UK poverty and inequality

[Balderdasha]

The Base Mortgage Rate is an older system. The Standard Mortgage Rate is the newer one and thus crappier for consumers.

[Balderdasha]

If I'd been on a two year deal my monthly mortgage payments would have increased by £1,188 per month starting from this month.

[Tactical Genius]

Others have covered the difference between the SVR and Tracker rate. Additionally, Tracker rates tend to have a floor where the rate will not drop below regardless of the BoE base rate and usually have a term limit (although lifetime Tracker rates are available). Fixed rates are usually 2,3 and 5 years although 20 and 30 year fixed rates periodically become available for the wierdo's.

[San Bernardhinault]

As I understand it, quite a lot of mortgages in the USA are on a fixed rate for the duration of the term. Whereas in the UK most fixed rate mortgages only have the fixed rate for one or two years and then revert to the standard variable rate.

Yes, but...

in theory the UK system offers a nice benefit to borrowers who are going to be cash poor after their initial purchase. I remember them offering well below base rate for the first couple of years back when rates were high (this obviously offers less benefit when the interest rate was bumping along at near zero for a decade). So there's a potential benefit.

That said, this is one of the rare instances where US banking is less terrible than British banking. You pay a fee to remortgage here, of course, but as long as you don't do it too often and only when the base rate drops by enough, you end up never paying more and often paying less over the course of time, remortgaging when rates drop. And existing homeowners are never (unless they deliberately take a high risk variable mortgage which almost nobody does) hit by rising rates the way they are in Britain. On the whole, I think it's better because of the additional stability.

[Tactical Genius]

Here is a history for the BoE base rates:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boea.../Bank-Rate.asp

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/lorrainemking/status/1721483373707702333?t=22e_CC3Y8BcpzJtNqNmHcw&s=19


Probably the best place for this.

[Fussbudget]

One major difference between the USA and UK mortgage market is how long you can get a fixed deal for. As I understand it, quite a lot of mortgages in the USA are on a fixed rate for the duration of the term. Whereas in the UK most fixed rate mortgages only have the fixed rate for one or two years and then revert to the standard variable rate.

Same in France where you can get a fixed rate for a 20 or 25-year mortgage. I was baffled to find out when I moved to the UK that the rates are usually only fixed for 2 years. I still don't understand the rationale behind the UK system, it makes no sense to me

[Lang Spoon]

I'd imagine interest rate fun and not being able to fix for more than a few years has contributed to the housing crisis in Ireland also. Certainly this past year now the rates are going up is pricing people out, anyone on a variable rate whose mortgage has been sold to vultures such as Pepper or the likes are completely fucked too.

[S. aureus]

Same in France where you can get a fixed rate for a 20 or 25-year mortgage. I was baffled to find out when I moved to the UK that the rates are usually only fixed for 2 years. I still don't understand the rationale behind the UK system, it makes no sense to me

Pushes the risk away from the banks, I suppose.
I did not know this about UK mortgages, until this thread. It does seem strange, looking at it from a US perspective.

[Balderdasha]

It's all quite stressful really with mortgages. I was super cautious because of my experiences with being sick for extended periods of time. I fixed for five years. I got a mortgage that we could pay with one salary if necessary, and consequently got a smaller house than we could have got if we factored in two salaries. I'm scrimping and saving and overpaying as much as possible to bring it down. And still, in three years time, if interest rates haven't dropped substantially, we'll likely find ourselves in a very difficult position. I've done the calculations and the current best case scenario is that if I overpay the max for five years running we'll reach a point where the monthly mortgage payment might only go up by a couple of hundred pounds a month instead of thousands.

I genuinely don't know how most families are surviving. Most were on fixed rates for only one or two years and plenty of people overextended themselves more than we did.

[Nefertiti2]

This is horrendous- one reason apparently is that Local Authorities can no longer manage enforcement ( which is their statutory duty) ad they are so underresourced

https://twitter.com/chakrabortty/status/1726275900701077609?s=46&t=52UNV00kbJD8cvMookCO4A

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/ciaranmcasey/status/1731851590028374215?t=N1Sp7UOyi9wuO7RH0XLhpw&s=19

Yep, there are serious consequences to 13 years of Tory rule

[ursus arctos]

"World beating" when it comes to the increase in child poverty

https://twitter.com/adambienkov/status/1732314547036291150?s=12&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[Balderdasha]

More than 800,000 patients admitted to hospital last year with malnutrition in the UK: https://dumptheguardian.com/uk-news/...s-figures-show

[Balderdasha]

Rickets and scurvy are back.

[Balderdasha]

https://dumptheguardian.com/uk-news/...norwich-school

“We’ve got children with bowed legs because they’re so deficient in vitamins. We’ve had children so malnourished they’ve had heart murmurs,” said Hunter, a headteacher at West Earlham infant and nursery school in Norwich.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s not how it should be. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it. We’ve got two-year-olds coming in and trying to eat sand because they’re hungry. ”

Hunter said she once had to carry a pupil to the doctor because they had arrived so malnourished.

[Patrick Thistle]

My brother posted this year they packed up a record number (490) of festive food parcels at their food bank.

[Balderdasha]

Quarterly UK GDP per capita is currently lower than it was five years ago (https://www.statista.com/statistics/...per-capita-uk/)

Yet inflation since then has been 22% (i.e. goods and services that cost £100 in 2019 would now cost £122).

No wonder we're getting stories like this:

'Desperate neglect’: teachers washing clothes and finding beds as poverty grips England’s schools

https://dumptheguardian.com/educatio...glands-schools

Nearly half of UK families excluded from modern digital society, study finds

https://dumptheguardian.com/technolo...-society-study

'Health emergency’: 15% of UK households went hungry last month, data shows

https://dumptheguardian.com/society/...nth-data-shows

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/RunnymedeTrust/status/1770789604838326790?t=uhdpEWZ1sOU8qO3qGs26dQ&s=19

I have no words

[Antepli Ejderha]

https://twitter.com/vicderbyshire/status/1770814967173759026?t=8JcVoUamVv3YiEXAfUo9Vg&s=19

The war on the poor continues, this is Victorian