# Cost of Living Payments - thoughts?



## MarkGeordie (May 29, 2022)

After the cost of living payments were announced late last week, what were all your thoughts?


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## Pumper_Sue (May 29, 2022)

MarkGeordie said:


> After the cost of living payments were announced late last week, what were all your thoughts?


Very generous, personally I didn't expect any help so am staggered at the amount on offer.


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## MarkGeordie (May 30, 2022)

Totally agree. Lots of discussion on other forums so thought I’d ask what people thought here.


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## Docb (May 31, 2022)

One of the things I find most annoying about the current government is that it mostly indulges in short term measures designed to make them look good and yes, the payouts look good.  If you do the sums properly you will find they will not cover the cost increases that all of us face with the result that it is only if you are in a very good job are you likely not to face a significant drop in living standards. In answer to the question, what about next year, the answer seems to be, we will do something about that next year.

As I understand it, the windfall tax will only partially fund it, the majority will come from borrowing.  This will not hurt if there is real economic growth over the next few years but this requires sound strategic thinking to make it happen and this is not going to happen whilst Boris think prevails. 

The next government, whatever hue it is, will have an unruly economic mess to sort out and one thing for sure is that it is the majority who will pay the price.

A pessimistic view I know, but a well run government would never have got the country into this position.


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## helli (May 31, 2022)

It frustrates me these payments are not targeted to those most in need. Someone already buying budget brands cannot spend less on food.
I will be donating my payments to the local Food Bank.


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## Leadinglights (May 31, 2022)

I haven't quite made head or tail of who exactly qualifies for any of the stuff being 'handed out'.
I hope it goes a little way to helping those who need it. 
Hearing that many of people's staples have had huge price rises.
I am pleased that our Allotments have an arrangement with a local food bank so any excess produce can be donated. A bit early yet for much stuff but I always have too many courgettes, beans and tomatoes.


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## Pumper_Sue (May 31, 2022)

helli said:


> It frustrates me these payments are not targeted to those most in need. Someone already buying budget brands cannot spend less on food.
> I will be donating my payments to the local Food Bank.


With respect if you are not in need of the payments or on the benefits that entitle you to them, then you wont receive anything except the £400 grant on your electricity bill oh and the council tax rebate.


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## LancashireLass (May 31, 2022)

Docb said:


> A pessimistic view I know, but a well run government would never have got the country into this position.


Could not agree more with this TBH


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## nonethewiser (May 31, 2022)

Labour told them months ago to hammer the greedy oil company's who's profits have almost doubled in last year.

Think payments will be swallowed up in no time & will only be of minimal help to those.most in need. 

Rang own energy company up last week about direct debit, having smart meters guy was able to say how much energy we've used in last month, told it was equilevant to £180 despite cutting back on usage, dread to think what it will be come winter. Only year ago direct debit was £90 monthly throughout whole year.


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## Northerner (May 31, 2022)

nonethewiser said:


> Think payments will be swallowed up in no time & will only be of minimal help to those.most in need.


This is the problem the government face - even though the payments will be welcome, people will still be worse off. The current government is floundering on every front. During the pandemic they chose to spend huge amounts of money losing billions to fraud, and have since been using that as an excuse - as far as the Treasury are concerned, at least - of underfunding everything since. The catch up plan for education is a good example, where only 10% of the required amount has been proffered. One of the biggest lies they are constantly making is that they 'got all the big calls right. Of course they didn't, they got practically every call wrong and were constantly u-turning or reacting to crises rather than predicting and planning for problems upfront. The only real success has been the vaccine programme, but I suspect that was luck rather than good management.

In no particular order:

Fraud on loans, profiteering on PPE, the exams fiasco, belated lockdowns and premature relaxations, pointless sideshows like Brexit and the ports chaos - and Northern Ireland, of course, immigration, lack of butchers thanks to Brexit, fishing companies having to close, huge reduction in trade with Europe, lack of housing and huge rises in rents and property values pricing people out of homes, massive increases in use of food banks, the Rashford row over school meals, inability to provide disadvantaged to technology during school closures, the Christmas that was promised then rapidly withdrawn at the last minute, unnecessary deaths in care homes, test and trace app that never worked, the entire test and trace system, one of the highest death rates from Covid in the world, Ministers failing to take responsibility  - gavin Williamson, Priti Patel and Matt Hancock spring to mind, Owen Patterson, breaking manifesto pledges on pension triple lock,cutting International aid and taxes....

