Handy little website courtesy of the IFS - "Where do you fit in"?

MrDT

JonnyBravo wrote: »

I wonder how many have entered their salary after tax as you're meant to and how many have entered their gross salary?
Either that or we're all minted?

86% for me/us

I used net salary, the amount that hits the bank accounts every month after deducting income tax, national insurance, student loan repayment and pension contributions. That put us at 72%. Would be higher if I didn't deduct pension and student loan, but I don't know those figures off the top of my head and cba finding out

carolt

Sapphire wrote: »

If you are saying couples with children, then I disagree. I'm single and have never claimed any benefits courtesy of the taxpayer, whereas couples with children can claim large sums of money (incidentally including people from abroad who come here expressly to have children, then go back to their home countries and continue claiming from the taxpayer, but that's another story).

Depends what you call large.

Child benefit isn't very large - certainly not enough to cover food, let alone anything else. Child tax credit is only about £450/year for anyone earning over about £23,000 a year, I think, up to about £60,000, whether they've got 1 or 100 children. Again, not huge.

The huge sums are available to those NOT working and preferably single - all the Karen Matthews' and Baby P's mum, whatever her name was - of this world. Hence my point about benefits/tax system rewarding unemployment and family breakdown.

As working parents, each extra child qualifies me for maybe £10 a week ish in child benefits; a long long way off the cost of bringing up a child, and certainly no inducement.

If I was single and unwaged, I'd get lots more benefits, bigger house, longer period to qualify for these without even any need to pretend to be looking for work, etc etc. Definitely something wrong there.

mbga9pgf

Sorry carol, not an attack on yourself, it was those that dont even bother to do part time work that get my goat.
I am for giving the savings earned by cutting benefits to those that have never worked and giving the savings directly to those that have actually contributed some part to the system and our economy.

SingleSue

I decided to do it on the old joint figures me and hubby had (so a few years out of date) and on 2005/6 earnings, we were in the top 11%.

carolt

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Sorry carol, not an attack on yourself, it was those that dont even bother to do part time work that get my goat.
I am for giving the savings earned by cutting benefits to those that have never worked and giving the savings directly to those that have actually contributed some part to the system and our economy.

I'm with you there.

I'm a socialist - from each what they can contribute and to each what they need - or something like that.

The problem is that the current system ignores the first bit.

bluey890

carolt wrote: »

I'm with you there.

I'm a socialist - from each what they can contribute and to each what they need - or something like that.

The problem is that the current system ignores the first bit.

I think Socialism is great in theory.
However unless the system aknowledges peoples fundamentally selfishness, it will not work.

Phirefly

1echidna wrote: »

Graph shows quite a clump of high earners on this board. I wonder if it accounts for the strong streak of bigotry, cynicism and downright nastiness to people struggling in less fortunate circumstances.

I may be many things, but being in the top percentile of this distribution do not make me a bigot, cynic or nasy to the less fortunate.

fc123 wrote: »

And kids take 2 decades to pay off...each. So, 3 kiddies, a 2-3 year gap bewteen each one...you are looking at penury for 28 years...plus, even if wife earns and works same as now..there's The Childcare Costs...huge.

Hence there are no Phirelets yet. And its not as though I've got all the time in the world either...

Thrugelmir

Sapphire wrote: »

Well, I earn well under £40,000 p.a., yet I was still classified as a 'top earner'. I'm certainly not on a 'massive' salary. :cool:

It'll put in you the top 15% of earners I think.

sjaypink

very surprised at this, as i did a similar survey which was posted in the money savers arms earlier this year and i came up as about bottom 15%.

this one put me at 36%, which i think sounds more accurate

scrooge2008

I don't think this thread is necessarily representative of MSE. Attached is a thread from up your income, detailing a large sample of person's job descriptions and wages.

Having said that, I am a regular on the up your income thread, an avid mystery shopper, and our household income was in the top quartile.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1716055&page=10