Is £40,000 really a liveable income for families in the UK?

neverdespairgirl

RenovationMan wrote: »

Sorry, you reduced it to something like £640K or something? As I've said before, it's hard to keep up with people's back stories on here.

Yes. Bought for £680k, mortgage of £440k.

neverdespairgirl

michaels wrote: »

Are there any benefits that are assessed on the value of assets rather than income?

I suspect I could have property and assets worth 100bn but if my income was low I and I had children I would pay reduced tax. Would you put any limits on the assets people have before they can claim any benefits or tax breaks for low income?

Yes, lots of benefits are affected by assets.

Assets excludes your main home, though.

LHA, council tax, income support, they are all affected. Assets worth under £6k are ignored, and then there is a tapered system up to assets of £16k,

property.advert

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i wouldn't want to even try bringing up a family in london with less than £100kpa personally. i'm sure it's possible on less, but that's not how i want to live.

I wouldn't even think of trying to bring up a family in London on only £100k. That is only £5384 after tax a month. You cannot possibly pay off a mortgage on a house in London, provide for your family, educate your children, take holidays and save for a rainy day on that.

£100k after taxes, then yes, you are probably ok.

Add in what you need to put away for pensions and ISAs though and the sums become very tight again.

ess0two

property.advert wrote: »

I wouldn't even think of trying to bring up a family in London on only £100k. That is only £5384 after tax a month. You cannot possibly pay off a mortgage on a house in London, provide for your family, educate your children, take holidays and save for a rainy day on that.

£100k after taxes, then yes, you are probably ok.

Add in what you need to put away for pensions and ISAs though and the sums become very tight again.

Holidays and rainy day are a luxury,not a necessity.

michaels

Sorry, I phrased that badly - I meant non-liquid assets - afaik anything like a house, car, jewellery, pension etc are not counted in the 6/16k limits. I don't know what happens with savings products like endowments and fixed term bonds where the funds have a value but may not be accessible for a period of time.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Yes, lots of benefits are affected by assets.

Assets excludes your main home, though.

LHA, council tax, income support, they are all affected. Assets worth under £6k are ignored, and then there is a tapered system up to assets of £16k,

RenovationMan

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Yes. Bought for £680k, mortgage of £440k.

That's a nice large mortgage, almost makes me feel comfortable with mine.

I may have you confused with someone else, but I always thought you were a FTB but given your £240k equity I'm now wondering if you were an STR. If so, I'd really be interested in whether you felt STR worked out for you or not?

RenovationMan

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Yes, lots of benefits are affected by assets.

Assets excludes your main home, though.

LHA, council tax, income support, they are all affected. Assets worth under £6k are ignored, and then there is a tapered system up to assets of £16k,

I don't see the issue some people on here seem to have with equity being ignored. We are always being told (on here) that your home is not an investment, nor is it a piggy bank, so why all of a sudden do people feel that it should be used as one?

With such an illiquid asset, the only way to get money out of the house is to MEW, which just puts the home owner in more debt and exacerbates their financial situation, or you can sell it which takes so long that the home owner may be back in employ before a sale goes through.

RenovationMan

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

We're self-employed, so not on salaries at all. Barristers usually are SE.

We don't earn a bad living, but in many ways we're fairly cautious with money.

By self employed is that within a partnership agreement or are you in a limited company framework?

neverdespairgirl

RenovationMan wrote: »

By self employed is that within a partnership agreement or are you in a limited company framework?

We're not allowed to do either. I'm NDG trading as Miss NDG of Counsel.

Just fill in a self-employed tax return adn VAT return.

neverdespairgirl

RenovationMan wrote: »

That's a nice large mortgage, almost makes me feel comfortable with mine.

I may have you confused with someone else, but I always thought you were a FTB but given your £240k equity I'm now wondering if you were an STR. If so, I'd really be interested in whether you felt STR worked out for you or not?

We are first time buyers, but not first time owners. Well, OH isn't, anyway.

We've not owned a place together before. When OH's parents died, when I was pregnant with our now 6 year old, he and his brother inherited a family house in Oxfordshire, half a flat in London, half a rent-controlled house in north London, and half a shop in Tel Aviv. They still own the shop, and sold the rest.

Hence the large deposit. We've also spent £60k on necessary work to the new flat.