Middle class, professional... and forced to feed our families from food banks

[Chunketh]

 

I lost all my income and, being the sole director of my limited company, I wasn’t entitled to any of the grant money the Government gave to sole traders

 

How does this work? Is this one of those wheezes where you have no "income" and instead get money out of the company as dividends or something to avoid income tax and NI?

Exactly. She has little to complain about.

"I dodged my tax, now the taxman wont give me free money"

[Si1]

This is nicer, round the corner and half a mil cheaper

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/72960108#/

 

[scottbeard]

 

Surely they should be forced to sell the house before they can use the food bank?

Tricky one...to be fair it is on the market, and it takes many months to sell a house.   They burned through their savings first by the sounds of it before turning to charity.

 

Her non-job has disappeared . She is going to have to seriously adapt 

Is being a live events producer a "non job"?  I used to like live events like music concerts before COVID came, and I'm sure I'll go back again next year.  I think that's unfair.  But yes, she may have to adapt to something else for a while.

 

How can a couple earning that sort of money not have sufficient reserves/savings/investments to see them through times like this?  They had enough to last less than 9 months.  Constantly p1ss3d it all up the wall on pointless trinkets I guess.

As a general rule, people are advised to keep 3-6 months earnings to fall back on.  Bearing in mind in a crisis you can spend less, this is only likely to last 9 months for most people.  However, in her case her husband is still earning 80% of his wages too, so on balance I agree that they feel like they should have been able to hang on at least enough to sell the house.

[spyguy]

I think Ive got the right postcode

https://houseprices.io/?q=W5+5HB

20/04/2018 £805,00014 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

09/12/2005 £530,0008 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

16/05/2003 £481,12516 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

25/07/2001 £450,0004 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

30/04/1998 £187,00018 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

30/10/1997 £265,0006 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

22/11/1996 £149,00016 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

29/02/1996 £187,0008 Church Lane, London, W5 5HB

Id suggest they need to plan on  ~2005 prices.

 

[smash]

1,6mil + 50K. 

Brought for 530K

Greedy feckers.

[spyguy]

 

Tricky one...to be fair it is on the market, and it takes many months to sell a house.   They burned through their savings first by the sounds of it before turning to charity.

Is being a live events producer a "non job"?  I used to like live events like music concerts before COVID came, and I'm sure I'll go back again next year.  I think that's unfair.  But yes, she may have to adapt to something else for a while.

As a general rule, people are advised to keep 3-6 months earnings to fall back on.  Bearing in mind in a crisis you can spend less, this is only likely to last 9 months for most people.  However, in her case her husband is still earning 80% of his wages too, so on balance I agree that they feel like they should have been able to hang on at least enough to sell the house.

Non job is wrong.

Precarious is right.

One man bands, working in areas with low entry requirements.

All it takes is being hit by a bus and jkaputt! All gone.

 

[Si1]

 

Tricky one...to be fair it is on the market, and it takes many months to sell a house.   They burned through their savings first by the sounds of it before turning to charity.

Is being a live events producer a "non job"?  I used to like live events like music concerts before COVID came, and I'm sure I'll go back again next year.  I think that's unfair.  But yes, she may have to adapt to something else for a while.

As a general rule, people are advised to keep 3-6 months earnings to fall back on.  Bearing in mind in a crisis you can spend less, this is only likely to last 9 months for most people.  However, in her case her husband is still earning 80% of his wages too, so on balance I agree that they feel like they should have been able to hang on at least enough to sell the house.

It's only been on the market for 2 months

[simon2]

Why can't they take a mortgage holiday? I thought banks had to allow this.

I would guess 6 months of not paying their 'hefty' mortgage would have given the cashflow to survive the basic expenses for quite a long time, and also given the chance to find other jobs.

I know of someone in a similar position (although his house is maybe only worth a third of that), instead of whinging to the papers and going for food banks he is delivering food for Uber or someone like that. Apparently brings in £1k a month, which of course is not great but is enough to keep the show on the road.

[Sprite]

Amazing really.

The story of the pandemic so far has been that wealthy people have been shielded from the effects because they can WFH.

There needs to be some sort of cap of where the state can help you. I mean I don't personally think you should be allowed furlough money if you have assets over a certain threshold. 

