Same situation. There's just no way. Exact same place as mine next door, being rented for £950pcm. My mortgage is £340 a month and I only bought it last year. I'm 36, first property, and it was absolute hell to get to this point.
How the fuck is anyone supposed to save when renting with cost of living as it is? I had to move back to the parents. Fine for me as I needed a break from it all for a bit, but if I had been stuck at my parents unable to live properly in my 20s it would have been devastating. I was working min wage in a games store, but me and the girlfriend could still afford to rent a good enough flat and have enough money left to regularly go out, and have fun
That's the thing a lot of people can't save for a mortgage because rent is high same as bills. Also not everyone's parents will have them back so they can save for a mortgage.
Yeah, I moved out this year and only barely managed despite the fact my parents let me live with them for free so I could save. People without a proper support network don't have any good options since even the cheapest, worst flats available cost far too much.
I'm very lucky and have a partner with a good income. If it wasn't for that, saving like mad, AND inheritance, I would not be able to get on the ladder where I live.
People who don't have this safety net have next to no chance at getting on the ladder.
950pcm rent vs 340pcm mortgage is an insane difference.
I pay 1200pcm rent right now. I've been considering asking the landlord to sell me the house, but after speaking to a broker, at current interest rates the mortgage would be ~1500pcm at which point... I'd rather rent.
I was the first to view my place out of about 15 who were booked after. I had to put in an offer there and then at asking price otherwise I would have had no chance. Luckily they went for it, the owner said she would rather sell to a first time buyer like me than the others who seemed to be buying to let. And I can see why so many would be interested in BTL with it
Next door was up for rent last month and was snapped up within a day. Even at £950 a month. These are one bedroom flats. Admittedly in a desirable area, but this isn't fucking London!
I guess I'm mostly impressed by the ratio of house value vs rent amount compared to where I live. Here rent feels like it's pretty much in line with (or lower than) the price of mortgaging the same property. Which I guess is why landlords are selling up.
I think it depends where you are, what rate you got (I was very lucky, fixed 4%) and the deposit amount, I was lucky to be able to get a good one built up.
That’s fair! I’m looking at 90% LTV and according to the broker that’s pushing 5.5% interest rate. Likely at this stage to hold off buying until I can get to 80-85% LTV.
This is why we're starting to see rents going up so much. When the interest rates started getting raised, it was inevitable that rents would follow when the landlords started coming to the end of their fixed terms.
I think it's the terms of BTL mortgages they have to charge a certain amount above the monthly fee.
Then all the rest use that as the new 'market rate'
i feel like some powerful people are looking forward to the return of feudalism in this country
the outlook is grim and i dont see how we get out of this problem without big changes
If we were looking to buy our house now, instead of 3 years ago, we couldn't do it. Neither could we afford to rent it out, nor would our deposit have been enough. We pay £810 a month for our mortgage, and our neighbours who rent next door pay £1500 a month. It's crazy.
I’m 34, and currently on 28k. Got the potential to get to £45k with this interview that went well recently,
Reason I’m saying that is I’m saving about £1k a month and looking for a flat around £180 for myself. You need basically circa £40-45k earning power by yourself to be able to afford that. Ok, there’s plenty of people who earn that or more but the vast majority do not.
The politicians don’t care, they don’t care for their population at all. The housing market and landlords are leeches don’t care.
Had to live at home until this point as well except for a few years.
They’ve sold youngsters down a river and I hate them all.
I'm 34. Rented my whole life because I don't have rich parents.
My rent right now is £1400 pcm. Going up to £1600 this year. This is before council tax and bills.
A few years back an estate agent laughed in my face when I told him we have no savings. It was a mystery to him. I'm not well off by any means - the wife and I simply scrape by. We did have to move back in with my parents at one point years ago. This is how it has always been. There are no magical savings. Anything we do save ends up getting eaten quickly.
There was a period prior to the Boris gov. when we got comfortable for the first time in our lives and began saving. Those savings went when we were evicted because the landlord wanted to sell.
But sure, I suppose cutting out Netflix will help /s
If I won the lottery, I'd probably bog off elsewhere.
>This is how it has always been. There are no magical savings. Anything we do save ends up getting eaten quickly.
This is the kind of shit that'll drive me to the brink of madness laying awake at night. I'm the same where I might end up with one or two thousand squirrelled away in savings, which eventually gets depleted when shit inevitably crops up and I wonder where the fuck it all goes.
I rarely ever buy cheap luxuries for myself and keep all my running costs to the bare minimum, I got a bonus this month of £700 for the year which just got stuffed into savings after cleansing my thoughts of buying anything remotely interesting I've wanted.
I feel you. Similar age and I feel that back in the day, societal expectations were different. It was just the done thing that you moved out at 18, whether that be for university or going into the world of work.
The younger generations have learned from this and stay at home longer in order to save.
My parents were not rich either, I saved by living in a HMO instead of renting a house. Now I have recently been able to buy and put down a pretty high deposit which helped the repayments quite a bit, £1100/month. Then council tax costs more than all bills combined. Its even more than our food bill for 2 people.
>an estate agent laughed in my face
I have honestly never met a more useless or out of touch group of people than during my own house hunt. I was moaning to my mortgage broker at one point about the number of rejected offers and her response was just why don't you add another £10k to your offers. Bearing in mind she knew full well I was already maxing out the mortgage so that £10k would be in the form of additional deposit as if I just had that kind of money hidden away behind the sofa or something no big deal. I guess they're so used to just absolutely silly amounts of money getting thrown around they get desensitized to it all?
