Government suggestions to help with cost of living crisis

[ThankGodItsThursday]

Is it me? I don't think so. Latest suggestions being reported include making MOT 's bi annual. How will this help. My MOT in March cost £37. That's a drop in the ocean compared to rising petrol prices, increased fuel costs, food prices etc.

Plus wouldn't this be a safety issue. Cars being driven that are potentially unsafe and it won't help anyone who owns a garage will it. There will be less people having a MOT so less income for the business.

Why is everything this government suggests or does a complete and utter cock up.

And no I don't have any suggestions myself that won't cost the government anything which is what I understand they are looking for. But any ideas surely need to be safe and actually save people a decent amount of money if it is to genuinely help.

They could cut vat on energy bills. Do a windfall tax on energy suppliers. Cut vat on nursery fees. Pay the correct rate to nurseries to fund the "free" hours. Get money back from their mates that fulfilled covid contracts incorrectly and with items not fit for purpose. Close tax loopholes, and actually pursue those that evade tax. Get back fraudulently claimed furlough money. Re instate the top up for benefits. Also include those excluded from the top up before. Top up benefits for disabled, especially if they rely on electricity for machines to help them - or actually keep them alive.

Get money back from their mates that fulfilled covid contracts incorrectly and with items not fit for purpose. Close tax loopholes, and actually pursue those that evade tax. Get back fraudulently claimed furlough money.

No chance. They have no morals.

Agree with @Slycat wrt MOT.

There is no such thing where I live, just an emissions test which is an air quality/ green concern.

It strikes me as kind of silly for the government to force people to keep their cars in acceptable nick. Surely people will see to this themselves given the clear advantages of fuel efficiency, resale value, etc?

EvilPea the police don't enforce unsafe cars here either.

They will pull you over for a broken taillight or headlight or failure to indicate a turn, or speeding/ failure to make the minimum speed on the highway. If you're pulled over you are asked to show your licence and your proof of insurance.

If your faulty brakes, cracked windshield, non-working wipers, or bald tyres result in an accident your insurance cost will rise. Fear of paying a good deal more for insurance is a great motivator.

Here's suggestions from the crikey almighty party!

1. Cancel HS2 -- give every household registered for council tax £1000 of vouchers (digitally encoded) that can be redeemed in supermarkets , petrol stations or against utility bills- excluding alcohol and tobacco- useable only by named person. This would cost £27bn - a lot less than HS2 - which really is a bit of a white elephant these days

1. Sensible Rent caps relevant to area and size

3 Reinstate proper levels on housing allowances if claiming-- relevant to what private rents actually 'are 'and not based on social housing rents.

1. Windfall tax-- partly used to fund above vouchers and also to allow for increasing childcare support allowances at nursery or minders for 1to 3 year olds.

5 remove VAT from utilities totally

6 (and won't happen) admit Brexit is a giant piece of shit given how it's a global economy these days, get in discussions with EU to reinstate single market and customs union as quick as possible even if not rejoining EU call it something like 'Britain First' or whatever !! If that's what it takes to be palatable to those still idiotically thinking it will be great-- it will not- you were duped.

1. Create jobs in some things that would actually be self funding in an indirect way a- bring back job centres in all major towns and city's and sign on there's probably an awful lot of people claiming and earning and getting away with it - also encourage recruitment agencies to post - so it's not just full of rubbish jobs- make them centres where you can find info about training courses, on line learning etc

B- utilise Empty retail space by setting up children's funky spaces in town for 2 to 10 year olds staffed by qualified people a charge in facility you can use if shopping or needing to visit solicitor or doctor etc make them fun and loads of different corners and activities for different age groups-- Pay in - but subsidised .

My MOT cost £1. Not sure this latest plan is gonna change my world.

Ideas from this lot have included:

“How shall we control our borders? Abolish the agreement that lets us return illegal immigrants to France!”

“A pandemic is approaching, what shall we do? Send our PPE to China!”

“What should we do about hospitals getting full? Send all the sick old people into care homes without testing them for covid!”

“What should we do about the pandemic? Pay people to eat out!”

“What should we do about all those pesky critical MPs? Illegally shut parliament, and lie about why!”

”What should we do about asylum seekers? Send them to an African country with a reputation for genocide!”

Is it possible that those in power are just not very good? If I’d been this bad at my job I’d have been fired long ago.

Allow voluntary euthanasia for those who choose it with a terminal illness, with a prognosis of less than a year.

And for elderly people and others who choose it, who are no longer able to live independently. Safeguards being put in place such as a living will that has been in place for 5 years.

I agree it would need strong safeguards but there are definitely plenty of people who would choose a dignified death at a time of their own choosing over suffering, pain and repeated crises. It works well in other countries and is currently available to those who can afford it.

It would also increase the number of children knocked down by cars on their way to school, especially in northern England and Scotland...

You don't get your car tuned at an mot, just checked for safety.

I get free annual MOTs for life from the dealership we got our second-hand car from. This isn't going to benefit me at all. Instead, I get a £150 loan I didn't ask for, a NI hike, and at least a 50% increase in my energy bills and a rise in fuel and food when many of those companies posted record profits last year.

