BBC are saying you need a joint salary of 70,000 to avoid poverty

[bridgetjonesmassivepants]

I find this such a high sum. How are most families meant to reach this figure? It doesn't include pension contributions so you would probably need 80,000 by their reckoning.
They are saying that you are in poverty if you can't manage a UK holiday every year and 70 a month on cultural experiences.

@Hyy4323 the map I used was also made by ONS and Eurostar - so the same. Yours just shows that out of 9 European countries we have higher pockets of deprivation that 9 other countries in Northern Europe. Although the one I used, with the same source, shows that we have similar levels of poverty as France, Ireland and Sweden, less than Germany, Spain and Italy and more than Denmark, Norway and Finland.

@bridgetjonesmassivepants £4K a month makes an annual salary of £48K so where did you get £70K from?

over £48K is still insane given the national average is way below that. But quite a lot less though.

@PiffleWiffleWoozle You are aware of something called tax? To take home 4k a month you need to earn 70k & that's before any pension deductions. If you earn 48k you would take home 3k a month.

@locok yes of course I am aware of tax sadly I pay a good chunk of it.

The figures in the BBC article however appear to be pre-tax salary.

Thing is when people on a household income that is much higher than average are struggling to have the lifestyle they were expecting that will trickle down.

high housing costs have led to a requirement for both parents to work in many two parent households. In parallel, childcare costs are becoming prohibitive. At full cost my nursery is now £80 a day so around £1700 a month. Someone (assuming student loan and 10-% pension) would need to earn £30k just to break even and pay the fees. It’s not hard to see how they could be stretched if another salary of say £40k was funding everything else.

childcare (and access to parental support) will be one of the biggest variables in determining lifestyle with children under 5.