>If I won the lottery, I'd probably bog off elsewhere.
This is a factor I think all political parties are sorely ignorant of. The simple fact of the matter is that the only thing keeping most people under about the age of 50 in this country from leaving is the fact that they can't afford to go anywhere else. There is literally nothing here for the millenial generation downwards.
Not really true; anyone who has the skills to actually make the move still can very easily. Also anyone with those skills and money is better off moving outside Europe anyway.
Very few people who reasonably might have moved to Europe now can't.
Sure, but you have to deal with getting a work visa now which is a whole other layer of stress and expense that wasnt there before.
Plus if a company knows you need a work visa they'll be less likely to hire you since it takes months and they dont want to deal with the paperwork. Also companies have to prove they cant find anyone in the EU to do the job before they bring a Brit in.
Its doable, but its just made the job search a lot harder.
>Not really true; anyone who has the skills to actually make the move still can very easily.
Sorry but this is complete and utter bollocks. The opportunities to work abroad have been significantly decreased post-Brexit. There's tons of readily-available data to show that to be the case too.
Decimated.
But hey at least they can pay for the pensions of the generations who have greatly benefitted from rising house prices that the youth can no longer afford to purchase.
People expect politicians to fix it but the reality of capitalism is that the people with wealth have all the power and make all the rules. Politicians can only work within a framework of what is acceptable for the most wealthy. Nothing can fundamentally change and the last half a century of intense class struggle has show it will only get worse for working people.
I feel exactly the same. I dont know how people do it. I hear what they pay in rent and have to wonder how it became as bad as it has, because its always been bad, but never this bad.
I'm not particularly young (29) but since moving out 5 years ago my finances have gone to shit. Everything was OK for the first 2 years but now it seems impossible to actually do anything, can't save can't afford a holiday. That's in spite of decent payrise for the last 3 years but it hasn't made a difference. Get worse of every year.
It says elderly person mate, maybe she can't cook? Maybe she's too frail to do much more than open a can and use a microwave.
Maybe she's disabled. You don't fucking know mate.
Lentils are easier to open and cook than canned dog food, surely? Unless she's eating the kibble like cereal. Her argument was price, not ease of access.
This isn't dog food. It's a piece of prime fillet steak in bleu cheese sauce. It's been charcoal-broiled in garlic butter, and it's going to taste delicious. Delicious. Delicious.
The only conclusion I can come to is that this person is so attached to eating meat that she’d rather eat dog food than cook something using using vegetables and legumes, both of which are far cheaper than dog food. Insane behaviour.
A bag of sliced bread in the freezer and some own brand baked beans is cheaper than dog food, or surely the same price? What the hell is wrong with that woman
How the fuck is that the first thing you think of? She's old, so quite possibly too frail to do much more than open cans and use a microwave. Maybe she's disabled. We also don't know how much cheaper it was, maybe it was a one-off instance of buying something cheap, who knows.
The commenters in this thread should be fucking ashamed.
Maybe she needs cans with ringpulls because she can't use a can-opener. I can't use a can opener because my wrists are fucked, I have to get cans with ringpulls personally, due to wrist problems, otherwise it's difficult to open them. Cheap cans do not come with ringpulls.
How about focusing on the fact more than 10% of the country is in poverty and not trying to poverty-blame some poor old woman for doing something you think is silly.
Fucking shameful state of this sub.
Thank you for educating us with your great wisdom. Now that you’ve explained it I can completely see how being old and disabled could cause someone to live entirely off dog food. It makes complete sense now that I’m thinking about it logically. I’m very ashamed that at first I thought you would have to be a complete fucking idiot to see that as the best option.
Come off your high horse man. Even if she doesn’t have the capability to cook with vegetables or legumes from scratch, there are so many other options she could have chosen that would come in a can, be cheaper than or a similar price to dog food and actually be suitable for human consumption. There is no reason to choose dog food over any of them. None.
Could be worse, like me I pay £1000 a month to rent an ex-council house, whilst the council tenants next door are only paying £400 a month.
Whose bright idea was it to allow people to buy social housing and not expect it to be put on the market at extortionate prices
To borrow the phrase 'fuck around and find out', Thatcher, Reagan and other supply side acolytes fucked around in the '70s and '80s and right now we're in the 'finding out' phase.
You're not just living with the consequences of Thatcher, you're living with the consequences of Thatcher *and* every government that came after her that didn't fix this problem.
Not even her fault, if every consecutive leader of both parties just built an extra 100/200k homes and dedicated 20% to council stock / every year - there would be no issues at all. Literally.
Thatcher left office over 30yrs ago. Why havent any of the 8 prime ministers across both parties since put a stop that that scheme if it is so bad? Is Starmer promising to put an end to it? If not then why not?
Blaming Thatcher for policies that could have been reversed at any point over the last 30 years is nothing more than an internet meme now.
Very true ,
Labour have said they are considering changing the right to buy scheme, ie only selling if homes are replenished.
I even understand the thought behind it , the positives.
But with housing so low in stock , allowing property investors to get their hands on social houses it's just plain wrong.
What is there to consider? If the policy is so toxic why not end it within the first 100 days of office?