Starmer "A vote for Labour next week is a vote for a very different set of choices. We would ask oil and gas companies to pay their fair share of reduced energy costs. We would not hammer working people with the worst possible tax at the worst possible time. We would insulate homes to get bills down. And we’d close the tax avoidance schemes that have helped his chancellor reduce his family’s tax bill"

So in my area (which hasn't had a Conservative council for over 50 years), when we elect yet another Labour administration, the council will tax energy companies, and close non-dom tax loopholes? Or are you telling porkies Mr Starmer and misleading the house?

One thing that is guaranteed is that the Labour council will continue to raise Council Tax by the maximum allowed by law every single year, so Labour will continue to hammer working people with the worst possible tax at the worst possible time.

One thing that is guaranteed is that the Labour council will continue to raise Council Tax by the maximum allowed by law every single year

Just like our Tory council then.

I think a better suggestion is for people who work in banks to start emptying the bank accounts of tory mps, and in the case of sunak his wife's too, and distributing out the money to people's accounts that are empty.

Highly illegal, but most of what the government does is illegal too, so fuck them.

Is it possible that those in power are just not very good? If I’d been this bad at my job I’d have been fired long ago.

Bad at their jobs? They're doing exactly what the global elite want them to do. Fuck us plebs over.

The naïveté of this is breathtaking. Have you no understanding of how economies function and how and why crises occur? This isn’t a conversation about whether pennies can be pinched here or belts tightened there.

FFS, you get your car checked, you get a list of items that need doing, or are advisory, doing them makes your car run more efficiently.

Don't split bloody hairs.

Maybe that's the solution, the 99% should just expect a drop in living standards under the Tories and post Brexit, afterall, it's what we voted for.
We do need to accept a drop in living standards! Currently western countries have a higher standard of living than can reasonably be maintained in the long term. We’ve created that high standard of living by exploiting both the planet and human beings in poorer countries. If other countries are going to develop and become equal we can’t continue exploiting them - so our standard of living has to drop. If we’re going to save the planet we need to stop exploiting it - so our standard of living has to drop. It’s nothing to do with the Tories or Brexit - it’s simply unsustainable to live as we have been doing.

The problem is that people are unwilling to accept the necessary drop in living standards. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that our western standard of living is unsustainable but people are still clinging to it. Global circumstances are pushing us in the direction of a lower standard of living but people expect the government to push back instead of just saying “look, the era of cheap everything and exploitation is over and this is how things are going to be now”.

My original point was that most people have the capacity to pull their belts in otherwise the pubs and restaurants and non-essential shops would be empty (and they aren’t). People just don’t want to - they want the government to fix it for them so they don’t have to reduce their consumption.

The problem is that people are unwilling to accept the necessary drop in living standards.

My standards have certainly dropped compared to my parents generation. I pay a big mortgage (still cheaper than rent), a load into a private pension which isn't as generous as it used to be. My state pension contributions have gone up even though my pension age will likely increase again. And I pay a fair amount of tax

Your original point wasn't a very good one, then. Because nobody thinks the increased cost of living is causing everyone to struggle with meeting their basic costs. It's a strawman. The existence of people who have disposable income to spend tells us absolutely fuck all about the position of people who don't.

Throwing the environmental argument in at this point in the discussion is not at all convincing either. If you wanted to argue that we all need to reduce consumption and accept that this will mean lots of people without money for basic necessities, you'd have done that way earlier rather than pretended that people who have money somehow negate the existence of people who don't.

The idea about nursery ratios was just shocking and unsafe. Unfair for staff also, when something inevitably goes wrong due to being overstretched then who will be to blame. The low paid nursery workers no doubt.

Well obviously, if the low paid nursery worker was as clever as Jacob Rees-Smugg then they too would have a nanny to look after them.

Maybe road tax might be a better suggestion as it costs me £200

However I wouldn't suggest something that would only help drivers! As a single woman with no children there are already a lot of things that exclude me from help and I wouldn't want something that helps only me but not others

Not me! I'm not 'really struggling' but I'm also not spending money on holidays and pubs! I earn the average uk salary but live on my own therefore all bills are mine.

There is a vast gap between people who are in poverty and those who can afford the things you mention, the majority of people fall into the middle and could really do with extra help.

I think the UK can do like other European countries; France and the Netherlands cut energy taxes in order to keep costs down for consumers, that's a start.

If living standards drop and people stop spending on non essentials , as a Previous poster said , then that's a viscious circle given that the UK is pretty much a service economy and we then end up with lots of unemployment or under employment. Sadly Britain shot itself in the foot- the main reason food prices are up rapidly is Brexit, a combination of import tariffs , increased logistic costs and the fact that HGV drivers and warehouse workers are now in short supply and hence their wages have risen quite a bit to attract people. It's good that those wages have risen, but it comes at a price. Utilities and fuel is another issue of course, and that is an issue globally- partly through dependence on Russia for gas and oil prices generally. Other factors such as rent and childcare prices are still within UK control but there doesn't seem the will with this government to either cap rent or subsidise childcare further, especially for very young children.

I should have added, because neither capped rent or childcare costs are a big vote winner with most Tory voters . They area government playing to their own vote base, hence the focus on immigration and such stuff- not governing for the National good.