To want the Government to do more about the Cost of Living crisis?

[user365241987]

I just cannot see what the Government is doing to support the insane rise in CoL. Our income is higher than it has ever beautiful we just scrape by every month. It's so depressing. Don't qualify for any benefits. So tired of it. I have written to my MP. I can't understand why they don't increase the lowest tax threshold as that would at least help everyone at the lower end. I don't see any improvement ahead.

The triple lock already doesn't exist for overseas pensioners in Commonwealth countries, though it does for lots of other countries.

Living in a tent is ridiculous, and to say they took responsibility to do that is absurd. I do not think that is something to aspire to if you are on the bones of your arse.
But if you want to go back in time in terms of the help people get, then knock yourself out. I would rather not live in a tent and risk being pissed on, or raped... the sort of risks homeless women face.. to be a martyr and not claim money from a system that is set up to try and prevent people living in tents to start with.

@SomedayIllBeSaturdayNightmy cousin is autistic, but honestly could have worked. There is absolutely no basis for letting her off due to anxiety. She gets very decent benefits and has for years.

We had well over a decade of shit ones, so it is going to take a while. These things take time. There is no magic wand. Nor a magic money tree.

Why does it have to come from people that are trying to do the right thing.

There is no money to pay for a support package. RR tried to cut the benefit bill and Labour MPs voted it down, meaning there is no available money.
We still have to pay for the support package provided in covid, and the energy support given when Russia invaded Ukraine. I think we have to cope with a lower standard of living until the bills are paid. It was never going to be popular but I don't see an alternative.

Do you know how her autism affects her?
My DP is autistic and can only hold down his job due to lots of adjustments. Getting a job is hard enough, let alone getting one where they will bend over backwards to keep you in the job.
They can cope until they can't, and suffer burnout where they basically can't even do the basics.

The government is likely about to do an u turn on extending IRL. This will entitle a significant part of the Boriswave to state support for life after doing work tied to the visa they came in on for 5 years (or not working at all and coming with a family member). This is unreasonable, but masses of Labour MPs (looking at you Emily Thornberry) think that we cannot possibly change the system to disincentivise this. There are things we can do to try to support those who contribute, just as we could reform benefits. We still pay child benefit to parents on behalf of children who don’t live in the U.K.. Problem is that doing these things is often framed as unkind by the left and dumped because the government lacks the stomach for it.

I don't what know the answer is but as a single parent working full time in what would be considered a reasonably paid job I don't know how much more I can cut out of my budget.

I've sat today and had to plan how to cut my food budget for the rest of the month in order to buy my teenage son new school shoes.

My rent increases every year far beyond any pay rise I can hope to get and I already have a 2nd job in addition to my full time job.

This . Redundancies left right and centre in the private sector happening now. Larger and small firms and everything in between.

@XenoBitch

I fully accept that working with people is more stressful for her. I fully accept that lots of things are more stressful. But honestly there is no reason why my cousin could not be stacking shelves - it would not be fulfilling her potential, but it would be work. Previous generations would have been horrified by the idea that you could just claim any job would send you into burnout and not bother.

It's certainly not equitable in my road. Loads of houses have been significantly extended, but their council tax band has stayed the same as before.

One house that was a 2-bed semi has had a side extension and a loft conversion, and is now a 4-bed, but their council tax band is the same. There are 4 adults living there, I live alone, my house is half the size of theirs and the only difference in what we pay is that I get the 25% discount for being the sole occupier.

The poll tax no longer looks like such a bad idea...

They need to increase the tax thresholds

@IDontHateRainbows cool. So you will know there are some scoundrels out there will never give an extra penny to their staff and there are also other business owners that very much want to do the best for their staff and their customers. It’s not possible to group all businesses together and generalise. You should also be aware of the enormous pressure this government has put businesses under, especially regarding rate rises.

There is not stacking shelves jobs anymore. You have to be trained on the tills etc too.

Me too.

I will probably get flamed for this.

