I have just read on a thread that the average family income in the UK is 24k ...

[BarbieLovesKen]

surely that cant be right because I'm completely shocked!! that equates to approx ?28,662k

oblomov - do you live in london? most people i know earn less than 35k.

I work part time, three six-hour days a week, and earn about £12,000 before tax. I consider myself pretty fortunate to be able to earn that much with part time work!

I live in London, we're not all highly paid.

Taking into account households on benefits, older people, people who live in very low wage areas etc, not so surprising. A lot of households on very low incomes and in poverty.

And re London, wages plummet outside central London, I'm in zone 3 and only a few stops from central London where I work by tube, but the difference between my wage (public sector) and someone working as a secretary in a local law firm (private sector) is probably rather more than £5,000 - and admin workers in the local council, colleges and hospitals probably get even less.

I live in (suburban) London, too, Mercy.

The more worrying thing is that even though DH is relatively well piad, he hasn't received an increase for 18 months - we are living on 2006 money in 2008 .... and the way things are going, I don't think he will get an increase any time soon...

Perhaps the bonus is that he has a job...

conkertree, i live in surrey. chertsey, and work in leatherhead.

lol i'm shocked that you're shocked!

dp doesn't have a mobile either

most people i know earn £18-20k.

Oblomov - I just misread your post as "I work in Leatherland" and had visions of you selling sofas!

Horton - at your salary for your hours!

Can we swap part-time jobs? I'm on about £10K before tax and seem to be working all the hours God sends at the moment I think my bosses have picked up on the 'less money' element of part time but not the 'fewer hours'

I wonder what the average is for households not on benefits/pensions.

Not swapping, thanks all the same, slayerette! I know I am very lucky. And also v lucky to have a job that I can leave at work and not be bothered all the time at home. And even luckier to have employers who were happy for me to come back for three four hour days when my daughter was smaller. I wish everyone could be as lucky, really. I honestly do count my blessings every day with this job!

But I was really just posting in the first place to point out that even though I am insanely fortunate, I still earn a lot less than the average and will do for some years to come. And this is in London where we do have higher salaries than average usually.

Bramshott you are not right about the statistic being skewed. It is taken as the median earning not the mean. So it is not skewed at all.

Also this statistic is not per family it is per individual.

I'd be interested to konw how is this average is worked out cos I have read somewhere recently that 16 families (in some rich borough somewhere) are costing taxpayers in the region of £2m pounds a year in benefits. So if there are more of these and they are included-so yes it could be right .

I'd also like to know how "income" is calculated. For example, for those on low incomes, does the income in these figures include housing benefit and a notional amount for all the free things? And does "income" include child tax credit?

I think there are so many variables at the lower end of the scale, depending which side of the line you fall on, that it is almost impossible to compare meaningfully.

Morning all,

thanks for the replies - still a bit confused - if its individual or family income - varied opinions here!.

Suppose I'm shocked down to cost of living - you dont have medical costs in the UK (is that right?) whereas, its ?50 every trip to docs here and prescriptions are very expensive and I've heard they are minimal over there.