Furlough should be for people who are low paid or who have had to shut their businesses due to Covid which are invariably the working class. But if your wealthy enough like these people seem to be there should be no assistance IMO. Assistance should only be given once all their assets and money have been used up to below a specific threshold.

[scottbeard]

 

Non job is wrong.

Precarious is right.

Agreed

 

It's only been on the market for 2 months

Yeah as I said that's why it's a tricky one.  How soon after losing your job should you put the house on the market?  Most people would try and avoid it for as long as possible...is 7 months too long?  Hard to be too judgemental without knowing a lot more detail, and given how uncertain COVID playing out has been.

[Unmoderated]

 

Their beautiful Edwardian five-bedroom home in West London, where they have lived for 15 years, is now on the market and, once it’s sold, the family will move to Dorset or Devon, using the equity from their home to buy a place outright, hopefully with outbuildings they can convert into holiday accommodation.

Although Faye and Darren, 49, hope to return to work when normal life resumes, holiday rentals would potentially give them another source of income, should their industries be hit again.

FFS! Their solution to protect themselves from losing work owing to coronavirus is to move into holiday rentals? These people are insane! All of life’s problems can be solved by some other property project it seems. 

Have they researched how established Devon/Dorset holiday rentals have been coping during the pandemic or have they just been watching reruns of ‘escape to the country’ during lockdown? 

I know lol. How on earth these guys put two and two together, come up with five and still end up with a £1.8m house. Just goes to show, it's now what you know, but what you don't!

 

I actually do sympathise a little. It must be reasonable to assume they've paid a lot in taxes over the years regardless of her being a sole director. He would be an employee (can't be furloughed otherwise) so to have earnings to cover that then they've earned a lot and paid a lot in taxes. To then be given £54/week when it goes wrong for you - makes you question exactly why anyone is paying into that system. That might be why they think screw it, go and set up without debt and with a fraction of existing outgoings and then put their feet up a little. Arrange their affairs in a way to minimise tax liability and job done. 

[shlomo]

 

+1

Probably, but they will not get that number all over London i see for sale signs,

[Roman Roady]

More of this sort of article please...munch munch.

[shlomo]

 

I lost all my income and, being the sole director of my limited company, I wasn’t entitled to any of the grant money the Government gave to sole traders

 

How does this work? Is this one of those wheezes where you have no "income" and instead get money out of the company as dividends or something to avoid income tax and NI?

Yes, I know an IT bod who got all/most of his salary as divided and Rishi is giving him nothing, the funny thing is he looks like Rishi

[GregBowman]

 

AFAIK if you're on benefits you can access a food bank. They ask  to see the letter from the DWP.  

Now I think it is ludicrous that someone with a house like that can access any benefit anyway

 

I don't think so you can't eat a house - she has paid enough in - the benefit test is a high enough bar IMHO

[markyh]

 

Returning to her £1.6million London home, Faye Davies Fuller took a minute on the doorstep to compose herself, shielding her three children from her tears.

How on earth had it come to this — being handed food tokens at the Citizens’ Advice Bureau to supplement her measly £54-a-month Universal Credit payment — when, until nine months ago, Faye and her husband, Darren, had a six-figure income between them?

recalls Faye. ‘I lost all my income and, being the sole director of my limited company, I wasn’t entitled to any of the grant money the Government gave to sole traders.

 

 

She had a limited company, why didnt she apply for the £30k + business interuption loan?  If they cut everything to to the bone, calc what they need for 18 months from March 2020 to August 2021, and just borrow it.  Pay it back when time return to normal. 

Jeeesh if the Criminals are doing it with fake ids creating fake ltd companies, created after the announcement, and fooking off with the money, why couldnt she do it? 

From August 2021 they could pay it back £1000 pcm, be done in 3 years. 

I feed a family of six on £450 pcm from Aldi, so for food i would only need say £8500 for 18 months, £10k max including "nice meals" for Xmas / birthdays / Easter etc. 

Some people have no common sense.

[Unmoderated]

 

Surely they should be forced to sell the house before they can use the food bank?

It could take months to sell the house. What would they do for food in the meantime?

