AIBU TO WONDER HOW IN GOD'S NAME PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD THE INRESE IN ENERGY PRICES

[Diamondsareforever123]

OK this obviously won't affect those who are lucky enough to have money - but - how are those on low incomes/benefit, poor pensioners, etc. ever going to possibly be able to afford the energy price increases? Also the increases will have a knock-on price increase effect on everything we buy - food, clothes ...... I am concerned.

We've been watching food prices lately and it's crazy how things are edging up, our shopping, which used to not vary, is much higher at the time of the year it usuallyhugely dips (to make up for Christmasspending). And it is everywhere- I work in a large bookstore and everyone's talking about how magazines and stamps have jumped since the new year

The working poor won't!

And yet the government have just written off billions in the PPE scandal

What i don't understand is why people in the UK just passively let this happen? Is it because TV, social media, obesity and medication has nullified their intelligence and energy so much they are incapable of fighting back? In that case you get what you deserve.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

I read that in Portugala windfall tax has been levied on energy companies, so there is no effect on the consumer. No price rises.

Meanwhile here, Shell have just announced huge profits. But nothing like a windfall tax here. I hope this government ultimately get what they deserve.

amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/01/new-super-tax-to-deter-energy-firm-owners-from-gas-profiteering not quite the same but a windfall tax of sorts has just been introduced

[quote RosesAndHellebores]@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil there is much to recommend France. However, are you not aware that tax rates are eye-watering.[/quote]
That’s an “it depends”…

Social charges, v roughly the NI equivalent can significant, OTOH income tax can be much less eye watering than the UK.

In simple terms there’s a banding system to stop high taxation on income for low income households plus having multiple dependents in a single household (e.g. children, dependent adults) can further reduce exposure to income tax due to a thing called the parts system.

All that said whilst the Cap on domestic fuel prices (which does exist and is of significance despite some posting dis informative C&Ps) Is welcome I think we all know the books will have to be balanced somehow.

We should not have shut down our coal power stations without a reliable replacement (wind is not reliable).

I bet most of you moaning now were for the destruction of coal in the UK.

We should also start fracking.

Stoping the reliance on Russian gas should be the first priority.

The price of heating in my eu property hasn’t increased at all. Also for all the house in our area because we’re connected to district heating powered by household waste and biomas.

It’s just another of their lies to say that the country is beholden to international gas prices. They could have kept the ‘green shit’ (quote Cameron) in the building regs in 2010, and tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of households would be better insulated (literally) from this shock at the very least.

Also France has relias mostly on nuclear!

We should have build some in UK. Too controversial for the UK goverments though..it takes >15years to build a nuclear power station..energy security is not politically worth it (until it goes wrong).

@Gardeningcreature

We should not have to live like this that is the entire point. Both dh and I work full time. I absolutely should not have to tolerate this shit. I didn’t vote for it. I’ll say it again. You will get the ‘Let’s blame X lazy bastards, they shouldn’t live in a house with central heating/feed their children/own a pair of shoes/own a car/have a phone etc etc etc When will people wake the fuck up. This government have spent BILLIONS on their mates and giving tax payers money to their mates. They do not give one fuck about anyone who has to actually work for a living. If you have had the privilege of attending a private school which cost £23,500 PER YEAR per child plus over £1000 for a uniform, you have no idea, repeat no idea what it will mean to go out to work to earn a living. The thought that some people will not be able to give their children a hot meal or bath them due to the sheer expense is incomprehensible to entitled (usually white middle class males) who are in power. You may as well talk in Chinese for all the comprehension they will have.

This

@katscamel

This may be a weird thing to say but having lived overseas on and off for many years I have come to the conclusion that people in the UK are far too passive. We go through payouts, stagnant wages, increased costs in everything and what do we do.. moan to each other, in person, on forums such as these etc and nothing improves. In the country I'm in now... gas prices went up by 25% and people took to the streets. In this case it worked and the prices lowered though unfortunately protests got nasty for other reasons. Why don't people want to be more active when stuff like this happens? We did when the Poll Tax was introduced, remember taking time off college....(not that it did any good though).

I agree People in the UK just moan on forums such as MN, but do nothing else. They don’t write to their MPs , they don’t protest. They allow the right wing press to manipulate them and make them vote against their own interest. They look for scapegoats be it the unemployed, single mothers, disabled , migrants on the boat, diverting attention away from the fact that they have squandered our taxpayers money . They think that the British public are stupid.

