Not an ordinary working person if you earn over 45k

[TesChique]

Disincentivising anyone to strive to earn over 45k a year is a bizarre strategy for growth i feel

Aibu?

Only when early careers right? Like that's an early career salary?

Why can’t they claim benefits, if entitled?

Yet others on similar salaries may have years of student loans to pay back and years when not paying into ni for pensions ( hence need to work longer)
Many also will be working much harder than nurses with no option for flexible working arrangements and no public sector pension benefits either

Just because you are happy to pay more as you don’t consider your job worth the money means nothing.
No one is stopping you giving loads to charity if you want to offload it

PIP if disabled then yeah that's fine.

But if they are claiming UC because as they have low income jobs it's up to them to get better paying jobs.

I think the PP may have rowed back on their previous bout of generosity.

PP said she’s two jobs.

Someone has to do the lower paid ones. If everyone stopped working in retail, or cleaning streets, or driving buses, or caring for elderly people, so they could earn the big bucks, do you think the world would improve?

@SoSoLong You're kidding yourself. People on the graduate programme at my work join us with 0 experience, straight out of uni, on about 36k outside London, and we are very much middle of the range on pay.

Those salaries would be highly unusual for recent graduates, obviously. That salary is the national average.

There won't be any jobs in retail when everyone's disposable income is swallowed by the government

I live in the SE and commute to London for work. Living on £45K would be very hard.

Why? Someone has to do the minimum wage (or slightly higher) jobs. If it's not the PP, it will be someone else. I've got no problem with full time working people claiming UC top ups if they are entitled to it.

Fair point, though I’d argue lower to middle. And the higher minimum wage has often led to reduced hours for the lowest earners.

And the point re UC is that those costs wouldn’t be necessary if the salaries kept up with costs. Why is it that supermarkets are making record profits while taxpayers are ensuring the security of their workers? That’s crazy.

Someone may have posted this link but here it is for those asking for a more reputable link source than Sky and DM:
https://moneyweek.com/personal-finance/income-tax-rise-impact-on-high-earners
Still rumour rather than fact but these things have are always leaked.

Good for you. As far as I can see this kind of socialist model is becoming increasingly unsustainable.

Not highly unusual for graduates who get on a formal graduate scheme (which is definitely not all of them). Civil service graduate scheme is £31.5k, I’ve seen other large schemes at £42-45k, not just in London either.

This thread has made me feel poor. I earn 35k and thought I was doing alright, now I feel like I’m doing shite and have worked hard for years for a rubbish salary

Good on her for doing 2 jobs and (I assume) not claiming from the taxpayer and being the "captain of destiny" (using my own words).

I have a problem on them relying on us for their career choices. If they have health issues and need PIP or need DLA for a kid.

Everything should be equal

For example this is a better model

Guernsey income tax is applied at a
flat rate of 20% for all resident individuals on their net income after personal allowances. However, the system is not strictly "equal" for everyone due to a system of allowances, deductions, and tax caps that can result in different effective tax liabilities depending on an individual's income level and residence status.
Key aspects of the Guernsey personal income tax system:

• Flat Rate: The headline tax rate is a flat 20% on income after allowed deductions. There are no progressive tax bands (like in some other jurisdictions).
• Personal Allowances: All residents are entitled to a personal allowance (e.g., £14,600 for the 2025 tax year), which means the first portion of their income is tax-free.
• Allowance Withdrawals: For individuals with income exceeding a certain threshold (e.g., £82,500 for the 2025 tax year), these personal and other allowances are gradually reduced, meaning high-income earners pay the full 20% on a larger portion of their total income.

Of course Guernsey has more high earners attracted because of the 20% tax. So they have a higher income tax income than the U.K. therefore retaining the existing tax thresholds of £12570 until the benefits of a more equal system kick in would be beneficial in the short term

I'm really tempted to get some t-shirts made with "Working Woman" on them.

Don’t let it get to you, there are posters on here in the 1% of earners moaning that it’s not fair to expect them to pay more. Can’t take people that seriously.

You’re doing great. Earnings are not a reflection of your human value.

Nope, newly qualified goes in at band 5. I was a band 7 after 5 years working/graduating. This starts at 47k outside London, plus any antisocial hours and overtime, puts it over 50k easily.

Then I take it you already pay into the voluntary tax scheme set up by HMRC? otherwise you're just virtue signalling

37k is the national average for full time employees in any kind of job. I don't know what the average would be for professional jobs, but I expect it's quite a fair bit above that. It's not at all an unusual starting salary in the private sector. I googled and found this site saying it's 40k, but it's not an official statistic, so who knows? https://www.savethestudent.org/student-jobs/whats-the-expected-salary-for-your-degree.html]

I appreciate salaries start lower in the public sector, which would bring the average down, and also give the impression that 30k is a good professional salary. It's not.

Ah so you just want to tax everyone who earns more than you until they are destitute?
You realise that's called race to the bottom/levelling down? Which never solves anything, ever?

It’s disgusting, they need to target the proper wealthy and big businesses. Household Income of Less than 100k in London you’re struggling