How are people surviving?

[Snowbear96]

We are on a household income of 45k a year. I work term time on a support staff salary, and partner is full time on a basic salary. After all out bills have been delegated this month (inc all bills and food etc) we are left with £150 to play with. This is for days out, treats and bits and bobs for the kids. I am grateful we do have some left as I know some don’t , but how are people affording nice things like holidays? It honestly baffles me that on minimum wages people can’t love comfortable anymore.

I don't know why everyone thinks you can get uc when have an income of 45k!! It would have to be significantly lower than that...

She listed her income, its 45k. It simply isnt very high for 2 earning adults and a family. You don’t need to run the numbers
or do any analysis. 45k is simply too low in this day and age for a decent standard of living.

OP can you train as a teacher within your school and still get paid while training? Also if not can you work in the holidays to up your salary? eg set up holiday club with friends and charge parents who need cover for work? Canyou run a breakfast or after school club? Can you use anywualifications to tutor childrenwho are struggling on self employed basis if ok with your school contract?Also just babysitting and childminding.

Times are very veryhard for so many people at the moment and I for one think we need to be giving more help to the younger generation and sorting out property prices/rents. (An oldie)

This isn’t true at all, they could be earning more than £45k as an household and still be eligible for some UC depending on a number of factors. It wouldn’t be unusual at all for them to qualify if they have children and pay private rent.

In my area (SE) if one earned £30k and the other £15k, their private rent was approx £1k, children were both in school so no childcare costs, they could still be eligible for £700 or so each month as well as child benefit for each child.

45k is a very low income for a family of 4 these days. At least one of you needs to look at ways of increasing your income.

Being blunt, one or both of you needs a career change.

The median salary is about £39K so between the two of you, you're not earning much. You;re trying to live on not much more than teacher's income at the top of the basic scale and supporting 2 children as well.

Being a teaching assistant has always been badly paid. Not sure if by part time you mean only term time, or part time fewer than in school 5 days a week.

Have either of you sat down and seriously discussed career change?
Do you have any qualifications?
Apologies of course if you went to uni or trained in something.

But the only way to get out of this pickle is to earn more.
If your H is at the top of the scale- surely he needs to change jobs, change careers and / or seek promotion?

You can't turn back the clock but the only way forward is more qualifications and different employment. Maybe you can pick up some hours in the evening at a supermarket? Or one day at a weekend?

Sounds like loads to me!

£45k for 2 people with 2 children?

It's not even twice the minimum wage.

What are you comparing it with?

@Snowbear96 Are you part time (not in school daily) or part time meaning you only work term time?

If you're a TA have you considered other similar roles in schools that pay more?

As someone else said would you be eligible for teacher training if your school has a training scheme? @Chumpingtonquinces This usually only works if the school is recruiting.

I think this is where location makes so much difference. In the area of the SE where I live a 2 bed is minimum £1.2k private rent.

OP if you want to own a home you need to have more income.
Which part of the UK are you in?
If you can't increase your deposit at all, what mortgage can you get with that income?

Ah, up north it’s not too bad. I’d honestly consider that to be loads, it’s far more than we manage on.

AI is changing careers quicker than anyone can keep up with. Simply choosing a higher paid career just isn’t as easy as it used to be, there are many industries now without enough work for the existing pool of people already trained - there would be absolutely no point retraining if the jobs aren’t there.

I find it hilarious how many people advise additional qualifications, career changes or to ‘simply up your income’ - I strongly suspect they mean ‘increase’.

Qualifications cost money, so flawed strategy from the off. Also, one would imagine some chance of there already being some reason that the OP in any of these type of posts isn’t luxuriating in reams of qualifications.

Then the easy solution- just get a better paying job! Well I bet any OP feels like a right silly billy for not having thought of that! The jobs market is tough, and it’s even tougher when you’re trying to climb up. I could paper a small room with my qualifications, but I’m significantly under earning due to circumstances, and finding the market very hard to break.

It’s not the 90s. Wake up.

We live on a similar income to you and we spent a year focusing on debt and bills that weren’t essential. It’s much easier now.

We shopped around to get cheaper gas and electric. Changed our broadband provider. Got rid of extra tv channels we didn’t watch. Decluttered the house and sold a bunch of stuff, which all went towards debts.
I will admit that we did get quite lucky and got a small lump sum from an inheritance and used most of it to pay off what cost the most each month. Days out were chosen based on price and location - the kids still loved it and didn’t know any different.

And this might be a reasonable argument if they were bringing home average salaries, but they’re not. Only a very small proportion of the workforce earn minimum wage, and most of these will be young people in entry level jobs. If you haven’t progressed from minimum wage, then you’re doing something wrong, and need to look at other options.

Even bus drivers earn more than minimum wage, and lots of companies are crying out for drivers and will train you for free. A trainee might be on minimum wage, but at least there’s a pathway to a higher salary in the future.

How old are your children? Could you go full time in a different job?

I don’t have children but I wouldn’t be able to survive myself working part time (and certainly wouldn’t be eligible for any benefits), so I have to work full time despite also having long term health conditions. If you’d like more money, you may have to up your hours.

Because we both work full time and we have double that household income. I’m always flabbergasted that there are families who can afford for one partner to work part time. It’s not like it gets easier either. We have been paying for university accommodation continuously for the last 6 years!

@Hotandpointyim not sure where you live but in Leeds which is also ‘up north’ rents are through the roof! £1200 a month!

So true. People have no idea what it’s like out there now.

People generally expect a higher standard of living today than in the past. You can live on very little but it can be extremely hard.

Oh I totally understand that. We’ve had times when we’ve been so poor we’ve been in our overdraft at the start of the month just after we’ve been paid and had no electric (lights etc) upstairs for 2 years because we had a damp issues (water running down lights) and couldn’t afford to fix it - this was early 2012. So I do get it. But so many posters come on to tell people to just get a better job / work more / move etc it really isn’t that simple now. This is the 3rd or 4th thread in the last couple of days like this. People are really struggling.

Depressingly I put my salary now and compared it to my salary 10 years ago and although I'm earning 50% more now as a manager I've made barely any headway in terms of what its actually worth with inflation factored in.

All that career grift and growth for no extra in real terms.

“But so many posters come on to tell people to just get a better job / work more / move etc it really isn’t that simple now.”

I see that a lot on here too! It isn’t easy, but some people could save more by cutting right back on non essential things. It can be very hard to do though.

I agree. I find these threads frustrating, the faux “why are we struggling?” Why do you think you’re struggling? You’re earning vastly under average, you’re working part time, do they not understand that effectively not working for 14 weeks of the year is of course going to come at a cost! I’d love to work term time, I can’t afford it for my family, we have a higher standard of living and I wouldn’t do it.

When you look at average salaries not many middle aged adults are both on minimum wage within a household, usually at least one has done some progression. I’m not saying it’s easy to just earn more, but if you’re not doing anything to earn more presumably you at least understand why you’re struggling? If middle income people are struggling in this economy, of course below average households will be even more affected.