Cost of Living Crisis

[Paco]

There’s a few discussions about the cost of living crisis going on around various threads on the forum, thought it would make sense to try and combine into one given it’s looking like being the major domestic issue over the next two or three years.

 

Three ‘big’ reveals from Sunak today.

 

1. 5p per litre cut in fuel duty, for one year. An alleged £5bn cost to the taxpayer. While it’s not to be sniffed at, I’d still be very surprised if the Treasury don’t take in more than expected this year from fuel given 20% VAT on an average of ~£1.67 per litre is clearly going to yield higher returns than the usual ~£1.30 or so. Feels a little bit like a raging punter telling you Bristol Rovers ‘lost them’ £50k from their 12 team acca. They ‘lost’ only the initial £1 stake.

 

2. Shift in threshold that you begin paying National Insurance. This one is… actually alright? Personally think the rise should’ve just been outright scrapped but it’s something, the claim is anyone earning less than £36k per year will pay less NI next year than this. Haven’t checked that out but it has halved the ‘social care’ budget that the rise was allegedly going to pay for in the first place.

 

3. An alleged, definitely going to happen, not at all political ploy to cut income tax in 2024 just before the next election. Genuinely don’t think the media should bother reporting this - nobody has any idea what the climate will be in 2024, and Sunak literally in the same speech confirmed he was breaking his previous promise not to raise taxes in this parliament. Useless words that’ll happily be forgotten if necessary come 2024.

 

Literally nothing on energy bills, UC, public sector wages. A commitment to ‘balancing the books’ from a chancellor determined to repeat austerity.

 

Happy days?

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, Paco said:

2. Shift in threshold that you begin paying National Insurance. This one is… actually alright? Personally think the rise should’ve just been outright scrapped but it’s something, the claim is anyone earning less than £36k per year will pay less NI next year than this. Haven’t checked that out but it has halved the ‘social care’ budget that the rise was allegedly going to pay for in the first place.

 

[Suspect Device]

If he was going to fanny around with NI thresholds he could have scrapped the upper earnings limit where the 3.25% rate comes in. Currently it's £50,270.

[williemillersmoustache]

Sunak filling up an ordinary humans Kia at a petrol shop for the cameras. Ugh. 

[Clown Job]

Tories simply do not give a f**k 

Edit: They’ll still get comfortably re-elected when they should be getting hounded at every level 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Clown Job

[Savage Henry]

I fully expect the forum’s resident experts on everything/contrarians/right wing conspiracy theorists to bang on about the cost of living crisis being a myth, and blame consumers for not being more frugal, or something. 

[doulikefish]

It went like this 

 

[Granny Danger]

17 minutes ago, doulikefish said:

It went like this 

 

It’s not just the poor.  It’s the millions of deluded cúnts who somehow think that their interests are aligned with the Sunaks of this world.

These people deserve everything they get, sadly the poor don’t.

[doulikefish]

2 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

It’s not just the poor.  It’s the millions of deluded cúnts who somehow think that their interests are aligned with the Sunaks of this world.

These people deserve everything they get, sadly the poor don’t.

Oh definitely and the saps will lap up 5p off a litre of fuel when it's risen by about 35p the mugs 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

If you vote Tory and you’re not a millionaire you’re a fucking dickhead and deserve everything you don’t get.

[Antlion]

19 minutes ago, Granny Danger said:

It’s not just the poor.  It’s the millions of deluded cúnts who somehow think that their interests are aligned with the Sunaks of this world.

These people deserve everything they get, sadly the poor don’t.

This pretty much sums up the Tory attitude towards anyone that isn’t an independently wealthy Tory.

[red23]

Shame we didn't just have some form of lockdown over the past 2 years enabling those in employment to save some £ rather than spunk it all on leased cars and houses they can't afford.

[vikingTON]

2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

 

It's a tax cut for practically everyone who isn't retired then. 

It's a pathetic set of measures for those on Universal Credit and other support, but reducing NI is better than the total clusterfuck it could otherwise have been (these are Tories). 

Cutting fuel duty for example - which hasn't moved upward since around 2010 - is completely risible, when regulated public transport prices will as ever faithfully track skyrocketing inflation plus their extra chunk for 'investment'. Unregulated bus fares will surge far above the bleating of car drivers as usual. Other than making Greta Thunberg upset there can be no valid argument for this pandering to a failed model of private, fossil fuel transport. 

[bennett]

1 hour ago, doulikefish said:

It went like this 

 

Thought that said something else when I glanced at it.

 

 

[Michael W]

Increasing the NI threshold is clearly a better move than binning the rise, which would have been the easy thing to do. Ideally it still would've gone, but it's a better help for lower earners. 

Imagine the cut in fuel duty will be intended as temporary, but that's a massive rod he's set for his own back there - putting that back up by 5p is not going to be popular.

I don't think there's enough in there overall and particularly at the very bottom. There'll be something else that's necessary in the summer. 

[Paco]

This is the Sun’s estimate of the NI changes versus this tax year. It’s not unhelpful, but it would have to be said that even for those benefitting the most - which seems to be in the £17k bracket - it’ll simply cushion the blow of the energy price rises for what, two or three months at a maximum?

And that’s before even considering the uniform increases in council tax, internet, TV, food, petrol, etc. It’s genuinely possibly only helpful for a few weeks, which I guess emphasises the challenges coming - even tax cuts are essentially useless.

As a footnote, I believe Sunak sneaked out unnoticed that the British taxpayer will pay over £1 billion to compensate for Bulb going bust. Double the price of the increase in ‘hardship funds’ to English councils, for context. It doesn’t even bail out the company! Extraordinary.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 hour ago, red23 said:

Shame we didn't just have some form of lockdown over the past 2 years enabling those in employment to save some £ rather than spunk it all on leased cars and houses they can't afford.

And those not in employment? Or in poverty? Or on the state pension? 

[Thistle_do_nicely]

Was already on p&b in one of the other threads as a twitter link, paraphrasing maybe but martin lewis is saying he's ran out of tools/advice for people.

Makes sense, telling people to fill a kettle up with less water or switching from one expensive utility tariff to a marginally less expensive one will only help so much. Drowning in 10ft of water or 20ft doesnt really matter to those submerged, same thing applies to household expenses or debt.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Clown Job]

18 minutes ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Was already on p&b in one of the other threads as a twitter link, paraphrasing maybe but martin lewis is saying he's ran out of tools/advice for people.

Makes sense, telling people to fill a kettle up with less water or switching from one expensive utility tariff to a marginally less expensive one will only help so much. Drowning in 10ft of water or 20ft doesnt really matter to those submerged, same thing applies to household expenses or debt.

Not to mention they removed the £20 uplift fee from Universal Credit only a few months ago 

Tories are utter scum.

 

[DA Baracus]

In a just world the Conservative party would rightly be viewed a fringe lunatic party and would be polling at around 1 or 2%. Voting for them would be seen as crazy and folk who did would be pariahs. They'd never be anywhere near power other than perhaps a local council position or two.

In a just world the current Conservative MPs would be jeered everywhere they went and called out for their repeated lies and crimes. Many of them would be serving lengthy jail sentences.

Sadly we don't live in that world, and instead they are cheered on by too many as they steal from us (£11.4 billion 'lost' over the last two years), actively make people's lives worse, enact policies that drive people to suicide, are openly racist and are getting worse on all aforementioned points.