You live better in France or Britain?

[letrangere]

In the wake of Blair’s re-election, Paris Match compares life in Britain with that of France in its latest edition.  They’ve obviously done a conversion to come up with a common currency but I didn't note what they've convered £ to Euros or what.   The UK couple live in Usk (which is where?), he sells lab equipment, she’s a primary school teacher.  The French live in town of Janze, outside Rennes.  He’s a negociator with Blot Immobilier, she’s a nurse.  Note they're not married.  Both have 2 children, an infant and pre-schooler.  Surely it’s impossible to find two families anywhere in the world with similar spending habits but, anyway, this is what PM came up with:-

 

                                                             GB                   France

Revenus mensuels

Revenu brut (lui)                                     2667              2800

Revenu brut (elle)                                   1174              1300

Allocations familiales                                 154                648

                       Total:                               3995                             4748

 

 

Depenses Mensueles

Charges, impots                                       1168                898

Loyer, assurance                                        835                660

Telephone, Internet                                      69                100

Eau, electricite gaz                                      116                153

Pediatre                                                         0                  30

Nourrice                              

[Teamedup]

What nonsense this is. Already the gross salary of a primary school teacher in the UK would be a lot more than that. Last I heard the starting was around £16k a year and perhaps it is even more since and that is just the starting salary.

On salaries like that how do they get such big allocation familiales in France. Two kids'll get you around 120 euros a month.  Maternity allowances could temporarily boost these figures, but these soon stop and shouldn't be shown like this.

Paris Match is coming out with 'Humbug', that is all I can say.

[Dick Smith]

TU is right - if that is in € then €1117 for a month = £760 gross or approx £9120 pa. A main scale teacher (ie fully qualified, no management allowance) on no increments is £18500 (in Usk), which should be about £1541 pm = €2235 pm. If it is in Euros, of course. I wonder if other figures are as far out.

[Russethouse]

>>He’s a negociator with Blot Immobilier<<

In the Uk a negotiators salary would be very variable due to the commision element, is this not the case in France ?

[LesLauriers]

On salaries like that how do they get such big allocation familiales in France. Two kids'll get you around 120 euros a month. Maternity allowances could temporarily boost these figures, but these soon stop and shouldn't be shown like this.

5 kids, one over 11, one over 16 equals a family allowance of 647.23 so that could be how they have calculated it. But that doesn't equate to two children!

[Deby]

Complete and utter tosh!

Not only are the salaries completely wrong, but whilst UK mum and dad are working who looks after the children?  Maybe great if they have a 'granny' to help for free!  An infant in childcare costs as much as sending your child to public school in the UK.  In the nourrices column there is rien - zilch- mmmh for the English - hardly true and certainly not a comparitive.

Political propaganda I would say.

Is life cheaper in the UK, some things are, some things are not, but the large factors such as housing, childcare, education and health are always the determiners, the rest is just down to competition, in which the  French fail miserably as market forces are not allowed to operate - hence propaganda.

Oh too much for a Sunday afternoon.

Deby

[Teamedup]

LesLauriers, it said that they have two children in each family, not five.

And as I said maternity allowances can be good here, but they are only at the time of the birth etc.

This is just journalistic silliness. They haven't done their home work.

[letrangere]

Fascinating that different people can look at the same set of figures and come up with totally different responses.  I didn't consider how much they were earning, it was the spending pattern that interested me.  I read the article in the library so can't tell you now who looks after the UK family's children or whether she even works part-time, which perhaps she does on reflection.

However, can't deny surely that far more French families rely on a childminder than British ones do?  Also, look at the figure for running the car.  That's something that even retirees notice when they move to France and often have to get the car out even to post a letter.  Difference in all utilities (including phone/Net).  Difference in amount spent on children in France.  Val and other parents often warn of the financial demands of school age children in France and this is reflected here.  Finally holidays.  All the world think the French are permanently on holiday but I'm sure they spend far less than their British counterparts.  Possibly because more of them holiday at home, which is understandable when you have huge variety of landscape and more reliable weather.  And an interesting contrast to so many young British families today who think little of jetting off to Thailand or Florida for their summer hols.

M