147
Minister quit ‘because he could not afford rising mortgage costs’ on £120,000 salary
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
147 points (98.7% liked)
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There's more to the story than the headline. Separation costs from his wife (a lawyer), plus child maintenance, plus burnout from lots of different roles. It's not just the mortgage payments.
If I understand high salary taxation correctly, there are no tax bands above £100K and you just pay 40% on the lot, which makes his take-home net £6K/month, of which a £2K mortgage is one third. I'm managing OK with my mortgage being one third of my net takehome. But I don't have an angry lawyer ex-wife and child maintenance to pay, or a stressful job.
Maybe mortgage increases were the last straw for him. But they are not the only reason for him quitting.
Actually the 100-120k bracket is effectively a 60% tax band as you lose your tax free allowance, then 45% on incomes over 125k. Compared to other members of that government that mostly earn through investments taxed at 20% (capital gains tax) he is doing a lot worse.