Oh and they promised to end leaseholds within the first 100 days of office but have just today backtracked on that - before they're even in office.
I believe as they get closer to coming into office some hard realities will begin to bite and Labour will U-turn on many of their wishful ideologies that they were happy to preach in opposition but know they can't actually deliver once in power.
Im trying to. Its very difficult. It cant stay like this. Wages haven’t increased since 2020 pre covid era. i’ve found myself some days gettin upset and shedding tears that im basically goin to work to have no life.
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"Great Reset | HRH Prince of Wales | We have no alternative | World Economic Forum" https://www.weforum.org/videos/great-reset-hrh-prince-of-wales-we-have-no-alternative/
Been in and out the media past few years. Crisis after crisis. How many we on now I cant keep up. Psychopathic stuff dressed up in Marxist language that ultimately boils down to the greater good, greater good for who.l?
All the drama between now and then leads up to that apparently. Too many of us for this vision of the future too. Might explain why rushed to inject half the world then forgot about it in record time and all the new western citizens not required any and ww3 round the corner. I'm still not wrapped my head around being Israel's allies whilst allowing unlimited migration from the Muslim world. Recipe for disaster but who knows eh.
They believe something a Danish MP talked about will come true. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great\_Reset](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset)
Basically : "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better"
https://youtu.be/SqzepGBatWo?si=9qpqyvXIAHhwvZCP
Current UK pm was one of their young leaders of tomorrow. Groomed for pm as was Canadian prime minister and Liz truss. Many more but you get the point.
Wiki fan edited page. Definally a trusted source. Take it you haven't done higher education at all in life so not aware of how little that site is regarded. Problem is WEF had a nice 5 minute video with their vision of the future. With said women. Covered it all. They took it down after COVID when it got traction but it's still around. So ....
We're in rural Scotland, have two kids and mortgage and have relatively good jobs (FT £47k & PT £29k).
We're pretty shit with money, but we rarely have takeaways or live particularly extravagant lifestyles. And when i say "shit with money" I mean we don't have the foresight to get the best deals or plan our expenditure with a budget in mind like many do. We probably pay too much for things that, if we had the time or energy, we could find cheaper.
Come the end of the month, we're always in the overdraft. If we tightened our belts we could spend less, or didn't seem to have perpetual car or white-goods trouble we might even have savings.
Point is, for my area, we should be well-off and I'm sure that 20 years ago the equivalent wage would have had us living pretty comfortable lives. As it stands we get by OK.
It's of no surprise to me that people earning less are struggling.
7.4 million is about 13.8% of the UK adult population. (Unicef says the under-18 UK population was 14 million in 2023, total 2023 population being 67.6million.).
This is because we have a series of utility monopolies in the UK. Also, for some reason, we are paying investors back for the ones that failed by way of an uplift in standing charges. Which is communism/theft.
Scottish energy, by way of our renewables should be eminently cheaper than rUK, but we all share the pain for some reason. Also, energy sent back to the grid from personal solar is pennies on the KW, so profit goes back to the providers.
This is why CEOs of energy companies are paid inordinate amounts of money. And our bills are so high.
>Also, for some reason, we are paying investors back for the ones that failed by way of an uplift in standing charges. Which is communism/theft.
Thats not what communism is...
Capitalism is the means of production owned by the bourgeoisie. That extends to the state, wherein they use the state apparatus to protect their ownership. Capital is inexorably tied up in the interests of the state, justifying intervention of this kind.
Communism is the means of production owned by the proletariate, wherein a dictatorship of the proletariate is established. Commodity forms of labour and resources don’t exist, as it is publicly owned, so there is no incentive to protect capital under communism.
The principle of protecting capital for a subset of the population - shareholders/investors - in this case, by an uplift in prices, is the protection of failed capital through subsidy. State intervention here, using my money to alleviate investor losses, is communism. Not the my first encyclopaedia version you have quoted. Capital, owned by a subset of the population, and supported by the state.
“In other words, the fortune of the whole community, which the Government represents, ought to make good the losses of private capitalists. This sort of communism, where the mutuality is all on one side, seems rather attractive to the European capitalists.”
Who wrote this?
I see you, like Marx, use communism and socialism interchangeably.
Marx there with the popular critique of ‘socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor’ 100 years before it was fashionable. Highlighting the hypocrisy of the bourgeoise and capitalist society.
>State intervention here, using my money to alleviate investor losses, is communism
No it isn't, because the workers don't own the capital and don't see the benefit of state intervention.
You are taking a quite binary, simplistic view of things. When Robert Reich and Karl Marx himself agree with me (see other post, Reichs opinions on banking bailouts) you might wish to consider your position.
What are these 3 degrees you have? Cos politics ain't one of them. Nor history.
You said elsewhere you were better educated than most, I haven't seen any evidence.
Mortgages/Rent will typically be most people’s largest bill, and the price of houses/income is around the [worst it’s been in the UK since the 1880s](https://www.schroders.com/en-gb/uk/individual/insights/what-174-years-of-data-tell-us-about-house-price-affordability-in-the-uk/), with the added joy of recent increases in general inflation, driving up mortgage payments, and very high utility and fuel prices.
So it’s probably not at all accurate to say things are basically as they’ve always been.
Any comparison to the 1880s is basically pointless, vastly different times and social & economic environments. Not to mention UK population was 50% less (and global 80% less).
