Familys need to earn £36,000

angel1987

I have a total incoming of 22400pa,
i am a single parent who works 30hours a week. and i have to put my 2 year old in nursery. on 22400 i am left with £100 a week for fuel and food. fuel costs me about £60 a week to get to and from work. i barely just get by and i dont have a flat screen tv sky and all the rest of the fancies, go out with my little one for a meal about 4 times a year.
i spend 7800pn nursery fees
5400 on rent 520 council tax
1560 on bills last year, 840 car insurance and 100 on breakdown cover. so thats a total of 16220 outgoing. bills consist of water and electricity and tv licence and 20pound phone contract.

we barely get by on that. i think individual people have individual needs. theres not much i can cut down on as i choose to work, yet when i didnt have a job i had more disposable income and it seems as times people are penalised for actually choosing to work as opposed to living on benefits.

abailey54

The article on BBC website really worried me last week - me and hubby take home £33k after tax, pension and student loan payments and are trying to get pregnant for the first time.

Reading other people's comments on here about getting by on less reassured me no end, plus I remembered that DH works shifts so childcare costs won't be so high.

I feel a little resentful of the suggestion implied by the article that it would not be 'socially acceptable' for me to have children. My kid/s won't have shed loads of toys and designer clothes like some do but to be honest when I was little I didn't have many toys but engaged in much more creative play with old saucepans in the garden, bed sheets over the washing line etc and was very happy.

I appreciate that it will be hard work and that we won't have the luxuries that we currently enjoy - but I really think things are seriously wrong if a family of 2 full-time workers wanting children is seen as socially unacceptable or somehow selfish!

Hooloovoo

abailey54 wrote: »

The article on BBC website really worried me last week - me and hubby take home £33k after tax, pension and student loan payments and are trying to get pregnant for the first time.

The article quoted £36k before deductions.

If your take-home is £33k then you are earning way above the level stated in the article.

Charityworker

HappyMJ wrote: »

Do you own a house?

No we rent. With wages, wtc and ctc we get about £1000 a month but we get no HB or ctb.

Hmm71

Charityworker, obviously I don't know all your circumstances or how much your rent and council tax are but have you actually applied for HB and CTB? I'd be surprised if you're not entitled to any help at all with such a low monthly income. Before I was made redundant my annual gross salary was around £15,000 and I, well my family and me, got a little help with housing benefit etc.

abailey54

Hooloovoo wrote: »

The article quoted £36k before deductions.

If your take-home is £33k then you are earning way above the level stated in the article.

Oh yeah [durrh], sorry, there's a reason I don't contribute much on this forum :rotfl:

I think my concerns still are relevant though, if not for me then for other people, and could have been for me if one person had done a better interview than me last time I went for promotion (lucky for me was before tories were voted in and there stopped being any jobs to apply for) :eek:

Debt_Free_Chick

abailey54 wrote: »

I feel a little resentful of the suggestion implied by the article that it would not be 'socially acceptable' for me to have children.

It was the people in the focus groups they interviewed that decided what "a socially acceptable" standard of living was. I rather suspect that there's an element of peer pressure (people at work "astonished" if you don't have Sky TV, for example) and pester power (kids demanding an X-Box, Wii etc) in there.

Groups in the original research defined MIS thus: ‘A minimum standard of living in Britain today includes, but is more than just, food, clothes and shelter. It is about having what you need in order to have the opportunities and choices necessary to participate in society.’

The report itself is actually quite interesting and easy to read. The JR Foundation also has other ways to investigate the findings here

Although the headline is "socially acceptable" living, a huge chunk of that is due to the inclusion of a car, for the first time - now deemed "necessary" by the groups, for a UK holiday, as public transport (including train) is perceived as poor. Interestingly, in the SE, very many people rely on the train to commute to work - and to school, in rural areas.

Oh, and the car has to include a roof-box for all the stuff you need to take on holiday! I guess that'll be clothes - one lot for summer weather and another lot for wet weather :rotfl:

Charityworker

Hmm71 wrote: »

Charityworker, obviously I don't know all your circumstances or how much your rent and council tax are but have you actually applied for HB and CTB? I'd be surprised if you're not entitled to any help at all with such a low monthly income. Before I was made redundant my annual gross salary was around £15,000 and I, well my family and me, got a little help with housing benefit etc.

Yes I have. I recently applied for HB and CTB literally about 4 weeks ago and received a letter 2 days ago saying we are over the threshold to get any.

Hmm71

Charityworker wrote: »

Yes I have. I recently applied for HB and CTB literally about 4 weeks ago and received a letter 2 days ago saying we are over the threshold to get any.

Oh dear, not good.

PasturesNew

bankhater_1965 wrote: »

...just for basic living costs...

That's not what it said. They asked people how much they think they'd need to have a decent life... so above the basics, with extras and lovely things and holidays. They asked them what's needed for a good life ... and figured out how much that'd cost.