Great news for this man, but does anyone else feel like we are heading back to the 80's

[Ineedsomesleep]

"Man with sign finds job"

I suspect that the coming years will be much worse than the 80's for many people.

I really hope not. I can remember the News at 10 each Friday having a summary of how many thousands of jobs had been lost each week.

Ineed - OldLady is going to be proved as having well-founded fears - the scale and rate of claw back is so ferocious that we will be a second/third-rate nation in world terms in a few years - we will be Portugal without the sun!! Tories have waited a looong time for this - public services reduced to the bone and 'independent/private' providers will only 'sell' to people who can pay for them. The difference between rich and poor will be widened - Thatcher of the 80's will seem like a series of salad days in comparison.

Only kidding.

Riven that is shocking.

So what are you willing to do to get work then, Kerry?

It's not just the claw-backs and cuts in public funding. I'm worried about people stuck with stupidly huge mortgages when interest rates go up, as surely they must. I recall paying interest at 15%, but at least the mortgage was only around £30K. These days, quite ordinary folk can owe five or even ten times that amount. There will be people stuck in "starter homes" until they die, others will be unable to pay and see their homes repossesed and sold for less than the outstanding mortgage.

It'll be carnage.

me too ineedsleep - that was very scary.please please let's never have that again.

'he had the luxury of having a wife at home to take care of the kids, none of which had special needs.'

It's a good thing he also didn't live in the UK in such circumstances in the UK, because not having a partner and having a child with SN will soon probably not preclude one from having to work outside the home.

'It's not just the claw-backs and cuts in public funding. I'm worried about people stuck with stupidly huge mortgages when interest rates go up, as surely they must. I recall paying interest at 15%, but at least the mortgage was only around £30K. These days, quite ordinary folk can owe five or even ten times that amount. There will be people stuck in "starter homes" until they die, others will be unable to pay and see their homes repossesed and sold for less than the outstanding mortgage.

It'll be carnage.'

On the other hand, if inflation rises after hte VAT hike, interest rates will have to rise or everyone, including people who didn't take stupid mortgages, will suffer.

Keeping the interest rate artificially low also penalises those who have been and are financially prudent in favour of those who have not.

Hardly fair, especially to people on fixed incomes.

Oh, of course interest rates have to rise; they've been kept artificaiily low for far too long and it is damaging the interests of savers. I just wonder how many people don't realise this, or never thought about it when taking out a mortgage.

'I just wonder how many people don't realise this, or never thought about it when taking out a mortgage.'

Unfortunately, accidents have consequences and it's a case of caveat emptor.

I actually do not feel as sorry for them as for the people who are renting a BTL property from them and don't know their landlord hasn't been paying the mortgage with the rent money they've been sending in until the sheriff shows up at the door to evict them.

Sorry, actions have consequences.

Was that your situation, expat? I think I'm lucky in that my landlords seem to be financially secure (large, family-owned business, they're farmers who also let property and there's never a problem getting things fixed/maintained) but I agree, some landlords don't have the capital/income backup. Though I'm thinking more of those who are letting a house/flat they can't afford to sell, and then renting themselves; when interest rates rise, they (and their tenants) will be truly buggered.

We are renters, OldLady. We were offered a mortgage for 10x our income back in 2004, 100%, and a person would have to be a serious fool, IMO, to think that was a wise decision over the long-term.

At the time, too, it would have bought a one-bed flat in an okay area (we had 1 child then) or a 2-bed flat in a sort of dodgy one.

So we realised that we couldn't afford to buy and stuck to renting.

We haven't experienced that, OldLady, thankfully, but so many have there's a section on Shelter's website for people who find out the property they are in is being repossessed.

All the people I know who've benefitted from the low rates are the people who DONT need help! Everyone else is either on fixed rate (ME! How stupid do I feel?!) and the others who can't get a mortgage deal and now on the Mortgage companies SVR where they are not obliged to lower them in line with interest rates!

I have alot of sympathy for home owners who loose their home, but not for Buy to Lets, I saw a programme once where a woman bought 7 flats in Leeds without even looking at them, or doing any research into rent etc. She was about to loose the lot.

Nice to know, too, that you find it acceptable for a society to get to the point where people like the man in the OP feel compelled to do that.

Awfully rich, too, considering you have a partner now.

If that's not holier-than-thou, I really don't know know what is.

When people feel they have no choice but to do something like this, we can't expect the government to protect the even more vulnerable.

I don't think expat was being holier than thou, though perhaps she expressed herself a little harshly. I have long been astonished and astounded at the recklessness of some people when it comes to taking on debt, particularly 100% or even 125% mortgages, and any multiple of salary over maybe 3 times.

There's another thread running about how "baby boomers" (my generation and older) have ripped off younger generations through high house prices, but it was the younger generations who were so willing to hock themselves neck deep. And now my younger generations - my adult sons - haven't a hope in hell of buying, because the generation in the middle can't afford to sell at reasonable prices, and so my sons will have to face the hazards of private letting and potentially dodgy landlords...

No-one's really winning here, KerryMumbles, and people do have to accept the consequences if they've made poor decisions.