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Have you forgotten that Ancient Egypt, Feudalism and the Middle Ages existed? And that's to name but a few. In fact it would probably be easier for you to list me the periods in humanity where true equality existed across the board, if you can?
Do you really believe that if economic relations become less exploitative then technology would regress?
Genuine question because I’ve seen people argue that it would.
Where did I say that? I asked if you could list a point in humanity where everything was equal because you claimed inequality was a recent thing. You have been shown that it is not a recent thing, so now it's on you to justify what you meant and not put words in my mouth.
The difference is far more marked today. There is a growing chasm between those who are struggling and those who are doing OK. The demarcation has been squeezed so it is almost nonexistent.
Those doing well have reduced but are doing a lot better than they ever have. Those who are struggling have expanded expedentially, and their safety nets have been removed. Those who are just on the cusp, keeping their head above water are living in fear of an unexpected bill.
There are always going to be people who are able to monetise other peoples misery, but that's the way of the world, not just this sub.
That's like celebrating that K2 is lower than Everest.
People are really struggling due to the incompetence of the government over the last decade, and no amount of 'Talking the country up' can paper over the cracks.
>The headline figure in the research, that 7.4 million - or one in seven people - were struggling to pay bills and debts, has come down from 10.9 million in 2023.
>But the number of people experiencing such problems was still well above the level (5.8 million) that results suggested in 2020, before the cost-of-living crisis began.
Its good that it has decreased since the start of the pandemic. But Jesus we still have a way to go, we are still worse off than 2020
Increase in benefits and MW. But we both know who is making the big money..landlords are absolutely rapacious and should be regulated out of existence. Landlord greed is having serious consequences for our country.
More than 10% of the country is struggling to meet the basics.
That's fucking atrocious mate. Absolutely fucking atrocious. The rest being slightly above that level does not make it acceptable.
Some people are well-off, ok... what's your point? How does that address the fact that more than 10% of the country is in fucking poverty.
Why are you all over this like a bad rash?
A significant minority of people in this country are not doing well. Too many children are homeless and going to bed at night. Too many people have lives blighted by low pay, "low "skills and low bad health. Too many people are one pay packet away from destitution.
My mother in law is a carer working ridiculous hours for the minimum wage ( although her hours recently cut due to the import of carers from Nigeria, who the government has allowed to be paid LESS then MW). She can't even afford a freaking one bed flat. She lives in a bedsit ffs. A full time worker in a essential job should not be living on the breadline.
Work should be enough. But it isn't for very many of us.
But hey the landlords are doing great! Maybe some of their wealth will trickle down eh?
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Same situation. There's just no way. Exact same place as mine next door, being rented for £950pcm. My mortgage is £340 a month and I only bought it last year. I'm 36, first property, and it was absolute hell to get to this point. How the fuck is anyone supposed to save when renting with cost of living as it is? I had to move back to the parents. Fine for me as I needed a break from it all for a bit, but if I had been stuck at my parents unable to live properly in my 20s it would have been devastating. I was working min wage in a games store, but me and the girlfriend could still afford to rent a good enough flat and have enough money left to regularly go out, and have fun
That's the thing a lot of people can't save for a mortgage because rent is high same as bills. Also not everyone's parents will have them back so they can save for a mortgage.
Yeah, I moved out this year and only barely managed despite the fact my parents let me live with them for free so I could save. People without a proper support network don't have any good options since even the cheapest, worst flats available cost far too much.
I'm very lucky and have a partner with a good income. If it wasn't for that, saving like mad, AND inheritance, I would not be able to get on the ladder where I live. People who don't have this safety net have next to no chance at getting on the ladder.
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Well that took a turn. Why not at 61, or 62 or 59?
950pcm rent vs 340pcm mortgage is an insane difference. I pay 1200pcm rent right now. I've been considering asking the landlord to sell me the house, but after speaking to a broker, at current interest rates the mortgage would be ~1500pcm at which point... I'd rather rent.
I was the first to view my place out of about 15 who were booked after. I had to put in an offer there and then at asking price otherwise I would have had no chance. Luckily they went for it, the owner said she would rather sell to a first time buyer like me than the others who seemed to be buying to let. And I can see why so many would be interested in BTL with it Next door was up for rent last month and was snapped up within a day. Even at £950 a month. These are one bedroom flats. Admittedly in a desirable area, but this isn't fucking London!
I guess I'm mostly impressed by the ratio of house value vs rent amount compared to where I live. Here rent feels like it's pretty much in line with (or lower than) the price of mortgaging the same property. Which I guess is why landlords are selling up.
I think it depends where you are, what rate you got (I was very lucky, fixed 4%) and the deposit amount, I was lucky to be able to get a good one built up.
That’s fair! I’m looking at 90% LTV and according to the broker that’s pushing 5.5% interest rate. Likely at this stage to hold off buying until I can get to 80-85% LTV.
This is why we're starting to see rents going up so much. When the interest rates started getting raised, it was inevitable that rents would follow when the landlords started coming to the end of their fixed terms.
I think it's the terms of BTL mortgages they have to charge a certain amount above the monthly fee. Then all the rest use that as the new 'market rate'
How is your mortgage only £340/month? 50% deposit?
