This is how you suffer a devastating/existential loss at elections – when even what is supposed to be your core voter base isn’t seeing any benefit after 14 years of your rule.
It has been VERY clear since the early 2000s that the UK has a housing problem but neither the Labour government or the Conservatives have shown any interest in tackling it.
Raise your hand if your “middle class” and struggle and fed up of long-term financial struggle.
Concerning, also interesting to know if this considers the difference between a household income where one person earns £60,000 and the other doesn’t work, and one where two people earn £60,000 combined, as the latter is far more net income per month.
Highest tax burden in 70 years, spiralling housing costs and limited supply, energy bills through the roof, lack of access to the NHS, failing public services, chronically underfunded local authorities, rivers polluted with sewage regularly, a failing education and a terrible run on sentence.
My household income is about 65-70k
I am very comfortable but have avoided massive lifestyle creep in terms of not upsizing in our home etc (we have extended it to meet our needs though)
The amount I can save has definetely reduced due to cost of living but it’s not a struggle
Of course, 60k is enough to live on. But it doesn’t go far after bills, pension, childcare, mortgage
can’t wait for Labour to get in power and do the exact same things as the Tories. We need huge wealth taxes, make it difficult for people to own multiple properties in this country, some regulation on the out of control profits in energy sector and use tax money to help parents with childcare
How do they think working class people are managing ffs
Single Dad of 2 – Income of £45k and life is bleak.
Zero savings, Zero expendable income, quite literally surviving and providing every month.
Household incomes “as high as” £60k?
Are we saying that’s a *high* household income now? We need to stop thinking about this in terms of the median and think about what that will actually get you (answer; not a great deal for millennials and under).
A sniff over 40k. I’m trying to fix my old transport for work, because I can’t afford a new one. New being a 5k loan for a ~2014 model vehicle.
This article serves nothing other than to piss people off.
Middle classes are feeling the pinch and are seeing a reduction in their disposable income, and their lifestyles are likely becoming unsustainable as they currently are.
That doesn’t mean they’re needing to use food banks, worrying about choosing between heating their homes or filling their car up.
In a cost of living crisis, nobody is having it good, but the poorest are proportionally affected the worst.
I had no idea I was middle class!
I’m single, early 30’s, earning £52500, and after bills, rent, food, car and travel expenses i’m left with not a lot. Yes, I appreciate not a lot of people are as lucky as I to earn that, but for the entirety of my twenties I was pretty much on minimum wage.
And somehow, I pay almost DOUBLE the percentage of tax that the prime minister pays, who made more than £2 million last year 🤣
If i’m meant to be “their base”…. they’re in for an almighty shock. I have never voted Conservative and I can absolutely assure you that I never WILL vote Conservative after this complete clusterfuck.
Infact, i’d be very happy if the entire burnt to the ground at the election and never came back from it. It’d be a great thing for this country.
Criminals the lot of them.
High income child benefit tax charge is one reason. We just had a bill for £850. Our friends who earn near enough 100k on the dot combined received full child benefit and had nothing to repay.
Saw a thing about the sharp increase in Range Rover repos, eye opening and a bit sad.
We can’t raise wages for nurses because it will drive inflation but we can keep the triple lock which pretty much guarantees a rise in pensions every year.
Let’s say we had a bad year for inflation at 10%. Wages stay stagnant but pensions rise 10% under the triple lock. The following year wages start catching up so we have wage growth of 10%. The triple lock means pensions rise again by 10%. Working people are no better off but pensioners are 10% better off than they were.
I say we abolish the triple lock and tie pensions to the minimum wage. If the minimum wage goes up then the pension goes up, no exceptions. Let’s see if the boomers vote for a rise in the minimum wage when it’s their wallets on the line.
Whether and when a household bought a house makes as much difference as their salaries in terms of their living standard.
Bought 10 years ago and currently locked in at 1.x%? Comfortable on £60k.
Bought 2 years ago and just had to refinance at 5.x%? Fucked at £60k. Their cost of housing might be double the first example.
Not surprising at all. Pay hasn’t kept up with rising costs. £60k today was worth £80k just 10 years ago.
60k is not middleclass, there is no middle class its just the poor & the poorer.
