Tag Archives: record

Cost of dying reaches record high in UK – and here’s a practical example of help

If you don’t have £10,000 saved up to pay for the cost of your own death, your survivors will be stuck with a hefty bill, it seems.

Here’s The Independent:

According to SunLife’s annual report looking at the growing expenses for the bereaved, the average cost has soared to £9,658. This figure, which includes the price of a funeral, professional fees and other send-off costs, is the highest in the 20 years SunLife has been tracking them.

A basic funeral in the UK, which includes a burial or cremation, all funeral director fees, a mid-range coffin, one funeral limousine, as well as doctor and celebrant fees, have increased to £4,141 from £3,953 last year.

A hike in send-off costs to £2,768 and in professional fees to £2,749 means the overall cost of dying is up £458 year on year.

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The pressure of rising funeral costs has left one in five families experiencing “notable financial concerns”.

Among these, three-quarters of people reported that paying for the funeral impacted their mental health, and two-thirds experienced an impact on their physical health.

Now let’s hear from Susan Bradley, who lost both her mother and sister within 10 months – as also reported in The Independent:

The 51-year-old from Birmingham was devastated when her mother passed away on 9 June 2022 following a stroke and further complications.

The emotional distress of her grief was only intensified by the stress of having to scrape together money for the funeral costs.

The total expenses with Central Co-op Funeral amounted to £4,800, which was to be split between six relatives.

The 51-year-old said she had to be “extra careful” with money and was forced to neglect some of her long-standing payments.

After struggling through her mother’s funeral costs, Ms Bradley was faced with another tragedy – her sister’s sudden passing at the age of 37 in April last year.

The bill for her sister’s funeral increased by £1,000 from that of her mother’s the previous year.

Here comes the helpful bit:

With her carer’s allowance her only income, plus the additional costs of taking in her sister’s two children, Ms Bradley reached out for help to cover the costs of the funeral.

She googled until she found Down to Earth, a UK-wide helpline offering advice and practical support to people struggling with funeral costs.

Down to Earth made an application for Ms Bradley to charity Turn2us who awarded the family £1,980 towards the funeral. They also directed Ms Bradley to Teaching Staff Trust, who provide hardship grants to help people in or previously involved in the education sector through times of financial trouble.

The trust helped the family cover the majority of the remaining expenses of the funeral, significantly reducing the burden for Ms Bradley’s family.

According to the article, people facing spiralling funeral costs are increasingly failing to either heat or eat. They find they are unable to do what the deceased person wanted or what they feel is right to honour that person and it makes some people mentally, emotionally, and physically very ill.

With government help dwindling down to nothing, in real terms – and no surprises there – it is fortunate that these charitable organisations exist to pick up the slack.

But how many of us even know they exist? And will demand for their help rocket beyond their ability, now that we know they do?

Source: Sunlife report: Cost of dying reaches record high in UK, new report reveals | The Independent


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UK records record migration – but are the Tories jumping to the wrong conclusions?

Migration successes: these legal migrants were carrying out vital work in the UK because the UK needed them (the image is from 2016). Migrants are still needed here but it seems the Tories have their priorities wrong.

The Conservative government’s policy to reduce legal migration into the UK has failed dramatically, ONS figures show.

These figures estimate that net migration – the difference between the number of people coming to live in the UK and those leaving – was a record 745,000 last year.

Some – like ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman – have demanded new restrictions on the reasons people are allowed in:

But this would restrict the number of skilled people coming to work in the NHS, and deprive schools and universities of vital funding from foreign students, among other drawbacks that This Writer is probably not knowledgeable enough to see.

The reality, it seems, is not that migration is out of control – because businesses are screaming for people who are capable of carrying out skilled work for them, and are in fact finding their effectiveness restricted by the lack of these people.

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This is especially true when it comes to farming. Here’s a video clip by Professor Tim Wilson, explaining the situation:

And what are the Tories suggesting to solve the problem? Here’s Maximilien Robespierre:

So the solution is to import crops that can’t be raised economically – in direct contradiction of one of the main arguments for Brexit: that we could create goods more economically here than get them from abroad.

