the escalating cost of living....

[percy toboggan]

Life is getting ever more expensive it seems.
Just today a 'phone bill dropped through the letterbox, inexplicably ten quid higher than usual. Gas & Electric prices are climbing and this months Council Tax and water rate bills show an annual increase of ten per cent!! As interest rates have risen, so has our (admittedly small) mortgage.

Over the last eighteen months I have seen my weekly wage rise by a meagre two per cent. I could earn more but this job represents a comfortable,and easy rut for me. For the effort I put in I'm reasonably rewarded

Fortunately, as a couple we are comparatively well off , but for how long ? Answer..I don't know. Any couples. or singles for that matter struggling to bring up a family on real world money must despair. Food prices have risen very quickly in the last few months....now we hear wine - a 'salvation' is also heading north pricewise.

Car tax almost a hundred quid for six months...MOT and a service another one fifty and a full tank of juice will set me back seventy quid!! Add Twenty three pounds a month to insure the thing & motoring is fast becoming a luxury.
To add injury to insult a filling at the dentist recently relieved me of over forty pounds!

It seems the economic good times are rapidly drawing to a close, at least temporarily. Though some have done fairly well over last decade (that fact alone kept New Labour in power in '05) how many others are feeling the pinch...or is it just me?

[rob16d]

You could sell the car and use public transport and rely on the good nature of friends and family, you'd also be helping the environment...think about it....you'd be over half a grand better off a year!

[Highland Laddie]

Nope, not having any problems at all
my daughter worked for Project Scotland in Edinburgh we had our gas, electric and telephone with them, a few years back, she phoned us one day and told us, if we pay an extra £3.50 a month direct debit, our gas,electric and telephone bills would be frozen to April 2010, and we did, am i delighted we did.

[Saveman]

Are you in debt up to your eye balls? Can't see any way out?
Then get a loan from your local bank!

It will put you in more debt but at least then you'll have some money to do some retail therapy!

[percy toboggan]

You could sell the car and use public transport and rely on the good nature of friends and family, you'd also be helping the environment...think about it....you'd be over half a grand better off a year!

No buses around here at 6-00am I'm afraid. Though I appreciate the constructive input. As for 'helping the environment' I do my bit.

[Boozeburglar]

Yeah, well...at least you car share your Audi with Landmarker.

[j4bberw0ck]

Don't forget Gordon Brown's party trick, too; he announces changes in tax and allowances that come into effect a year hence, instead of immediately as all previous Chancellors did.

And the one that everyone's forgotten but will remember sharpish in April is the scrapping of the 10% starter band on income tax. OK, it's only the first £2230 of your taxable income that gets taxed at 10% but it affects people on low incomes (the low-paid, pensioners) disproportionately hard. As of April, we're all paying another £23 tax per month.

Just what you need if you're on a low income and your fuel and food bills are making you struggle.

But after all, the Government has all these public sector pensions and benefits to fund. And MPs expenses. Who could honestly begrudge our Wonderful, Dear, Leaders a few more pots of gold to spend while we, the unworthy proles, continue to make their lives miserable just by existing?

[Penelope Pitstop]

Don't forget Gordon Brown's party trick, too; he announces changes in tax and allowances that come into effect a year hence, instead of immediately as all previous Chancellors did.

And the one that everyone's forgotten but will remember sharpish in April is the scrapping of the 10% starter band on income tax. OK, it's only the first £2230 of your taxable income that gets taxed at 10% but it affects people on low incomes (the low-paid, pensioners) disproportionately hard. As of April, we're all paying another £23 tax per month.

Just what you need if you're on a low income and your fuel and food bills are making you struggle.

But after all, the Government has all these public sector pensions and benefits to fund. And MPs expenses. Who could honestly begrudge our Wonderful, Dear, Leaders a few more pots of gold to spend while we, the unworthy proles, continue to make their lives miserable just by existing?

Tax...NI....benefits system.....don't get me started. lol [disgust]

There are far too many parasites living out of my very worn pocket:confused

[badger]

Now don't go criticising our generous PM who sends us pensioners a whole £10 every Christmas. Can you imagine that? The feeling of instant wealth - riches beyond my wildest dreams. How can I share this bounty?

Then there's the fuel allowance - £200 per year. It's just wonderful. Keeps me warm just thinking about it (which is probably just as well as it certainly doesn't buy much oil these days).

Can't remember how long these annual gifts have been at that rate but since we have such low inflation and fuel prices never go up, who are we to complain?

[percy toboggan]

Yeah, well...at least you car share your Audi with Landmarker.

He's always glad of a lift, and the conversation is seldom dull.
(Methinks Boozebuglar is on a mission)
It takes all sorts.