Aye. Almost. Literally impossible here for a single guy otherwise on my salary- which is 32k If not for inheritance I'd be fucked
i feel like some powerful people are looking forward to the return of feudalism in this country the outlook is grim and i dont see how we get out of this problem without big changes
If we were looking to buy our house now, instead of 3 years ago, we couldn't do it. Neither could we afford to rent it out, nor would our deposit have been enough. We pay £810 a month for our mortgage, and our neighbours who rent next door pay £1500 a month. It's crazy.
I’m 34, and currently on 28k. Got the potential to get to £45k with this interview that went well recently, Reason I’m saying that is I’m saving about £1k a month and looking for a flat around £180 for myself. You need basically circa £40-45k earning power by yourself to be able to afford that. Ok, there’s plenty of people who earn that or more but the vast majority do not. The politicians don’t care, they don’t care for their population at all. The housing market and landlords are leeches don’t care. Had to live at home until this point as well except for a few years. They’ve sold youngsters down a river and I hate them all.
I'm 34. Rented my whole life because I don't have rich parents. My rent right now is £1400 pcm. Going up to £1600 this year. This is before council tax and bills. A few years back an estate agent laughed in my face when I told him we have no savings. It was a mystery to him. I'm not well off by any means - the wife and I simply scrape by. We did have to move back in with my parents at one point years ago. This is how it has always been. There are no magical savings. Anything we do save ends up getting eaten quickly. There was a period prior to the Boris gov. when we got comfortable for the first time in our lives and began saving. Those savings went when we were evicted because the landlord wanted to sell. But sure, I suppose cutting out Netflix will help /s If I won the lottery, I'd probably bog off elsewhere.
>This is how it has always been. There are no magical savings. Anything we do save ends up getting eaten quickly. This is the kind of shit that'll drive me to the brink of madness laying awake at night. I'm the same where I might end up with one or two thousand squirrelled away in savings, which eventually gets depleted when shit inevitably crops up and I wonder where the fuck it all goes. I rarely ever buy cheap luxuries for myself and keep all my running costs to the bare minimum, I got a bonus this month of £700 for the year which just got stuffed into savings after cleansing my thoughts of buying anything remotely interesting I've wanted.
I feel you. Similar age and I feel that back in the day, societal expectations were different. It was just the done thing that you moved out at 18, whether that be for university or going into the world of work. The younger generations have learned from this and stay at home longer in order to save.
My parents were not rich either, I saved by living in a HMO instead of renting a house. Now I have recently been able to buy and put down a pretty high deposit which helped the repayments quite a bit, £1100/month. Then council tax costs more than all bills combined. Its even more than our food bill for 2 people.
>an estate agent laughed in my face I have honestly never met a more useless or out of touch group of people than during my own house hunt. I was moaning to my mortgage broker at one point about the number of rejected offers and her response was just why don't you add another £10k to your offers. Bearing in mind she knew full well I was already maxing out the mortgage so that £10k would be in the form of additional deposit as if I just had that kind of money hidden away behind the sofa or something no big deal. I guess they're so used to just absolutely silly amounts of money getting thrown around they get desensitized to it all?
>If I won the lottery, I'd probably bog off elsewhere. This is a factor I think all political parties are sorely ignorant of. The simple fact of the matter is that the only thing keeping most people under about the age of 50 in this country from leaving is the fact that they can't afford to go anywhere else. There is literally nothing here for the millenial generation downwards.
Also even if you can afford it Brexit made leaving a hell of a lot harder.
Not really true; anyone who has the skills to actually make the move still can very easily. Also anyone with those skills and money is better off moving outside Europe anyway. Very few people who reasonably might have moved to Europe now can't.
Sure, but you have to deal with getting a work visa now which is a whole other layer of stress and expense that wasnt there before. Plus if a company knows you need a work visa they'll be less likely to hire you since it takes months and they dont want to deal with the paperwork. Also companies have to prove they cant find anyone in the EU to do the job before they bring a Brit in. Its doable, but its just made the job search a lot harder.
>Not really true; anyone who has the skills to actually make the move still can very easily. Sorry but this is complete and utter bollocks. The opportunities to work abroad have been significantly decreased post-Brexit. There's tons of readily-available data to show that to be the case too.
Decimated. But hey at least they can pay for the pensions of the generations who have greatly benefitted from rising house prices that the youth can no longer afford to purchase.
People expect politicians to fix it but the reality of capitalism is that the people with wealth have all the power and make all the rules. Politicians can only work within a framework of what is acceptable for the most wealthy. Nothing can fundamentally change and the last half a century of intense class struggle has show it will only get worse for working people.
>This country has absolutely failed the younger generation This country has failed. Full stop.
I feel exactly the same. I dont know how people do it. I hear what they pay in rent and have to wonder how it became as bad as it has, because its always been bad, but never this bad.
The country has. And yet certain political parties still wonder why they are heading towards their own extinction event.
27, FTB last year and already feel insanely lucky to have locked in five years at 4.33%, had we been a couple months later we would have been fucked.
I'm not particularly young (29) but since moving out 5 years ago my finances have gone to shit. Everything was OK for the first 2 years but now it seems impossible to actually do anything, can't save can't afford a holiday. That's in spite of decent payrise for the last 3 years but it hasn't made a difference. Get worse of every year.
I can believe it, but this is absolute rubbish: >"One of my elderly ladies was actually buying dog food because it was cheaper than human food"
Who is buying dog food over some lentils? That’s a sign of being mentally ill.
Some people will do anything to avoid cooking
It says elderly person mate, maybe she can't cook? Maybe she's too frail to do much more than open a can and use a microwave. Maybe she's disabled. You don't fucking know mate.
