How much wealth do I need to not be relatively poor in the UK?

How much wealth would I need to be no longer poor, say in the bottom 15% of UK citizens?

Would I be poor (as defined above) if I only had 60k in the bank?

Also how much in the bank would I need to reach median wealth?

And finally how much would I need to be rich? (say top 15%)

Reply 1

Kayleighw27

14

Original post by Doctor_Einstein

How much wealth would I need to be no longer poor, say in the bottom 15% of UK citizens?

Would I be poor (as defined above) if I only had 60k in the bank?

Also how much in the bank would I need to reach median wealth?

And finally how much would I need to be rich? (say top 15%)

I think you will find that the vast majority of the population, for a myriad of reasons, don't have anywhere near 60k in the bank.

Also wealth can be measured in many different ways. The most common is net worth (total assets minus total liabilities), but I think salary can be more significant than savings. If someone had scrimped and saved to have 5k or 10k in the bank but lived in a council flat and ate spaghetti hoops for dinner, I wouldn't consider them more wealthy than someone with a 6 or 7 or more figure salary who didn't save anything because they spent their income on a house or cars or other possessions.

Reply 2

the bear

20

if your kitchen quotient ≥ 2 then you should be fine

Reply 3

IWantToBeThere

10

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/25/uk-incomes-how-salary-compare

Reply 4

Thomson2013

14

The average in London stands at £26,000 per year I believe.

Anything under that is considered lower than average.

Reply 5

Quady

20

Original post by Thomson2013

The average in London stands at £26,000 per year I believe.

Anything under that is considered lower than average.

That's income. Not wealth.

Reply 6

Quady

20

Original post by Doctor_Einstein

How much wealth would I need to be no longer poor, say in the bottom 15% of UK citizens?

Would I be poor (as defined above) if I only had 60k in the bank?

Also how much in the bank would I need to reach median wealth?

And finally how much would I need to be rich? (say top 15%)

No. That's put you in the top half of UK citizens.

Top 15% would be more like £200k.

Reply 7

Thomson2013

14

Original post by Quady

That's income. Not wealth.

Misread my bad.

Reply 8

Johann seez

Poverty in the UK is defined as earning less than 60% median household income (for your household type, including all benefits and transfers). To take a representative household, the poverty line is around£14,000 per annul in the UK in 2015.

Reply 9

Limpopo

17

Hurray im wealthy,,but wait,, i dont feel wealthy..whats wrong ?

Reply 10

kimberlybaskett

1

Probably you mean income instead of wealth. If this is the case, under the UK Government standards, you're poor if your income falls below 60 percent of median income for the whole UK,i.e. approximately £265 per week for a household. This threshold will be somehow higher in London and South East and lower in other regions (as in Northern Ireland).

I have assumed you meant income since wealth without income will not help you much, or at all.

Reply 11

little_wizard123

19

I'm sure he meant wealth as he said wealth.

Reply 12

Good bloke

19

Original post by kimberlybaskett

I have assumed you meant income since wealth without income will not help you much, or at all.

I think you will find that wealth normally generates unearned income in the form of interest and dividends.

Reply 13

kimberlybaskett

1

Original post by Good bloke

I think you will find that wealth normally generates unearned income in the form of interest and dividends.

In my answer I said "wealth without income" to highlight that your means will always come from income, not from wealth. In your example, you get income from your wealth and then it's ok, but there may be other examples of wealth without income or with very low revenues (you inherited a palace, under a condition not to lease it or dispose of it. You then may be wealthy but with a lot of expenses and no income). That's what I meant, the key point is income from whatever source derived

Reply 14

nexttime

22

It takes intelligence to turn wealth into quality of life too though. There are plenty of pensioners out there sitting on half-a-million pound homes bought and paid for, but complain they don't have enough cash to pay for heating.

Reply 15

ChampagneCharlie

2

There will shortly be no 'top 15%'. If the LibLabCon have their way there will only be a top 1 % of which Cameron, Clegg and Miliband will belong. The other 99% will be poor.

Reply 16

poohat

18

Original post by kimberlybaskett

Probably you mean income instead of wealth. If this is the case, under the UK Government standards, you're poor if your income falls below 60 percent of median income for the whole UK,i.e. approximately £265 per week for a household. This threshold will be somehow higher in London and South East and lower in other regions (as in Northern Ireland).

I have assumed you meant income since wealth without income will not help you much, or at all.

This doesnt take benefit income into account, a family earning £265/week will be getting around £15k in tax free benefits and have an equivalent gross salary around £30-40k (depending on how many kids they have)

Basically, not being poor in the UK is mainly about having children - once you have them, you will get a huge amount of government money from child tax credit, housing benefit, and priority social housing. Poverty is only really something that affects students, young people without children, and single/divorced men.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 17

Bill_Gates

21

I did my dissertation on this was, SO many pages long so really hard to give a brief over view but many factors at work and it's a moving target. Especially with the changing demographics of the UK.

What i can say is "being average" is not really that great we have a small proportion of extremely wealthy individuals and an even larger proportion of extremely less well off. The rich tend to have much more diversified investments than the middle or the poor and hence up's and down's in the economy will affect all in varied proportions.

Briefly Top 10% depending on what you class as assets > 700k to 2.7m+
Bottom 10% > Have roughly less than 7k-11k total assets depending on the part of the country you look at, if taking into consideration debt.

Median wealth? money in the bank is not really a big issue even in some of the most prosperous parts of the country they have around 20k-30k accessible in the bank on average

Thanks

Bill.

Reply 18

Rakas21

21

Your average person still owns a home and average wages are between 20-30k so about £200k. That being said there's a cliff around the 40% percentile mark where people don't own homes but will have savings.

Reply 19

Bill_Gates

21

Original post by nexttime

It takes intelligence to turn wealth into quality of life too though. There are plenty of pensioners out there sitting on half-a-million pound homes bought and paid for, but complain they don't have enough cash to pay for heating.

great point

How much wealth do I need to not be relatively poor in the UK?

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