For two years, Kirsty Brett searched for a flat in the Essex town of Canvey Island.
Staying with her parents and earning £27,000 as a carer, the 34-year-old thought she was in a good position find a suitable one-bedroom flat she could move in and gain her independence.
But all she could find were apartments priced at £1,300 and £1,400-a-month in a local authority, Castle Point, where average rents increased 7 per cent last year.
“How could I afford that and then pay my bills and for my food and other things on top of that on my wage all by myself?” she said. “I had no option but to look at other ways to move out from my parents.”
Ms Brett, who worked as a carer, decided to move 80 miles to move in with her sister in Bury St Edmunds, before taking the plunge to buy a £10,000 caravan in May, selling two cars and taking out a loan to pay for it.
“I was happy to do it but I also felt like I was forced down this avenue if I wanted to live on my own,” she said.
She initially pitched on a residential and holiday park, paying £800 a month, before, a few weeks ago, moving on to a friend’s driveway in Bury St Edmunds. Her friend, due to ill health, needed help with errands and so it made sense to live outside the home, she said.
“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” she said.
“If you’re like me and you don’t mind small spaces that you can keep tidy, it’s fine. It might not be perfect, but have everything I need in the caravan; there’s a bed, kitchen, toilet and television.
“I’m lucky I could buy it, because I was not prepared to work myself into an early grave to pay the extortionate amount of money that we’re expected to pay to live on their own.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/pandemic-hero-now-ve-forced-135250647.html
Posted by OneNormalBloke
14 comments
Didn’t those Covid claps appreciate in value over time?
I wonder where our GDP actually all goes when we have this stuff happening across the board to the people who deserve it the least
If you need more money, you’ve got to work and find ways to get it. I don’t understand why so many people expect life to be easy. They leave school early, get no qualifications, stay in a low-paying job for years and never seek anything better for themselves, all whilst complaining that they don’t have as much as other people; the ones who have sacrificed and worked harder than themselves. Yes, meritocracy has its flaws but you cannot blame others for your life being hard when you’re only earning £27k. Life is about survival of the fittest, not ‘who really wants the things that they want without having to work for it?.’ And I say this as someone who is part of Gen Z.
Damn.
Selling two cars and getting a loan to buy it for 10k. Sounds like she had NO savings despite living with her parents, no surprise she wasn’t able to get her only place in a high cost of living area.
On top of that this is phrased as though £27k is good money. It simply isn’t. Minimum wage is nearly £25k.
I do feel for her and get that this probably is t how she anticipated her life going but she should take some agency to improve her position.
£100 a week for food? £140 a month for car insurance, £400 a month for a loan?
I don’t think it’s the housing crisis that’s the issue.
I’ve done a quick search on Halifax mortgage calculator.
On £27,000 with a £10,000 deposit they’d lend £121,230 so you could search for properties up to £131,230.
I can’t imagine many properties available to her in her area at that price, I’m not sure I’m not from the area, so she’d have to move.
I checked with the £10,000 deposit as I was thinking she could have used the money as a deposit.. but she’s gone and gotten herself into debt and sold her transport to buy a caravan instead 🤦
A few months or even 2 years with parents and someone without high bills (as they live with parents) could easily save a deposit. I feel for the people that have to rent while trying to save.. but she had a clear advantage.
I know it’s difficult, I’m renting waiting to buy myself but you can’t just keep blaming the system when you’re making stupid financial choices that are your own doing. I know I’ll get murdered for saying that and being honest, but what else do people expect?
Judging solely off the fact she had zero savings while living with parents I am going to make the wild assumption that she wasn’t very good with money, probably has stupid spending habits etc. No matter how shit the government is that’s on the individual. But people just want to continually blame other things before looking honestly at their own situation and seeing what they can do to improve.
Some missing info here.
Why does someone living with parents end up in debt and unable to save for a deposit?
Why is it expected that someone on just above minimum wage can afford a flat in a high-cost area like Canvey Island? Of course we’d all like it if everyone could afford a house, bills, food, car and a holiday on a low wage but that hasn’t been the reality for some time now unfortunately.
How did she end up with 2 cars?
How is moving in with her sister solving the problem of her wanting to live independently?
Honestly this reads like someone who has made poor choices, continuing to make poor choices, and expecting those poor choices to have better outcomes because she does a valuable job.
Honestly we need to do away with private landlords all together. Or at the very least cap how many homes they can own to rent out. Houses need to be given back to councils where rent prices can be kept in check with things and maintenance can be maintained.
Presumably she’s been living with her parents and working for 15 years? She should have saved 50-100k by then.
Pandemic hero 😂. I worked all the way through it, it was hardly Operation Herrick.
I was a Covid Hero too, now I’m unemployed and homeless after giving up my job to move home to look after my Mum when she got cancer.
Unfortunately, mum died before I got back, but I’d given up my (rented) home and my job by then and mum’s housing association gave away her home. Now all my belongings are in storage and I’m sofa-surfing while trying to find a new job and somewhere to live.
Funnily enough I was offered a job, but due to not having a registered address I failed the background check, just as I was offered a flat which I then didn’t get because the job fell through!
Isn’t life a blast sometimes!
Should have come over on a dinghy, would have been put up in a hotel then.
There’s some evidence that she isn’t great with saving/spending money based on the fact she had to take a loan out for her £10k camper van despite living at home.
However, there should not be just a £2k difference between her salary and the minimum wage.
“I was a pandemic hero”
According to who? She was a carer as far so can read? Lot of people worked to keep society going for a long time. I worked test & trace In the worst conditions I’ve ever been subjected to in my life. I still don’t call myself a hero. It’s not a term one gets to self apply
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