‘I earn £126,000 – but nothing’s left at the end of the month’: readers react to the budget

‘I earn £126,000 – but nothing’s left at the end of the month’: readers react to the budget From a young chef and a single father to business owners and a pensioner, Guardian readers reveal how John Healey’s measures will affect them

Louie, 24, a chef living in London , says a lot of people have “written off the idea of even considering getting a property” in their 20s.

He is optimistic about the government’s new Your First Home scheme, which will enable people to buy a new-build property with a deposit of just 2.5%, supported by an interest-free equity loan.

But he says a smaller deposit alone will not be enough for him. “I’ve found hospitality wages to be far too volatile to even consider saving for a property,” he says.

As a result, he is studying an access course with plans to start a physiotherapy degree next year. He hopes that by the time he graduates and gains some experience, he will have a stable enough income and sufficient savings to put down a deposit.

He says the new scheme “should encourage a lot of young people to buy earlier” and adds: “We are moving in a good direction, but I’ll still save and wait until around late 20s to early 30s to start [thinking about buying], just due to how much it may cost me.”

Louie earns between £37,000 and £40,000 a year and shares a three-bedroom rented property with two friends. But rent and bills take up an increasingly large proportion of his income, leaving little room to save towards buying a home.

“I was always told that a third of your salary should go towards rent and bills, but it’s coming up to about half now, which is a little bit mental,” he says.

His landlord recently informed the household that their rent would increase by £200 a month in November.

He has managed to build up some savings. Since he was 18, he has put between 5% and 10% of his earnings into a stocks and shares investment account, and over the past year has also started making regular contributions to an Isa specifically for a house deposit.

“Nobody really wants to be spending all their money on rent,” he says. “But with the amount of money we make, you kind of have to. ”

Graham Robinson is a business owner from Timperley, Greater Manchester, who runs the company KeySim. He earned £126,000 last year, but says that despite his six-figure income, he has virtually nothing left in his bank account at the end of each month.

Graham says he was “hoping for real help with the cost of employing people” from the budget. “Instead, the employment allowance stays at £10,500, while employers pick up the rising wage bill.”