How much would you need to earn....

[spexsavers]

To be comfortable as a single parent in this climate?

I'm on my own, earn 46k. Have a mortgaged modest 3 bed house, no finance on my car, live fairly modestly buying hardly anything extra for me and the kids, 2 young teens. Ex pays maintenance and I'm still not in a position where I'm not shitting myself. How much does it take these days to have a decent standard of living? I grew up in poverty so I'm good at not wasting money. I'd have thought years ago on 46k I'd be on easy street but I dread to think what would happen if I had even one more thing added to my outgoings. There's no chance of luxuries like a holiday. I know I'm lucky to have what I do, and I'm not complaining as I know there's so many struggling worse, I'm more bemused than anything. Hats off to anyone managing on much less than this, I do not know how you do it 😖

Same position as you OP - earn a bit less (37k) with £300 a month maintenance for 3 teenagers.

Thought we be comfortable but I take home £2200 a month after pension and student loan payments.

I shop in lidl, drive an oldish car, buy all of our clothes second hand and think I'm sensible with keeping bills down but things are starting to need doing to my house am I'm panicking about how I'm going to afford it.

Your deductions and finances don’t make sense, have you looked into switching to universal credit? Sounds like you’d be far better off financially on it and they pay up to 85% of the childcare. I assume hours wise you are term time only and that’s why the wage is so low?

This is very true. I’ll never forget having a considerable raise in a new job and reading my first payslip. I had a better life earning slightly less in my take home after tax etc each month but being far less time-poor and stressed.

I don’t think you’re a sponger at all. But I really think you should be entitled to a lot more.
I just did a quick calculation and if I was earning 12k and paying £700 rent I’d be getting £352 a week benefits. I’d also be getting help with childcare on top of that.
I currently earn similar to OP and have friends who take home more than me despite earning 15k.
Unless you have a big chunk of money in the bank or aren’t in the UK, something doesn’t add up with your entitlement.

We only earn 50k between two of us and our rent is £900 plus car finance and normal bills.

We live week to week but don't necessarily go without. (3 kids, M4 corridor) we used to have at least one holiday a year but seems like it's now every 18-24months.

This is a really good point and your kids sound like they are caring and respectful adults. I am not an extravagant person but I’m also terrible with money. I stopped dying my hair in lockdown and I’ve never had my nails done because I worked in a caring role so it wasn’t appropriate. I’m not into designer clothes just good running and walking ones only.

The COL food increases haven’t really impacted me because I was so bad at food shopping and budgeting anyway. The energy increase hasn’t impacted us yet because I fixed for two years in October 2021 to get £60.00 worth of nectar points (everyone said I was mad to fix at the time and the nectar points weren’t worth it).
We paid off our mortgage before I was 50 because we met later in life and had two houses so house price increases took care of that really.

We go on holidays with extended family and share the costs of accommodation.

I am going to make an effort and budget better next year (April 2023 to April 2024) and keep a spreadsheet like PP do because I want to semi retire at 50 years and retire fully at 55 years but my income will be greatly reduced. My DC should be finished University by then though, hopefully 🤞

That's really helpful. Thank you for posting the link

Yes thanks for the calculator link

OP how much are your student loan payments? I'm on £41k and take home just over £2500 after pension so your take home of £2300 does seem very for that salary, and is quite a bit lower than what online salary calculators indicate for your circumstances. Then you have maintenance and CB on top.

Could you be leaking money without realising it. Have you analysed your spending to see where it goes, whether you can reduce things like broadband, mobiles etc and whether you're spending more than you think anywhere? Do you save for things like car repairs, Christmas, holidays etc?

Unless you have a big chunk of money in the bank or aren’t in the UK, something doesn’t add up with your entitlement.

Ha, I currently have 44p in the bank 😆. Fwiw the online calculators aren't terribly accurate. Last time I did a manual calculation I'd have been about £17 pm better off on UC so wasn't worth the change over with 5 weeks of no money, an advance to pay back and the inevitable tax credit over payment then due. I will re calculate soon as at least applying early In early April might avoid that. Yes I work term time in my first job but pick up extra hours in my second during the holidays. I increased my hours in main job this year which disproportionately affected my housing. Of course it's within the range where tax credits say you don't need to notify then when you call so I look forward to my over payment bill which will come through any day - last time I had one of those the amount they deducted paid it back many times over. I received a pay rise with back pay in November. December for the first tine ever I struggled to cover all my bills. Housing benefit were on my case for not declaring it a week before I'd even received my first wage slip. They've landed me with a huge over payment bill as a result and again a disproportionate reduction for once that's paid off. Colleagues on UC haven't faired much better having their awards wiped out by back pay and then reduced. You're right it doesn't add up, it's insane that I'm worse off working more but it is what it is unfortunately

Your income is similar to ours. We are a couple with DD at uni (who we give £400pm to).

How much is childcare?

We're not extravagant, but can pay our bills, we have 2-4 short uk breaks away a year, a car, can afford to go out with friends. We live in quite an expensive area to rent or buy, but have managed. Happy with that.

You sound lovely 😊 we’re a 2 income household and not earning much more than the OP🙁 Im currently part time, which is a choice we’ve made to have more time with my children but I do think about money a lot!
I think some of this with OP could be dealt with by better budgeting. I know where every £ of ours goes, which may sound boring but it means we make the most of our money.

With the 5.5% interest rates atm a £350k house with deposit is still over £2K a month. It’s madness. The rental market is only a few hundred pound less however would be able to claim housing element of UC I believe within the LHA limit depending on income and savings. It’s something I really worry about constantly.

