Single Income Household

Are single income households viable in England?

Published: Sunday, Jun 9, 2024 Last modified: Wednesday, Oct 2, 2024

Imagine a single professional earning 80k GBP a year.

Weekly net wage is 1095GBP.

Now that person marries and their spouse is a stay at home parent. Weekly net wage is the same at 1095GBP, there is no tax benefit to marry and start a family!

Now lets say that person works incredibly hard and could get a job earning 50% / 40k more, bringing their annual income to 120k.

Weekly net wage is 1464GBP with an annual income of 120k GBP, that’s an increase of 369GBP a week over 1095GBP with a 80k annual income.

Lets consider the scenario where the wife instead joins the workforce and puts the children in daycare. The wife earns 40k.

Together their weekly net wage is 1721GBP, which is 257GBP better off a week than the single income household on a 120k annual salary.