For This Writer, there’s only one conclusion: the Tories are changing their story to confuse us.

I don’t think there is even a hidden plan behind this; they’re just trying to cover up one blunder after another over the last seven years since the EU referendum, if not the whole 13 years since the Coalition government slithered into office in 2010.

Nothing these clowns are saying is making any sense at all.

We need a rational analysis of the kind of people the UK needs to bring in from abroad, that recommends the most economical ways of getting them. Without that, this “hit and hope” Tory shambles is going to keep getting it wrong and continue failing to hit its targets.


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Tory MP said ‘Judge us by our record’ so now I’ve made a VIDEO about it

Laura Trott: she wanted us to judge her party on its record. The video clip mentions just a few parts of it.

This is purely because the record of the Tory government’s failures is worth keeping in the public eye.

After yesterday’s article (read it here), I made a YouTube video, in order to keep the information about what the Tories have done as accessible as possible.

Here’s the clip:


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‘Judge us by our record’, says Tory MP. We did – and the verdict is not good!

Laura Trott: does she spend a lot of time with her foot in her mouth?

Conservative Pensions Minister Laura Trott made a bit of a blunder on the morning media round: she asked the public to judge the Conservative Party on its “track record” since 2010.

Here she is, saying it:

Peter Stefanovic took her at her word, and did just that. Here’s the result:

Social mobility is at its worst in more than 50 years.

Untreated sewage dumped in our rivers.

Crumbling schools and hospitals.

Thousands dying every year on NHS waiting lists.

Let’s add a little more to the list, from an article published earlier today (September 18, 2023):

14 million people in the UK are in poverty – that is a little more than one-fifth of the population.

A million adults can’t afford to eat every day.

Nine million, while eating every day, are skipping meals and cutting back on food. There is a consequent effect on the nation’s health that will impact the NHS, of course – with thousands of people being hospitalised with malnutrition. Then the Tories say they don’t understand why the health service can’t cope after they have put so much (ha ha!) extra funding into it.

A record 2.1 million people are now using food banks. Remember David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ policy? This is its only success – forcing more wealthy people to subsidise those who cannot afford to feed themselves, including lower-paid working people and nurses, let’s not forget, with charity.

The number of children in food poverty has doubled in the last year alone.

Seven million households aren’t being heated properly.

Rishi Sunak has also mentioned inequality, claiming – again, falsely – that this is also lower. In fact:

In 2022, incomes for the poorest 14 million people fell by 7.5 per cent while those for the richest fifth saw a 7.8 per cent increase.

Could that be partly because Sunak has uncapped bankers’ bonuses while imposing real-terms pay cuts on public sector workers?

Sunak reckons 200,000 fewer pensioners are in poverty today – but the number of pensioners in relative poverty has actually increased by more than 200,000. In 2021/22, more than two million pensioners were living in poverty in the UK.

Sunak’s comment about 100,000 new homes needs no response because the House of Lords rightly rejected the arguments in favour of building on land likely to be flooded with water that had been polluted, not only by developers but also by greedy privatised water firms.

Sunak reckons he’s delivered 4,000 prison officers – so why are there fewer now than in 2010? Does it have something to do with the privatisation – and profitisation – of our prisons?

Put it all together and you’d have to be demented to deny the comments in the following ‘X’ post:


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Will disability health assessment recording plan cut errors in DWP decisions?

The Department for Work and Pensions has announced plans to record all disability benefit assessments:

Plans to move to a new telephony platform during 2024 and make enhancements to the Video Assessment application … will bring the ability to record all disability health benefit consultations.

The update comes just a week after the publication of a report from the Work and Pensions Committee into the health assessments system used by people who cannot work or face extra costs due to disability or ill-health to access vital benefits.

The report contained a proposal from the chair, Sir Stephen Timms MP for all assessments to be recorded by default, with an option for claimants to opt-out.