I’m a lone parent, when everything’s counted, benefits, maintenance, salary, my take home is 3.3pm, which is equivalent to 54k via the calculator up thread. Rent from the LA, 11 year old car and a simple lifestyle so can save a little each mth, ds’s don’t go without and 1 holiday a year, but I imagine my savings and treats are the difference from council property to private rent

We’re doing OK on 1 income of 40k with 2 adults and a 11 year old.

take home about £2400 (pension is 9.6%)

no mortgage no car no commuting - obviously that saves a fortune and we are very privileged to be in this situation.

All bills (including food) are £15000 pa = £1250 per month.

everything else is discretionary spending and averages £800 per month (including holidays and birthdays) so save the rest.

Don’t know what annual salary needs to be for £2050 income, but that’s what we need to have our decent lifestyle

Thing is it only needs one thing to be slightly different to change your overall picture quite a bit.

E.g. how much are your student loans? At £46k I'd be paying about £180 a month - if you were just a few years older so studied before the tuition fee increases came in or lived at home so didn't take out the maintenance loan or when you pay it off that will be an extra £2k plus a year, so more than enough for a holiday.

Same with your mortgage - the identical house next door to me was 20k cheaper when they bought it 14 months before I bought mine. If circumstances combined so you were paying even £100 less a month for whatever reason you'd have £1200 a month spare which would make a big difference.

These are just some examples - basically nobody can ever say what's a general salary a single parent could be comfortable at because there are so many other variables in living costs.

You are actually on a fairly high salary - average full time wages is £30k-38k depending on what source you look at. But there's obviously a huge difference between 2 people with no kids on that salary and 1 person responsible for 3 people!

This government are very much destroying the class system, dissolving the middle class and essentially creating a feudal system where the workers work for the ruling class. There is very little we can do about it, be that people living on benefits, the low waged, the mid level earners, the public sector, the private sector, we are all just working hard and living a lower standard of life than we should to pay for the very rich. It's easy for people below the breadline to think a salary of £40k + is loads of money, but because of the COL, high childcare costs, the tax system and high student debt, the day to day effect is not that different when it comes to day to day life, where everyone is now screwed. Yes some people are the ones eating from food banks and some are the ones donating, but very few people can afford a decent enough style of life to justify working that hard, the student debt and the amount paid in tax. It's all got out of hand. I think in the current system I would have to be a millionaire to benefit. That's the only group who aren't feeling the pinch, multimillionaires

I earn £34k partner earns around £20k-£25k self employed so it varies.
Only benefit if child benefit and I get maintenance for my 2 DC from my exH at £80 per week. DSD lives with us full time and DSS still lives with his mum but comes to stay eow DP and his ex don't pay any maintenance to each other as they both have a child each full time.

So all in a pre tax income of around £62k.
2 adults and 3 teens living in the house
We have a mortgage of £996 pm and a loan payment of £500 per month.
The loan was from DPs parents to facilitate replacing the car, so no additional car payment, and help with the deposit for the house (we are only in our first month of the mortgage) and right now we are just about managing.
DP is stressing about money, me less so, so considering re-jigging the split on the bills to take away some of his stress.

As a family we will need to be pretty frugal for the next 3 years whilst paying off the loan but should be pretty comfortable once that's paid, hopefully.

For those people who are part of a couple- the OP asked how much you would need to earn as a single parent. The tax system in the UK penalises single parents massively so it's just not comparable.

So for instance I earn 80k. My take home using the calculator is 55,449. I get no child benefit. Two people each earning 40k would each take home 31,229 AND get child benefit of £87.50 per month. That's nearly £600 more a month than the lone parent. When a couple retires they will each get the state pension so £20k a year to run their home whereas a single person has to run that home on £10k so will need to try to save more to stave off an impoverished old age.

To OP I am quite comfortable but mortgage is £1100 and service charge and council tax £390 so a big chunk gone before I even start with all the direct debits.

We're lucky to have friends abroad so get cheap flights and stay with them. They also come stay with us here in London and see the sights which means we all get nice holidays without paying a fortune. It's a comfortable but not luxurious existence.

Middle earners will have there salary to themselves once kids have grown up, they will have a house possibly going by this thread. Pension and a half decent job....

A lot is down to money managementor lack of.

I'm 59, dh is 62. Youngest is still in her first year at university. Our money isn't our own just yet.

@Mumwithbaggage OK but are you living in a council house?. You are older parents to be fair if your DH is 62.

There has to be a cut off line with benefits some where to be fair so for those that feel they have "just missed out".

@Comii9 no we're earning pretty good money right now (well dh is - I teach) and I was 48 when our mortgage was paid off. Remortgaged to buy a house for my now late dad but that's another story and irrelevant.

Our children are 29 - 19 and many of our friends of a similar age to us have children they still support at university even if some are older children studying vet/medicine etc.

Maybe a sliding scale rather than cut off would be better for benefits.

Was just making a point really.

@Mumwithbaggage I'm not sure how a sliding scale would work exactly. But there's a cut off point with most things in life.

I think the poster who said people earning 25k assume 50k is double your take home pay... they was right. Also though supporting your kids through uni is optional... and it's a luxury that you are able to even do that. The GOV is not going to give you money on top plus you have 2 adults generating an income not 1 like OP asked about.

On 12k you will be get HB allowance and UC which believe it or not will bring your “take home” to not that far away from a 40 wage.

It's honestly great you are thinking about this and planning ahead. So kudos to you there.

Maybe think about reducing the pension contribution for now until your salary raises and you feel more comfortable.

I always think you should try to build a cushion of 3month salary in savings just for the 'rainy days'. In case you need to cough up lump sum to repair things etc. But you are doing great! Keep up