To think the cost of living crisis isn't really a "crisis" for most people?

[buzzheath]

Not meant to be inflammatory at all. I'm well aware of the hardships that some people and families will face. But for the majority of people in the UK, will it really be a "crisis"? Isn't around half of the population middle class?

Who aren't eligible for the £400 RTB? I was under the impression it was being made available to each household via their energy provider in partial credits across winter months?

As set out here:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61583651

Are there hidden caveats?

No, everyone IS entitled to the £400 payment, regardless of household income
So even 'middle class' and 'upper class' will be entitled
There's no means testing for it

Only the weathy can afford to be this astoundingly ignorant @buzzheath.
The 4 million children currently living in poverty in the UK - not so much.

I think the problem is the word "crisis" has been thrown put there so much lately, we have become almost immune to the term. I do think that we will find it a bit of a pinch. I've already found a job with more hours and a second casual job to lay away some cash just in case.

I don't know what to think really.

When I read MN threads I come away thinking the whole of society is about to collapse.

My friends are annoyed at the increases but nobody is panicking.

I'm house hunting and everything is going for wayyyy over valuation price, so plenty of people have got tens of thousands in the bank ready to spend.

The government thinks it's serious enough to give us all free money.

It's really hard for me to tell just how bad things are.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/25/fifth-of-uk-households-have-negative-disposable-income-shortfall-pounds-60-essential-rent-food?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

We are lucky in the sense that our nursery bill is significantly decreasing soon otherwise we could be much worse off. We both work full time but don’t earn a 6 figure income between us. It’s disappointing because the money we were hoping to enjoy will now be swallowed up in increased costs. However we are lucky in the sense that we won’t have to make choices between heating or eating. It’s going to be really hard going for a lot of people and they have my full sympathy. I aim to support wherever and however I can.

I think a lot of families with a decent disposable income will be fine, maybe just more restricted in what they can have. They will be fine.
There’s a lot of families that have little disposable income, that really are down to the last pound before more money is due in. It’s these families that I worry about, they have no spare money to absorb the impact of higher costs.

For my friendship group I’d say 90% can afford it - maybe not happy about it but not having to make any major cutbacks. We are mid 40’s

This is our situation too! We are early 30s. I know very few who are worried.

I think this is probably where the OP was coming from and I dont know why she's been jumped on so much

The word has a specific definition, as does the term most or majority

A huge number of people will be real crisis, a larger number than that will struggle, the rest will just about manage and some wont be overly affected.

I dont think the vast majority will be in crisis within the usage of the words. A huge number will be though

I used to think of myself as middle class. But after 8 years of zero hours contract (something I had never heard of before that), I now think of myself as working class. Don't know if I need health or dental care in future I will have to pay more for it. things I used to rely upon - dentists I trusted, doctors i could access and feel secure with the hospital care, etc deteriorating, I'm lucky as I bought a second hand electric car last year and it is a big weight of worry off my mind. but the money I've saved will be going on heating my house in the winter, and I don't really know what is going to happen beyond then. My food bill is way more expensive than it used to be, so my standard of living is going down. with that, health could go down. I feel insecure - like a bit on and off with how much I can spend - as I can't judge what I have or what I need as food keeps going up. I do feel really angry that others, like me have not had a pay rise for years, and they, like me were just managing - it was OK, (not holiday ok) but daily life OK, but now, day to day is no longer reliable. There really is nowhere lower to go. except real life changes. real standard of living changes. from middle class.

I agree. I see loads of people posting about money saving tips on Facebook, then two days later asking for holiday destination recommendations.

we grew up with very little. My mum got paid on a Friday each week. When the money ran out on Wednesday or Thursday that was that. There was no more. We’d usually end up eating at my nans for 3 or 4 days a week. Holidays were not a thing. we never had one single holiday or even day out as kids unless it was something free like the beach.

We will feel the pinch but will be ok. I have a mix of friends, some very well off and others just getting by but no real panic from anyone. … yet!

I live in a fairly MC bubble and like others, most people I know seem fairly cushioned. But there are definite signs that people are tightening their belts - I can get a hairdresser appointment at short notice now, for instance. And holiday clubs that would normally be fully booked months in advance have vacancies.

Tiny violin stuff for the families reining in their spending, agreed, but crap for the small businesses etc affected by it

I think the problem is that over the past number of years the UK has lurched from crisis to crisis. Crisis is our new normal so the word has lost some of its impact.

I've only read the first page of responses, so this may have been said already.
I'm disabled, live alone in my own house, I can't work due to my disability so claim benefits. Since xmas my standard basket of shopping has increased from around £30/week to around £50. I know inflation is calculated on a lot more than just food but I saw something the other day that said inflation is running at 9.4% and food has increased by about 18% since January. I'd love to know where they're getting their info from because my basket has increased by approx 65% and I don't (can't afford on benefits) but luxury items, I cook 90% from scratch but do have a (service) dog who used to cost about £4/week to feed but now with the increases his food is costing closer to £10. The shopping basket figures mentioned earlier don't include anything for the dog, I account for him separately
I'm fortunate in that I fixed my gas & electricity in June last year for 2 years.
My boiler broke in December 2019 and I've not been able to afford to get it looked at/fixed, so I've been managing with no heating/hot water since then, so i can't even chose between heating and eating because that decision has already been made for me.
Looking at the utility price increases, I currently pay £50/month but come next summer when the fix ends, I've calculated that I'll be looking at approx £150 and that's only taking the increases up to January 2023 into consideration.
My benefits were tight enough at xmas but all these increases that I'm already having to cover (not taking account of future increased) are almost breaking me. Right now, once I've paid for my household bills, food (plus dog) and a small amount of petrol (was £20/month now £28), without buying/paying for anything else, I've got about £2/month left if I'm lucky.
That being said, how will I find an extra £100/month when my fix ends?
Some days I wonder whether I can afford to exist, never mind live.

