Autumn Statement and the "Just About Managing"

Indeed! Not much at all to get excited about, especially for the self-employed.

Approximately one in seven workers are now self-employed, often not through choice. The average income is around £10,000 - so hardly managing. Raising the Living Wage makes them worse off, if they have to supplement their income with tax credits, because they will be expected to earn more before any benefit entitlement starts.

Scrapping property agents' fees will probably mean that they will charge landlords more, who will in turn increase rents.

All in all, a very damp squib!

I read Judith Wood's article about JAM in the DT today. It did not do much for me as not relating to ordinary families who don't write articles for the DT. Cynical moi?

When I retired not so long ago I thought it would be an opportunity to get more politically active. The political shenanigans of the last six months though have me me want to fill me head with marshmallow and fairy dust.

And now I am clearly only able to type nonsense... that should read "made me want fill my head with..." I think that's evidence that I've managed it.

Have they scrapped the fees that the landlords have to pay as well? I only ask because a fair number of Tory MPs are landlords and recently a bill that would have ensured that every rented property was fit for human habitation was voted out.

No, they haven't scrapped those - just the upfront non-returnable deposits prospective tenants have to pay. It's nothing but a gesture.

They just don't seem to get it. This measure and increasing stamp duty on BTL properties will push up rents. As long as demand exceeds supply, people will have no choice but to pay and/or live in smaller properties or share.

The only solution is to build more properties to be rented from housing associations/council - not this 'help to buy affordable home' nonsense.

LOL if landlords didn't pay fees the agents would all go out of business. However the agents fees are often unreasonably high. When I let our house out, I negotiated a couple of % off the standard local fee, and they were happy to have the business.
Had a laugh t time - BBC news, reporter talking to people from a typical fish and chip cafe in Whitby. Where they were serving lobster. At least one of the customers knew some poor people.
Truth is that lots of people are not managing - they don't have enough to eat and can't keep their homes heated. That's why I've got politically involved.

Self employment and indeed running a small business and employing people is not much fun these days. I can vouch for that. Many of us (employers) are FAR worse off than the people they employ.

A new estate is being built on a greenfield site at the edge of town. They promised to build some affordable houses as well as the more expensive ones. So they put up a block of 2 bedroom terrace houses amongst the bigger semi and
detached houses. The wages in this area are amongst the lowest in the country.

Guess how affordable they are????

They're priced at £199995.

I often wonder what "affordable" means in the housing context. Anything is "affordable" if you've got the money. It's all "unaffordable " if you haven't. Surely they mean "cheap" housing? Why don't they say that??

BTW dont't most of us go through times in our lives when we are JAMs? Usually when starting out with a job/ family/establishing a home etc? It's not a new phenomenon.

Yes. We've all been JAMs in our time. It was absolutely fine when we were young as all our friends were in the same position. I think we're MQWs now.

"Affordable" in London these days is about £400 -500k I believe.

Yes Suzeid I'm sure we have. However housing costs and availability were a lot lower then, in proportion to wages. My grandparents were skint in the 1950s but they were still able to get a mortgage and buy a nice semi with a big garden.
John McDonald on Today programme (just after 7.30 if you want to listen again).

It seems we can still afford Trident even though we face a future, in the early 2020s in which the NHS is a shadow of what we would like it to be, and there is little help with staying out of hospital if you are trying to struggle on at home in poor health.
I the meantime, avoid getting ill in the winter. Get your flu jab.

JessM, one of the interviews in the Magpie Cafe (six oysters £11) made me The smug chap who said he was managing perfectly well because he was retired. Just the thing to fuel intergenerational envy and the perception that all retired people have it easy. I'm sure more representative pensioners could have been found in any of the harbourfront fish and chip shops a few yards either side.

I think a few of you have uncovered the flaw in May's argument. People will perceive 'just about managing' differently. It means everything and nothing (just like 'Brexit means Brexit').

Of course people struggle when they start out, unless they're very lucky, but it's no joke when people ares till juggling with insecure jobs and rented accommodation when they're middle-aged or older. To me, JAM about not having enough money to save and not having any financial cushion in the case of redundancy or a landlord putting the rent up significantly. JAM is when it goes on year after year with no possibility of escape. The key to it is wealth (as opposed to income), mainly in the form of housing.

It's clear to me that May doesn't really care about people like that any more than she cares about the people who aren't managing at all. She's trying to appeal to the group who voted for Thatcher and are now drifting off to UKIP. The division between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor is still there. The UK now has so many fracture lines, it's in danger of never being united again.

The trouble is, maggie, is that pensioner households are less likely to be poor than working families (on average). The IFS cites many examples of people who are quite considerably better off when they reach pension age than before. I'll be one of them, by the way. If I hadn't lost my house, I'd be laughing, but I'll still be better off than I am now.

That's not to say that there isn't a difference between pensioners and that there aren't poor pensioners, but on average they're better off than pensioners before them and people who are still of working age, both now and when they themselves are pensioners.

Though his wife did go on to point out Maggiemaybe that they still had 2 grown up kids at home that were never likely to get their own homes...
PM on the day she entered No 10 described "JAM"s as those struggling to pay their mortgages or find a good school for their children.
Obviously not the people who are struggling to feed and clothe themselves and their children.

Surely there has to be more to life that "just about managing".

JAM to do what?

Eat, heat the house, clothe the children, pay the rent/mortgage, have cheap holiday, have a couple of treats at Christmas, pay the school fees, have that second exotic holiday, upgrade the cars?

I can remember when there was too much month at the end of the money , no chance of saving or buying new gadgets. I'm better off now but that's because I've got no kids at home, paid off the mortgage etc. Not because I have a lavish pension or lifestyle.

Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that pensioner households on average are doing okay. Averages are dangerous figures though. It doesn't help those who aren't on good pensions to keep reinforcing the stereotype. This is becoming a bit of an issue now, with older people who are struggling being seen as somehow responsible for the ills of the world, as well as those who are riding high. We did comment that perhaps the Magpie couple could help out their children.

Well, it is all going to crash down around our ears, apparently, when, as has been suggested by economic forecasters on the Today programme this morning, after Brexit he lifts the triple lock on pensioner incomes and starts concentrating on the struggles at the younger end of the spectrum! It'll be time to chop up the piano for firewood!! ?

That's if you've got a piano ?

Yep, after 2020 apparently. The year before I finally get my state pension, at 66 (unless the current WASPI legal challenge gets anywhere, that is). Sod's Law.