Almost like you lose most of that through income tax
Why is everyone calling bullshit we facing so nicely. Shall we start calling it it’s real name? COST OF HUMAN GREED CRISIS.
That’s literally what it is. We pay more for less. Quality of both services and products went down the drain because customer/average Joe doesn’t matter anymore. Maximising profit minimising cost drives literally every company small and big.
“Elites” hoarded so much wealth it starts to look like our wallets voting power is irrelevant/is becoming more irrelevant with every passing day.
In 1992 – yes 40 years ago – I was one year into my first job after graduating. I was earning £28k and bought a 4 bed detached house for £64k on my single salary. I was 24 years old. Britain has fallen so far, and the biggest part of that fall happened in the last 14 years
Reminder that “middle class” isn’t a thing. If you have to work in order to live, you’re working class.
I’m 40 years old, clearing a little bit of debt, alongside giving my ex money for our daughter. I am earning £64k per year and lodging at a friends house in Bristol. Even on my wage £25-30k for a deposit on anywhere is going to be a struggle and at this point, given my age, I am wondering if there is any point at all in trying to buy a home. I have no first time buyer status because of the house I bought with my ex, and didn’t get much equity when we sold it. I feel like I am about 3 years away from a deposit if I do absolutely nothing in the meantime .
I would like to get a 1 or 2 bed place for myself but rent for that round here is upwards of £1200 pm before bills, £1400 for a place in a nice area, I could afford this but it would mean I wouldn’t have much left to save….for anything, not least a home of my own, so when a room came free in my friends house I jumped at the chance to save some money and try to sort myself out.
I know I have a child, and I have a little bit of debt so I made my own bed (well, kinda, never wanted my marriage to break up) but fuck me I should still be doing alright. It feels like life is very hard being single in this country at the moment. I have NO CLUE how people earning less than me are doing it.
Where I live, it’s not London but you can’t rent a 2-3 bedroom house for less than 1,300 not including council tax or any bills.
Full time childcare can be anything between 500-1,500 a month, depending on the age of the child.
That’s a 50k salary right there, and you haven’t even bought food or lived yet.
25 comments
This is how you suffer a devastating/existential loss at elections – when even what is supposed to be your core voter base isn’t seeing any benefit after 14 years of your rule.
It has been VERY clear since the early 2000s that the UK has a housing problem but neither the Labour government or the Conservatives have shown any interest in tackling it.
Raise your hand if your “middle class” and struggle and fed up of long-term financial struggle.
Concerning, also interesting to know if this considers the difference between a household income where one person earns £60,000 and the other doesn’t work, and one where two people earn £60,000 combined, as the latter is far more net income per month.
Highest tax burden in 70 years, spiralling housing costs and limited supply, energy bills through the roof, lack of access to the NHS, failing public services, chronically underfunded local authorities, rivers polluted with sewage regularly, a failing education and a terrible run on sentence.
My household income is about 65-70k
I am very comfortable but have avoided massive lifestyle creep in terms of not upsizing in our home etc (we have extended it to meet our needs though)
The amount I can save has definetely reduced due to cost of living but it’s not a struggle
Of course, 60k is enough to live on. But it doesn’t go far after bills, pension, childcare, mortgage
can’t wait for Labour to get in power and do the exact same things as the Tories. We need huge wealth taxes, make it difficult for people to own multiple properties in this country, some regulation on the out of control profits in energy sector and use tax money to help parents with childcare
How do they think working class people are managing ffs
Single Dad of 2 – Income of £45k and life is bleak.
Zero savings, Zero expendable income, quite literally surviving and providing every month.
Household incomes “as high as” £60k?
Are we saying that’s a *high* household income now? We need to stop thinking about this in terms of the median and think about what that will actually get you (answer; not a great deal for millennials and under).
A sniff over 40k. I’m trying to fix my old transport for work, because I can’t afford a new one. New being a 5k loan for a ~2014 model vehicle.
This article serves nothing other than to piss people off.
Middle classes are feeling the pinch and are seeing a reduction in their disposable income, and their lifestyles are likely becoming unsustainable as they currently are.
That doesn’t mean they’re needing to use food banks, worrying about choosing between heating their homes or filling their car up.