What about actually aligning benefits to contribution as they do in other parts of Europe. 

[Social Justice League]

Quote - "Returning to her £1.6million London home"

The country has gone completely to hell where people in £1.6 million homes can't afford to eat.....lol.

People have got their priorities all wrong these days and it's embarrassing.

[Social Justice League]

 

It could take months to sell the house. What would they do for food in the meantime?

What about actually aligning benefits to contribution as they do in other parts of Europe. 

Most of the middle classes have called people on the dole scum for as long as I can remember.

Most are too stupid to understand that they might need help at some point in their lives too.

What we need is a citizens income and we need it soon imo, as the benefits system is useless.

[shlomo]

 

 

Most are too stupid to understand that they might need help at some point in their lives too.

 

True, we will all need help at some point.

[PeanutButter]

So the idea of having food parcels was too shameful...but appearing in a national newspaper talking about it is fine? I'm confused. 

Look, I know the DM loves finding new people (women?) to hate but this is borderline exploitative bs. And I really don't like it when children, who may not fully understand, have their photos/names recorded in this way. Do they really consent to having this story searchable forever?

People will do anything for attention. Leave them to it. 

[scottbeard]

 

Most of the middle classes have called people on the dole scum for as long as I can remember.

Most are too stupid to understand that they might need help at some point in their lives too.

What we need is a citizens income and we need it soon imo, as the benefits system is useless.

Quite a pile of generalizations there!!

I think what those in the middle classes (and large chunks of the working classes) object to is people who spend their whole lives on "jobseekers" benefits without any real attempt to seek working, essentially able to survive only because the rest of us are providing them with a living.

I've yet to meet anyone in any class who would describe someone as "scum" for losing their job in a pandemic and claiming unemployment benefits for 9 months.

That said, as you probably know, I agree with your conclusion that if we had a UBI a lot of the arguments would go away.  However, already on this thread we've had people saying "she should sell her house before getting food from a food bank".  We are a long way from the public accepting that someone with a £1.6m house should get the same UBI as a person with no assets.  Yet they must for UBI to work.

[Warlord]

 

 

I feed a family of six on £450 pcm from Aldi, so for food i would only need say £8500 for 18 months, £10k max including "nice meals" for Xmas / birthdays / Easter etc. 

Some people have no common sense.

That's impressive Marky. I probably spend that on myself but incudes  cigs and the odd takeaway.  I'm going to have to look into Aldi.. 

[Social Justice League]

 

Quite a pile of generalizations there!!

I think what those in the middle classes (and large chunks of the working classes) object to is people who spend their whole lives on "jobseekers" benefits without any real attempt to seek working, essentially able to survive only because the rest of us are providing them with a living.

I've yet to meet anyone in any class who would describe someone as "scum" for losing their job in a pandemic and claiming unemployment benefits for 9 months.

That said, as you probably know, I agree with your conclusion that if we had a UBI a lot of the arguments would go away.  However, already on this thread we've had people saying "she should sell her house before getting food from a food bank".  We are a long way from the public accepting that someone with a £1.6m house should get the same UBI as a person with no assets.  Yet they must for UBI to work.

Yeah you make some good points.  The new norm for many middle class people might be longterm dole if they can't get another job.  Others will be paying for them.  Life is swings and roundabouts and no one knows how it will pan out. 

Safety nets are a good idea in a civalized society, otherwise people literally starve to death in their £1.6 million pound houses.  No one whats that for anyone, no matter how big their house is. 

Totally agree with you about UBI and like you say it needs to go to the guy on the street as well as this person in their high value property.  You can't play favourites.

[markyh]

 

That's impressive Marky. I probably spend that on myself but incudes  cigs and the odd takeaway.  I'm going to have to look into Aldi.. 

That's for 5 days a week, Mon-Thur and Sunday roast. Friday night is Fish and chips from the chippy (Catholic) which is about £20 (2 large COD are shared between 4 people as they are huge @ £5.50 each).  

Saturday night is "other" takeaway , KFC Party bucket, £25 , Curry or Chinese.  Between £25 and £80 depending on which. Curry is the most expensive takeway for sure, and chinese is usually about £50 , maybe more if we add 1/4 duck and pancakes or not.