Just down the road from me there is a blue plaque commemorating the foundation in 1897 of that excellent organisation, The Distressed Gentlefolks’ Association, since rebranded as something more egalitarian. The gist of it was that ladies and gentlemen could become poor too when their circumstances changed but unlike the working class they were assumed to be well-off and therefore didn’t get help; besides, back then, they were too nicely brought up to beg.
I am far too common to be a Gentleperson, but I wonder whether there might be a case for creating the Distressed Bourgeois Association, or Society for the Middle Class Broke? And I’m not talking no-skiing-holiday-this-year broke (besides, I can’t ski); I’m talking the kind of broke that looks instinctively for yellow discount labels in the supermarket.
Frankly, it’s never been easier to be middle class and poor. The bills everyone has to pay have obviously gone up this year. Energy bills will go up by 6.4 per cent in April in addition to the increase in January when the price cap was lifted. Water bills are to go up by a fifth or so. Council tax is increasing by five per cent in some areas. This falls on all of us, like the rain.
But the thing is, if you’re in arrears – my default mode – you don’t get help if you’re not on benefits. When the British Gas debt collectors call – and they’re on one’s case very quickly these days – they ask nicely first if I’m on benefits/old/with young children, and alas, teenagers don’t count. So, no quarter given when it comes to payments. Ditto council tax.
The same for incidental expenses. My cat (kept at home, so not picking diseases up from other animals) got violently and unaccountably sick the other day; it turned out my daughter hadn’t kept up the insurance payments. I took him to the vet and the combined bill came to £600.
I blanched, and they kindly asked if I was on benefits, because if I was, there were several organisations that would help out with the costs. That ruled me out.
On the same income as a few years ago you can feel so very much worse off
And if you have a child at university, as my son is, you’re looking at the equivalent of boarding school fees if you’re on a middle class salary. That is to say, when student support applications for living expenses are assessed, they take into account household income, not household outgoings.
So, if you own your house you’re treated exactly the same as those of us who pay whopping rent. It also assumes both parents will contribute to student support, which isn’t always the case for some families. So my son is on the minimum living allowance, while the daughter of friends who live on a teacher’s income but with lower costs, gets way more.
Good for her but I think myself we should have far fewer students at university and treat them all the same, as used once to be the case. By all means, recoup the costs later.
And as this paper’s business editor, Jonathan Prynn, points out, it’s not getting any easier in keeping the money you do earn, since tax thresholds have remained static for years now, which brings lots of people into the 40 per cent tax band that used to be for actual rich people. It’s a really clever way of increasing the state’s tax take, but it accounts for the fact that on the same income as a few years ago (because pay hasn’t gone up for years, unless you’re working for the NHS or London Underground), you can feel so very much worse off.
Mr Prynn also points out that come April the cost of wine goes up too, which is going to hurt – but then, given that a wine bag in M&S now costs £16, that stopped being a routine treat long ago. Food inflation went up 3.3 per cent in the year to January but some things have increased way more than others.
Tried to buy olive oil lately? You’re looking at about eight quid a bottle. As for welfare-friendly meat, four free-range sausages in M&S cost £5.50. Seriously. And I am fortunate in that I’m a decent cook, so can do wonders with chicken stock, lamb kidneys and strong bread flour; I don’t know how people manage who can’t cook.
I do not expect sympathy; I’m just saying. There are indeed people way worse off than me and my lot, not to mention the starving millions. But the fact is, there are lots of us out there who are the equivalent of the aforementioned Distressed Gentlefolk – nicely educated, in work, not benefits, and still broke. And it’s going to get worse.
Melanie McDonagh is a London Standard columnist
