Tag Archives: increase

Never mind the Budget: you’ll be paying a lot more in April with less cash

Brace yourself for another attack on your wallet.

Even if you receive benefits that are going to be uprated in line with the lowest possible level of inflation the government thinks it can get away with, it probably won’t cover the increases in your costs.

Rises to the different level of the minimum wage certainly won’t. It’s not a living wage, despite being called that by Tories.

Let’s have a look at what’s coming:

Council tax to rise

The majority of households in England will be hit by a whopping 5% in April in fresh cost of living misery for families. Three struggling councils have been given special permission by the Government to impose higher rises – up to 10% for Thurrock and Slough, and an eye-watering 15% for Croydon.

Band D properties will pay around an extra £100 if they don’t receive any discounts.

Water bills to increase

From April, average water bills will again increase by less than inflation, meaning prices will continue their decade-long fall in real terms. Bills will rise by an average of £31 to £448 a year (equivalent to around 60p more each week)

Support for low-income households is also being increased to its highest level ever. More than 1 million households already receive help with water bills, which is being increased to 1.2 million over coming months.

Wages will increase

The National Living Wage and National Minimum wage will rise for all kinds of workers across the country. Depending on your age and work status, you will receive one of the following increases:

  • National Living Wage – Increased to £10.42 (annual increase of 9.7 per cent)

  • 21-22-year-old rate – Increased to £10.18 (annual increase of 10.9 per cent)

  • 18-20-year-old rate – Increased to £7.49 (annual increase of 9.7 per cent)

  • 16-17-year-old rate – Increased to £5.28 (annual increase of 9.7 per cent)

  • Apprentice Rate – Increased to £5.28 (annual increase of 9.7 per cent)

  • Accommodation Offset – Increased to £9.10 (annual increase of 4.6 per cent)

Broadband and mobile bills will increase

From April, broadband and mobile phone customers can expect to face monthly bill increases of at least 14% from April.

Providers link their annual price rises to January’s consumer price index (CPI) or the retail price index (RPI) which was 10.5% and 13.4%. BT, EE, Plusnet and Vodafone broadband contracts allow prices to go up by CPI plus 3.9%. At TalkTalk, it is CPI plus 3.7%, while Shell Energy can add CPI plus 3%. Sky and Virgin Media contracts allow mid-contract price increases but they do not stipulate a pricing formula in the same way as rivals.

Universal Credit, PIP and pension to increase

Inflation-linked benefits and tax credits will rise by 10.1% from April 2023, in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation in September 2022. Jeremy Hunt said the ‘expensive commitment’ worth £11 billion means 10 million working-age families will see a much-needed increase next year and, on average, a family on universal credit will benefit next year by around £600.

The benefit cap will rise from £23,000 to £25,323 for families in Greater London and from £20,000 to £22,020 for families nationally. Lower caps for single households without children will rise from £15,410 to £16,967 in Greater London and from £13,400 to £14,753 nationally.

Benefits which will rise by 10.1% include Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, Pension Credit, Disability Allowance and Personal Independence Payment.

Source: Cost of Living: 5 big changes coming into effect in April that everyone should know about

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Yet another blow to families as childcare costs skyrocket

Who could afford to be a parent under this Conservative government?

Inflation is above 10 per cent while wages are stagnating because the Tories want them to.

Energy bills are set to hit an average of £3,000 per year because the Tories won’t keep their price guarantee for another three months and won’t help with the extra costs.

Local authorities across England (I haven’t heard about the other UK countries) are set to increase Council Tax by the maximum amount allowed, and are still set to reduce services – because the Tories won’t provide enough in the central government grant.

And now child care costs are set to rise by an eye-watering £1,000 per year.

Try to ignore the Labour Party flag-waving from Imran Hussain; it’s the news story link below that matters:

The story states:

A survey of 1,156 providers by the Early Years Alliance found nine out of 10 expect to increase fees, typically in April, and by an average of 8% – higher than in previous years.

UK childcare costs are already among the most expensive in the world, with full-time fees for a child under two at nursery reaching an average £269 a week last year – or just under £14,000 annually.