Oh, and Partygate that mocked the entire country's sacrifices when they tried to do right be their fellow citizens to keep them safe. We are a laughing stock around the world. This is the worst government in my lifetime and I first got the vote in 1979


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## IrvineHimself (May 31, 2022)

Just read this latest article on the subject from the Guardian:


> .........
> 
> *The annual growth rate for credit card borrowing hit 11.6% in April*
> 
> ...


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## travellor (May 31, 2022)

Every government concentrates on short term solutions.
Four years is all they need to worry about.
Anything on top is just gravy.








						MPs’ pension perks equivalent to extra £40,000 a year on top of £81,000 annual salary
					

MPs are earning pension benefits worth more than £40,000 a year on top of their £82,000 salary.Documents seen by The Times show that the cost of paying the bene




					www.thetimes.co.uk


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## IrvineHimself (May 31, 2022)

After the second world war, there was an influx of new blood into UK politics.  This new breed lasted throughout the sixties and into the seventies and eighties. They were very intelligent, highly able and dedicated to building a new world order. We often forget that the bogeymen on both sides: _Foot, Healey, Tebbit, Hesiltine .... et-al _were people of genuine intelligence, ability and integrity. On a number of occasions in the late seventies, I went to lectures given by Norman Tebbit, a man whose political and economic beliefs I despised, However, the guy really did know his stuff and I always left a little bit wiser for attending.

The problem nowadays is that the press is so rabidly partisan that no-one of any any ability, on either side of the political divide, would wish to put themselves forward as a target for their ire. As a result, we have:

Borris: A buffoon who is more interested in booze and coke than running the country
Starmer: A careerist who lacks any intellectual political foundation and would say or do anything to gain the approbation of the press-barons
Chris Grayling: Whose list of abject failures beggars belief
Priti Pratel: Who has such an authoritarian streak, she, quite frankly, gives me nightmare about the future direction of the country
Alex Salmond: Who has absolutely zero political conviction and, like Starmer, would say or do anything to gain favourable press coverage.
And don't even get me started on Corbyn and Jo Swinson
I could go through the entire bunch, and there is not one of them with the ability and  intellectual nuance to successfully guide the country out of the hole that our so called free press have dug for us.


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## travellor (May 31, 2022)

IrvineHimself said:


> After the second world war, there was an influx of new blood into UK politics.  This new breed lasted throughout the sixties and into the seventies and eighties. They were very intelligent, highly able and dedicated to building a new world order. We often forget that the bogeymen on both sides: _Foot, Healey, Tebbit, Hesiltine .... et-al _were people of genuine intelligence, ability and integrity. On a number of occasions in the late seventies, I went to lectures given by Norman Tebbit, a man whose political and economic beliefs I despised, However, the guy really did know his stuff and I always left a little bit wiser for attending.
> 
> The problem nowadays is that the press is so rabidly partisan that no-one of any any ability, on either side of the political divide, would wish to put themselves forward as a target for their ire. As a result, we have:
> 
> ...


Not really


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## IrvineHimself (May 31, 2022)

travellor said:


> Not really


That's very enigmatic


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## mikeyB (Jun 3, 2022)

The problem about the cost of living is made much worse by Boris imposing an ultra hard Brexit. If we had seamless free trade with Europe, involving an agreement like Norway has, then we would not have been affected so severely, with farmers and especially fish companies losing trade because of the endless pages of forms that have to be produced at customs into Europe. it doesn't happen with imports. A free trade agreement doesn't have to mean free movement of workers, if that is what worries psychopathic Home Secretaries.

And it wouldn't affect the population so badly if we hadn't had years of austerity, freezing wages and benefits, so we enter this period of inflation and rising costs at at time when vast swathes of the population just can't deal with it. Rishi Sunak knows at least one answer - restore the £20 uplift to Universal Credit which he gave during lockdowns, and which greatly helped at a time when costs weren't increasing. It just brought UC up to reasonable levels. And it cost a lot less than the billions paid to new companies created by Tories mates to supply PPE and masks without any control over prices. Plus the billions wasted on support for fraudulent companies for support during lockdowns. 

