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.

Cos houses are seen as a tax free way of saving money. the reality is that you can only realize your gains when you downsize or immigrate. Or after you are dead in the form of inheritance (but your kids don't even benefit that much if their own housing costs are even higher, and they would probably be around 60 so it would go to help your grandchildren- assuming you have any given that the cost of living crisis may mean many are priced out of having children).

Can't answer for that poster, but personally I allocate myself about 125-150 per week to live off and find it easy.

Food shop in Aldi - £30
Train to work twice a week - £20
Social spending including a meal out and weekend stuff - £50-60
Maybe a new item of clothing/beauty products or a treat - £20-30

I don't have a car (live in London) WFH 3 days a week, don't have kids. Take home about £2750 after tax, outgoings (mortgage, bills, council tax, pet insurance, phone bill etc) are about £1200, I save £300, put £500 in a Monzo for all spends out of which I work to the weekly amount above. That leaves £750 in my current account which I pay some off my credit card from (currently about £2300 on there) or put towards bigger expenses like foreign holidays, home improvements, service charge for my flat, or put into savings.

I got a mortgage as a single person earning £45k for a 200k flat with a 10% deposit. I didn't have any family help. I bought my flat last year but prices have already risen enough that I don't think I'd be able to afford it now. It can be tight sometimes but I'm absolutely not in poverty!

If I had a child as a single parent, things would be much more difficult, but if I had a child with a similarly earning partner I think we'd manage fine.

And how does the BBC suggest that people earn this joint money?

I'd be interested to know how many staff they employ who get paid less than £35k a year.

My quote of another post didn't work. I was agreeing that housing costs are the big factor!

I can definitely feed one adult and one child off £175 a week. My weekly shop is about £50-£60.

Breakfast is like toast or cereal, son has packed lunch. I'm too busy in work for lunch but drink coffe and tea throughout the day, may grab the odd biscuit, and then tea we have like pasta bakes, curry, fish and rice or couscous, pizza's. I make "cawl" . The odd oven food like fish fingers and chips. We eat tinned veg, frozen veg. Son loves a Frey Benton's pie on a Sunday.

I mean no were not eating steak and extravagant meals, but we eat plenty of seasonal fruit and vegetables. There's always yoghurts, milk, cheese in our diet. And we still have the odd pudding like rice pudding, sponge cake and custard. Were both a healthy weight and not struggling for a adequate diet.

It's far easier for one adult and one small child. A family of 4 or more or even just 2 adults and one child would struggle I agree.

We have less than half that and although we’re not rich I don’t think we’re in poverty either. We can afford adequate clothes, food, heating, etc.

Not sure not being able to go on holiday means you’re impoverished- depends where you go anyway, we’re going for a long weekend at a Haven park for £200, you dont need to earn 70k to afford that!

I live in London too in a flat i bought in 2019 with my DH, and I find that my costs are fairly similar (more for groceries as my DH eats like a horse). Mortgage is £1k so £500 per person. But I find that its quite easy to economize in London- its easy to access budget supermarkets and there is public transport. Childcare is expensive but only for a few years. As long as you manage to control your housing costs by buying a smaller property in zone 3/4 (to save on the commuting costs) and are happy with it without trying to buy a larger home in the Home Counties (double commuting and expensive property), you can live well on less. But you need the higher income to get the mortgage

Thanks for replying. I still think £800 left over a month when you have a child is doable but quite tight. I've done it and found it a struggle.

Joint income of £80k. We live a comfortable life (North England) and I think we'd have a long way to go before we could be classed as being in poverty. A lot of luxuries could be cut/reduced if they needed to be. We have 2 kids and run 1 car. We manage to put around £500 into various savings a month plus overpay on the mortgage. We manage to get abroad once a year and usually a UK break too. Plus the kids do plenty of clubs.

@Catabogus to clarify, when I wrote we work full time between us, I meant we both work part time, and it adds up to one full time job. Hence no need for childcare. And yes, I appreciate that (one of) us is a high earner.

@Testina i was going to ask the same.

I'm going to guess you are nowhere near London or the south then!

I think this is based on two things: location and housing.

If you live up north and own your house outright then of course you can live on very little. If you live in London and have extortionate rent to pay then that does sound about right, to live comfortably.

I'm very north-east Scotland. We rent and have four animals. We recently hit a joint income of £40k and we've just stopped feeling the strain.

I can't find this bonkers claim anywhere on the BBC. I suspect that OP is referring this article....
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61501778
....and that OP has misunderstood the graph in it.

The graph indicates an income of £48,000 is desirable for families with two kids, not that those below it are poor.

Also the amount of debt someone is in.

This is ridiculous. We live in London and used to have a lower salary than this. When our combined salary was 75k our mortgage was 1.5k a month, we had two children and we still went on holiday at least twice a year.

We earn about £70k between us and I would say things feel comfortable for us. We're not heading on exotic holidays every year, but get away in the UK (which often works out just as expensive) and will probably go a foreign holiday next year now the kids are getting a bit older and COVID isn't restricting travel so much.

I certainly wouldn't say that we would be in poverty if our income was to drop a bit. I think where you live in the country has a massive impact on this though.

Someone in London with a fully paid up house can live on even less, like my MIL who doesn't even need a car. my MIL supports herself and an adult daughter on less than £18k per month. House is worth £750k.

Depends on:
Location
Housing costs
And I'd now add general cost of living expenses as they are so high (fuel, energy, food)

Fundamentally, 2 people working ft should be able to afford housing, food etc and be able to save and have the occasional treat/holiday.

It's madness to suggest ^ this is in some way a ridiculous pipe dream!

We live on about 40K with one child. In a very cheap part of the country. My husband is working a lot though but it's because he is training. But on the flipside I only work part-time.

We are more than fine.

If you put housing costs aside, London is as expensive as you make it.

Council tax actually seems lower here than in other parts of the country.

Public transport is cheaper and buses are free for children

There's more choice of supermarkets...I have access to four aldis, six lidls, and Asda, Sainsbury's etc

We have a small mortgage... about £500 a month so don't find the fact we're in London has much of an effect on us.

It is really weird how low council tax in London is. my friend in yorkshire whose house is worth 25% of my flat paid £300 more than me in council tax. I think its a combination of population density and the fact that there are a lot more shops here (so more council business tax). Younger population so lower social care costs. Also per kwh, gas and electricity costs tend to be lower here.

Childcare is more expensive here, but my friend in yorkshire says its £1370 for a full time place (so she couldn't afford it on her salary even with the low house prices). It would be about £1700-1800 here, but there are a lot more professional jobs here which would make this kind of outlay more possible. But the kids would go to school eventually...

What is more expensive is the cost of houses; the mortgage for my flat for £1000 is not terribly dissimilar to a lot of mortgages outside london given average mortgage is £700 + , but the typical house in the uk is a 3 bed semi rather than a flat; and in a lot of parts of the uk, a flat is a similar cost to a run down terraced house (but this is not the case in london; flat is much much cheaper than a house of the same size).

I don't work, DH earns around £50,000. We're absolutely fine because we own our house outright, and have no childcare costs, even though we live in a relatively expensive part of Scotland.

The variables make such a difference.

Should have said we have 3 primary-aged children.

Its not the BBC saying that and the article actually says £50k joint a year.