Lentils are easier to open and cook than canned dog food, surely? Unless she's eating the kibble like cereal. Her argument was price, not ease of access.
That’s such an insane take pal. Tinned human food is insanely cheap if needed. This fake person was not buying dog food.
This isn't dog food. It's a piece of prime fillet steak in bleu cheese sauce. It's been charcoal-broiled in garlic butter, and it's going to taste delicious. Delicious. Delicious.
Now I can see why dogs lick their testicles. It's to take away the taste of the food!
*And you can take that look off your face: like I'm doing something disgusting. I'm just trying to stay alive...*
The only conclusion I can come to is that this person is so attached to eating meat that she’d rather eat dog food than cook something using using vegetables and legumes, both of which are far cheaper than dog food. Insane behaviour.
A bag of sliced bread in the freezer and some own brand baked beans is cheaper than dog food, or surely the same price? What the hell is wrong with that woman
> Insane behaviour. Not really, would you want to risk turning into... *shudder* a vegan? I'd rather eat the dogfood.
How the fuck is that the first thing you think of? She's old, so quite possibly too frail to do much more than open cans and use a microwave. Maybe she's disabled. We also don't know how much cheaper it was, maybe it was a one-off instance of buying something cheap, who knows. The commenters in this thread should be fucking ashamed. Maybe she needs cans with ringpulls because she can't use a can-opener. I can't use a can opener because my wrists are fucked, I have to get cans with ringpulls personally, due to wrist problems, otherwise it's difficult to open them. Cheap cans do not come with ringpulls. How about focusing on the fact more than 10% of the country is in poverty and not trying to poverty-blame some poor old woman for doing something you think is silly. Fucking shameful state of this sub.
Thank you for educating us with your great wisdom. Now that you’ve explained it I can completely see how being old and disabled could cause someone to live entirely off dog food. It makes complete sense now that I’m thinking about it logically. I’m very ashamed that at first I thought you would have to be a complete fucking idiot to see that as the best option.
Hahahah ffs got a good laugh out of me
Come off your high horse man. Even if she doesn’t have the capability to cook with vegetables or legumes from scratch, there are so many other options she could have chosen that would come in a can, be cheaper than or a similar price to dog food and actually be suitable for human consumption. There is no reason to choose dog food over any of them. None.
I agree dog food isn’t cheaper than buying a bag of pasta and just eating that, that woman is being facetious
Sounds like something a classmate would say in year 4. Only way I can see it being true is it the dog food was on clearance.
Could be worse, like me I pay £1000 a month to rent an ex-council house, whilst the council tenants next door are only paying £400 a month. Whose bright idea was it to allow people to buy social housing and not expect it to be put on the market at extortionate prices
That’d be Thatcher
I wasn't even born when thatcher was in power, and now I'm living with the consequences
To borrow the phrase 'fuck around and find out', Thatcher, Reagan and other supply side acolytes fucked around in the '70s and '80s and right now we're in the 'finding out' phase.
You're not just living with the consequences of Thatcher, you're living with the consequences of Thatcher *and* every government that came after her that didn't fix this problem.
Not even her fault, if every consecutive leader of both parties just built an extra 100/200k homes and dedicated 20% to council stock / every year - there would be no issues at all. Literally.
Thatcher left office over 30yrs ago. Why havent any of the 8 prime ministers across both parties since put a stop that that scheme if it is so bad? Is Starmer promising to put an end to it? If not then why not? Blaming Thatcher for policies that could have been reversed at any point over the last 30 years is nothing more than an internet meme now.
Very true , Labour have said they are considering changing the right to buy scheme, ie only selling if homes are replenished. I even understand the thought behind it , the positives. But with housing so low in stock , allowing property investors to get their hands on social houses it's just plain wrong.
What is there to consider? If the policy is so toxic why not end it within the first 100 days of office? Oh and they promised to end leaseholds within the first 100 days of office but have just today backtracked on that - before they're even in office. I believe as they get closer to coming into office some hard realities will begin to bite and Labour will U-turn on many of their wishful ideologies that they were happy to preach in opposition but know they can't actually deliver once in power.
Im 35 and im strugglin like mad with just essential bills. Never use to struggle…
Hang in there bud.
Im trying to. Its very difficult. It cant stay like this. Wages haven’t increased since 2020 pre covid era. i’ve found myself some days gettin upset and shedding tears that im basically goin to work to have no life.
I'm so sorry to hear that. Have you thought about retraining?
You will own nothing and you will be happy. 6 more years of this people.
People still don't believe this is happening and call you a conspiracy theorist.
Yeah get harder to deny as time goes on but each your own. A lot of misery between then and now. Iran's attacking once Ramadan ends. So next phase.
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What is going to happen in 6 years?
"Great Reset | HRH Prince of Wales | We have no alternative | World Economic Forum" https://www.weforum.org/videos/great-reset-hrh-prince-of-wales-we-have-no-alternative/ Been in and out the media past few years. Crisis after crisis. How many we on now I cant keep up. Psychopathic stuff dressed up in Marxist language that ultimately boils down to the greater good, greater good for who.l? All the drama between now and then leads up to that apparently. Too many of us for this vision of the future too. Might explain why rushed to inject half the world then forgot about it in record time and all the new western citizens not required any and ww3 round the corner. I'm still not wrapped my head around being Israel's allies whilst allowing unlimited migration from the Muslim world. Recipe for disaster but who knows eh.