An 8% rise would take that to more than £15,000.

Who can afford that?

The concern is that by this stage many parents – particularly mothers – have felt forced to drop out of work or cut their hours.

Three and four-year-olds in England attending a nursery or childminder are eligible for either 15 or 30 free hours a week depending on whether their parents work, so their costs are a lot lower.

Most nurseries and childminders surveyed – 87% – said the money they get from the government does not cover their costs to provide the “free” hours – leaving them out of pocket.

More than half of providers (51%) said they had operated at a loss last year. A handful said they were looking at fee increases of as much as 25%.

An option to extend free hours to all two-year-olds is understood to have been ruled out.

The problem for the Tories is that there aren’t enough people in the workforce as it is; if people have to quit their jobs to look after their children, the economic result could be disastrous.

Only today (February 16), this site commented on an alleged plan to persuade GPs not to sign sick notes for people with long-term illnesses in order to force them to stay at work.

But this will not help as people who are sick either won’t be able to carry out the amount of work required, or won’t be able to work at all.

Before Brexit, the UK could always bring in a migrant workforce from Europe – but the silly Tories ended that with their Brexit. They only have themselves to blame.

And This Writer’s instinct says they’re only going to make matters worse.

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Banana-republic Britain slumps to lowest score on anti-corruption index

Government by backhander: this has apparently been the Tory way since November 2019.

We all know why this happened, don’t we?

At this rate, the UK will soon be no better than a so-called Banana Republic.

According to Transparency International,

Data for this year’s CPI was collected between November 2019 and October 2022, during which time:

  • Details continued to emerge of the government’s ‘VIP lane’ for fast-tracking offers of PPE from companies with political links. Our research previously warned this process appeared systemically biased in favour of those with connections to the party of government.
  • A cross-party parliamentary watchdog raised concerns that decisions on how to award money from the £3.6bn towns fund, designed to boost economic growth in struggling towns, were not impartial and were politically motivated.
  • We revealed 40 potential breaches of the ministerial code that were not investigated in the past five years. Details of almost all these potential breaches emerged during the CPI data collection period.
  • An investigation revealed wealthy donors to the Conservatives who gave at least £3million and took on a temporary role as the party treasurer commonly went on to be given a place in the House of Lords.

This was mostly during Boris Johnson’s period in office.

And the Tories want to bring him back!

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Why does the leader of the ‘party of the workers’ want to deny workers a living wage?

Keir Starmer: The leader of the ‘party of the workers’ doesn’t want workers to be paid a living wage.

This should be self-explanatory:

The simple fact is that any pay rise is achievable – even one that matches a shockingly-high rise in inflation such as we saw in 2022.

Governments set spending priorities – which could include provision for inflation-matching pay rises – and create the money to make them possible.

They also set taxation priorities – tax validates the UK’s currency (the Pound), limits inflation, and rebalances income inequalities (if the government of the day is so minded).

This means firms such as those that are currently profiting massively from higher prices for their products could be taxed so that their profits (after tax) would be appropriate for what they do, and the rest could prevent inflation related to the higher wages people would need in order to afford the increased cost of living these firms had created.

Don’t let any politician tell you a pay rise that matches inflation isn’t affordable. It is. They just don’t want you to be paid appropriately for the work you do.

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Disabled care home residents are being evicted because charities can’t afford to subsidise them

Money: the cost-of-living crisis means more cash is needed to cover the care of severely disabled people – but councils don’t have enough.

Here’s a little-known consequence of the cost-of-living crisis: disabled people are being evicted from charity-run care homes because local councils are refusing to pay increased costs.

These are people with severe disabilities whose care can cost anything between £85,000 and £150,000 per year.

The charity Leonard Cheshire said it had served 11 eviction notices on contracts with councils that had been under re-negotiation without agreement since February. Two were rescinded after councils agreed to pay uprated fees.

The fee increases reflect the rising costs of wages, energy and food due to the cost-of-living crisis that has been largely caused by the UK’s Conservative government, due to Brexit and energy privatisation that has led to failures to upgrade to cheap, locally-generated energy.

