our position would have moved to a bigger house by now and will be feeling the pressure and finding money doesn't go as far.

If the household income is £90k they are eligible for child benefit payments.

What’s the issue with them receiving something they are eligible for?

I clearly don't.
I'm can't imagine anyone saying "we're on a low household income of 90K".

I thought the average was well below that.

I used Google 😃

Which I now understand is out of date.

This is so interesting.

I have a friend through a baby class who used to work sixteen hours at Tesco, her partner does thirty hours there, they live in a rented house a few streets away that is very similar to ours (though more recently decorated!) and honestly their lifestyle is better than ours in terms of spare cash. She’s been very open with me about what they get (a few bottles of wine deep!) and although it’s less than our income, she doesn’t have to pay much to her rent, lower bills and nothing for childcare. She says she’ll go back to work when the youngest is three as she plans to have another in a year or two.

It does make me wonder what the point is. I know that in a few years I’ll have more cash but it’s still going to largely go on the mortgage. Then when we’re old the house will be sold to pay for our care costs, and we’ll be alongside my friend in a home somewhere at eighty-five whilst her fees are paid by the government.

I’ve always seen the value in working hard but now I have a baby, I am doubting it all and time with her feels more valuable.

@rosemarble use the IF calculator.

The median full time salary is about 37/38k.

And housing costs absolutely matter because so much of the population is mortgage free.

Housing and child care costs in the UK take up a phenomenal amount of our incomes compared to our EU neighbours:

As of April 2024, the median annual earnings for full-time employees in the United Kingdom were approximately £37,430

UK Childcare Costs:
The average weekly cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two in Great Britain was £302.10 in 2024. Annually, this amounts to approximately £15,706.

UK Housing Costs:
The average UK house price was £290,000 in November 2024. Assuming a 25-year mortgage with a 10% deposit and an interest rate of 4% (more like 6% now but I'm counting all the people who have longer fixed rates), the monthly mortgage payment would be approximately £1,380, totaling £16,560 annually. This is similar to the mean rent for a two bed apartment in the UK (According to the HomeLet Rental Index, for February 2025 is £1,275.)

Combining these expenses, the total annual cost for childcare and housing is approximately £32,266. This represents about 86% of the single median annual earnings or 43% of a joint two earner household income. NB: this is pre-tax!!

Compare this with Germany:

In Germany, the average annual cost of childcare is approximately €2,028 per year, and housing costs are around €11,484, totaling €13,512. With an median average annual salary of €45,700, these expenses represent about 30% of the single median average income, and 15% of the median 2 earners household income

Look at these figures and tell me why we feel squeezed?

If just child care and housing are costing you 43% of your family's pre-tax income how does anyone have any money left at the end of the month to do anything?

Even if you take out the childcare: housing is still costing you a disproportionate amount of your pre-tax earnings

Side note: Taking a historical perspective in 1913 Round about a Pound a Week was published by Maud Pember Reeves. This study provides valuable insights into the financial challenges faced by working-class families in London during that period.

Working class families lived on £1 per week and spent 25% of their earnings on housing.

Middle class families spent 15% of their earnings on housing

The Upper middle class spent 6% of their earning on housing

NB: in the Edwardian era most households only had 1 earner!

Compared this what we spend on housing now: >40% of the median single wage! I don't care if our houses are better insulated, and I'm not dying of TB. Either fixed the housing market or raise the real wages.

So if you need a 7 seater then your DH already had 3 or 4 children before you met? So he's supporting 4-5 kids on a mediocre salary in an expensive area.

So the OP without dc (no idea why you want to compare to households without dc) is an income 90% higher than the rest of the population

Add the fact she is spending 2k a month on a mortgage (guessing) & this drops down to an income higher than only 75%

Add 2 dc & income drops to higher than only 53% of the population.

But presumably she has less that £16k in savings and won't be putting anything in her pension, has an insecure home as she rents and won't have an asset to sell if she does need care and therefore will be stuck in whatever home the state pays for rather than being able to choose somewhere half decent.

I get it's hard, and I hate to say it but kids get more expensive when they hit the teenage years. Hobbies, driving lessons, Uni costs, ridiculous appetites all add up. We bring home about £130k and have 3 teenagers and whilst we have a lovely life we are not rolling in it. I was also brought up by a single parent in a council house though and compared to that i am very lucky that I have stability.

We get no help whatsoever (don't need any so thats fair) but I would far rather be in my position than your friends.

Housing vs income increases has fucked young people.
And no wonder birth rates are falling faster than predicted.

There’s lots of people putting their salaries and outgoings. The benefits threads normally attract lots of people saying they get PIP, DLA etc but there’s hardly any on here saying how much they get in benefits just posts telling people that earning £90k is loads and stop moaning. I’d be willing to bet those people are highly educated in demanding roles with 2 parents working and juggling family life. Why shouldn’t they earn well, after all they are the people paying all the tax.

The poster you've quoted has a household income of £2k more than mine despite the fact that, judging by the net salaries, I think I earn twice as much. It's bonkers to me.

OK, so how a household income of 90K low - say it's 2 full time wages, it's still above average, and certainly not low.
I think I must be missing something.

@bluegoosie

Either fixed the housing market or raise the real wages.

They can't do either

@rosemarble how is it high particularly when you add in housing and having dc?