This months wages…

This months wages…

Aren’t you a salaried employee?

I think this’ll return take home wages to pre April levels for the less well off.

The ‘less well off’?

As of 2020, £35K would put you in about the 70th percentile of earners!

I stopped looking at my pay statements a long time ago, we just try to stay within whatever goes in the bank, pretty much like a lot of people. I wouldn’t aim any class thing at this, there’s way too many variables going on in every household across the land, the reality is it’s tough enough for most, without bringing in any ‘us and them’ arguments.

Just over £50 less in my pay with the NI changes etc.

I’ve been on a 4 day week through April due to automotive industry still struggling post covid, dreading next months pay packet :-(

I also snapped a tooth off my chainring on my Scout last night.

How much does a kidney fetch these days?

OP

Im sure you will be fine, just ease up on the watch buying

😄😄

Down about £400 here as Mrs S is now on half pay – long term absence due to breast cancer.

Perspective? @scotroutes

My Mrs is on her 2nd bout of Chemo today, diagnosed 6 weeks ago. F@@k cancer, its sh## so yeah, perspective buddy.

Sorry to hear that Monkeysfeet, hope your wife and you are doing OK considering. MrsSpud had it diagnosed just before Xmas 2013 and is doing well now. Hope it goes well. And it puts things in the right perspective.

Can’t see it mentioned in the 3 pages so far, but the NI increase isn’t 1.25%, it’s 11% which is 1.25% points. So hell of a whack. We’re all being hammered but those on the lower incomes disproportinately more and it bloody stinks.

I’m about £45 worse off this month due to the NI increases.
Not much we can do about it – and not really our biggest concern right now.

Isn’t the base rate at which you start paying income tax going up from 10k to around 12k in July? How does this affect those on say 20k/year?

How much does a kidney fetch these days?

Less than a BNIB Shimano chainring.

Sorry to hear that monkeysfeet & scotroutes. My other half is down to working 2 days a week, due to long term illness, so I understand the financial and practical issues there. I can’t begin to understand the additional physical and emotional difficulties you’re going though with the cancer though… but my thoughts are with you all.

Isn’t the base rate at which you start paying income tax going up from 10k to around 12k in July? How does this affect those on say 20k/year?

it will technically be better – although not enough to offset the cost of everything increasing.

Its also not a great help if you live month to month especially as the utilities bills have increased massively.

I’ve got two theories, one (nice but incompetent) is that the government have no concept of living month to month, and so they only looked at the annual figures and actually got a policy of taxation that is theoretically helpful to the less well off.

the other (competent but deceitful) is getting people to adjust themselves to the lower income for a few months, so when it picks up again in the summer they suddenly have “disposable” income to immediately spend and boost the economy.

Cast your votes. I’m going with the second option.

NI change has made a circa £75pm difference to convert tower. Add that to fuel & bills (home and car) and that’ll be a noticeable difference.

But…..in comparison through individuals going through personal crisis and Ukraine etc, its maybe not a crisis. Perspective is key.

How about that the population needed a cost of living shock to slow down inflationary pressures? I’ve been listening to NYT podcasts, which discussed these types of things and find this concept interesting. I noted a government minister stating that people needed to feel the increase in energy costs. Wonder how this all ties in?

I found this calculator a couple of weeks back and used it to see how the changes affect me. It’s better than the HMRC one I’d used before because you can select different tax year options. It works out about £40-50 per month extra in NI but using the post July option it seems to revert back to the 2021/22 level.

Income tax calculator

the other (competent but deceitful) is getting people to adjust themselves to the lower income for a few months, so when it picks up again in the summer they suddenly have “disposable” income to immediately spend and boost the economy.

Cast your votes. I’m going with the second option.

As suggested earlier, if they were competent but deceitful, i reckon they’d have held off the NI increase until after the local elections!

The poor middle classes eh. :lol:

Incompetent and deceitful then?

but the NI increase isn’t 1.25%, it’s 11% which is 1.25% points

Sorry for being thick,but can you eaborate. Don’t understand what you have written

It’s 11% more than it was.

