For a car here we pay insurance. Which depends on age, engine size of the car, how many years you have driven for without making a claim on your insurance, where you live and where you park the.
So a new driver, age 18, who lives in a rough area and has to park the car at the side of the road because they have no official parking spot/drive might find their insurance cost more than a £1500 per year. While somebody who has been driving for years, hasn't made a claim on their insurance, lives in a nicer area and had a parking spot/drive way might end up paying about £600 for the same level of insurance cover.
The tax we pay on the car is something called vehicle excise duty, it's a bit vague on what it actually pays for, it originally used to be for the up keep of the roads, but now it just goes to the government to be spent on whatever needs it. You have to pay the tax or your car can't be legally driven anywhere. You show that you have paid with the tax disc. Which is a small round piece of paper that you display in the bottom drivers side of the windscreen. Tax discs you you are covered to. So it will have something like 31-01-2014 meaning that you've paid your tax until the end of January.
You also have to have an MOT for the car. The MOT test (ministry of transport test) is something you have to do once a year for all cars more than 3 years old. You take it into the garage and it's checked to make sure it's still road worthy. If it passes you get a piece of paper to keep in your records for the car, if it fails you have to get the car fixed to a level where it will pass, as without an MOT the car cannot legally be driven.
Then if you want breakdown cover that's extra again, although this at least is optional. We have a number of companies over here but the main two are the AA (automobile association) and the RAC (Royal Automobile Club), basically you pay them about £120 a year and they will come out and try to fix your car where ever you break down. You have to still pay for parts, but if they can fix it labour is covered by the yearly fee. If they can't fix it they will either tow you home or to the nearest garage - it's your choice which. This is even true if home is a long way.
I was in a friends car once which broken down and we about 150 miles from home, and they (AA) came, looked at it, were unable to fix it, so they towed us the 150 miles back.
For things like pay, the job I work (and have for nearly 10 years pay £8.60 an hour.) I work part time, and take home 13,500 before tax. Now because this is considered very low to support a family on (there's me, my husband and son who'd nearly 4) I get what is called tax credits from the government, which is an extra couple of hundred a month to take us above what is considered the poverty line if you have children (the point where you earn less than 60% of the national average, it's 50% if you don't)
The stupid thing is the figure given as the national average income for the UK is actually more than most people earn - It's dragged higher by a few people on very high salaries. The national average is £26k, so the 60% is 15600 per year.
25% of all working people earn less than the living wage 15,500. All households who are entirely reliant on benefits will be officially under the poverty line.
Salaries tend not to be that high even for professionals. A police constable or firefighter will make between 21k and 35k depending on number of years service. A fully qualified teacher will make at most about 26k, while headteacher (the equivalent of a principle in a US school would make 45-60k, although would be more if they were at somewhere like Eton - a school where the fees run into the many thousands where the Royals send there sons to be educated). A shop assistant will be lucky to take home more than 14k even if they've been in the job years. A hairdresser about 15-16k, A care assistant will make about 16-18k, while a nurse will get about 25k. Even a senior doctor who runs his own practice will be unlikely to be on more than 60-80k, unless he's a top surgeon at a London teaching hospital.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-08-22 04:12 pm (UTC)So a new driver, age 18, who lives in a rough area and has to park the car at the side of the road because they have no official parking spot/drive might find their insurance cost more than a £1500 per year.
While somebody who has been driving for years, hasn't made a claim on their insurance, lives in a nicer area and had a parking spot/drive way might end up paying about £600 for the same level of insurance cover.
The tax we pay on the car is something called vehicle excise duty, it's a bit vague on what it actually pays for, it originally used to be for the up keep of the roads, but now it just goes to the government to be spent on whatever needs it. You have to pay the tax or your car can't be legally driven anywhere. You show that you have paid with the tax disc. Which is a small round piece of paper that you display in the bottom drivers side of the windscreen. Tax discs you you are covered to. So it will have something like 31-01-2014 meaning that you've paid your tax until the end of January.
You also have to have an MOT for the car. The MOT test (ministry of transport test) is something you have to do once a year for all cars more than 3 years old. You take it into the garage and it's checked to make sure it's still road worthy. If it passes you get a piece of paper to keep in your records for the car, if it fails you have to get the car fixed to a level where it will pass, as without an MOT the car cannot legally be driven.
Then if you want breakdown cover that's extra again, although this at least is optional. We have a number of companies over here but the main two are the AA (automobile association) and the RAC (Royal Automobile Club), basically you pay them about £120 a year and they will come out and try to fix your car where ever you break down. You have to still pay for parts, but if they can fix it labour is covered by the yearly fee. If they can't fix it they will either tow you home or to the nearest garage - it's your choice which. This is even true if home is a long way.
I was in a friends car once which broken down and we about 150 miles from home, and they (AA) came, looked at it, were unable to fix it, so they towed us the 150 miles back.
For things like pay, the job I work (and have for nearly 10 years pay £8.60 an hour.) I work part time, and take home 13,500 before tax. Now because this is considered very low to support a family on (there's me, my husband and son who'd nearly 4) I get what is called tax credits from the government, which is an extra couple of hundred a month to take us above what is considered the poverty line if you have children (the point where you earn less than 60% of the national average, it's 50% if you don't)
The stupid thing is the figure given as the national average income for the UK is actually more than most people earn - It's dragged higher by a few people on very high salaries. The national average is £26k, so the 60% is 15600 per year.
25% of all working people earn less than the living wage 15,500. All households who are entirely reliant on benefits will be officially under the poverty line.
Salaries tend not to be that high even for professionals. A police constable or firefighter will make between 21k and 35k depending on number of years service. A fully qualified teacher will make at most about 26k, while headteacher (the equivalent of a principle in a US school would make 45-60k, although would be more if they were at somewhere like Eton - a school where the fees run into the many thousands where the Royals send there sons to be educated). A shop assistant will be lucky to take home more than 14k even if they've been in the job years. A hairdresser about 15-16k, A care assistant will make about 16-18k, while a nurse will get about 25k. Even a senior doctor who runs his own practice will be unlikely to be on more than 60-80k, unless he's a top surgeon at a London teaching hospital.