To think in the UK, in 2022...

[justonanote]

The lowest incomes should be able to -

Have food in at all times and be able to do a shop without fear they haven't got enough

Adequately heat their homes and have as much hot water as they need

Have a enough left over for a few little treats. An ice cream, a coffee out once a week, enough to enjoy a cheap trip out every now and then?

The lowest of incomes.

I despair, I honestly do.

"are being expected to pay even more to subsidise the unskilled and people who choose benefits as a lifestyle."

Why do you class unskilled and benefits for a lifestyle as the same?

High earners depend upon those in less prestigious roles to be able to do their high earning. That is how society works.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

They might well have been net contributors but they kept wages low and put up rent and house prices

Nonsense.

Employers 'keep wages low' to derive profit. Every single nation in the EU saw economic migration to some extent, yet for years the UK was the solitary nation with consistent economic growth, and absolutely no corresponding increase in wages and salaries. It's absolutely nothing to do with EU migrants, and everything to do with governance that panders to profiteering above all else.

Speculative parasitical landlordism, the explosion of buy-to-let, lack of regulation around short-term and party let, the granting of permission to build endless numbers of student lets on any scrap of available land, Thatcher's right-to-buy, and the governments total disinterest in building any new social housing whatsoever is what has caused the UK's housing crisis.

And the main reason for the buy-to-let explosion was because of the 6 million EU immigrants that all needed somewhere to live

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

They might well have been net contributors but they kept wages low and put up rent and house prices

Nonsense.

Employers 'keep wages low' to derive profit. Every single nation in the EU saw economic migration to some extent, yet for years the UK was the solitary nation with consistent economic growth, and absolutely no corresponding increase in wages and salaries. It's absolutely nothing to do with EU migrants, and everything to do with governance that panders to profiteering above all else.

Speculative parasitical landlordism, the explosion of buy-to-let, lack of regulation around short-term and party let, the granting of permission to build endless numbers of student lets on any scrap of available land, Thatcher's right-to-buy, and the governments total disinterest in building any new social housing whatsoever is what has caused the UK's housing crisis.

And the reason why so many student buildings were built was because Tony Blair decided that 50% of young people should go to.

And then 20 years later his son Euan Blair Claire has made a fortune from sorting out that mess.

@LexMitior

Sorry, I mean a financed car which is hundreds a month - but the point stands. These people are not rich but their car suggests so. Its kind of massive cognitive dissonance where they've made it by renting a car that is £60k. Much like people "buying" houses with a 100 per cent mortgage. It will end in a similar way, similar people affected.

I always find it strange that people judge wealth based on their clothes. I’m relatively poor and sleep on a sofa bed. I wear really good quality clothes from charity shops. I always look well turned out partly because it makes me happy and partly because I get treated with far more respect because people make assumptions about me. It’s actually very useful.

[quote joydivisionovengloves71]@ILoveAllRainbowsx if there is a £3000 salary coming in each month and the average rent is £1000 a month where is the rest going? [/quote]
Maintaining cars, paying extortionate train fares to get to work, paying extortionate childcare.

"Also people do not just get £67 carers allowance unless they have a working partner who earns too much for other means tested benefits. No one just has carers allowance - they would be topped up by Universal credit or income support, housing benefit, tax credit etc."

Carers allowance is low because the government relies on people not saying they are not doing it and forcing the state to expensively provide the caring. They are using the fact that people do not walk away.

[quote joydivisionovengloves71]@ILoveAllRainbowsx if there is a £3000 salary coming in each month and the average rent is £1000 a month where is the rest going? [/quote]
And if house prices and rents weren't so high then women would not have to work if they did not want to and so would not be dependent on childcare

Why do so many people think the only options are Labour or Tory?

Because the way the uk voting system is rigged realistically those are the options

if there is a £3000 salary coming in each month and the average rent is £1000 a month where is the rest going?

where do you think?

heating
food
water
petrol
travel
food
insurance
internet

potentially childcare

@idiotwhoworries

What was your husband's reason for wanting to vote Tory? Did he simply not know anyone trying to cope on disability benefits or struggling to access social housing, or anything like that?