People could start turning off every appliance that they would normally leave in standby mode except the fridge, freezer and router. They could also tell children to turn appliances off at the wall socket rather than leave them in standby mode. It might only be one or two pounds that is saved for small items but bigger items like TV's could be tens of pounds per year.
Turning down the temperatures on a combi boiler and the thermostat could save hundreds of pounds per year. Turn the temperatures on the boiler down to 50 degrees for water and 55 for heating and turn the thermostat down to 18 degrees, after a week you won't notice the difference.

Who needs the cooker and microwave telling the time 24/7 or the washer in standby all the time. Charging leads should be unplugged when not in use and games consoles can be turned off at the wall socket same for a surround sound system or Blue-ray player and stereo's, even the shower unit switch should be off when not in use.

Many people use less than 2900 kWh per year of electric or 12,000 kWh per year of gas. If electric rises to 43p per kWh and gas to 13p per kWh then people will cut down so much so that they might get hypothermia or miss meals to have the gas heating on.

Some in rented accommodation might have it written into their tenancy agreement that the internal temperature should be no lower than 12 degrees and sometimes higher. Even keeping to the minimum temperatures could cause some on UC to break their agreement and turn the heating fully off.
I know my flats internal temperature has never fallen below 13 degrees as I have a device that reads the temperature inside the flat. I also use hot water bottles to keep myself warm. I use so little gas that my SC is more than the gas I use. I'm down to just 3.8 kWh per day most days but one day I use 7 kWh plus when I do the washing, the dryer accounts for most of the extra usage, I don't hang it out because of my disability, I couldn't take a basket of wet washing to the line or bring it back in when dry as I have muscle weakness and drop things easily.

My family is in the squeezed middle. Because of my husband's wage, we aren't entitled to any benefits (and we know just how lucky we are). We do live in an expensive part of the country for DH's work, so rent is ridiculous, we have to pay for petrol and a car as the public transit network here is basically non-existant, and nursery costs are astronomical (no family nearby to help with childcare). I currently work part-time and we are actually losing money by me doing this.

The cost of everything is going up, but DH's wage is not. We are feeling the squeeze and will struggle this winter.

It doesn't help that people constantly say that others have it worse. We're well aware of that and feel for those people. It doesn't make our situation any better.

I live in Ireland and its a similar situation here. Both myself and my husband have fairly good paying jobs but you would notice the cost of essentials going up. It just means there is less money for going out and you would be more mindful of what you are spending money on. The costs coming into winter are starting to worry me as we need to oil to heat our home and its almost double what it was last year. But we will be okay.

As part of my work I see families who are really struggling. And this is only going to increase. Its very sad that all these increases hit the poorest most. I think everyone will see differences this coming winter. Some will hardly notice and some will be struggling to survive.

I was visiting family recently and was shocked at how expensive it's gotten. I moved away 13years ago. I genuinely wonder how those not working survive.

@RainCloud The issue is also that standing charges are so high. Why is this, does anyone know

In large part, it is to protect the credit balances of customers of the energy companies which went under. The rest of us are bailing them out. If you’re one of them, be grateful. Or alternatively, be angry with the Government/Ofgem, or whoever else it was that decided the way to manage the situation was to make everyone pay for it equally rather than cover it from the treasury.

OTOH, since the treasury gets its money from the taxpayer anyway, what difference does it make?

So far the people in my circles it is at the point of annoyance. A lot of

"You seen the price of beans, what a joke!" Type thing, but not panic. Most are able to still have a small surplus at the end of the month.

Come October, that surplus likely won't be there, then I think the tone of conversation will change.

We are ok for now, we looked the other day at our predicted energy bills, and it is going to approach £700 a month, which is outrageous. It is more a feeling of frustration for us right now than panic, as we can afford it but will mean cut backs, which I know in the big scheme of things means we are fortunate. And we do feel more vulnerable as we are both self employed therefore our fortunate situation can change rapidly.

I'm not ignorant to the issue though, I live in a low socio economic area, the food bank is the most happening place in my village, I frequently see people counting the pennies in aldi checkout looking worried and deflated, I've seen local face book posts begging for spare clothes/bedding. A few weeks ago I invited a couple who i met dog walking who have two children in for a drink, I had just ordered a couple of pizzas before (for me and my partner) they stood staring at the pizza, I said help yourself and they inhaled the pizza, they were ravenous, it was clear that they were hungry, properly hungry.

It does honestly make me feel a bit sick thinking about how tough things are going to get for people.

Yabu. An economic crisis effects everyone in some way . The next generation will suffer too. Am I going to starve? No. But it's naive to think this isn't a shit show we all need to be concerned about.

Thankfully we are and all going well will be fine! But things like our food shopping and diesel have taken a big chunk of our disposable cash out of our pockets. But there is still cheap ways to shop for food and you just need to meal plan and stick to it. But anyone doing a lot of driving/commuting for work will be hard hit. The cost of a tank of diesel for Mr has almost doubled.