It’s 11% more than it was.

But given no one knows how much NI they paid last month, it’s not a particularly useful metric. Whereas most people do know their gross salary (or close enough).

Well, it’s very hard to say what the % change to anyone’s gross salary will be, because it depends on their net salary and is impacted by the thresholds at which NI and IT is paid… as well as many other things. Everyone will have their grass salary effected differently. For the income you pay NI on, you’ll now pay 11% more NI than before… and then come July the income you pay NI on will change. Again, affecting everyone differently.

It’s 11% more than it was.

Gotcha. I recall being really pissed off when stupid people in the press talked about how second homeowners would have to pay 3% more stamp duty. I was thinking, not so bad… turned out their stamp duty had actually doubled.

Mrs RNP has had an extra 10people turn up this week for her community kitchen free hot meal that she started during peak Covid. She’s doing 50+ covers now.

IN the news, the base rate is rumoured to hit 3% in the next few months also. Thats really going to hurt some people.

IN the news, the base rate is rumoured to hit 3% in the next few months also. Thats really going to hurt some people.

there’s three days left for petrol to get to £2.50 a litre, as the Guardian predicted in early/mid march.
remember all news sources have an agenda, even the ones we on STW are meant to like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

Peoples’ inability to digest basic information that they’ve to hand (it’s on your payslip) is one of the (many) reasons this country is in such as bad place.

FWIW I’ve never met anyone outside of a Payroll and/or Personal Finance SME who actually understands how NI actually works, but what you paid in NI is written on any payslip you’ll ever get and for folk on even a half-decent salary it’s hundreds every month.

Amazing isn’t it, that we need tax increases to cover the pandemic and ‘save the NHS’ yet all of a sudden, we seem to have billions of pounds to throw at an attempt to encourage Putin to nuke us

we seem to have billions of pounds to throw at an attempt to encourage Putin to nuke us

Do you not think supporting Ukraine is something worth doing?

as a result of actually looking at a payslip in detail for the first time in a while,

I’m down on NI this month, nowhere to the same degree as the OP…

but I’ve realised I can claim tax relief on 4 yrs on pension payments.

however, I’ve probably got to pay a child benefit tax charge on two of those.

so, no idea if I’m better off or not yet.

1. 1% National insurance increase = £40/m
2. 50% Electricity increase = £50/m
3. 15-20% increase in food prices = £80-100/m
4. 70% increase in heating oil price = £40/m
5. 20% increase in petrol price = £10/m
6. 25%(av) increase in streaming prices £8/m
7. 5.5% Council tax increase = £11/m
8. 11% water rate increase = £6/m
9. 9% Childcare increase = £40/m
All totaled = ~£300/m worse off than this time last year.

Wage increase this year was 0.75%. In real terms, since the start of the pandemic, I’m about 15% below where I was in real terms.

Almost everyone will be facing similar challenges – £300 is A LOT to me, but it’s more than ALL for many people.

I think this really shows how much prices and costs are going up all over the place. There’s not one thing causing the issues it’s so many factors.
I’m no fan of how the government is dealing with it so far but I don’t think there’s any easy fixes which can be deployed quickly, a lot it outside factors which are difficult to control or mitigate.
Whatever they do a load of people will complain that’s for sure. Everyone agreed that the health service needed higher wages and the increase in NI probably wouldn’t have been much of an issue if everything else was the same but it’s just a crap storm of misery from all directions.

We are in a decent position but expecting more rises in the future, I’ve already tightened my belt as far as it will go and trying to save as much as can energy wise, food wise and cash too ready for the future.

Cheers Spud, that’s appreciated buddy.
we have always considered ourselves lucky, the Mrs was covered by Furlough when the pandemic hit. So I guess all of that cash, plus the extra work the NHS had to do has got to be paid back somehow.
I’m not a tory supporter (i work in the emergency services FFS, we haven’t had a decent pay rise since Tony Blair!!)
But I can’t imagine the country would be in any better state under any other leadership.
I’ll continue to be raped by the taxman, and those at the top will be laughing at me, but in 12 months time if I can sit and enjoy a sunset with the Mrs somewhere in the lakes, I will be a happy bunny.

