To wonder why benefits should rise in line with inflation when no job is?

[Bananil]

Massively struggling with food prices and absolutely no chance the heating is going on for a long time yet. DH and I work full time but have not had a pay rise since before the pandemic and wouldn’t ask for one as our industry has taken a real hit. I can’t think of any jobs that are expecting a pay rise in line with inflation so why do much fuss about making sure benefits do?

This was last years bonuses with the cap…..
”As most Britons face the biggest squeeze on their incomes since at least 1990, already very highly paid bankers are celebrating “particularly obscene” bonuses in the City’s pubs and wine bars.…London’s mergers and acquisitions (M&A) bankers earned total fees of $3.5bn (£2.6bn) in 2021, according to research by financial data provider Refinitiv for the Guardian. It is the highest annual total for M&A banker fees paid since Refinitiv’s records began in 2000, fuelled by a frenzy of corporate takeovers sparked by a flood of private equity cash and acquisitive American buyers preying on undervalued British targets.

That money is now set to be returned to bankers in their bonuses. London’s big four banks – HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest – are expected to pay out bonuses totalling more than £4bn when they report their annual results in the next fortnight….

The bumper bonuses will tip several hundred more UK bankers into the EU’s “high earners” warning report which details every banker earning more than €1m (£835,000) a year. The European Banking Authority (EBA) found that 3,519 bankers working in the UK earned more than €1m-a-year last year – more than seven times as many as those working in Germany which has the second highest number of €1m-a-year bankers.
www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/16/weve-had-a-run-on-champagne-biggest-uk-banker-bonuses-since-financial-crash

The cap.
“At the moment, that limit stands at 100% of a banker’s salary, but can be doubled to 200%, subject to shareholder approval. So a banker earning, say, £100,000 a year can only receive an annual bonus of £100,000, or £200,000 in special circumstances….Liz Truss and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, appear to see scrapping the cap as a key part of their “pro-growth” post-Brexit agenda.”

This years bonuses with no cap? Can’t really argue the cap hindered bankers pay when last year with the cap they had the highest bonuses since records began…

I can't tell many of you apart from the Daily Mail comments section.
We love a good scapegoat for the cost of living, no better than to poke the poor with a stick. It just isn't as fashionable in the current climate to poke the other one - immigrants.
I always presume that those who begrudge others a dignified living are generally bitter, trapped in a job they loathe and have many unfulfilled dreams sliding down the gutter.

The hard up working classes are obsessed with oneupmanship.
You define work as drudgery because it is all you know. And instead apportioning the blame to those who create the policies and rules, you prefer to stick the boot into those who appear weaker than you. I imagine this is the same contingent who think education is for time wasting sissy's.

Anybody looking at benefits claimants and thinking they are getting too much money is looking in the wrong direction. Divide and rule really works, doesn't it? The working classes should be looking at the rich, not the poor if they are looking for inequality and unfairness. This is why the bloody Tories win, time and time again!

Funny how the OP hasn't been back to their shit-stirring goady thread.

@Foxsache
Every one of us is only one or two life events from falling to the bottom of society.

Yep. Had a life event too. Now I’m permanently disabled and cannot work. Thank you for sharing your story so eloquently. I hope the OP takes notice. Too many people think it can’t happen to them.

You have no idea what kind of citizen I am. I do a lot of work with the most vulnerable in society . But i have also seen how much some people do get in benefits. Not all. But some. And when those few are getting more in total than someone working full time then something is wrong. For millions of people benefits is a life style choice .

I have 20+ years of NI contributions, I also get a private pension, as someone mentioned above because of the pension my contribution based ESA is cut in half.

Now that's unfair. I paid into a pension which I was only able to claim because of disability and I lose half the money I have paid NI contributions for because of it.

I didn't choose to become disabled. I don't think many people do. It's shit and I'd much rather be working and earning.

In some other European countries your benefit amount is worked out depending on what you were earning before you needed to claim benefits.

So just because you and your husband have not had a raise, you are saying nobody should? That is not equitable.

Have you ever tried to live off benefits? I am guessing not.

You don't vote Conservative do you?

Playing Daily Mail Bingo here, and I have a full house!! Go, me!!

Lazy/feckless? Dab!
Entitled? Dab!
Cheats? Dab!
Tales of ridiculous amounts (£2.6k pm for one person) Dab!
Work Will Set You Free. Dab!

Patronising of disabled people, but only the 'right sort' of disabled people? Dab!
Drain on resources? Dab!
Freebies? Dab!
Production of 'crotch goblins' to maximise benefits? Dab!

On the other hand, there are genuine, empathetic, realistic people who realise their own good fortune in life and also that events happen in life that turn it upside down well-beyond financial.

In what should be the wider picture of the Daily Mail reader, there are factors that really should concern them, but don't.

High rents? Look to your own parents who bought up the social housing stock, and who now rent them out at 3 or 4 times the equivalent social housing rent. Perhaps you even do this yourself with your 'inheritance'? Anyway most private landlords are, imo, benefits parasites on a far greater scale than someone out of work. They are leeching from the taxpayer to pay their fucking mortgages via housing benefits!!