I bet most of you moaning now were for the destruction of coal in the UK

Nope. I live in South Yorkshire. Thousands of people lost their jobs round here.

It really is such a knock on effect. I'm a childminder, we work from home, need the hearing and lighting etc, were going to have to put prices up, so that's childcare costs up straight away for anyone that pays privately...

It's going to be a shit show. Sadly we are with Bulb so our has already gone up to £164 a month from £92 😩 My kids are at home Mondays and Fridays (3 and 1) and I work Tues-Thurs from home for two of those days. We don't get any allowance from work but I did do the tax relief thing. During the day if it's really cold I work wearing a hooded blanket with my feet in a sleeping bag. Our heating is on a timer or will come on if it drops below a certain temperature. It's on for a few hours in the morning and a few at night.

And don’t forget, hospitals and schools have fuel bills to pay too - and this will damage their decimated budgets even further.

I just got my bill through. £270. I’m in a small terrace. I will have to try and borrow money to pay it if it stays that high. Will it go up more in April?

I’m a single parent, I work part time and so the obvious answer would be to increase my hours except I have a seriously mentally unwell DD who is mostly out of school. She can’t be left unattended for long as she is so high risk. I WFH and I’m barely coping with the hours I do now so my job is already hanging by a thread. DD feels the cold due to being underweight.

I keep hoping DD will improve so I can take on more work.

I am so tired.

I dont think people have the time or energy to protest. Already at the food bank and on zero hour contract.
Almost as if the torys want people too weak to disagree

@hopehealinghealth

I just got my bill through. £270. I’m in a small terrace. I will have to try and borrow money to pay it if it stays that high. Will it go up more in April?

I’m a single parent, I work part time and so the obvious answer would be to increase my hours except I have a seriously mentally unwell DD who is mostly out of school. She can’t be left unattended for long as she is so high risk. I WFH and I’m barely coping with the hours I do now so my job is already hanging by a thread. DD feels the cold due to being underweight.

I keep hoping DD will improve so I can take on more work.

I am so tired.

💐

@UsernameInTheTown what do you mean 'obesity has nullified peoples intelligence'.

I cannot work out what you mean by that ?

I've seriously considered moving abroad. It sounds dramatic but it's lots of little things (NI rise, lack of wage increase, energy crisis etc). I've been researching potential other countries and what their impacts are (e.g. how they are handling the energy crisis) and making a decision from there.

*We should not have shut down our coal power stations without a reliable replacement (wind is not reliable).

I bet most of you moaning now were for the destruction of coal in the UK.*

Absolutely we should never have shut them down until there was a viable alternative, we are sat with loads of coal in the ground but buying fuel from abroad (the fuel from abroad is fossil fuels).

It cost massive amount of jobs in my area.

I bet most of you moaning now were for the destruction of coal in the UK

Um, l live in Sheffield. Nobody in S.Yorks wanted the destruction of the coal industry. It was forced on them by Maggie. Look up the Battle of Orgreave, if you really think that.

What a stupid comment.

I seem to remember thousands protesting about Brexit - and in response people in England voted for an 80 seat Tory majority. Reap/sow.

This really scares me. Our rare has already gone up by about £60 and my two year deal from Octopus ends soon.

DP has just been called back to the office, meaning he will be away 3 days a week. I hate it but at least for now the impact it'll have on the bills is a plus. I'm borrowing some of the tips mentioned above and there are things I can cut back on.

It's not these things I really mind, as dreary as they are. It's the big things it'll cripple that make me angry. We're trying to save for a wedding. Not a big, expensive one but a few things we would like to have. We're trying to do my flat up- again, nothing huge or expensive but it still costs. Obviously bills come first, but I've waited and wanted both for so long, I really begrudge the extra money going in the energy company pockets when it could do so much for us or help us in savings alongside saving up for stuff. Most of all, by guzzling up any extra, it puts back babies. If we're being bled dry, it just can't happen. That's the one that breaks me.

@BarrowInFurnessRailwayStation

I wonder how the red wallers who voted tory are feeling now. Not so funny is it? Good ole Boris? Yeah, who's laughing now? Shell by the looks of it.

I hope it's a wake up call to never vote for these callous b*stards ever again.

Don’t be so sure. Tv news we’re interviewing folk in a northern formally labour town that went Tory last election. They were all angry about the parties etc. One guy was asked if Boris could turn it around. The guy said something like ‘oh yeah I’m sure he can I’d forgive him.’

But the same guy will still be moaning when he can’t afford to keep his market stall open or go on his holidays because of the shit show we are in.