I’m up £50ish thanks to a good employer.

Obviously that’s better than a lot of people but a few months ago we worked out that we had about £200 per month of ‘expendable income’ when really it needs to go into the savings.

Gas/electric has gone up £100 (over double) food bills have gone up enormously. So it’s tight but we’re surviving. We’re in the lucky position that Mrs P isn’t currently in paid employment and the kids are getting old enough for that to be an option if needs be.

Planned but not booked foreign holidays for this year have gone, Easter week was 2 nights in a premier inn rather than a week all inclusive somewhere.

£5k bike? No way, not even close.
£30k car? Possibly, no idea what it’s actually worth. but it’s leased and is only costing money, but it’s more budget-able than the previous used car than needed regular repairs. No idea how anyone could afford to buy a £30k car, but someone must because £30k doesn’t go far when it comes to new cars these days.

£30k car? Possibly, no idea what it’s actually worth. but it’s leased and is only costing money, but it’s more budget-able than the previous used car than needed regular repairs. No idea how anyone could afford to buy a £30k car, but someone must because £30k doesn’t go far when it comes to new cars these days.

I think you’ve answered your own question – the majority are leased.
I’ve got a company car, which is due to go at the end of this year – i’ve just ordered a new one – list price is £51k.
If i were buying car (like we all used to do) i’d be looking at used VW Passats for around £10k.

Hmm yes , something else is afoot. I can’t see my payslip only wages pending in my bank account. Maybe it’s something else, we aren’t on £200k! Maybe a tax code adjustment, I recently started a new job.

I knew as soon as I read the OP, there was two likely outcomes, 1) someone would work out you’d be earning waaaay too much to be complaining about it, 2) there was more going on.

But, yes these next few weeks are when people are going to really notice the changes.

At home we’re £80 a month down on NI and yeah you can work that backwards, we’re not struggling and I’m not complaining too much. Energy is up £50, Water is up £50, Council Tax is up £25, plus food and fuel. We didn’t get the £150 council tax cash-back, I know, ‘middle class problems’.

I’d guess £300 a month less, will it push us into poverty? No, but it’s not like it’s unnoticeable either. We’re not savers by nature, we spend what we earn and we need to cut our lifestyle by £300 a month, which is noticeable, because we weren’t living the high-life before.

I won’t list the savings we’re making, it will sound like a utter pisstake to anyone who’s really struggling.

At least the NI rise will be largely reversed in July and those who are suffering the most, will benefit the most from that, I hope at least, that’s what was promised.

In other ‘good news’ Martin Lewis today announced an expected 30% rise in Energy costs in Oct, that’s of course 30% on top of the 54% that came in at the start of this month, for us that’s another £60 a month…

We’ve enjoyed low interest rates for a while. This is affecting cars too.
Lease, HP, PCP, borrowing is cheap

Cars depreciate, lots, but a depreciated expensive car is still worth lots of money, and more than a depreciated cheap car, usually. In some way, shape or form you are paying for the depreciation over the years you have it, whether you have leased it or bought in cash and sold in cash.

Yup between council tax, NI, gas & leccy, phone, water increases on about £200 a month less

Im the only breadwinner with a family of 4 kids [gulp]

We’re not struggling but its depressing, a lot less biking trips/races for me this year, which in the grand scheme of things isnt really a hardship, I worry for the autumn, I can easily see a recession on the horizon
Plenty of families at my kids schools not so lucky and already struggling

so, no idea if I’m better off or not yet.

been on hold with HRMC for 32 mins now, still no idea…

gave up after an hour of the same song on loop.

been on hold with HRMC for 32 mins now, still no idea…

Good luck once you’ve spoken to them, I live in constant state of owing tax as I paid too little or getting refunds as I paid too much (a £700 refund last year). I’m PAYE so not exactly a challenge to work out FFS, I have no other incomes and I’m not employing an accountant to game the system for me, so how it’s so constantly wrong I have no idea.