Families need £36,800 to live acceptably.....

stockhausen said:
If true, then you are almost certainly in no position to express an opinion on what families do or don't need in order to live acceptably.
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Read the OP.......:rolleyes:

Castiel said:
Now I am no stranger to poverty, but it was a long time ago and the figures quoted to me seem to be quite substantial. I live in a privileged position where I personally would find it difficult to live on the £36,800 to be fair, but then I am hardly representative......

So what does the forum think, all you single people and parents who earn around the quoted figures, or those that struggle with more, what is the reality of the situation, are these figures representative of an average family with a mortgage and a couple of kids or are they simply excessive (or even too low)?
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so in your opinion, what would you guys class as an 'acceptable' monthly disposable income? (not sure that's the right term, what I mean is, what do people think should be a reasonable amount after the essential bills like water, electric, council tax, rent/mortgage....)
 
I have 11k and do pretty well and own my own home and have lots of tech (tv, projector, console, HD TV, laptop etc. Anything above 20 seems amazing to me!! I'd feel like a millionaire. :)
 
paradisiac said:
so in your opinion, what would you guys class as an 'acceptable' monthly disposable income? (not sure that's the right term, what I mean is, what do people think should be a reasonable amount after the essential bills like water, electric, council tax, rent/mortgage....)
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Good question. I suppose people have different lifestyles and income to support it.
 
triggerthat said:
Good question. I suppose people have different lifestyles and income to support it.
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this is the thing. I average about £890 take home a month. My rent, council tax, water, electric, landline, broadband, TV license come to around £750 a month, leaving me £140 to live on. unfortunately as I was blissfully unaware of my wife leaving me, I also have things like sky and a mobile phone contract as I am still tied into these until around December, so in essence I am on a minus income most months. but not taking that into account. could anyone realistically say they could live an ok lifestyle on £140 a month, that's £30-£40 a week (that has to buy you food too mind)?
 
stockhausen said:
If true, then you are almost certainly in no position to express an opinion on what families do or don't need in order to live acceptably.
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Why not? People don't get born earning a six figure income (or at least its fairly rare). Plenty of people will have experienced living within quite modest means when growing up and while as a student through to getting their first job. This is especially true if you're say the first person from your family to go to university. Just because you might be in the 1% now doesn't mean you don't have any sense of perspective on living within far more modest means - plenty of people currently in a privileged position might well have experienced the other side of the spectrum and a few more might still do so in future - things aren't always looking great for all the bankster types... some functions within banks don't necessarily have many transferable skills.
 
never seemed to matter what I have earned over the years I am always equally skint at end of month :(
 
stockhausen said:
Fair comment . . . as a matter of interest, I wonder how many students there are at Oxford University from a "family with an income below £16,000 per year" :confused:
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None probably, hence this incentive.

Like, duh. If it was full of them they wouldn't need to take measures like this to give people a chance, would they?
 
[TW]Fox;22325530 said:
None probably, hence this incentive.

Like, duh. If it was full of them they wouldn't need to take measures like this to give people a chance, would they?
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To be fair the BBC stated that Oxford said it was one in ten that earns less than £16k
 
Rotty said:
never seemed to matter what I have earned over the years I am always equally skint at end of month :(
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Strange as no matter what I've earnt, I've always had money left over, even in my last job where I was earning under a third what I earn now.
 
Bear said:
Strange as no matter what I've earnt, I've always had money left over, even in my last job where I was earning under a third what I earn now.
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Probably just the way we think, I have always spent it if I have it where you would seem to have a bit more self control :p
 
stockhausen said:
Fair comment . . . as a matter of interest, I wonder how many students there are at Oxford University from a "family with an income below £16,000 per year" :confused:
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I wonder what the average IQ of middle aged people in that income bracket is and how it compares to parents in higher brackets who have been able to progress further career wise? Is there a link between IQ and earnings?

I wonder if there is any correlation between the IQ of parents and their offspring?

(Obviously there are plenty of exceptions and I'm by no means trying to imply that coming from a low income background necessarily means you'll be less intelligent. Nor am I necessarily advocating IQ as a great measure of 'Intelligence')
 
Sounds about right to me to be fair.
One thing that does annoy me though is they are talking figures before tax whereas after tax and NI would probably be more consistent. Reason being a single earner on £xxk/year pays more tax than a double income family on £xxk/year. Not a massive difference but should be around £1600 less tax I think (tax free allowance is just over £8k so I took 20% of that)?
 
Castiel said:
The report goes on to say that the minimum incomes for a family (as opposed to an acceptable social norm) for a couple with two children is £18,400,
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Hmm, let me do some quick maths....

Presuming pre-tax...

252 working days in a year (I think it's 252).

So, 18400/252, presuming a 7 hour work day, you're looking at about £10.43/hour.

Now admittedly, that's above minimum wage, but, must admit I'm not in this group, but I figure that by the time most people are at an age where they'll have kids... Call it 25-30, I'd expect both members of the family to be earning at least that. It might not be the most comfortable living, but why (excluding twins), would you have a second kid if you can't afford it?

kd
 
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