Are other full-time working families finding there is nothing left?

[fatface001]

Alarm went off at 5:30 this morning, then an hour stood on a packed train into London for the commute. We are a normal family: one child and two full-time jobs. I’ve always enjoyed working and have always worked hard, and I don’t mind that at all — but I do expect that full-time work should still mean there’s something left at the end of the month for a normal life.

But that really doesn’t feel like the case anymore.

There’s nothing left at the end of the month. Everything has been stripped back, all non-essentials have gone, and even basic things around the house are being put off or done ourselves because there isn’t spare money for trades. It’s just constant cutting back.

What’s hard is that we’re both working really long hours and doing everything we’re “supposed” to do, but it still feels like we’re going backwards rather than getting ahead.

When I hear talk about “those with the broadest shoulders” contributing more, I honestly don’t recognise it anymore in real life. It doesn’t feel like anyone in our position has anything left to give — it feels like the pressure is entirely on ordinary working households just to stand still.

I’m not looking for luxuries — just the sense that working still gives you a bit of breathing room. Right now it doesn’t feel like that at all.

Is anyone else feeling the same?

By this logic doctors, surgeons, nurses and care home managers should all be tax exempt. What about fire fighters? Ambulance crews? You’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

Haven’t read the full thread but yes I agree.

i would say we are an average income family, with a household income around £75000 pre tax. Two adults, one baby.

Partner works full time compressed to four days, I dropped to 4.5 days and compressed to four days after mat leave. Baby about to start nursery 3 days a week. For me to stay at full time hours with four days of nursery would have meant me paying to go to work and leave my child in nursery the extra day per week. I couldn’t compress full hours to four days and still make nursery pick up.

we live in a totally unexciting small city in the south west in a two bed terraced house. Mortgage is £1000 per month, £600 of which is interest. We only run one car which is very big standard. No holidays. Will maybe go camping once the baby is a bit bigger. One small dog. We don’t have expensive gadgets or jewellery. Theatre maybe once a year. Meal out maybe once per month. Takeaway once per month. No cinema trips. Clothes are majority hand me downs, Vinted or second hand. Hair cuts every 3ish months, no beauty treatments. Batch cooking - mostly vegetarian. Shop at Lidl or Aldi. Very low alcohol consumption.

we do have a loan that we will be paying off for the next two years because we needed IVF and didn’t qualify for NHS help, about £300.

we do manage to save a couple of hundred pounds a month living like this, which gets gobbled up but house repairs/vet expenses on a regular basis.

we are not hard up and I try to take a minute each day to be grateful for what we have - our health, our safety, our beautiful baby. But i would say that job wise in terms of level of seniority and salary we are equivalent to what my parents were earning in the late 90s, and we are living a VASTLY different life.

No, I’d pay the tax if that’s what it came down to. As would most I suspect. Too many are able to opt out of a tax system others cannot escape.

Pensions are a benefit. Just like any other benefit. Read the legislation behind it. There is no difference between pensions and any other benefit. Such a common misperception, made because so many pensioners have a thing about claiming benefits.

Those are jobs and are a choice.
Looking after a disabled family member that you live with is not.
I bet my UC that they would rather their disabled family member was not disabled to start wth.

Well if they did they might have more money.

That fluffiness is for the fairies . It’s survival of the fittest now in this country . If working people no longer see value in going to work where do we end up then . This Labour government needs outing and someone else coming in needs to make work pay . When people work and can’t even afford a pizza on a Friday evening we’re in trouble . Going to work these days means paying for an over burdened welfare state whilst we have no defence , shitty roads , shitty health service shitty education and nothing works .
The welfare state needs disbanding and the only state help should be for those who are completely disabled . Companies and businesses should not be paying such low wages the state needs to top them up . If they are they need to revisit their business model . I also think there’s a world of difference between someone being so disabled they cannot do anything and today where any affliction means all types of work is ruled out . When I starting working there were 3 disabled people in my office , a blind lady ran the telephone lines and reception , a Learning disabled man worked in the post room and a veteran with one leg became an office manager . I can’t in later years remember working with anyone disabled .

In my world, yes. The threshold should be for everyone. It is very unfair that someone on a low wage is taxed, and someone who gets most types of benefit isn't.
It's the same money and has to buy the same things.
I can think of no justification why someone earning £13,000 is taxed and someone getting the same amount in benefits isn't.
Can you?

Absolutely - every word of this. There'll be no welfare state at this rate as everyone will just sack off working as it really isn't worth it. The gap between working and doing jack-all is getting so narrow.

What other choice do I have, exactly? If I don't care for my disabled child then the state would have to which would certainly cost more than what I currently get in benefits.

🤣🤣🤣🤣
You won't get free school meals on 30k a year! 🤣🤣

For what it's worth I got my P60 which showed i earned £14,800 this financial year. Husband earned similar and we get no UC or extra top ups. Grown up kids though so no childcare or anything.

I don’t think you’re the one the annoyance is aimed at. It’s the ones who don’t work

If you don't see any disabled people in your office now, I would say that is down to your employers. But it is easier to blame disabled people for being unemployed.
Employers don't want to spend money on adaptions, or risk taking on someone who might need a lot of time off.

How is she getting 24k?

Exactly.
They also don't realise that it is far more than being about money. If you are a full time carer, you are not working and building up a career, pension etc. It also comes at a personal cost to you.

Being disabled is unfair
Having a disabled child is unfair

The reason things like DLA exist in the first place is because it is well known that disability carries extra expenses.

I don't believe disabled people or carers with disabled children should be punished further when it is through no fault of theirs that they are unable to work.

What actually is your argument?

You started off saying income taxes such as dividend tax wouldn’t increase unemployment, I’ve explained how it does increase unemployment. You then began the usual conflating high income tax payers with billionaires and the ‘elite’, claimed billionaires are increasing and the old ‘you don’t care about poor people’ and immorality argument. Then a few posts claiming income taxes are wealth taxes. You’ve declined any questions to quantify the people should pay ‘more’ tax , what they pay now and how much ‘more’.

From what I can gather, your ‘argument’ is more tax for anyone else but you. More ‘free stuff’ as long as you are not a net tax payer. This is just bog standard Labour ideology and the consequences are playing clearly out on the UK economy as we speak.

You do know people can be in receipt of UC and still pay tax...

Trained coaches absolutely should be paid well. And my son the same constantly with a ball at his feet. One of the dads of the kid he plays with is coach and does the coaching and managing for free, he argues that without volunteers grassroots football would collapse. The £50 we pay is to pay for league fees, and pitch hire etc. my son is 9 he gets an hour of training and a game a week.

i just think the cost of everything is ridiculous and we are on a race to the bottom!!

They legally have to make adaptations

No, they just don't employ them to start with.
But it is easier to blame disabled people for being unemployed, isn't it.

Only if they hire them in the first place and why would they when they can hire someone else who doesn't need adaptations or who won't need to take regular time off for their child's appointments?

That's part of the problem.

this Is part of the problem! Some people are savers, and don’t spend every last penny, so keep some money aside for a rainy day.

whereas others spend every last penny on fripperies, and then they get benefits .

Why are the number of disabled people per capita increasing ?

You can still claim benefits with savings. Just not if you have over £16k.
You are making it sound like people spend every penny they can so they can claim something. That is simply not true.