Autumn Statement and the "Just About Managing"

I know you'll all shout at me but it occurred to me that there seem to be more absolute 'necessities' than there used to be. Expensive TV packages and mobile phones for even the youngest children must eat up a lot of food and heating money. Just saying.

I think they are only building more houses so that means they can collect more tax. They are not the least bit interested in the people at the bottom of the ladder. They offer help to get babies out of their mothers' arms so they can tax her pay when she goes out to work. No thought for the child or the mother. They say they will build 'affordable houses' then when the estate is near completion they say they have run out of money and so they wriggle out of building them. Why not build COUNCIL owned homes like they used to do so people can rent at a reasonable price? ...... Got it! They cannot charge people tax on their affordable homes, or claim tax when children inherent property, or use the homes as cash cows when people need care in care homes. In other words, they are not interested in people, only what they can squeeze out of people. Well, after all they have their own lavish lifestyle to fund don't they. Private school fees, big cars to support, mansions to heat, staff to employ in the kitchen and garden. It all adds up.

I think it was probably the media that introduced the term 'JAM', not toffs or politicians.

JAM? Some people cannot afford bread never mind jam!

Typical of this modern gimme, gimme, I am entitled generation. They are so used to our generation bailing them out they think it is their right now. If they didn't spend so much time on their 'phones they might have more money in their pockets.

I remember having to give half my wages to my Mother for food and board, I still had to buy my own clothes out of the rest and pay my bus fair to get to work.

I have to say dubbing people as 'JAMs' is a bit derogatory don't you think? Nothing like rubbing their noses in it is there. These Toffs seem to delight in it.

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.

That's if you've got a piano ?

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!! ?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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??

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.