AIBU to be totally confused (cost of living crisis)

[LittleBitHeiressLittleBitIris]

AIBU to not be able to understand/ grasp the scale of impending disaster that is building over the increased cost of living?

I genuinely don't see how millions of people with outgoings that are about to be actually higher than income is going to play out.

I'm not trying to be goady and obviously realise no-one has a crystal ball but am I missing something? Has this ever happened before in other recent times/ other cultures and what was the result. I can't even imagine what could happen.

I feel really clueless! Any ideas/ opinions/ further reading much appreciated 👍

My gas and electric are happily fixed until October.

I pay £89 a month for both.

Out of curiosity I put my details into a comparison site yesterday. The best deal I could find was over £200 a month which would be on top of the £175 I pay in council tax plus my rent. Add in fuel costs for work and I’m pretty certain come October (when energy prices are due to further increase) I am going to be in trouble even with the UC top up to my salary.

Our son is severely autistic so one of us has to be a carer to him meaning we don’t have the luxury of my husband trying to find more hours. I have a good salary but only have 22hrs a week and no more hours available.

I will likely look at doing some care work which is low paid but I am good at it and enjoy it. That will bring in a little extra.

I won’t deny I am very worried about how we will cope though.

@Bringsexyback it's my own fault that I work in the public sector and my bosses have no control over wages or pay rises set by the government? Maybe we should all just quit and then the rest of you would be buggered without public services. What a ridiculous thing to say.

hopefully people take to the streets, the poll tax riots were not that long ago, there must be some backbones left in the country.

government dont care as long as it doesnt affect them, its up to the people to make sure it does.

We know if energy prices increase to a £3k average in October then 8.5m homes will be in fuel poverty - that's up from 3.5m last August. That's well over a quarter of the population living in a home that would struggle to keep warm before you even consider all the other inflationary pressures on other basics, fuel, food, clothing, mortgage rates, rental rates, council tax, water rates. I think a good proportion of the population will struggle who were managing fine until recently.

I'm currently training to be a teacher and my qualifying salary won't be that high despite working do nanny hours. Dh earns a good wage but I think it will be a squeeze.

I've had work done recently - joiner and painter - I would say their charges are higher now.
Ukraine provides wheat for soooo many countries, not us particularly, but what's to stop our wheat going elsewhere if the price is better.
With the 2008 banking crash, Brexit, Covid, 10 years of austerity, now this - it will be years before life is 'normal'. But perhaps the reset will be a less luxurious life but a happier one with closer contacts with neighbours and local things.
One thing that will SURELY happen is a mixed parliament and no majority in the House of Commons, people are well pissed with the Tories, some/many need kicked out. Not that the rest are great but Gov prioirities need to change.

I don’t think the older generation who are sitting on assets, final salary pensions and large savings are helping younger family members and they should be.

Why would you see someone you love struggling.
The poor man who told his mum he felt suicidal would be living with me if he was that distressed.
However I understand his mother and family members could be in the same position.

Older generations could help by buying fruit or meals for young families and giving pocket money to children which was normal when I was small.
Nan’s buying winter coats and boots for example, not spending on themselves if their families are suffering.

*many not nanny!autocorrect!

The UK hasn’t recovered from 2008 neither has the US. People who think we came out of that recession are misguided.

I think we will need to re-learn old skills.
I grew up in a house with no central heating, no phone, no fridge.
Clothes and shoes were mended at home, food stretched- I grew up on root vegetables and cabbage! We foraged for wood for the fire.
We had no car, no holidays.
I had no idea we were poor- it's only looking back I realise that.

If people can't afford their mortgages more houses should go back on the market - if everyone isn't airbnb ing as they can't afford holidays, those houses also might go back on the market. If the cost of keeping your empty airbnb house aired is higher due to increases oil prices then again some homes might go back on the market.
If the oligarchs give up their homes/estates they might appear on the market.
If lots of houses go on the market the prices should fall.

@Malibuismysecrethome

The UK hasn’t recovered from 2008 neither has the US. People who think we came out of that recession are misguided.

Yes, I think that was why we needed to have 10 years of austerity though I never heard it explained as the reason. And still the rich are stuffing money in off shore tax free accounts (including our MPs).

Perhaps we should ban these.

Many many families are already doing everything they can to make their income stretch, many already need food banks. I’m so worried about how they will cope now, we are the sixth richest country in the world, people living in despair should not be acceptable in this country.

And we all know what happened across Europe at the end of the twenties . . . . .

Seriously, malnutrition in Britain in the inter-war years was so bad that there were barely enough fit soldiers for the army (this fact made people in charge finally take notice, general poverty they didn’t care so mich for). When rationing kicked in during the war, SOME groups actually had better nutrition than before the war.
So no, it isn’t going to be an arte povera idyll, but really damaging for years to come, and with long term political danger if not remedied quickly (turning to extreme political ideologies, scapegoating, the rise of neo-facism).

