Middle earners punished

[Eucalyptus321]

I am feeling so disheartened and frustrated by how middle earners are constantly suffering at the hands of ridiculous government priorities. My husband and I have a greater household income than other families we know but have less cash in hand due to increased taxes coupled with the fact we receive zero benefits like child benefit or tax free childcare etc. ZERO. If they want middle earners to fund the country thought tax then at least support us with childcare costs. It’s a joke that two parents earning £99k each get childcare funding but parents with one £101k salary and one £25k salary receive nothing. I just need to speak to people who understand the burden of raising a family amidst the current financial climate and then the potential of further tax rises!

Thank you for this comparison. Why did you move?
We have talked so much about moving out of the UK but weighing up the pros and cons everywhere else is hard!

We looked at doing this when his salary went over the threshold but after doing that we would still have less a month which we really needed at the time. A few of our friends do this though. It’s a good idea.

The poor and the middle tear each other apart and blame each other. Meanwhile, the truly rich are getting richer, mainly off the backs of exploiting the poor and the middle.

Wake up! All governments serve the rich and oppress everyone else.

Tax is never tit for tat. Some people at some time contribute more. Its not reasonable to compare like this - I might say I subsidize anyone who has children as my tax goes towards services which I will never use.

It can feel frustrating. But its always possible to find reasons why we should not pay so much/are worse off than others/etc etc etc.

Totally agree OP. The fact that a significant number of people in the UK are better off on benefits than they would be working, is ridiculous. The benefits bill is shocking. No one thinks people that need benefits shouldn’t get them, but so many benefit claimants are fraudulent.

The ‘0% fraud’ on PIP claim, is laughable. So i resent paying more and more to get less and less. Whereas others just get more - from what the squeezed middle keep giving.

And this Labour government seem intent on making the issue much worse, not better.

It’s just a title to start the conversation 😂

Quite.
As someone who does fall in that top 5%, there is no way I would have the brass neck to call myself a middle earner. I am not, I am a high earner. I am also a high tax payer, but only because of the former.

@HopSpringsEternal if your over £100k earning husband hasn't been paying more into his pension to bring his net taxable income below the threshold for tax free childcare, more fool him.

The 'downside' of earning well is that your expenditure tends to expand to fit your income, which is a diamond shoes dilemma. And while 100k is a great salary, it doesn't go as far as it used to. See also fiscal drag as a concept. Still doesn't make 100k a middle income.

It’s a bullshit situation where working less is incentivised. Reduction in hours from high earners = growth slump. I’d advise anyone on the boundary to reduce their hours or shove into your pension. Giving more of your hard earned cash to Labour isn’t going solve anything, despite what they have promised.

I agree with this to be fair. It’s just frustrating to get pay rises at work and not see any of it.

It wouldn’t be less unless he was earning over around £125k. I think it’s a good thing it’s capped for one person. For women anyway. It encourages women to stay in their jobs and progress their career and the man can look to make sacrifices such as working fewer hours etc. It’s always women who have to compromise as the men say their big jobs are too important to look to reduce anything. Not all men obviously as my husband isn’t like that and has adjusted accordingly.

Everyone needs to pay more. Not just people earning over a certain amount. It’d be fairer if income tax was raised for all workers. That’s people who work. From 12k upwards. Everybody pay more tax. For the good of the everybody else.

About time benefits were taxed too.

We are in the same position. With a mortgage and two children in nursery, it still feels tight!

Ex-council three bedroom terraces go for over a million around here. A “beautiful” house would start at £2.5m. Nobody is affording that by cutting out lattes FFS.

You clearly either earn extremely well, or bought 30 years ago when prices were cheaper. Or you don’t actually live in a particularly expensive area.

Do you work full time and is your ex supporting his children?

We are in the same boat. Have decided not to have a second child as we just cannot afford it :(

But nursery fees are only for a few years then you will be significantly better off. Poor people will still be poor

Yes with bells on!!!! I saw something today which really shocked me. If you count back a million minutes from now, it would take you to the beginning of 2023. If you counted a billion, it would take you back to the Roman Empire. The wealth divide is horrifying.

Yes I was reading about fiscal drag earlier.

Apologies to everyone that I used the the word middle when you believe it’s high. Where we live our life is quite “middle” so apologies that it wasn’t the correct term to use in a general/proper sense.

Families here can afford to go on holiday every half term, have new cars, etc. Perhaps I’m looking forward to my children not being in nursery so we can afford that too!

No they are simply stating a fact that 100k isn’t a middle income. Median income in the UK last year was approximately £37.5k and mean was approximately £42.2k

There are lots of ridiculous tax rules. Losing access to free hours and tax free childcare entirely at an arbitrary point is particularly ludicrous. It doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to encourage behaviour that’s good for the overall economy and it should be changed.

That said anyone who is losing access to free childcare because their salary went up to £101 or £105 or even £110k is a bit foolish really. For the relatively short time kids are in expensive childcare you could negotiate a drop to working 90% or put more money in your pension (likely worth it even if you end up with a tax charge for exceeding your allowance).

Well that is 💯 true.. what to do about it?

It’s not actually

It’s all out of kilter. My son (19) lives at home, works hard & pays his own way. His best mate & girlfriend have had a child at 17. They have been given a lovely house & generous benefits. They want for nothing, and have no need or incentive to work.

Agree that the problem is not the comparison between the lower and middle earners.. it’s the super rich getting richer by the second and paying no tax

You w still got to pay for it!

I have to disagree with this because the reason they would’ve put this original threshold in place is due to people thinking “oh if one of you earns over 100k then the other one doesn’t need to work” never mind that we bloody want to