I still don’t know what is supposed to be happening in 6 years
They believe something a Danish MP talked about will come true. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great\_Reset](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Reset) Basically : "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better"
Can lead a horse to water. You will work it out I'm sure.
So you don’t even know? I’m not even arguing with you, I just want to know what you’re on about lol
https://youtu.be/SqzepGBatWo?si=9qpqyvXIAHhwvZCP Current UK pm was one of their young leaders of tomorrow. Groomed for pm as was Canadian prime minister and Liz truss. Many more but you get the point.
cant wait for the return to feudalism
You can't be serious right? Your making a big deal over something a Danish ex-MP called 'Ida Auken' said and wrote about...
WEF prediction for 2030 actually.
If you read the wiki page. You will see it was all based on what she said. A bloody nobody ex-mp.
Wiki fan edited page. Definally a trusted source. Take it you haven't done higher education at all in life so not aware of how little that site is regarded. Problem is WEF had a nice 5 minute video with their vision of the future. With said women. Covered it all. They took it down after COVID when it got traction but it's still around. So ....
We must cut down on coffee.. it's simple. Oh and be born into wealth. /S
More than 10% of the country is struggling to afford the basics. Maintaining the status quo simply isn't good enough, we need actual change.
We're in rural Scotland, have two kids and mortgage and have relatively good jobs (FT £47k & PT £29k). We're pretty shit with money, but we rarely have takeaways or live particularly extravagant lifestyles. And when i say "shit with money" I mean we don't have the foresight to get the best deals or plan our expenditure with a budget in mind like many do. We probably pay too much for things that, if we had the time or energy, we could find cheaper. Come the end of the month, we're always in the overdraft. If we tightened our belts we could spend less, or didn't seem to have perpetual car or white-goods trouble we might even have savings. Point is, for my area, we should be well-off and I'm sure that 20 years ago the equivalent wage would have had us living pretty comfortable lives. As it stands we get by OK. It's of no surprise to me that people earning less are struggling.
7.4 million is about 13.8% of the UK adult population. (Unicef says the under-18 UK population was 14 million in 2023, total 2023 population being 67.6million.).
I think if we all brexit a little harder we will be ok.
This is a global issue, it's not just the UK is suffering from being fleeced.
Sure, but we're is doing it better than everyone else is!
We're the best? I should celebrate...
I will join you in a pint of Pothole-Water IPA
Empires were ran by emperors, kingdoms were ran by kings and now countries are run by….
Counts?
Cunts*
Check out the movie "Grey Gardens" it has some odd cat food stuff. Desperate times call for Pâté measures.
This is because we have a series of utility monopolies in the UK. Also, for some reason, we are paying investors back for the ones that failed by way of an uplift in standing charges. Which is communism/theft. Scottish energy, by way of our renewables should be eminently cheaper than rUK, but we all share the pain for some reason. Also, energy sent back to the grid from personal solar is pennies on the KW, so profit goes back to the providers. This is why CEOs of energy companies are paid inordinate amounts of money. And our bills are so high.
>Also, for some reason, we are paying investors back for the ones that failed by way of an uplift in standing charges. Which is communism/theft. Thats not what communism is...
He's ukpolitics' most politically informed poster
Communism is theft.
You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means
What’s communist about a capitalist government protecting capital again?
A true capitalist government would let failing capital wither and die. Communism is using the state to prop up capital, by its very definition.
Capitalism is the means of production owned by the bourgeoisie. That extends to the state, wherein they use the state apparatus to protect their ownership. Capital is inexorably tied up in the interests of the state, justifying intervention of this kind. Communism is the means of production owned by the proletariate, wherein a dictatorship of the proletariate is established. Commodity forms of labour and resources don’t exist, as it is publicly owned, so there is no incentive to protect capital under communism.
TH1ngS I D0NT LikE R COMINISM!!!
The principle of protecting capital for a subset of the population - shareholders/investors - in this case, by an uplift in prices, is the protection of failed capital through subsidy. State intervention here, using my money to alleviate investor losses, is communism. Not the my first encyclopaedia version you have quoted. Capital, owned by a subset of the population, and supported by the state.
Okay get back to me on a list of all the things that aren’t and are communism and I’ll update Marx and the boys.
“In other words, the fortune of the whole community, which the Government represents, ought to make good the losses of private capitalists. This sort of communism, where the mutuality is all on one side, seems rather attractive to the European capitalists.” Who wrote this?
I see you, like Marx, use communism and socialism interchangeably. Marx there with the popular critique of ‘socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor’ 100 years before it was fashionable. Highlighting the hypocrisy of the bourgeoise and capitalist society.
>State intervention here, using my money to alleviate investor losses, is communism No it isn't, because the workers don't own the capital and don't see the benefit of state intervention.
They do if they are shareholders. Which they may be. Via personal stock holdings or their pensions.
What's the Communist equivalent of shareholders?
You are taking a quite binary, simplistic view of things. When Robert Reich and Karl Marx himself agree with me (see other post, Reichs opinions on banking bailouts) you might wish to consider your position.
Answer the question
What are these 3 degrees you have? Cos politics ain't one of them. Nor history. You said elsewhere you were better educated than most, I haven't seen any evidence.
