Rising cost of living

[Mr K]

'Middle earners', which the Torygraph and Chancellor define as those earning a measly £45,000 , need urgent help.

Poor souls, let's hope they survive....

Middle-earners on salaries of £45,000 will need help from the Government to pay their energy bills, the Chancellor warned on Friday.

In an interview with the Telegraph 11 days before the new Prime Minister takes office, Nadhim Zahawi said that support cannot be confined to families on benefits and added that gas prices could remain punishingly high for two years.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...is-chancellor/

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Mr K

'Middle earners', which the Torygraph and Chancellor define as those earning a measly £45,000 , need urgent help.

Poor souls, let's hope they survive....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...is-chancellor/

In fairness, I welcome his acknowledgment the free market has failed for even above average earners. You’ve got to remember, £45 000 of purchasing power today might only be worth £35 000 in 2024 at this rate. If your energy company is rinsing you for £6 000 and your mortgage is up £2 500 there will be a big queue for those high wage, his skilled jobs we have been promised. That’s 45k before you get taxed to pay off interest on 2 trillion of debt and into the pensioner Ponzi scheme.

[Jaymoss]

One would imagine there is a lot more head room for someone to adapt on 45K to the new cost of living than it is from someone who has to live off 7K now

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

One would imagine there is a lot more head room for someone to adapt on 45K to the new cost of living than it is from someone who has to live off 7K now

They will most likely have higher energy usage, and higher general living costs (and rent/mortgage costs).
People on 35k/40k/45k are not super rich, living some kind of life of luxury, especially in some areas (like the south east).

Fuel poverty is apparently defined as spending more than 10% of income on energy/fuel, for someone on 45K, thats more about £230 a month.
They are almost certainly paying more than that already, and just like everyone else, whatever they are paying will increase by about 80% in October.

This is not just biting at low earners, its biting middle earners as well.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr K

'Middle earners', which the Torygraph and Chancellor define as those earning a measly £45,000 , need urgent help.

Poor souls, let's hope they survive....


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...is-chancellor/

Less than what a tube driver earns

More than a bus driver earns

Originally Posted by Pierre

Less than what a tube driver earns

Indeed. And drivers on national rail routes are all on at least £50k, with some on more than £70k. Many of them have been on strike over pay recently and are due to do so again.

The idea that everyone on £45k can easily just cancel a couple of streaming tv subscriptions and ride it out is mule-headed classism. A great many people in this bracket are stuck in expensive rented accommodation because the last financial crisis in this country more or less permanently ended their hopes of ever getting a mortgage. Those who do have mortgages are finding them rapidly becoming expensive, with worse to come.

A repossession/homelessness crisis with the inevitable knock-on effects on the state benefits bill profits nobody.

[jfman]

It’s almost as if there’s a common enemy further up the line…

Zahawi raises an interesting point - they oppose adjusting the price cap because people who could afford it would also benefit.

Now if someone could devise a system where those who could least afford it pay least, those would could afford it pay a bit more. You could set thresholds and percentages to pay around salary levels or household income levels, ensuring the worst off aren’t hardest hit but “middle earners” also benefit.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

One would imagine there is a lot more head room for someone to adapt on 45K to the new cost of living than it is from someone who has to live off 7K now

What, like selling your house?

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

What, like selling your house?

Free market, innit? If you can’t afford your house, move. If it happens enough house prices fall.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jfman

Free market, innit? If you can’t afford your house, move. If it happens enough house prices fall.

You’re all heart, jfman.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

You’re all heart, jfman.

Not entirely. You appear to have missed his subtle sense of irony.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

What, like selling your house?

Shop at Aldi
I do not know always being being on a low income but one would think someone on 45K would have more spare income that goes on shopping/luxuries and someone on 10K or less. My Dad is on a final salary pension and and gets 28K a year + 2x state pension than lives an extremely comfortable life. Yeah his mortgage is paid but it was never over 10K a year. I can see some will be but they get a damn site better chance of weathering the storm than someone already 10 years into fuel poverty

The estimated price cap for April next year (I hope and pray is wrong) is 500 quid more than I get a year. Thankfully I do not use the average but it is close. Without the help already given this winter my energy bill would be at least £200 a month and that is without using any gas for heating this winter 37.4% of my total income over 10% is fuel poverty

No one doubts your financial troubles related to this.

However, the simple assertion that someone earning more will have no issues is just wrong. A few may well be fine, many others will not.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Paul

No one doubts your financial troubles related to this.

However, the simple assertion that someone earning more will have no issues is just wrong. A few may well be fine, many others will not.

I said will have more headroom not no issues I believe