Interesting. I haven't been in the UK, its only from what I have heard from people. One of my colleagues lived in Singapore until 2009 with salary of $6000 pm and he tried and tried but couldn't find a better paying job here and he found that it was very tough to make a decent living here especially after his child birth.PrimroseHill wrote:WD40, have to disagree with you there.
Income tax in UK is anything to 45%. Then you have NI (samey as social security). Then you all VAT at 20% other than food, children clothes and some other stuff. Council tax etc etc. If it moves it will be taxed. Taxi is a luxury treat. Tube/trains are expensive. You also have to pay tax on your savings - all bank accounts are taxable unless you put it in a tax wrapper or ISA.
Rent - yes it is cheaper if you live outside, beyond zone 5 or something. Anything that is W1-6 or WC, NW1-8 or SW1 and Chelsea, a tiny 2bed apartment will cost you something like GBP3200 per month.
Schools - well, thats a choice. Religious schools whereby you have to attend church religiously for 6-12months depending on the area and availability, now that's free. Ordinary state school is dependent on catchment areas and thats a mug's game. Or grammer school whereby it has a huge waitlist and your child has to either be Dave's pal or ultra smart.
My DD managed to get into a COE primary school. She couldn't get into the highly and oversubscribed COE secondary schools or renowed henrietta barnett. We took the decisiom to pay so she went to a COGNITA school. So, school fees are payable out of your taxed income. Go figure
He went off to the UK by having some consulting company apply a work visa for him and the he found a job with Barclays as a contractor and lives in Manchester.
He is pretty happy now compared to what he was in Singapore. I guess the difference is in Singapore you really need to be in the mid to high salary bracket i.e. >100K SGD per annum salary to have a decent living. This kind of salary range however is very tough to get unless you are really well qualified.
In the UK on the other hand per day contractor rates are very attractive even for low end IT type jobs. 400 GBP/day X20 = 8000GBP. Even after 45% tax its still good as long as you are not living in London I guess. Although I know that the uncertainty is very high as well as these are often 3 month rolling contracts.