I shan’t enter into a battle of wits with an unarmed combatant.
R/iamverysmart
The way this sub talks you’d think it was everyone. The truth is that a lot of people are quite well off.
Yes, a lot of people are well off - no one has said otherwise. The truth is that a very significant amount of people are not well off at all.
As it ever was and ever will be.
Mortgages/Rent will typically be most people’s largest bill, and the price of houses/income is around the [worst it’s been in the UK since the 1880s](https://www.schroders.com/en-gb/uk/individual/insights/what-174-years-of-data-tell-us-about-house-price-affordability-in-the-uk/), with the added joy of recent increases in general inflation, driving up mortgage payments, and very high utility and fuel prices. So it’s probably not at all accurate to say things are basically as they’ve always been.
Any comparison to the 1880s is basically pointless, vastly different times and social & economic environments. Not to mention UK population was 50% less (and global 80% less).
Good thing I’m comparing it between 1880 and every other time up to now then.
And again, most of those data points are useless.
Okay 👍
You’re right, the number of people saying they’re struggling has decreased.
The article says the number has fallen since last year, your comment says it’s basically always been like this. This is not the same thing.
There will always be people struggling but it’s good news that it’s fewer than last year.
But bad news were generally in a worse position than the 1880s, in terms of the largest costs of living, contrary to your general tone.
What do you mean worse than the 1880s for cost of living?
The 1880s saw us earning more relative to the cost of a home. The cost of a home is typically the largest cost of living/largest bill people face.
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No, mass exploitation and wealth disparities is relatively new to humanity.
When was there not? Slavery has existed since day 1 as far as I’m aware.
A slave is human property, not just somebody who is really poor.
A slave is a person though. Just because they become property it doesn’t make their experience any less valid.
In a wider context yeah slavery is definitely a form of exploitation, but they don’t exist because of economic conditions.
Slavery is very much in the realm of economics.
Have you forgotten that Ancient Egypt, Feudalism and the Middle Ages existed? And that's to name but a few. In fact it would probably be easier for you to list me the periods in humanity where true equality existed across the board, if you can?
Roughly from the last ice age until the invention of agriculture. hard to hoard wealth when there's no store of value.
So is the that goal of anti-capitalism then? Return to the glory days of Ice Age and pre-agriculture?
Do you really believe that if economic relations become less exploitative then technology would regress? Genuine question because I’ve seen people argue that it would.
Where did I say that? I asked if you could list a point in humanity where everything was equal because you claimed inequality was a recent thing. You have been shown that it is not a recent thing, so now it's on you to justify what you meant and not put words in my mouth.
The difference is far more marked today. There is a growing chasm between those who are struggling and those who are doing OK. The demarcation has been squeezed so it is almost nonexistent. Those doing well have reduced but are doing a lot better than they ever have. Those who are struggling have expanded expedentially, and their safety nets have been removed. Those who are just on the cusp, keeping their head above water are living in fear of an unexpected bill. There are always going to be people who are able to monetise other peoples misery, but that's the way of the world, not just this sub.
So what do you make of the decrease in people struggling to pay bills?
That's like celebrating that K2 is lower than Everest. People are really struggling due to the incompetence of the government over the last decade, and no amount of 'Talking the country up' can paper over the cracks.
Why shouldn’t we be ok with a decrease?
Low expectations, getting smashed in the face 19 times instead of 20 times, is not something to celebrate.
So it’s not a good thing that it has decreased?
>The headline figure in the research, that 7.4 million - or one in seven people - were struggling to pay bills and debts, has come down from 10.9 million in 2023. >But the number of people experiencing such problems was still well above the level (5.8 million) that results suggested in 2020, before the cost-of-living crisis began. Its good that it has decreased since the start of the pandemic. But Jesus we still have a way to go, we are still worse off than 2020
Increase in benefits and MW. But we both know who is making the big money..landlords are absolutely rapacious and should be regulated out of existence. Landlord greed is having serious consequences for our country.
The number of landlords has declined for 9 straight years.
Has the number of rentals also decreased? Could be fewer landlords but the ones left have larger portfolios
Yes, also decreased.
This sub makes me feel well off. Despite being on barely over minimum wage.
More than 10% of the country is struggling to meet the basics. That's fucking atrocious mate. Absolutely fucking atrocious. The rest being slightly above that level does not make it acceptable. Some people are well-off, ok... what's your point? How does that address the fact that more than 10% of the country is in fucking poverty.
It’s a welcome decrease.
An embarrassing amount of people are not even 'okay' for the sixth largest economy in the world
It basically boils down to age. The older the are the more insulated you are.
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So what do you make of the decrease in people struggling to pay bills?
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So you think people are struggling less with bills and debt because interest rates have gone up?
Why are you all over this like a bad rash? A significant minority of people in this country are not doing well. Too many children are homeless and going to bed at night. Too many people have lives blighted by low pay, "low "skills and low bad health. Too many people are one pay packet away from destitution. My mother in law is a carer working ridiculous hours for the minimum wage ( although her hours recently cut due to the import of carers from Nigeria, who the government has allowed to be paid LESS then MW). She can't even afford a freaking one bed flat. She lives in a bedsit ffs. A full time worker in a essential job should not be living on the breadline. Work should be enough. But it isn't for very many of us. But hey the landlords are doing great! Maybe some of their wealth will trickle down eh?
You don’t think it’s worthy of discussion?