I just don't know how anyone can look at the last decade and think they give a damn about poor or vulnerable people.

It's not ignorance. They just really don't care if people are hungry, sick, cold. If children are struggling with respiratory infections etc due to unsuitable housing.

The trouble is none of them care, Tory, Labour who the hell even knows the difference when one or other is in!

The OP is pretty much exactly what Labour (and a lot of other parties) stand for when you get right down for it. The Tories are the capitalist, everyone for themselves, party, and believe that income inequality is fine.

can't disagree, I can only add that thank fuck we have free healthcare, until the Tories decimate that too for a profit

This is what happens after 10 years of Tory rule. The Tories are desperately trying to sell it as all due to Ukraine, but the current mess was all going to happen (price rises etc) before Ukraine kicked off. Martin Lewis made this point very recently. We probably haven't even seen the effect of Ukraine yet.

can't disagree, I can only add that thank fuck we have free healthcare, until the Tories decimate that too for a profit

They already have. Have you tried to get an ngs dentist?

I sometimes this voting Tory is a bit like playing the lottery.
You know someone wins and gets super rich.
So every week you spend £10 on lottery tickets hoping it'll be you.
And every week you and everyone else is £10 poorer.
Voting Tory is everyone a bit worse off, but a tiny, tiny number of people super rich

@Kendodd

can't disagree, I can only add that thank fuck we have free healthcare, until the Tories decimate that too for a profit

They already have. Have you tried to get an ngs dentist?

OK then, please explain Scotland. At least as shite as England, health, education etc fully devolved, poverty worse, tax rates higher/thresholds lower for all but the lowest earners and extra money from the Barnett formula. The things we are told we need for a 'better, fairer society' do not seem to have achieved anything up here.

Scotland did have free university- no student loans?

Having a home you can't be chucked out of with two months notice would be great too.

@rugbunch

if there is a £3000 salary coming in each month and the average rent is £1000 a month where is the rest going?

where do you think?

heating
food
water
petrol
travel
food
insurance
internet

potentially childcare

Childcare costs in the UK are a tragedy.

So many women end up being stuck at home not working because its simply not cost effective to work due to nursery costs.

We pay £1,600/month and have seen even higher in London.

And if house prices and rents weren't so high then women would not have to work if they did not want to and so would not be dependent on childcare

Yay 'coz all families are made of a man and a woman, childcare is the woman's problem and women's jobs and careers are optional anyway Back to the good old days when men brought home the bacon and gave women an allowance? Fuck that

Do you think it's wrong that I get £2.5k a month in benefits then? A lot of that isn't means tested

All I can say is I must be doing something wrong if your getting 2.5 grand a month on benefits

@Lovemyheathershimmer

Do you think it's wrong that I get £2.5k a month in benefits then? A lot of that isn't means tested

All I can say is I must be doing something wrong if your getting 2.5 grand a month on benefits

Presumably a lot of it is disability benefits if non means tested, likely for more than one disabled person in the household.

@mudgetastic

Because the way the uk voting system is rigged realistically those are the options

Protest votes matter. Even without a majority, alternative parties can have an influence if they have at least some MPs.

@doublemonkey

Some people are more bothered about Labour’s stance on trans issues than the Torie’s grinding people in to the ground. They don’t give a shit about people not being able to afford even the basics. They try to cover up how much of a shit they don’t give by saying Labour doesn’t know what a woman is!

Labour's stance is impacting 51% of the population and is having a devastating effect on gay and lesbian children in particular. If they can't define 'woman' they can't be trusted to run the country.

The situation we find ourselves in is a global issue. The world stopped working for two years. Governments paid out vast sums of money which of course will have to be paid back. None of that can be blamed on the Tories.

Many of us warned that lockdowns would have a devastating effect. I predict the energy crisis is just the beginning.

The "global issue" has been made much worse here by way of Brexit and government corruption. Our government literally saw Covid as a Get Rich Quick scheme for them and their mates. Some of them certainly see Brexit the same way.