Cost of Living Crisis

[Granny Danger]

6 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

Don't forget a rise in the minimum wage.....if you are over 23 !!!

This totally boils my piss. How can anyone think that anyone working aged 18-22 can live on less than those 23 and over. It's bat shit crazy stuff.
 

If the under 23s give up luxuries like food, shelter and warmth they will manage just fine.  It might toughen the snowflakes up and force them to appreciate life more.

[strichener]

11 hours ago, oaksoft said:

I won’t need to do that as I won’t be going into a social care system riddled with abusive practices.

When my time is up, I’ll be ending things on my own terms either through Switzerland or taking all the insulin I can get access to.

I have no intention of clinging on to what would be a shell of a life like a limpet. One reason why I try to make sure I live each day doing things I enjoy while I can.

Said 90% of care home residents.

[eez-eh]

12 hours ago, oaksoft said:

I won’t need to do that as I won’t be going into a social care system riddled with abusive practices.

When my time is up, I’ll be ending things on my own terms either through Switzerland or taking all the insulin I can get access to.

I have no intention of clinging on to what would be a shell of a life like a limpet. One reason why I try to make sure I live each day doing things I enjoy while I can.

I didn’t realise that calculating the precise energy usage of every appliance in your home daily while you sit there wearing 5 jumpers could be so much fun.

[RiG]

Energy bills have been one of the largest drivers of higher inflation rates so Hunt allows for bills to be increased even further. A windfall tax on electricity generators (higher than that imposed on oil and gas companies) will surely only mean that bills have the potential to rise even more and somewhat butchers the UK governments Net Zero goals. Going to be a rough few years ahead.

[Todd_is_God]

9 minutes ago, RiG said:

Energy bills have been one of the largest drivers of higher inflation rates so Hunt allows for bills to be increased even further.

Inflation will be dropping by April, as the year on year impact of the war will be lower.

9 minutes ago, RiG said:

A windfall tax on electricity generators (higher than that imposed on oil and gas companies) will surely only mean that bills have the potential to rise even more

It shouldn't, as the price cap is calculated on the cost to produce.

[Billy Jean King]

It shouldn't, as the price cap is calculated on the cost to produce.

You keep repeating this inflation fall due to the "year on year impact of the war" being reduced. How exactly ?

Food and energy will still be the main drivers, neither of which are likely to become cheaper so long as the war continues. Difficult to see how either can be positively influenced by the war continuing.

[Clown Job]

2 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

How can they expect folk to cope with the energy cost rises?

They don’t care 

 

[Todd_is_God]

5 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

You keep repeating this inflation fall due to the "year on year impact of the war" being reduced. How exactly ?

Food and energy will still be the main drivers, neither of which are likely to become cheaper so long as the war continues. Difficult to see how either can be positively influenced by the war continuing.

They don't need to (if they did we'd see deflation) they just don't need to continue to increase in price as quickly as they did earlier in the year. Inflation has been mostly flat for months. As soon as we get like for like, war v war prices it'll drop like a stone.

[Billy Jean King]

They don't need to (if they did we'd see deflation) they just don't need to continue to increase in price as quickly as they did earlier in the year. Inflation has been mostly flat for months. As soon as we get like for like, war v war prices it'll drop like a stone.

Eh, inflation has been flat for months, are you for real ???

The current 11% is average inflation, in certain sectors like food and energy it's way higher. A "slowing" of rises in one sector is not going to stop headline inflation rising.

You should get a job at the BoE, your projections would fit right in there (and prove just as accurate). No one even the most bullish Tory, is predicting inflation will drop "like a stone" anytime soon.

[Leith Green]

3 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

How can they expect folk to cope with the energy cost rises? Bearing in mind that said costs will probably never go down, and if they do it will only be a little bit? That's in the context of everything else being more expensive, and will get even more expensive once the energy costs rise as companies will, as always, punt increases costs on to the customers. 

Some of those companies will be making record profits, again, but others will be going under when their energy costs go mental. Lots of businesses will be lost forever. People will have less cash to spend so surely this means more recession, which locks in the cycle of prices going up everywhere again. Is this now some sort of perpetual cycle that the UK cannot stop?

Pensions and benefits are going up by 10% is one of other positives (if you are in that position).

Real household disposable income is going to drop by 7% over next 2 years the worst on record (OBR).

Hunt also put the current shambles as "mostly global factors". The truth is that it is far worse in the UK, due to the impact of Brexit, that was played out by Andrew Bailley in the select committee yesterday.