Leonard Cheshire has spent millions of pounds from its own reserves over the last few years, subsidising care services that councils have failed to fund adequately – but now says it can no longer afford to continue doing so.

Mencap has not evicted anybody because it generally doesn’t own the properties they occupy – but is subsidising one in five of the state-funded care packages it provides to 4,000 people – so that’s 800 of them. The cost to the charity is millions of pounds.

Evicted residents are unlikely to become homeless because their council or NHS funder has a duty to provide alternative care.

But the concern is that moving will disrupt the care that people get, and cheaper alternative arrangements will be of poorer quality or based far away from their family support network.

Ironically, the evictions are prompted by concerns that the level of council funding no longer guarantees basic safety and quality standards.

Inevitably, the government has claimed it provides plenty of money to support adult social care services – with the £7.5 billion available over two years constituting the biggest funding increase in UK history.

Conspicuously missing is any comment on whether this is enough money to cover the increased costs of care.

So you may safely conclude that it isn’t.

Source: Disabled care home residents evicted in charity’s dispute with councils | Social care | The Guardian

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Brexit is pushing your energy bill up. Here’s how it works [VIDEO]

Here’s another hidden cost of Brexit – kudos to Maximilien Robespierre for dragging this into the light.

The UK is an island so it must rely on interconnectors to import and export energy. When it was part of the EU, it was able to take advantage of the systems that operate these underwater cables – but must now rely on energy traders, adding complexity and therefore cost.

Here’s the clip:

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University bosses are planning to price less wealthy students out of education

University cash claims: are foreign students really pushing lower-paying UK candidates out of education – or are they subsidising the places?

Tuition fees should never have been introduced, of course – and this just proves it.

The bosses of four universities – Sunderland, Cardiff, Sheffield Hallam and Gloucester – have said the government needs to increase the cost of tuition for UK students, or they will overlook domestic students in favour of foreigners.

They say the frozen rate of £9,250 for UK students is not enough, meaning they have to take on an increasing number of applicants from countries such as China and India, who pay average annual fees of £24,000.

It is certainly true that a fifth of places at Russell Group universities were awarded to overseas students, an increase of seven per cent compared to last year. Meanwhile, the number of British undergraduates declined by 13 per cent.

But are universities really suffering from anything other than greed?

The University and College Union (UCU) is currently balloting for industrial action on the basis that academic institutions finished the 2020/21 financial year with £3.4 billion more than they started it with – but rather than spend some of the money improving pay and conditions for staff, they are putting £4.6 billion into “vanity” construction projects.

If they have money for that, then they can’t be struggling too hard – can they?

And the government has claimed that the university bosses’ argument is false.

According to the Telegraph, a spokesperson said: “It is a myth that offering a place to an international student takes a place away from a student in the UK. They actually support the creation of more places for domestic students.”

And the government said it is providing £750 million in extra funding for universities over the next three years.

So it seems to This Writer that uni bosses are just getting greedy. Am I right?

Source: Tuition fees for British students must be increased, university bosses warn

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Labour’s solution to energy prices – is it sensible and will it work?

Keir Starmer: what does he have for us? Armfuls of nothing.

The answer to the question in the headline is: probably not, although it does contain some reasonable points.

This Site mentioned the big hole in Labour’s proposals to beat the energy price increases previously – taxing the oil and gas giants on their profits won’t help if the money is used to stop them from making any profits (by ensuring that customers don’t pay more).

Bear in mind that costs are expected to rise hugely over the next few months; if people were only asked to pay the same as now, and the companies were taxed on their current profits to make up the difference, a deficit would have to appear somewhere.

And it seems Labour is basing its figures on the amount of profit made by these firms internationally – meaning that taxing them on the full amount to raise money in the UK would break international tax law.

According to the BBC,

The party also said it would raise £14bn from other measures such as dropping the £400 energy rebate, and abandoning pledges made by the the Conservative leadership contenders – such as halting the “green levy” on fuel bills, which Ms Truss is proposing, or scrapping VAT on domestic fuel bills which Mr Sunak has promised.

