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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask what help the government will put in place to ease “cost of living crisis.”

28 replies

TedOnTheBed · 08/01/2022 13:42

I have read they are considering extending the criteria of the current Warm Home Discount eligibility and increasing the amount of the grant to support the most vulnerable in society. I think targeting support is a good idea and helping those who really need it but I don’t think that is enough. There was a change to universal credit taper rate but that didn’t bumper most peoples benefit up enough to cover the £80 covid allowance they removed. It’s not just energy prices going up, super market price are increasing week on week, petrol prices are through the roof and I am sure there are lots more examples, so what would you like to see put in place? Universal credit allowances increasing to cover inflation costs and the benefit cap to rise by as much would be a welcomed start for a lot of people I am sure but else could they do? News paper reporting they are do out of touch with real life they are failing to come up with a support package.

OP posts:
JurgensCakeBabyJesus · 08/01/2022 14:06

Wages need to go up, minimum wage and public sector salaries which have been on pay freeze for Christ knows how long now it sets a tone for the private sector

FourTeaFallOut · 08/01/2022 14:21

I honestly don't know. Every time it is raised by journalists mps just seem to shrug it off like it's a minor issue. But I think there will have to be a plan in place by April when the energy costs will really bite.

LakieLady · 08/01/2022 14:37

An increase in the personal allowance for income tax is overdue and it should be uprated, and the NI threshold should be brought in line with it (like it used to be). Benefit rates should be increased so that they are back to where they were in 2015, after adjusting for inflation, to protect the poorest. They should increase the winter fuel payment and warm home discount should go up to at least £200.

I also think they should reduce VAT on energy bills to at least 2.5%, to offset some of the increase in prices. That would help everyone.

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 08/01/2022 14:42

@LakieLady

An increase in the personal allowance for income tax is overdue and it should be uprated, and the NI threshold should be brought in line with it (like it used to be). Benefit rates should be increased so that they are back to where they were in 2015, after adjusting for inflation, to protect the poorest. They should increase the winter fuel payment and warm home discount should go up to at least £200.

I also think they should reduce VAT on energy bills to at least 2.5%, to offset some of the increase in prices. That would help everyone.

This government won't do any of that though. They don't give a shit about ordinary people.
MadeOfStarStuff · 08/01/2022 14:45

Honestly? Probably vote to increase their own wages but not do anything for those ACTUALLY struggling with it

Atla · 08/01/2022 14:47

They -should- do what @LakieLady says.

But they'll probably do shite all, because they don't care.

SweetFelicityArkright · 08/01/2022 14:50

News paper reporting they are do out of touch with real life they are failing to come up with a support package.

I think this is the key, how many people with the power to do something are living on UC or minimum wage? It doesn't affect them and it's very easy to ignore an issue that doesn't affect you, and to make assumptions about things being exaggerated, or bat it back to people needing to take personal responsibility over their income and outgoings, rather than address that some people on lower incomes don't already have enough income to cover their essential outgoings. And by essential I mean a safe place to live, food, heat, clothes and the ability to pay for those things.
When you pay for those things without a second thought, it's hard to imagine going without them.

MissyB1 · 08/01/2022 14:53

Well they ought to do everything Lakielady said - as a very minimum. But they will actually do sweet fanny adams.

Munkustrap · 08/01/2022 14:56

Any number of things they could do. A VAT holiday on essentials like energy bills would take some of the edge off. But I suspect that what they will do is absolutely nothing.

SickAndTiredAgain · 08/01/2022 15:00

They won’t do anything of substance. They might announce a couple of things, but they’ll be things that have a nice headline but once you actually look at the detail make very little difference.

Overthebow · 08/01/2022 15:02

Child benefit needs sorting. The threshold needs raising, and made to be joint income rather than individual income, as well as a decent rise to the child benefit payment. I have no idea why my house should get it when we have a combined income of around £90k, we really don’t need it.

Also, a rise to personal allowance for income tax.

LakieLady · 08/01/2022 15:05

@Atla

They -should- do what *@LakieLady* says.

But they'll probably do shite all, because they don't care.

True.

But they have to have an election no later than May 2024. That might concentrate their minds a little.