Hunt is lying, same as Sunak did in Bali yesterday - pair of wanks

[Salt n Vinegar]

If the pupose of the statement was to placate the market, one indicator, the ftse 100 doesn't seem particularly impressed - at the time of typing this, it's slightly lower on the day and lower than when the Chancer stood up. 

[Todd_is_God]

37 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

Eh, inflation has been (mostly) flat for months, are you for real ???

Erm, yes

[Gnash]

12 minutes ago, Salt n Vinegar said:

If the pupose of the statement was to placate the market, one indicator, the ftse 100 doesn't seem particularly impressed - at the time of typing this, it's slightly lower on the day and lower than when the Chancer stood up. 

Barely a ripple, and there's so many other things going on all the time that you can't say it's had any impact.

Slight but noticeable drop in GBP v USD, but what's even more noticeable is that the value of GBP has been increasing over the last couple of weeks, even taking into account today's fall.

Forward interest rates (and as a result, mortgage rates) and government borrowing costs have been falling over the last few weeks as well.

Whatever else you think of Hunt and the budget, he has brought much confidence back to the UK economy.

[Clown Job]

 

[Salt n Vinegar]

4 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

Tax rises for higher earners and a windfall tax on energy producers profits followed by big rises in benefits, the minimum wage (no idea why under-23s continue to be shafted by lower rates though) and pensions and further energy handouts to those on benefits and disabilities including a cap of £3000 instead of £3700. Good increases to the NHS/Care sector too.

In fairness, that could have been a lot worse today.

Yes, I understand what you say but the Chancer applied some thick gloss to cover a pretty ugly wall. Talk of pension and benefit "increases" is a bit cheeky... they are increases in cash terms certainly, but is keeping pace with inflation really what most folk would call an "increase"? I'm not suggesting that actual real terms increases were in order but I'd prefer a bit more honesty in the terminology used. 

Also there was something about a saving of - what was it - a couple of hundred pounds because some rents would only rise by 7% instead of the rate of inflation - sorry, in my book that's not a saving of anything, it's a whopping 7% increase in rent. 

For folk in the public sector, their pay seems unlikely to even approach inflation for the next few years. 

On energy bills, if I have this right, the energy price cap is rising, support will fall (the £400 payment is going away I think), with the resulting higher bills being met from incomes rising at well below inflation and being hit by higher taxes. 

It's all going very well, isn't it? 

[DA Baracus]

It's not all bad.

The cap remains lifted on banker's bonuses. We can all breathe a sign of relief.

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, virginton said:

A recession causes falling not rising prices. 

No, a recession is defined as reduced economic growth and has no causal relation to deflation, however, deflation may occur in conjunction with a recession. Recessions can also occur with rising prices, although that is a very unusual circumstance. Someone as pedantic as you should not have fallen into this misconception. One of these things is not like the other.

[Salt n Vinegar]

Jacob Rees-Mogg doesn't like what the Chancer has announced because of the tax rises. Will he have the guts to vote against the budget though? 

A) no, or

B) no. 

Select as appropriate... 

[Salt n Vinegar]

4 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

So when wages go up you want to play the "real terms" card but when rents go up you want to play the absolute increase card?

Nobody is saying any of this is perfect but there are some people like you who seem absolutely hellbent on finding the speck of cloud in a blue, sunny sky.

You and @DA Baracus must just suck the life out of everyone around you.

No, don't think so. If your bills in one year are met from a fixed income, then higher bills in the next year are met from a fixed income that has risen by the same amount, your standard of living is the same. There's no increase in any meaningful sense. 

If your rent goes up by 7%... many times the % rise in your income... you are demonstrably worse off. You are not saving £200. In no sense is 7% higher rent a "saving" of anything. It's an increase in the rent of 7%. It's a bit like claiming that a neighbourhood thug is saving you a month in hospital by only slashing your face instead of also breaking your legs. 

[Dawson Park Boy]

45 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

So when wages go up you want to play the "real terms" card but when rents go up you want to play the absolute increase card?

Nobody is saying any of this is perfect but there are some people like you who seem absolutely hellbent on finding the speck of cloud in a blue, sunny sky.

You and @DA Baracus must just suck the life out of everyone around you.

Absolutely.

I don’t know what more they want under the circumstances.

Everyone is going to be worse off. That’s a given.
Its certainly not a Tory budget with the highest earners paying the most.

Its a case now of managing our personal budgets in the most efficient way possible - energy use, food and household supplies purchasing, cooking, leisure activities, cutting out non- essential motoring, you name it. 
Batten down the hatches!