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.

DH and I work bloody hard, in jobs it took us years to train for. At the start of last year we moved to a nicer area and brought with us a bigger mortgage. It is not a massive country pile, just for context.

It’s no bigger than our old house and when we moved here we made calculations that it would cost roughly the same for fuel - £109 a month. In October they put it up to £169. My fixed deal ends in March. My new options are £199 variable for about 3 weeks, then the variable will increase by the 52% so £300. Or fix at £344.

Our bigger mortgage was a calculated risk. We budget every month. I am careful with all our costs. We used our savings for solicitors and moving costs. I drive an 11 year old car. We don’t have lots of holidays (haven’t had one for years!) because we invested it moving.

There is no way on this planet I can conjure up an extra £100/£150 a month. I don’t know what the answer will be. I have a whole other thread about why my bills are so high (it’s beyond my understanding, frankly).

I feel so awful for those on prepayment meters or with limitations on their incomes. I really do.

It’s also the other things we have tried to do to support our local economy which will change and the overall impact of that will be huge if everyone does the same. I’ll probably ditch my local milkman to save a few £, the window cleaner, the hairdresser, etc. if everyone does that, those businesses will fold too.

@gardeningcreature You have hit the nail on the head, I've been saying this for years!

I am going to cancel my Sky subs soon to help my fuel bills.

I’ll probably ditch my local milkman to save a few £, the window cleaner, the hairdresser, etc. if everyone does that, those businesses will fold too.*

That’s the problem- I don’t have any of those things in the first place. I don’t have Sky or Netflix. I don’t buy takeaway coffee or have takeaways, or eat out. I don’t know what to cut back on. My heating isn’t turned on at all. Hot water is turned on three times a week.

@daisypond I understand why you are so worried and it’s so so unfair.

I totally appreciate people live far far more frugal existences than we do - but the things we do spend the odd ££ on aren’t frivolous they’re done with consideration (like the environment, having a milkman for example). That stuff will suffer too (imagine if 50% of the independent milkmans customers cancel?)

And when the wholesale prices do fall, I’d like to bet we won’t see our bills fall in line with that.

It’s going to affect everyone in different ways and none of it is positive. I can’t even bring myself to digest that stupid offering of government (non)help it’s insulting.

Rabbles the Cat has clearly had an empathy bypass. Or else she's Carrie Johnson.

@Lolamento

I had sympathy for genuine cases but the person saying ID is not good for voting and Corbyn would have been better. You are very wrong. Wonder is most of these posters are from momentum and doing their bit of propaganda?

ID isn't good for voting - it's a straight and unwelcome import from the US where it was used to shamelessly disenfranchise poorer voters. The level of personation fraud in UK elections is tiny - this is a solution for a problem we don't have. Corbyn policies from the last election would have take better care of the poorest, that's a fact.

100% with bells on Daim

@wildchild554

I used to use an electric blanket but now I wear 2 pairs of socks, a fleece onesie with trousers on top and a top underneath, a hoodie, a dressing gown, hat, scarf, and gloves, I find it works better and having arthritis and asthma it is important to stay warm.

Good christ, how the hell do you manage all that trying to go for a wee? With arthritis no less

Just watched Martin Lewis on itv hub where he interviewed Rishi Sunak. I don't think the chancellor realises how galling it sounds to ordinary people when he says he wont tax the energy companies who have recieved massive profits because it puts off investors. Boils my blood.

HarrietsweetHarriet
I hope everyone made her feel bad as she’s had her comment deleted now 😋. I have never seen anything like that message and I’ve been on here for years!

@LizzieMacQueen

The problem with turning the heating off, as well as it being freezing, it's just not good for a house to be unheated. It'll lead to damp will it not? People will have no money to repair or replace windows and houses will literally start falling apart.

You can just open the window though and if you have candles you can burn them by the window and it dries some of the condensation. Towel the windows down every morning. It's all you can do.

@Lolamento

I had sympathy for genuine cases but the person saying ID is not good for voting and Corbyn would have been better. You are very wrong. Wonder is most of these posters are from momentum and doing their bit of propaganda?

So I'm not genuine because I care about the poor and most vulnerable in society and I oppose unnecessary voter ID laws that will disenfrachise the poorest in society - who most likely aren't voting Tory. Not to mention how elitist passport rules are with a select few professionals able to sighn and medical professionals like GPs no longer allowed to sign on your behalf unless they know you personally not professionally as their patient,. Drivers licences again are exclusionary based on income.