[percy toboggan]

And the one that everyone's forgotten but will remember sharpish in April is the scrapping of the 10% starter band on income tax. OK, it's only the first £2230 of your taxable income that gets taxed at 10% but it affects people on low incomes (the low-paid, pensioners) disproportionately hard. As of April, we're all paying another £23 tax per month.

Just what you need if you're on a low income and your fuel and food bills are making you struggle.

But after all, the Government has all these public sector pensions and benefits to fund. And MPs expenses. Who could honestly begrudge our Wonderful, Dear, Leaders a few more pots of gold to spend while we, the unworthy proles, continue to make their lives miserable just by existing?

Jabber, I agree with you and your first point is particularly shaming to any Government which claims to be 'Labour', whether 'new' or not.
This weeks oppostion to the bill to provide more security for agency workers and temps is also another signpost on Labour's route to a sell out....surprising under this 'Son of the Manse' Again we have 'ordinary' folk...and I dot use the term in a demeaning manner because let's face it I am one myself (yes, it's true)....being treated with utter contempt. Your reminder of the Westminster Gravy Train is also bang on schedule...not to mention the gross frauds within the European Parliament where the auditors consistently refuse to sign off the accounts.

I have no imminent need for car sharing plans or personal loans due to, hard work, thrift and moderate good fortune. This thread was meant as a clarion call for the relatively hard up and to gauge just how many, like myself were noticing the rising costs most of us have to bear. Not too many it seems...fair doo's.Not many folks enjoy admitting they're skint after all.I wouldn't wish it on anyone, having been skint myself on many occasions in the past.

[percy toboggan]

[quote=badger;344067]Then there's the fuel allowance - £200 per year. It's just wonderful. Keeps me warm just thinking about it (which is probably just as well as it certainly doesn't buy much oil these days).

quote]
Well at least you can look forward to a 33% rise when you're eighty!
I could almost applaud the Governments largesse on this particular issue, taken in isolation it looks almost generous...given the woeful position our pensioners hold within Europe's 'league of the retired' though it's too little...often too late. I'm not looking forward to being on a fixed income c. 2016...my pension pot is nothing to shout about....fortunately my other half has prospered in the pension stakes. I must keep on her good side.

[rob16d]

i was merely stating that helping the environment would be an additional bonus!

[percy toboggan]

i was merely stating that helping the environment would be an additional bonus!

Indeed. I have no truck with your comment....however
I already play a pivotal role in recycling fifty tonnes of cardboard every day - what do you do :lol: ?

[Boozeburglar]

Well why don't you stop using so much cardboard in the first place?

[j4bberw0ck]

This weeks oppostion to the bill to provide more security for agency workers and temps is also another signpost on Labour's route to a sell out.

I'm absolutely 110% in favour of opposing any bill which promises more security to agency staff or temps! Monstrously stupid piece of legislation. It'll just mean that no temp or agency worker will ever work more than a few weeks in any job before being replaced, it'll reduce demand for temps, and add to employers' costs - where temps are taken on and then switched out to avoid having to offer all these benefits to them, a replacement must be trained.

They need to be slashing and burning laws, not making more.

[percy toboggan]

I'm absolutely 110% in favour of opposing any bill which promises more security to agency staff or temps! Monstrously stupid piece of legislation. It'll just mean that no temp or agency worker will ever work more than a few weeks in any job before being replaced, it'll reduce demand for temps, and add to employers' costs - where temps are taken on and then switched out to avoid having to offer all these benefits to them, a replacement must be trained.

They need to be slashing and burning laws, not making more.

I disagree...there is already plenty of legislation relating to holiday and sick pay (statutory) provision for temps...as I understand it this latest raft seeks to equalise pay. Every employee benefit add to 'employer costs' and if we followed your logic workforces would have no benefits' at all.

Serial hirers of agnecy workers should be lent upon heavily to provide proper jobs, with decent terms and conditions. The wealth gap between have nots and haves is growing too big and too fast and in one way the casual labour market is an illustration of this.

I take it you have never assumed the role of 'underdog' within an organisation. I have spent several weeks as an agency worker and that was more than enough.Treatment has twice seen me walk out as a response....I can still picture one ignorant gaffers face.:Razz

Most agency workers would much prefer some security, although I recognise that a minority relish flexibility...an oft used word these days which seems something of a catch all and a panacea to our economic woes.

For all this brave new world talk of a 'flexible' labour market we should substitute the word 'disposable'. A further change to the law should set a legal maximum charge by the agency for supplying the worker...I'd suggest no more than twenty per cent of the workers weekly wage.