In a cost of living crisis, nobody is having it good, but the poorest are proportionally affected the worst.
I had no idea I was middle class!
I’m single, early 30’s, earning £52500, and after bills, rent, food, car and travel expenses i’m left with not a lot. Yes, I appreciate not a lot of people are as lucky as I to earn that, but for the entirety of my twenties I was pretty much on minimum wage.
And somehow, I pay almost DOUBLE the percentage of tax that the prime minister pays, who made more than £2 million last year 🤣
If i’m meant to be “their base”…. they’re in for an almighty shock. I have never voted Conservative and I can absolutely assure you that I never WILL vote Conservative after this complete clusterfuck.
Infact, i’d be very happy if the entire burnt to the ground at the election and never came back from it. It’d be a great thing for this country.
Criminals the lot of them.
High income child benefit tax charge is one reason. We just had a bill for £850. Our friends who earn near enough 100k on the dot combined received full child benefit and had nothing to repay.
Saw a thing about the sharp increase in Range Rover repos, eye opening and a bit sad.
We can’t raise wages for nurses because it will drive inflation but we can keep the triple lock which pretty much guarantees a rise in pensions every year.
Let’s say we had a bad year for inflation at 10%. Wages stay stagnant but pensions rise 10% under the triple lock. The following year wages start catching up so we have wage growth of 10%. The triple lock means pensions rise again by 10%. Working people are no better off but pensioners are 10% better off than they were.
I say we abolish the triple lock and tie pensions to the minimum wage. If the minimum wage goes up then the pension goes up, no exceptions. Let’s see if the boomers vote for a rise in the minimum wage when it’s their wallets on the line.
Whether and when a household bought a house makes as much difference as their salaries in terms of their living standard.
Bought 10 years ago and currently locked in at 1.x%? Comfortable on £60k.
Bought 2 years ago and just had to refinance at 5.x%? Fucked at £60k. Their cost of housing might be double the first example.
Not surprising at all. Pay hasn’t kept up with rising costs. £60k today was worth £80k just 10 years ago.
60k is not middleclass, there is no middle class its just the poor & the poorer.
Almost like you lose most of that through income tax
Why is everyone calling bullshit we facing so nicely. Shall we start calling it it’s real name? COST OF HUMAN GREED CRISIS.
That’s literally what it is. We pay more for less. Quality of both services and products went down the drain because customer/average Joe doesn’t matter anymore. Maximising profit minimising cost drives literally every company small and big.
“Elites” hoarded so much wealth it starts to look like our wallets voting power is irrelevant/is becoming more irrelevant with every passing day.
In 1992 – yes 40 years ago – I was one year into my first job after graduating. I was earning £28k and bought a 4 bed detached house for £64k on my single salary. I was 24 years old. Britain has fallen so far, and the biggest part of that fall happened in the last 14 years
Reminder that “middle class” isn’t a thing. If you have to work in order to live, you’re working class.
I’m 40 years old, clearing a little bit of debt, alongside giving my ex money for our daughter. I am earning £64k per year and lodging at a friends house in Bristol. Even on my wage £25-30k for a deposit on anywhere is going to be a struggle and at this point, given my age, I am wondering if there is any point at all in trying to buy a home. I have no first time buyer status because of the house I bought with my ex, and didn’t get much equity when we sold it. I feel like I am about 3 years away from a deposit if I do absolutely nothing in the meantime .
I would like to get a 1 or 2 bed place for myself but rent for that round here is upwards of £1200 pm before bills, £1400 for a place in a nice area, I could afford this but it would mean I wouldn’t have much left to save….for anything, not least a home of my own, so when a room came free in my friends house I jumped at the chance to save some money and try to sort myself out.
I know I have a child, and I have a little bit of debt so I made my own bed (well, kinda, never wanted my marriage to break up) but fuck me I should still be doing alright. It feels like life is very hard being single in this country at the moment. I have NO CLUE how people earning less than me are doing it.
Where I live, it’s not London but you can’t rent a 2-3 bedroom house for less than 1,300 not including council tax or any bills.
Full time childcare can be anything between 500-1,500 a month, depending on the age of the child.
That’s a 50k salary right there, and you haven’t even bought food or lived yet.