If acknowledging Corbyn's policies for natiionalisation of utilities and rail would actually help the poorest in society and avoid these extortionate energy bills makes me a propagandist - then that's what I am. Your comment proves my earlier assertion that we will contibbue to be turkeys voting for Chistmas as we refuse to use the wealth in this country to alleviate social ills and raise the quality of life for everyone because it seems to suspicious.

Because let's be honest when has the economy doing well ever meant anything for the poorest in society - not the middle classes looking for favourable mortgage rates, or bankers or billionaires but the ordinary person on the street - good economy, bad economy - things oscillate between impossible and not so tough. I grew up a Conservative all my life, but the older I get and out of my bubble the more the inequality in this (the 5th/6th richest country in the world) country disgusts me - so you wouldn't be wrong to call me a socialist. 40 years of neoliberalism and the parasitic nature of capitalism has created billionaires, impoverished people and convinced the people in the middle they have the same problems as billionaires when they are in fact closer to the poorest who they have nothing but contempt for. There are no bootstraps that can pull one out of this mess - the system needs to change

Well said dratsnotyouagain

Some people have swinging bricks where their hearts should be.

Tories are brainwashed into think capitalism is a great system. Doesn't take genius to realise it doesn't work for everybody.

If acknowledging Corbyn's policies for natiionalisation of utilities and rail

I'm not even left wing and I think essential services should be nationalised, because these services are essential public services, a bit like the NHS.

I also think broadband should be classed as a utility.

I'm a centrist swinging voter. As I live in one of the richest countries in the world, I don't know why all our citizens shouldn't have access to these things. It's good for the economy to have a healthy, well educated, happy workforce who can get online (it's the 21st century) and travel around cheaply for work and leisure.

@dratsnotyouagain

That was backing up your points by the way.

It's the first time I've ever been aligned with momentum 😂😂😂

You can just open the window though

In February?!? 🥶😱

This really struck a chord with me: similar memories. Like her, I now can't abide the cold, at all, because of earlier experiences.

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/07/even-when-i-slept-i-was-cold-the-brutal-reality-of-a-childhood-in-fuel-poverty

Suggesting people who are already freezing open their windows in February to let even colder air inside is not very helpful advice.

@PurpleThursdays

Just watched Martin Lewis on itv hub where he interviewed Rishi Sunak. I don't think the chancellor realises how galling it sounds to ordinary people when he says he wont tax the energy companies who have recieved massive profits because it puts off investors. Boils my blood.

Sunak is an ex-investment banker married to a billionnaire's daughter. Of course he only cares about that! I am baffled how anybody has falled for his PR campaign that he's some "man of the people". It's laughable at best.

@oopsIdiditagaintoo

If acknowledging Corbyn's policies for natiionalisation of utilities and rail

I'm not even left wing and I think essential services should be nationalised, because these services are essential public services, a bit like the NHS.

I also think broadband should be classed as a utility.

I'm a centrist swinging voter. As I live in one of the richest countries in the world, I don't know why all our citizens shouldn't have access to these things. It's good for the economy to have a healthy, well educated, happy workforce who can get online (it's the 21st century) and travel around cheaply for work and leisure.

Totally agree.

@HootOwl

If my opinions are in line with those of momentum then the political landscape has changed more than I thought.

[quote oopsIdiditagaintoo]@HootOwl

If my opinions are in line with those of momentum then the political landscape has changed more than I thought.

[/quote]
Lol! Tbh I think they are all crackers. As a centrist there is nobody to vote for anymore.

I agree with your comments HootOwl re Sunak. Same people who fall for his man of the people act are the same gullible fools who fell for Boris 'I'm just a harmless, lovable, bumbling buffoon' Johnson.

@PurpleThursdays

I agree with your comments HootOwl re Sunak. Same people who fall for his man of the people act are the same gullible fools who fell for Boris 'I'm just a harmless, lovable, bumbling buffoon' Johnson.

He was pretty good at buying favour with furlough etc. What a lot of people don't realise is that was to stop social unrest and to keep businesses going. It wasn't that he had suddenly become a socialist.

And now they are trying to freeze us out of our homes and back to the office so we'll start funding public transport and Pret again 😁

It's terrible, I don't know how a lot of people will manage. I'm on a fairly good salary so am lucky, but even then am feeling the squeeze as it's the increase of everything; food, fuel, and now electricity/gas bills.

No idea what people are going to do, I guess in general we will have to have much lower heating and wear more jumpers. We could try growing our own food as well but you are limited in what you can grow in the UK. Tough one :(