@fallfallfall

what did people do in the 20's; well simple meals, extra clothing and nothing new. homes were tiny and furniture sparce. people used their time making and selling. no tv, no "nail art", no phones in most homes, people added things to meat to stretch it out (oatmeal in ground beef, eggs and breadcrumbs). oil filled lamps for a couple hours after sunset and in bed by 8-9. awake with the sun. they used scraps of material to make rugs in the winter. but everyone was in the same situation (although some were very wealthy).

Did they do that while working full time or was 1 salary enough so that someone could run the house and make sure everyone was being fed?

There is a conspiracy theory that the only reason life improved for the average person after WW2 was that those in charge realised that the men who survived were hardened fighters and weapon trained and they wouldn’t stand for going back to their old life’s after fighting a World War.

"I genuinely don't see how millions of people with outgoings that are about to be actually higher than income is going to play out."

Google an article about any developing country, or indeed life on benefits in the UK. Life will be like that for more and more of us.

I believe its the current Government's deliberate policy to push Britain into a more isolated and desperate society by stripping back the welfare safety net, the NHS, affordable housing, social mobility, subsidy for public transport, childcare funding (sure start etc) and all the things that make it possible to live a low/average income life with a reasonable standard of living.

IMHO TV programmes playing endlessly over the last decade slating the poorest people: "Can't pay we'll take it away", "Benefits Street", "Benefits Britain: Life on the dole" etc has convinced millions of us that people on benefits/low wages are sponging off us and should be scorned and punished.

Anyway, having lived in a developing country I can see that the gap between our lives here and people in that country are gradually narrowing - malnutrition, no money for fuel, poor public transport, less investment in education, restrictions on our right to protest, we can't leave and seek work somewhere else or easily trade internationally (Brexit) - we are going backwards as a country in many ways, and Covid and the Cost of Living crisis have accelerated it.

@AppleButter

And we all know what happened across Europe at the end of the twenties . . . . .

Seriously, malnutrition in Britain in the inter-war years was so bad that there were barely enough fit soldiers for the army (this fact made people in charge finally take notice, general poverty they didn’t care so mich for). When rationing kicked in during the war, SOME groups actually had better nutrition than before the war.
So no, it isn’t going to be an arte povera idyll, but really damaging for years to come, and with long term political danger if not remedied quickly (turning to extreme political ideologies, scapegoating, the rise of neo-facism).

Spot on on all accounts, sadly.

Imo though it's not down to the government to ensure people have good lives .

We're not talking about 'good lives' we're talking about people being barely able to survive so yes that is down to the government. They have no intention of scrapping the upcoming NI tax it's a disgrace.

It either won't hit as hard as currently predicted or the government will have to take some action, however reluctantly. It's a bit like very early in Covid before furlough was announced and people were saying that the government would just leave people to lose their homes etc on UC because that would be typical of a Tory government. But actually - and with hindsight this is completely obvious - they had no choice but to act or to see the entire economy collapse. This is the same. They don't want to act and they're going to put it off if they can. But ultimately, just like it turned out we suddenly had bottomless money for Covid, help will be found if it's that or total economic collapse and that's what no intervention under the scenarios currently being bandied about would mean.

@TheHoptimist true though. Folk who live a life that looks great on Instagram often are paying through the nose for it and have feck all to buy stuff they actually need

@fallfallfall

what did people do in the 20's; well simple meals, extra clothing and nothing new. homes were tiny and furniture sparce. people used their time making and selling. no tv, no "nail art", no phones in most homes, people added things to meat to stretch it out (oatmeal in ground beef, eggs and breadcrumbs). oil filled lamps for a couple hours after sunset and in bed by 8-9. awake with the sun. they used scraps of material to make rugs in the winter. but everyone was in the same situation (although some were very wealthy).

They also didnt have contracts for phones or TV or internet that cant be got out of, maybe at a push suspended for a few months, which will help but only til the next increase.

I've been this dirt poor, it's not healthy, I've done the heat or eat, I lived on microwave meals because they were quick to heat up. Living on microwave meals is not healthy at all. (Actually previously to that time I was even poorer and lived on oatmeal and the odd banana)
Missing out for years on micronutrients and feeling hungry for the same years is beyond shit.

Getting up before the sun is not an option for many many people, we cant all lie in bed, some of us have jobs to go to before the sun has risen. And still even with a job people will struggle to pay this round of increases, wait til the next round hits.

For anyone reading who can help, if your donating to a food bank, think about the packaging. Can it be opened easily (ring pull tin, tear bag no scissors required) can it be eaten cold, can it be carried easily and even poor people who need food banks should be given some luxuries. Can you stretch to small jars coffee, some biscuits or little cakes, or the like.

I would've given a limb some days for something sweet with a coffee, so I try to help that way.

I grew up in a house with no central heating or double glazing and do you know what? It was fucking cold & miserable! I’ve no time for the “well we were just more stoical & it didn’t do us any harm” crap. Thete was ice inside the windows in winter, you woke up aching from the cold if it was below freezing, the day we finally got central heating, it was like nirvana!

Also bluntly we had an open fire, someting which the vast majority of houses don’t have anymore. Even if ppl do switch off all their heating, it’s not like they can do what we did and light a fire. They’ll just be really cold.