I really worry about how families on low incomes are going to manage. They tend to be more likely to live in homes that are hard to heat, as well, unless they're lucky enough to be in social housing.

lollipoprainbow · 08/01/2022 15:05

Wages definitely need to increase, the cost of living has rocketed, rental properties are sky high and rented out before they even come on the market. Something needs to seriously be done but what I don't know. The working poor are the ones who struggle the most.

LakieLady · 08/01/2022 15:10

@SweetFelicityArkright

News paper reporting they are do out of touch with real life they are failing to come up with a support package.

I think this is the key, how many people with the power to do something are living on UC or minimum wage? It doesn't affect them and it's very easy to ignore an issue that doesn't affect you, and to make assumptions about things being exaggerated, or bat it back to people needing to take personal responsibility over their income and outgoings, rather than address that some people on lower incomes don't already have enough income to cover their essential outgoings. And by essential I mean a safe place to live, food, heat, clothes and the ability to pay for those things.
When you pay for those things without a second thought, it's hard to imagine going without them.

Given that an MPs salary is over £80k, none of them.

All the more reason for a campaign against fuel poverty.

If it's true that the energy costs for a "typical" family are going to rise to £2k a year, that's one-sixth of the basic allowances paid to a 2-adult, 2 child family on UC.

For a family to have to pay 1/6 of their annual income, after housing costs, on energy bills is absurd and untenable.

LakieLady · 08/01/2022 15:17

@JurgensCakeBabyJesus

Wages need to go up, minimum wage and public sector salaries which have been on pay freeze for Christ knows how long now it sets a tone for the private sector
Min wage has gone up, actually. It's almost £9 ph. I think it's uprated in line with inflation every year.

When I started with my current employer 15 years ago, the hourly rate for the job I did then was 2.5 times NMW. That same job now pays 1.2 times NMW, so staff have had a pay cut, in real terms, of 50%.

Because they're a charity, delivering contracts in health & social care, they've been unable to increase wages because of public sector cuts. It affects the third sector, too.

LadyCatStark · 08/01/2022 15:27

We’ll the obvious thing is to delay that national insurance rise but they’ve already said they’re not going to do that 😡.

AppleButterfly · 08/01/2022 15:36

I think they should scrap the 2 child limit for UC child element or tax credits for those still on them.
Extend the criteria for healthy start vouchers. Perhaps a similar scheme for pensioners on low incomes too.
Increase minimum wage in rise with the higher cost of living.

But that's answering things they should do, what they will do I expect is nothing. A great leader will take care of the people, but BJ is not that, they're all fine from where they're standing. His goal seems to be to spend as much money as possible, to destroy the NHS and make cuts inevitable to schools, benefit system etc. Next PM will probably be blamed for that.

Returnoftheowl · 08/01/2022 15:39

I imagine the help they will actually put in place is absolutely nothing.

Nat6999 · 08/01/2022 15:45

It will never happen but wages need to increase with the rate of house prices.

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 08/01/2022 15:46

Take VAT off home energy would be good start. John bastarding Major lied about that and should never have applied it in the first place.

ilovesooty · 08/01/2022 15:48

They won't do anything as there isn't going to be an election any time soon.

DrManhattan · 08/01/2022 15:52

They don't care

ParsleySageRosemary · 08/01/2022 15:52

What they will do is some fiddling about with appearances and a couple of benefit changes that makes it look like they are doing something.

Will they legislate to solve the housing crisis via rent control - no. Will they sort out the financial shenanigans that give some people insane amounts of money for doing nothing - hardly. Will they redistribute - no. Will they stop private landlords, rethink globalisation - hardly, they are ideologically opposed to doing anything that might stand in the way of rich people exploiting poorer to make money they don't need.

You can view it either as the economy's smashed to bits, or they're rebuilding empires with slaves, it comes to the same thing. Democracy and the old social contracts are dead in the water. But it's all built on smoke and mirrors and it won't last.

Flowerpower23 · 08/01/2022 15:54

I really hope they raise the financial benefits for single parents earning. This week I had a 71.00 Asda delivery and it was barely two crates, it was so saddening.

lollipoprainbow · 08/01/2022 15:55

@Flowerpower23 me too, single working mum here struggling massively.