Low pay? Look to your employer who is permitted to underpay you due to the benefits safety-net which creates the people upon whom you feel entitled to spit. These are leeching from the taxpayer via in-work benefits to pay their shareholders dividends.

Unions? The organisations designed to represent workers to obtain a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Either you choose not to join them (yet gladly - and despicably - accept any benefits won by them) or you're delighted to see them being bashed by whatever Tory government for which you voted.

Can you not see? The Tories are lining the pockets of their buddies (businesses and landlords) from your taxes and their compliant media is telling you it's all the fault of individual benefit claimants.

That's off the top of my head at 2:00am.

@Hoppymclimpy
I hope you can find a food bank? Gosh, I’m lucky compared to you as my DH stuck by us and he’s working PT so he can care for me, but I can’t imagine surviving as you are with a single disability income and DC. What kind of bastard thinks his child can eat on £0?! 💐

@Trez1510
Great post. I think that certain people are a bit gullible and the ones that believe the poor bashing propaganda are probably the same ones that believe Putin is actually paying families with fish to recruit soldiers (if a supposed trained journalist cannot discern a deliberate misinformation campaign from genuine news, not sure the average reader can either).

I'm from the United states and when folks are struggling financially and asking for help the answer is always just "work a little more"and you're called lazy and a societal parasite for even asking. So you little and "work a little more" every day until you've realized you woke up and you worked your life away and you hardly spent time with your kids, spouse, friends or even just doing the little things that you love. It's slippery slope.

Folks need help. Covid f**ked everything and everyone. Communities got to pitch in and help each other and try to be understanding.

Blowing out someone else's candles (or the flame on their boiler for that matter) won't make yours shine any brighter.

This ^^

Probably because poor people deserve to eat too maybe?

god this, stamp my feet, if I can’t have it they can’t have it mentality is childish.

companies should give pay rises, i agree but if they haven’t then you start to look elsewhere at a place that values you more, not dump on the most vulnerable in society

£265 on energy bills ? Pull the other one

That's not far off the "average" per the new price cap. Why do you find this difficult to believe when regulators etc have determined it as the "normal" kind of level to spend?

Yes OP. The poor are to blame for the cost of living crisis, so should be made to bear the brunt. 🙄

What wonderful words of wisdom that I'm sure Liz would wholeheartedly agree with.

Thanks, I can turn a thought into a rant in a nanosecond ... it's my superpower! 😬

I agree that the standard of 'journalism' these days is pretty much a joke, and investigative journalism doesn't even strike me as 'investigative' these days.

Bring back Snow and PIlger, and let's waken people up again!!

As a single parent on a low income with benefits to top it up, I really can't get myself worked up about other people potentially getting more help than I do.

I'm privileged to be able to work full time job with scope to improve my income over time - that's not a possibility for many.

There needs to be change accross the board, but I think starting with those who have next to nothing and will really struggle makes sense. Sometimes I stick a blanket on or use a hot water bottle instead of turning the heating on but I'm able to cover the bill, we are not hungry, we are by no means hard done by - that wont change because other people are getting a hand up which will likely still be far, far less than what would fund a family to actually be comfortable.

As PP have said - it's not a race to the bottom.

Yep, it’s built in to our contracts we have a yearly remuneration review on a certain date. Always got at least 2% and when taking on more responsibilities I would push for more.

Plus in the papers today it won’t be that they haven’t risen.in real money due to how little it is and the rise in inflation they will actually be at a loss.
move really appreciated seeing this tonight.I darent click on the title at first.I thought it would be the usual bullies and bashing and lies. But there has actually been empathy,There has been the truth of what it’s actually like to be on benefits not what the daily mail spread.
it’s shit op.it’s really f shit to be on benefit’s.
and with no wiggle room,they will literally be struggling to stay alive.

I agree with you. In another thread I tried to explain exactly this but was shot down!
I decided I wouldn’t have a child until I owned my own property and if not then I wouldn’t have one. After years of saving I managed to buy a property and then got pregnant just before 40. I watched everyone else have kids thinking I’d never be able to. My decision was based on my own upbringing and watching my mum have kids young and this not be able to afford to buy a home and stuck in renting. That was her choice but wasn’t mine.
I think forgoing kids is a pretty big sacrifice. In my experience people who have kids young are less likely to be able to afford to buy because of this choice. It is a choice though. Is it fair? No but it’s life. I think I made good choices in difficult situations and don’t think I should have to pick up the slack for others who haven’t made the same. I know people will don’t down my throat saying I’ve said no1 should have kids who can’t afford them/a house but yes in my opinion that’s what it takes in life sometimes. Harsh but reality.

If you're worried about who is screwing us, you need to look up, not down.

Any rise in benefits mostly goes straight back into the economy and the tax system ( via VAT). So all round win-we don't have people going cold and hungry(which will make them ill and put further strain on the NHS) and the economy grows.

Interesting first thread btw OP. Trip trap along now and mind you don't get your hairy hands caught in the door on your way out.

I agree with the rationale of your argument but not the patronising, dismissive tone. People who talked down to folk like the OP instead of trying to make address the concerns of others as a discussion between equals, contributed greatly to the feelings of resentment coming from red-wall, first time Conservative voters.