As Chancellor John Healey puts the final touches to his first Budget, how are the “squeezed middle” feeling after years of cost-of-living pressure?
Dawn Fazackerley-King is trying to work out how she and her family will pay higher mortgage costs anticipated in a few months’ time.
“There’s just no more fat to trim,” says the mother-of-two.
The interest rate on their Ipswich home loan could rise from 1.4% to about 5.3%, which, Dawn says, could add “about £250 extra a month just for living in the same property”.
“We just have to find that money from somewhere, but when you look at the direct debits every month, there’s nothing fancy in there,” she adds.
The BBC has contacted HM Treasury for comment.
Dawn lists the usual monthly bills, including their mortgage, council tax and energy costs, adding “there’s no regular meals out or anything like that”.
Over the past few years of increasing costs, Dawn says her family – which includes two children aged six and eight – have been “trimming the fat accordingly”.
“It’s quite worrying… where that money is going to come from when we’re already feeling that squeeze,” she says.
Dawn, 42, works as a full-time self-employed Pilates instructor in Ipswich, while her husband works in an office and the couple have a household income of about £70,000 a year.
Is she part of the “squeezed middle”?
“Yes. Life is definitely getting more expensive,” she says.
She is not alone.
