In not having much sympathy with a couple on £45k plus per year having some benefits cut?

[ssd]

There is loads of this on the news just now about how "middle income" families will be having some child tax credits cut and might be paying more tax. They news are showing what to me looks like comfortable off families having to do with a bit less. Is this really so bad? I know an income of £45-£50k per year might not be much in central London but will keep you in style in parts of the north, but how bad will it be? So people might have to change jobs/give up the second car/holiday at home instead of Spain every year? SO WHAT? There are plenty of us living on less than £25k a year who have had to cut back since having kids and take this as a fact of life.

I know MN is made up of mostly middle earners and I'll get pelters for this, but I don't really care. Anyone I know on a middle income can afford to give up some things _ its called life.

I haven't read the whole thread but I do think YAB a bit U and thoughtless because some people on 45K have very, very little at all left over once they've paid mortgage, bills, and credits cards etc.

The small amount of money they get in benefits probably just helps them along a bit. I understand about cuts needing to be made somewhere but I do think people in the middle get a rough deal sometimes.

Message deleted

But we could also say whoever voted labour in 13 years ago has some serious explaining to do for creating such a deficit that means cut will inevitibly happen. The term no use crying over spilt milk comes to mind.

and albour weren't going to make cuts after the election degreeChick

We are on 45k in the south east, it buys an ok lifestyle but we don't get a holiday every year and we only have one 7 year old car which gets a battering of 100 miles a day so needs replacing.
What has hist is that we are on the same income as we were over 10 years ago so our standard of living is not standing still but is constantly going backwards. We have both been made redundant so had to take jobs farther away and on less wages.

Yes, it's not that hard to move abroad. I don't use that many services anyway - I haven't been to our new GPs once in the 18 months since it was built. I'm very lucky I'm never ill and I of course look after myself and don't eat junk food etc. I have not used a single state school place ever for any of the 5 children. I pay high council tax and I could relatively easily move abroad and spend what I do spend on services etc abroad if tax got too high. It's not hard.

For lower earners who are saying there are no job where they are surely most of us move to where work is though. My great grandparents did. I did too. It's not always fun to have to move but if that's the only way to get an acceptable standard of living people move continents to achieve it.

Message deleted

be all and end all for me is why should us hard workers be given the short straw when my mils neighbours have 2 kids and just thrown out out 42 inch plasma tv box and blueray video box! these are things we can not afford!!!! i am a stay at home mum! husband works 60-70 hrs a week and yes is a middle earner!!!!!!!!!!!! surely there is something wrong here. i hate politics x

"Our mortgage is about £1500 a month"

mummytotwoboys wow that's a lot per month for a mortgage - what exactly do you live in??

Some employees and business owners are mobile, and might move. But in reality, it'd take the UK becoming an unviable economy to force many to relocate.

Xenia, you've frequently suggested Bulgaria as a tax-favoured location. Yet you are still in the UK despite the tax hike. Most have ties that are deeper and more binding and will survive a tax hike.

I was naively hoping that the sheer size and scale of the bloody mess we've been left in would have engendered some blitz spirit. A bit of all for one and one for all.

Instead we seem to be jealously guarding our own turf, looking at the neighbours and muttering about why they aren't being taxed more.

We've all got to be taxed more and that's that.

We earn around 45K. We have one mortgage. No holidays. Shopping in Netto. Clothes from Primark or Tesco (but not bought for a long while). One Car we use only weekends. No dinners in restaurants, no cinemas. Sunday newspaper we buy.

Now we have one child and we cannot afford a second one because we are not entitled to no benefits except child benefit.

Unfortunately I cannot afford a second child as we cannot afford to pay 2K childcare a month. We waited till I was 39 to have first baby just to save enough to buy a very small 2 bedroom terrace with a mortgage.

That is what 45K buys you living in the outskirts of London.

Why do people think that if you earn 45 K you go on holidays and live the high life??? I really wonder...

Xenia don't speak too soon.One minute i was living la vida loca in London working earning etc the next i was on dialysis needing a transplant and I hardly had time to blink!

Xenia, it's not that hard to move abroad if you have skills or a business that other countries want, or hard cash in the bank, and no commitments to others. Not everyone is in that position by a long way.

We are in a position to move but all the same, I'd be reluctant to move children out of schools they were happy in and move further away from my sick MIL without a very good reason. We know we'd have a better life in the US or Australia, or Swizerland, but it isn't that simple.

"I reckon Bulgaria doesn't have the nice restaurants and social set rich Londoners like. Nor very posh schools. "

Lol @ Riven. That wouldn't be a dig at one particular poster would it?

degreechick, i never had a go at you. and you know what, i've had my share of hard days as have suffered from serious mental health problems for about 7 years. i didn't go onto some forum and take it out on random people that my life is hard.

we live in a council (well, it's HA there's no council round here anymore) flat full of damp and every single one of our downstairs neighbours is a criminal. the last one trashed the place adn got murdered. it's oh so fun.

if you're going to come on here and launch into people and swear at them for perceived slights at every turn, which is by the way one of the few rules on MN which gets your posts deleted, you need some serious help that i hope you get.

the fact is that the government doesn't give a toss. they have to pay the debt, so we all have to pay.

and my posts never indicated, and never will, otherwise.

so please go find a more positive outlet for all your anger because you know what? i didn't cause your situation anymore than i caused the big mess that the nation's finances are in and we'll all have to pay.

so i don't need your grief as well.

Xenia, the problem with 'on yer bike' is that a lot of the places where work is are extremely expensive (London, for example), and this is also a rather small island.

The last thing anyone wants to see replicated is the situation in large cities during the Industrial Revolution where people thronged into cities for work and you wound up with dire slums and disease.

Quattro - I agree absolutely. It's going to be tough on everyone - it has to be or we are never going to get out of the financial hole we're in.

How dare you speak to Expat like that?

Message deleted

Quattro, thanks as well for clarifying how much taxes are going to go up for 'high' earners.

DC stated today on the Andrew Marr show that he's not ruled out hiking VAT.

So that will affect us all as well.

Don't feed the trolls, Quattro. It's wasteful and not good for the environment.