An interesting survey in today’s Times reports that: “Restaurants, car dealers and shops are facing a bleak time as people feel the effects of a faltering economy.”
The survey, which has attracted over 2,500 responses, finds that 58 per cent are more likely than last year to check supermarket prices, 54 per cent are eating out less often and 55 per cent are buying new clothes less frequently. Most tellingly, perhaps, 36 per cent are more worried than last year about losing their jobs.
Some of the respondents’ comments are telling, too. Here is a selection:
“I am unable, even though I’m in full-time employment, to buy a shared ownership property or have a holiday. It is almost a hand-to-mouth existence. I have never felt so badly off.”
"Income tax, council tax crippling me. Single income family, elderly wife at home, two children at university. No disposable income whatsoever after all expenditure. Minimal heating. One pint in a pub a year. Last holiday 1998. Car 13 years old. Last restaurant meal 2000."
“I think there is a split between those who have made money in property, paid off their mortgages, and those of us who are faced with paying off student loans while trying to raise vast amounts of money to buy ourselves somewhere to live. I am a lawyer earning good money, yet I can’t afford to buy somewhere to live — has there ever been a point in history where this would be the case?”
The survey makes depressing reading, but it bears out my own experience. Constituents, friends and colleagues tell me that they are feeling the pinch. Fuel bills, in particular, are a significant worry. I recently had a delivery of central heating oil that cost me £500. A couple of years ago, it was over £200 less.
There has been much media interest recently in the phenomenon of the “coping classes” – those who enjoy a reasonable headline income, yet are struggling with an ever-mounting burden of tax, mortgage interest, fuel costs, and so on. The Times survey tends to suggest that the phenomenon is a real one, not simply a feature editor’s frolic.
And many just aren’t coping any more.
The survey, which has attracted over 2,500 responses, finds that 58 per cent are more likely than last year to check supermarket prices, 54 per cent are eating out less often and 55 per cent are buying new clothes less frequently. Most tellingly, perhaps, 36 per cent are more worried than last year about losing their jobs.
Some of the respondents’ comments are telling, too. Here is a selection:
“I am unable, even though I’m in full-time employment, to buy a shared ownership property or have a holiday. It is almost a hand-to-mouth existence. I have never felt so badly off.”
"Income tax, council tax crippling me. Single income family, elderly wife at home, two children at university. No disposable income whatsoever after all expenditure. Minimal heating. One pint in a pub a year. Last holiday 1998. Car 13 years old. Last restaurant meal 2000."
“I think there is a split between those who have made money in property, paid off their mortgages, and those of us who are faced with paying off student loans while trying to raise vast amounts of money to buy ourselves somewhere to live. I am a lawyer earning good money, yet I can’t afford to buy somewhere to live — has there ever been a point in history where this would be the case?”
The survey makes depressing reading, but it bears out my own experience. Constituents, friends and colleagues tell me that they are feeling the pinch. Fuel bills, in particular, are a significant worry. I recently had a delivery of central heating oil that cost me £500. A couple of years ago, it was over £200 less.
There has been much media interest recently in the phenomenon of the “coping classes” – those who enjoy a reasonable headline income, yet are struggling with an ever-mounting burden of tax, mortgage interest, fuel costs, and so on. The Times survey tends to suggest that the phenomenon is a real one, not simply a feature editor’s frolic.
And many just aren’t coping any more.
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