How does that help bill-payers when it is denying them the benefit of a £400 payment, or the benefits of suspending the green levy (which I don’t think is a good idea anyway as it gives support to the fossil fuels that are stinking up the planet and causing climate change) and scrapping VAT on domestic fuel bills? Those will all make our bills more expensive!

But other ideas, including insulating 19 million homes to reduce energy demand and securing the UK’s energy supply by taking it away from foreign countries and companies with measures including doubling onshore and offshore wind capacity and increasing production of solar, tidal, hydrogen and nuclear power (nuclear? Really?) are better.

Ultimately it makes no difference, even though the SNP and the Liberal Democrats support the proposed price cap freeze, because the Conservatives are in office and they have already said they won’t make any decisions until a new prime minister has taken over in September.

They are unlikely to take on Labour’s taxation proposals if they can find any reason to object to them – and the concern about international taxation would certainly seem to be a red flag.

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Paying for energy by Direct Debit? Your bill may rise before October so be ready!

Toothless energy “regulator” Ofgem has said household bills may rise before the price cap does in October, as firms try to spread the cost of higher use in the winter months.

The story is on the BBC here.

But this kind of unilateral change by energy suppliers means customers are denied the opportunity to change the way they pay, if they have to.

Who says people are going to want to spread a notional cost of energy they haven’t used?

Millions of us are planning to limit our energy use instead, cutting out all but the essentials – so for us it would be better to take back what we have overpaid in the summer and pay only for what we use in the winter.

The suppliers won’t be happy with that because it removes their safety cushion. But they have been merrily paying massive bonuses to their shareholders, so perhaps they should have engaged in a little forward thinking before demanding that the rest of us take the strain?

As This Writer stated in a previous article, the best advice for you – for now – is to get in touch with your supplier, explain your personal financial circumstances and discuss the best way for both of you to get through the current crisis.

It will also give you a chance to check how quickly your supplier will bring bills down when energy costs start to drop again.

NHS privatisation is killing people, says The Lancet

On the critical list: privatisation has triggered a major increase in NHS patient deaths because the services provided by private firms are of a significantly lower quality, according to a study published in The Lancet.

The oldest medical journal on the planet has published a report showing the NHS outsourcing – also known as privatisation – has caused a significant increase in patient deaths.

This is due to healthcare services being of lower quality since private firms were allowed to provide them.

The study states:

The privatisation of the NHS in England, through the outsourcing of services to for-profit companies, consistently increased in 2013–20. Private sector outsourcing corresponded with significantly increased rates of treatable mortality, potentially as a result of a decline in the quality of health-care services.

We found that an annual increase of one percentage point of outsourcing to the private for-profit sector corresponded with an annual increase in treatable mortality of 0·38% deaths per 100 000 population in the following year… Changes to for-profit outsourcing since 2014 were associated with an additional 557 treatable deaths across the 173 CCGs.

It elaborates:

We found significant increases in for-profit outsourcing between 2013 and 2020.

Since 2013, the annual numbers of treatable deaths in England has increased, breaking the trend of decreasing mortality for the previous 10 years.

We found significant positive associations: an additional £1 million spent on for-profit companies corresponded with average increases of 0·29 deaths for all CCGs in the following year.

Between 2014 and 2019, there were total yearly increases of £927 million spent on for-profit providers by all 173 CCGs included in this study sample. Based on the changes in for-profit spending and observed changes in treatable deaths for each CCG, we calculated that 557 additional deaths could have been attributed to changes in private-sector outsourcing between 2014 and 2019 across the 173 CCGs in the years for which we had data.

So, because of NHS privatisation, 557 people lost their lives, who should have been alive today.

And that’s before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK.

Strangely, there hasn’t been a whisper about this in the mainstream media. Did you see it on the TV news? It’s almost as if there’s been a blackout.

Source: Outsourcing health-care services to the private sector and treatable mortality rates in England, 2013–20: an observational study of NHS privatisation – The Lancet Public Health

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