£650

[Sleepyquest]

It has come to my attention that many of those on benefits are to receive £650 to help with cost of living crisis (I believe). That's great for those people for the next few months although will not sustain them forever. But that's a problem for later I suppose...

However, what do other people do? Those who earn just enough to not get any type of support? Inflation is at 11% and my income was raised by 2% almost a year after negotiations with unions started I add. I have seen on mumsnet, several low - middle earners now turning to food banks. This is diabolical. Why aren't our government doing more? Will they now that BJ is off?

I was not a person who benefitted from furlough or any type of covid scheme either. Life seems to be all work and no play at the moment.

Sorry that was a bit of a brain dump! Wondering if anyone else is feeling like this too and wondering if any support will be offered?

Didn’t everyone in a Band D and under just get a lump sum back from the Council whether they were on benefits or not? We didn’t qualify because we are a military family who were kindly excluded from the lump sum.

fyn because you are a mitary family, or because you aren't a council tax payer in respect of your home? (genuine question).

OP council tax payers in bands A-D will be getting the £150 (I think) rebate mentioned above.
Gas and / or electricity bill payers will be getting £400 credit on their account in the autumn.

@Chasingsquirrels military families pay ‘Charge in Lieu of Council Tax’ to the army which is then paid on to the local council. You don’t have to be a council tax payer to get the £150 though, people living in student houses got the payment.

Students still have to register for council tax and have an account, they just get a 100% exemption if full time.

I didn’t realise anyone “benefitted” from furlough in a financial sense, I thought they took a pay cut to 80% of wages?

@AnotherDelphinium yes, but military families do pay council tax. It’s just collected by the army and paid on. It just seems unfair to specifically exclude military families, particularly when my husband technically gets paid less than minimum wage.

fyn thanks for that info.
It is a technicality I guess then in respect of the type of accomodation you occupy. Which is rubbish for you.

No I was just jumping in before anyone said ' this is all down to people being paid furlough to sit at in the garden all day'

Yes we've had the council tax rebate. Didn't really make a blind bit of difference as it went straight out again on you know, council tax 😄

Well, we got excluded from the Council Tax rebate too, because we're in Band E.. Not sure how the bandings work, but we're in a townhouse (admittedly 5-bed, but tiny downstairs and courtyard) which is less expensive than a lot of 3 and 4-bed semis around us, which have received the rebate...

Well, you saved the £150 you would have spent that month on Council Tax.. We didn't even get that!

Hi @Pixies74 then it seems to be that they should be offering a more universal handout or just doing more to tackle rising energy prices. It's going to be a bleak winter

The £400 energy grant will be universal though, won't it?

Every household is getting £400 credited to their electricity account. Pensioners are getting extra winter fuel payment. those on Uc and tax credits, and pension credit are getting an extra £650. Anyone on a disability benefit is getting an extra £150, often paid to 2/ 3 people in a household. It would be impossible to give more to every household which is just over the threshold for means tested benefits. Some household could be getting up to £1400 pounds. Even people with potentially large amounts of savings on tax credits ( which don't really count savings ) are getting the £650 which really really isn't fair. So you could have someone on tax credits who owns their own home outright, has thousands in savings through inheriting money or something but gets tax credits as they have a low earned income and they would still get this £650. I agree it isn't fair in this respect but would be too hard to means test it further.

I'm in nmw so that rose and this July I will pay less ni

I appreciate the possibility of 70 extra ish a month doesn't mean anything to many posters on here ,but it's a lot to me.