So where exactly did these billions that the government wasted come from? Well. I guess it was borrowed, but from who? Themselves. It was effectively just printed and government bonds sold into the world financial markets.to fund it. And it all went into the pockets of the already rich.


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## IrvineHimself (Jun 3, 2022)

mikeyB said:


> .... with farmers and especially fish companies losing trade because of the endless pages of forms that have to be produced at customs into Europe.


Considering they were always among the biggest supporters of Brexit, it's difficult to feel sorry for them.



mikeyB said:


> it doesn't happen with imports.


There are multiple reasons for that, but, in a nutshell, maybe the so called Project Fear was right all along. and Brexit, along with the associated loss of markets, really does hurt us a lot more than it hurts the Europeans.



mikeyB said:


> A free trade agreement doesn't have to mean free movement of workers, if that is what worries psychopathic Home Secretaries.


I love that phrasing, I may just plagiarise it. 

With regard to the rest of your post, You took the words right out of my mouth.

Right on brother


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## travellor (Jun 3, 2022)

mikeyB said:


> The problem about the cost of living is made much worse by Boris imposing an ultra hard Brexit. If we had seamless free trade with Europe, involving an agreement like Norway has, then we would not have been affected so severely, with farmers and especially fish companies losing trade because of the endless pages of forms that have to be produced at customs into Europe. it doesn't happen with imports. A free trade agreement doesn't have to mean free movement of workers, if that is what worries psychopathic Home Secretaries.
> 
> And it wouldn't affect the population so badly if we hadn't had years of austerity, freezing wages and benefits, so we enter this period of inflation and rising costs at at time when vast swathes of the population just can't deal with it. Rishi Sunak knows at least one answer - restore the £20 uplift to Universal Credit which he gave during lockdowns, and which greatly helped at a time when costs weren't increasing. It just brought UC up to reasonable levels. And it cost a lot less than the billions paid to new companies created by Tories mates to supply PPE and masks without any control over prices. Plus the billions wasted on support for fraudulent companies for support during lockdowns.
> 
> So where exactly did these billions that the government wasted come from? Well. I guess it was borrowed, but from who? Themselves. It was effectively just printed and government bonds sold into the world financial markets.to fund it. And it all went into the pockets of the already rich.


Not borrowed from themselves.
It doesn't work that way.
It borrowed from our kids.


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## Northerner (Jun 6, 2022)

No cost of living crisis for some, it seems, plus they;ll all be getting their £400 which they'll probably burn in front of homeless people 









						Bumper City bonuses of pre-financial crisis are back, TUC finds
					

Calls for measures to rein in payouts as analysis shows record bonuses rising six times faster than average wages




					www.theguardian.com


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## IrvineHimself (Jun 6, 2022)

Northerner said:


> which they'll probably burn in front of homeless people


That is disgusting.

The general public never see the realities of being homeless. Along with both individuals and families who sofa-surf, on any major city ring-road or bypass you can find uncounted numbers of both groups who live in camper-vans/cars and wash/shower in service stations. Both groups, by the way, are usually not un-employed, but rather holding down multiple minimum wage jobs.

Unfortunately, there is a minority belief that all one needs to do is sleep in a shop doorway and good hearted citizens will throw money at you. While some individuals with severe psychiatric problems may do so, the truth is anyone attempting this is much more likely to be attacked and severely beaten, (possibly by members of the Bullingdon club)

As a result, genuine rough sleepers either sleep in large groups for protection, or seek out secret, out of the way places that minimize the chances of being attacked.

So, when you see someone sleeping in a high visibility place like a high-street shop doorway, the chances are they are either psychotic or or of criminal intent and deliberately preying on peoples sympathies. In both cases, burning a fifty pound note is an incredibly dangerous thing to do.


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## Ditto (Jun 6, 2022)

Us poor church mice think it's great, bring it on, more please, 'specially now you took away my £250 pension credits so I can pay for my own carer, y'gits.  I'm hotfooting it to Lidl.


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