Why should higher tax bands be kept in place but lower tax bands relaxed or more beneficial? Me and DH are in the upper tax band (just for me and much more for DH) in Scotland.

in my experience, usually the lowest paid people are the loudest to shout and demand higher earners pay more or to continue paying higher tax. Why? I dont get better services or special treatment. We dont get help with anything but apparently a family in a lower tax bracket can end up earning more because of help with rent, childcare etc. That isnt right. So I fully agree more should be done to help those who work but cant afford the basics but dont demand higher earners can still crack on. Me and dh are not living in luxury!

The problem is not pensioners ( we have one of the poorest pensions in Europe) and a much higher age when we can take it than some other countries eg most women in China retire at 55! ( only managers wait to 60). People in the poorest areas of the UK suffer from ill health and die about 10 years earlier than the people in the richest areas.

The problem is not people on UC, nor the disabled, nor immigrants who desperately want to work, nor asylum seekers who also want to work but aren't allowed to (unlike in many other countries like Spain. ) It makes no sense to have people trapped for years unable to work, particularly if they have skills we desperately need like nursing. Particularly as we have a desperately low birth rate which without immigrants shoring us up would lead to total disaster.

The bigger problem is that the super rich have been given many ways to avoid paying their share. ( We are one of the richest countries in the World.) Off shoring profits eg. putting their money where income tax or investment taxes are low or non existent etc. while Companies such as Amazon pay poverty wages. If wages were increased it would be a boost for the economy as people ( especially the poorest ones ) would spend it here.

The 50 richest families in the UK have the same wealth as the poorest 50% of the population, 30,000,000 people. We should be taxing their wealth. A mere 2% or even more would barely be noticed by these billionaires but would pay for our NHS, free dentistry, Nationalisation of Water, Rail, Mail etc. so we can all benefit. It makes no sense to allow the profits from these industries to be taken out of the UK to France, Germany, the US etc. when we need the investment here.

No I absolutely do not think the government should be helping out with the Cost of Living. We have become far too used to the idea that someone will help us out. When we are perfectly capable adults who can go to work. those who genuinely cannot work should be helped.

@XenoBitch

yes there are - overnight at my local Tesco, cleaning offices. Quite a few jobs that require minimal interaction. My local supermarket has a man who is deaf who doesn’t go on the tills ever. It’s a massive, massive cop out to say that the jobs don’t exist any more - yes, lots of repetitive jobs have been automated but not by any means all.

I was just about to say the same thing.

I get so pissed off with people saying my PIP should be means tested or the fact that DH served this country for 35yrs, so now has a military pension, so when the time comes should have his State Pension means tested, but completely ignore the fact that the likes of Richard Tice and his ilk avoid paying hundreds of of thousands of pounds in tax. It’s loopholes that allow these people to get away with doing that that are the problem, not me, not my DH, nor the woman up the road who is autistic and doesn’t go to work.

They would have to get the job to start with. Even tesco has bullshit presentations and group interviews for order picking

Reminds me of when Rod Stewart did his utterly cringe saviour/ god complex paying for people's medical treatment as a publicity/ look at meeee stunt.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-64759060

I'm in a similar position, but have just state pension and a small private pension. I started work at 17 and retired last year, at 70. The increase in state pension means that I'm now paying more tax on my private pension.

I'm worse off than my MIL, who gave up work when she had her first child at 21 and only worked for 5 more years when her husband had to give up work because of ill health. She gets pension credit, 80% off her council tax and all her rent paid. I constantly fret about things in the house needing fixing, she just has to ring the council and they come and do it. This year, I've already forked out £150 for the boiler service and £180 to have a leak fixed, and it's only April.

After working for 53 years, I wish I hadn't bloody bothered.

@XenoBitchyes, so the government needs to be incentivising employers to pick these people up. But the constant supply of low skilled workers that we’ve had in the last couple of decades really disincentivises this. So you get more hard to employ people on benefits. It’s hard to believe that there are drastically more people on benefits and totally unable to work since Covid - no other European country has seen this, they are back to normal levels now