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 think a lot of people are in disbelief about households with 100K + income and still feeling squeezed.

On a different subject though, there are many people on this forum who cannot comprehend London house prices and that a house at say £1million can actually be a regular/small 3 bedroom semi with small garden and no off road parking or garage. They equate what a million pounds would buy them in a completely different part of the country.

I do think that many who see a salary of say £125k also have no comprehension of the tax that is paid on that. They naively divide 125 by 12 and come up with a monthly income around £10k.

If you have nursery age children someone earning 125k is no better off than a couple earning 38k each.

Would you consider a couple earning 38k each as being extremely wealthy?

We're now spending over 12k a year just on living costs so food, trips out etc.

If you have 4 kids altogether day trips would be very expensive too.
Its like almost 70-80 for a zoo trip now for 4 people.
£36 for cinema.

But people are lucky re the 15h and the 30h from 3. When my 12yo was born it was only 15h from 3. The nursery was like £58 a day plus lunch for 8-6. But that nursery was really rubbish. I was on about £80 a day take away £5 a day transport.
I didnt end up going back (dc had sen) but i would have made about £2k a year.
I honestly hadnt expected nursery to be so expensive.

I think the huge cost is the kids.
Here even 7y ago it was £15 per day per child for after school and before school care.

Child benefit is very low now too. 20-16 a week.
Its £14 a week just for school lunch
£5 a day for school bus
As above it would pay around a day a week of school club

But also op with those earning you need to save for uni too. Thats about thousands for parental contributions

I need help with the maths on this.

If nursery is £1k a month, that’s £12k a year. Where’s the rest of the money gone?

But yeah, people who don’t have kids are better off - they’re feeding less people and don’t have any of the costs associated with children. Surely that’s obvious and expected.

If nursery is £1k a month, that’s £12k a year. Where’s the rest of the money gone?

My nephew was paying £2,000 a month recently which is pretty normal for his area. Standard nursery.

I'm sure it's what's required but £500 seems miniscule to be supporting children on that income.

As you asked, I have an income of £9000 pa, plus about £3000, when I can be bothered to do some freelance work. I'm not complaining. I like my lifestyle.

Using an example of 2 households both with 2 children in nursery. Household A has a single parent earning 125k. Household B has 2 parents earning 38k each.

Household A takes home 78k after tax and NI and receives no child benefit or 30 hours funded nursery.

Household B takes home 62k after tax but also receive 2k child benefit and 30 funded hours for each child worth around 14k. They also get 20% tax free deductions on the remaining nursery payment that the higher earner doesn’t qualify for.

The end result being that Household A is not a penny better off than Household B despite both having 2 children of identical ages and earning nearly 50k more.

Exactly. This is what people just don't grasp.

But joint taxation wouldn't be popular? We used to have it.

Thanks, that’s really helpful.

I would however caveat that if I knew I wouldn’t get any financial support for children, I’d probably not have 2 of them in nursery at the same time. I’d stagger it.

That doesn’t mean it’s fair, or that the way you’ve just laid it out isn’t clearly shit for the higher earner - but there is an element of planning here, right?

Balancing income and expenses can be challenging, especially with rising costs. Many people use WhatsApp groups to share budgeting tips and financial advice. If you’re looking for a more customized messaging experience, GB WhatsApp Pro offers additional features that can help you stay connected: gbwadown.com.

The OP had said their fees were £1k so I was still referring to that.

This!!! well put.

The wider problem is that you might instead decide to have the kids you want, but instead work less so you get out of the 100k trap. Which is an issue for the tax take and anyone who have need of you in your job.

Yeah I’d imagine that if £2k of your salary was going on childcare, and the rest on bills, it’s fairly easy for some to establish that it’s not worthwhile.

£100k trap is still a fairly good trap to be in, there are worse places to be trapped!

Take home combined pay £10k per month.
This supports 5 teenage/ young adult children, their uni costs, child maintenance. Private healthcare for all. Mortgage £2.2k per month. No other debt. Driving old cars but like to spend on travel. After everything is paid we have about 3.5k left every month to do what we want with.

But you wouldn't need nursery if only one parent earning

@Chippychoppishy But people are lucky re the 15h and the 30h from 3. When my 12yo was born it was only 15h from 3.

Honestly the extended hours are a con for private nurseries!
My 3 year old started before the Tory expansion and her full time rate for an under 2 in 2022 was £200 less than I pay now for her place with 30 funded hours.
I pay double for for my 1 year old now with 15 funded hours compared to when my older DC was 1 only 2 years ago and on full rate.

There’s literally nothing lucky about the funded hours unless you have lots of family help and can somehow work whilst only using a school nursery.

That doesn’t mean there is another parent there to care for the kids full time. Not everyone is a 2 parent household.

Edit scrub that. Just read one was a a single parent family. Although unlikely to have 2 of nursery age for very long and if they are single and earning that amount likely to have had a baby daddy with a few £££ also so good amount of CMS

Nursery was much more affordable before the various governments started giving " help"

I don't think there was any freebies hours when DD1 was born but the fees for nursery were copeable

Our combined income is 172k, one child and live in the North. We are very comfortable even with high mortgage and childcare. My pay is only 30k of this and nearly full time - however my mental health hasnt been great for a while and am currently signed off sick. I am saving in case I leave my job. However I realise I am very lucky compared to many many people.

Why does it seem minuscule? The DH has the children 3 days compared to 4 so he’s providing for their needs on those 3 days.

It is literally the precise situation a friend of mine is in because the other parent is dead.

Agreed