Is this possible? Single mum on 53k struggling?

[aliatalia2]

www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/real-life/single-mum-struggling-pay-childcare-28615097?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

Sounds like a good salary, so not sure why she's struggling

Well that salary is about £3k depending on pension/student loan payments - she already says she spends 1100 on nursery and realistically could have mortgage payments/bills/car running costs of 1500-2000. Mathematically speaking, of course you could struggle on it on your own.

She gets childcare paid through UC, so she has most of the 3000 left to herself...I wouldn't struggle on that much!

We only get that before tax the 2 of us and we do ok (actually only on my 30k wage at the moment as dp is between jobs).

But it all depends on what her outgoings are. We don't have nursery fees so are already over a grand better off.

Sorry, didn't see she got the childcare paid. Who knows. She might just have a really bug mortgage

She doesn't earn 53k, she earns 43k, and has 10k from UC for childcare. So that's presumably 43k in tax, and then 70% ish of the childcare she can then claim back (same as old tax credits).

What the article is about is that the "free" 15 hours is not that, and there are many threads on here about that.

I suggest reading the article before commenting.

Sorry 43k that is taxed

Childcare is massively expensive. As are mortgage payments (unless you’re lucky enough that you’ve still got a good fixed rate).

what might sound like loads may not go very far at all. Thats why people on £40k+ can even claim UC when they have childcare costs.

The ‘free’ hours are a bit of a disappointment. DS’s ‘30 free hours’ still leaves me with a monthly childcare bill of £700. Yes, it’s much better than the nearly.£1300 it was previously. But £700 a month is still a big bill. (Yes - I know that’s just how it goes).

It’s really depressing how the cultural and political landscape of the uk has become some sort of race to the bottom/almost angry resentment of anyone who earns more than you. Your response to scoff and insist the person in the article must have plenty of money on that salary is actually quite mean spirited and lacking in empathy.

Obviously plenty of people have things even worse. But UK salaries are generally quite low and people don’t necessarily have spare money sloshing around.

Part of the point of the actual article (which you didn’t read and just frothed about the numbers) is that it’s pretty ridiculous that people on £43k a year need a £10k UC subsidy to pay for childcare so they can go to work.

That is a sign that things have gone wrong. Childcare costs parents an absolute fortune and it’s not because the staff in nurseries are well paid. The government shouts loudly about ‘free’ hours but the small print for many settings is that even those hours are not entirely free. And you need a lot more than 15 or 30 hours (less when it’s spread out over the full year) if you work FT. The government funding for those hours is laughable and it pushes up
the cost of the additional hours to offset the shortfall for the settings.

It is a bloody mess.

Oh no, actually I am on £60k and I'm so poor and struggling everyday... 😢
I mean, even though I'm technically a high earner, I have the right to moan, because people should have empathy for my struggles, although I am in the top 1% of earners in the rich world... I mean, who cares about those in poor countries, right?

Yes, UK salaries are quite low and people don't have spare money, which is why immigration is so high... People from other countries come here to live in poverty and have no money because they desire a life of struggle.. Yes, I get it...

I earn more than that and would say some months I do "struggle" - I don't receive any benefits - not even child benefit and have childcare bills of £2k a month which is more than twice my mortgage ....

I don't live frivolously, my car is 10 years old, haven't had a holiday in abroad since before kids came along

I have to budget to the penny

I appreciate what you are saying, but in my husband's family in Pakistan, both parents were professors and yet they never went on holidays or went out. They had running water and electricity only 3 hours a day, yet considered themselves not to be struggling as they had food to eat. That is how over half the world's population lives and for them the life of "struggle" in the UK is actually a luxury

I think some people have different definitions of the word "struggle"

I'm a single parent in the South east earning 25k I'd be laughing on 43k!!

You might not though. Because as a single parent on £25k you possibly are getting UC that the person on £43k isn’t. And maybe you don’t need to pay over £1k a month in nursery fees.

It is easy to assume that it’s all great and you’d have loads of money if your salary was £X. But the reality is often more complicated than that.

Oh, wow.

Sadly I think your comprehension skills are lacking here. Plus lots of assumptions and insults.

But, hey, being angry with me is a really worthwhile use of your time. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Unfortunately, I don't comprehend your presumption of your intellectual superiority..

I havent read the article but if she is London based then yes I think she would struggle.

Im on not much more and whilst we have food, heat and a roof over our head there is nothing spare really. Life certainly doesnt feel like I am raking it in - as I always imagined it would when I reached the salary I have.

I do appreciate I am lucky - although I do work hard for my salary - but yes life does feel like a financial struggle at the moment.

The UC amount is capped and the person on £43k is also on UC, otherwise she wouldn't be getting 10k in childcare. So the person on 43k is definitely not worse off, unless she lives beyond her means

Again I didn’t say she was worse off. Maybe try reading what people write. I have said repeatedly that the problem is that people want to hope that £43k or £53k or £63k is a salary where you’ll suddenly have loads of money. But it doesn’t pan out that way because the cost of living is high and benefit cut offs have a tangible impacts.

Someone on £25k will be ‘worse off’ than someone who earns nearly £20k more. Obviously. But they’ll get more UC. The difference between their monthly household income is less than you’d like to imagine it would be.

If the woman on £43k earns a little bit more and falls just beyond the UC threshold, she can actually be much worse off (certainly than she was before the pay increase) because she’s losing the childcare support and possibly some of her child benefit too. Tax free childcare is much less generous than UC childcare allowance.

No one (who is telling the truth) thinks that £25k goes very far as a salary in 2024. But loads of people would really like to believe that £40k goes a lot further than it does. That is my point. Not a sob story. Just a maybe actually think about this stuff rather than assuming anyone earning £X more than you must be really well off.

To be fair, even when I was on £36k last year as a single mum with £1200 a month in childcare costs, I did not struggle. There was more than enough to buy anything I wanted and I never had to compromise on anything.. It is more about money management.

I’m a single parent on £13000 but because I’ve done without & saved since 16, I get absolutely no help. If I had my time again, I’d have had the best & latest of everything.

My DD’s nursery bill of £880 was paid from my savings.