I do not normally post “political” news articles, however, this one, from the BBC, raised my curiosity this morning.
Now, I am not poor, and would not qualify for any Winter Fuel Payment anyway as I am too young, so do not know how the lady in the headline feels, or manages her finances, but…
who here, if denied a £200 (TWO HUNDRED POUNDS) handout, would react as she did?
“I’ve had to take out a credit card, overdraft and a credit account to be able to pay for things this winter,” she told the BBC.
Three forms of credit, to cover a £200 shortfall? Really?
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Anarchist
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I think it was always the case that people on the margins would feel the cut the most.
But, news organisations always look for the “best” story to illustrate a point.
Also, I don’t think it is out of this world to be able to imagine someone who is just keeping their head above water having to find some way to mitigate the loss of £200pa.
I think we all know that we live in a world where people, especially those in extremis, don’t always make the best decisions.
Yes, I agree. However, this lady’s financial issues clearly extend far beyond the loss of the £200pa benefit that is being focussed on and sensationalised in this article.
If I was “just keeping my head above water”, taking out three forms of credit, in response to losing a £200 handout, is a major overreaction and a road to increased debt.
Most overdrafts would cover the £200 shortfall, without the need for credit cards and credit accounts.
This is where this part of your post comes in though
Anarchist
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She has made some bad decisions. It could be that her husband used to look after all the finances and so she hasn’t got the wherewithal to make better decisions - we’ll never know.
As an aside, I keep a spreadsheet for my energy use, and my 12 month average usage has remained fairly constant over the years (so the same amount of gas and electricity) but my 12 month average bill has reduced by about £30/month since this time last year.
It’s probably the fact that everything else has gone up that’s put her in a pickle.
We want services to improve but we don’t want to pay for that. We can’t have it all ways.
What’s the average bill, £2k or something like that at a guess? So now you pay £2100. Instead of £200 for 10 months, it’s £210. I don’t really think it’s the drama the media like to make out.
I know everything goes up. Sky add money. Your phone bill. Food is getting more expensive. That is life sadly. If you didn’t get a payrise, move and chase one!
You mean the big networks who spend the billions (literally) required to build, maintain and continuously upgrade the infrastructure needed to provide a mobile service?
The virtual networks could not exist, and nor could their low pricing, without the big networks charging the higher tariffs to their direct customers.
As with most things in life (including most financial products e.g. credit cards), those overpaying subsidise those who get a good price and/or rewards.
Absolutely. I also choose to be on the side getting a good deal. I’m happy for others to subsidise my good deal, hence why I’m with Voxi.
There is always a bigger picture to consider. It’s much the same with energy, even if you were to eliminate profits from the bill entirely, the bill total would only decrease a small amount.
As for the council tax rises, it was certainly to be expected but I think any increase above the rate of inflation is a bit off, to say the least. 9.9% seems very high to me.
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Anarchist
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It always used to be said that we wanted Scandinavian level services at US level taxes.
We seem to have found ourselves in a situation where we have US level services at Scandinavian level taxes.
Are these increases published centrally? I doubt my council is big enough to be worthy of a news report. I can’t see anything on their website. I’m curious what percentage they’ve gone with.
Then I noticed everything going up. And things getting worse.
So I don’t think this way anymore.
It’s the thought process that allows everything to go up without question. Question it. Ask yourself what are you getting from it. Ask yourself why it’s going up. Ask yourself what exactly is being paid for.
Really I don’t blame the councils; they have a remit that far exceeds what a local government should be funding that central government should be funding. Social care should absolutely be centrally funded.
Council tax should be only for those things that broadly speaking everyone in the area will (or can) use. Bins, parks, roads etc. Not broad social structures that frankly I’m not using or can’t use and likely will be paying for it myself by the time I come to actually using it.
I’m with @Carlo1460 here - until the councils really explain why they need this extra and what it is exactly it’s funding then I’ll remain a begrudging payer of the tax.
As of this moment I do think a lot of our taxes in various forms are simply misspent or wasted. As someone else said, we now have the worst of both worlds. We’re not going to just get Norwegian levels of welfare and society by just paying more. That’s not the way it works in reality.