The cross-party committee of MPs said that footage could then be used to review cases more accurately without having to go to appeal, and help assessors learn from past mistakes. It added that some of the suggestions could drive down the high rate of decisions reversed on appeal, which still stands at 69 per cent for Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

This is the part that encourages This Writer.

This Site has long publicised the belief that assessors from the private companies hired by the DWP to make recommendations on benefit claims have disqualified claimants for false reasons.

The answer – recording the assessments – has (also) long been known, but has been resisted by the DWP on the basis that it insisted on specific – expensive – equipment being used.

It seems that stipulation has now been rendered pointless due to advances in technology, and the government has at last bowed to the inevitable. The change is expected to come into effect next year.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, of course.

I certainly hope that benefit assessments after the new recording guidelines come into force show a marked increase in approvals – and that the number of appeals drops as a result. They are a waste of tribunal time.

fear that the DWP and the assessment firms will merely find another excuse to disqualify people who genuinely deserve help.

We’ll have to keep a very close eye on this one.

Source: DWP announces plans to record all disability health assessments on new system from next year – Daily Record


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Green Party to stand a record number of candidates in local elections. Good for choice?

This is interesting because the Greens represent a threat to both the Conservatives and Labour.

With the Tories, the Green threat is all about pollution; the recently-deceased Nigel Lawson once said the causes of climate change were not worth combating because it would cost too much.

With Labour, the Greens have adopted policies championed by former leader Jeremy Corbyn, many or all of which have since been dropped by Keir Starmer:

Do you have a Green candidate in your ward? If so, would you consider voting for their policies?


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NHS dentists: Is Rishi Sunak trying to usurp Boris Johnson’s reputation for lying?

Rishi Sunak: rebuilding public DIStrust of the Conservative government.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has been caught out telling a falsehood to his fellow MPs.

Didn’t he claim he was going to rebuild public trust in the government, when he became PM last year?

This isn’t going to achieve that aim.

During Prime Minister’s Questions on January 11 – the first PMQs of the year, he claimed:

  • There are more NHS dentists across the UK.
  • There is more funding for NHS dentists.
  • This means people are getting the treatment they need.

It seems none of these claims are true.

Cat Smith, Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, who highlighted concerns that people are unable to get an NHS dental appointment, has written to Sunak, calling on him to correct the record:

She wrote: “The British Dental Association (BDA) has said that not one of these claims are accurate, and described this as a ‘wholesale misrepresentation’ of the crisis facing NHS dentistry.”

She continued: “The Chair of the BDA, Eddie Crouch, has said ‘The Prime Minister has offered a grotesque misrepresentation of a crisis facing millions. Our patients are living with the reality. The facts are there are no new dentists, no new contract and no new money. All we’ve seen are tweaks at the margins. We need honesty, ambition and investment to save a service on its last legs.”

And she urged him to correct the record.

At the time of writing, he has yet to do so.

ADDITIONAL: The British Dental Association has also urged Sunak to correct the record after Labour/Co-operative MP Simon Lightwood raised the same issue:

And Peter Stefanovic has made this short clip to show Sunak how to do it:

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Shapps pretends to be money-saving expert – but Martin Lewis has other concerns…

Isn’t it offensive when government ministers pretend to be concerned about the well-being of the proles and try to show us how to save money?

And isn’t it worse when media giants like the BBC play into their hands?

Perhaps that’s why Grant Shapps’s attempt to play at being money-saving expert Martin Lewis fell as flat as it did:

This Writer hasn’t heard Mr Lewis saying anything about it – but then, he’s been wrapped up in other concerns…

He has joined YouTube stars Mark and Roxanne Hall – otherwise known as LadBaby – to record a Christmas song raising money for people affected by the cost-of-living crisis created by Tory ministers like Shapps.

Proceeds from their cover of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas will be shared equally between food bank charity The Trussell Trust and the Band Aid Foundation.

According to the BBC (how ironic),

“We never intended to release a fifth Christmas single but as ambassadors of the Trussell Trust we were not prepared to sit back and do nothing in a year when people are struggling more than ever,” Mark and Roxanne said in a statement.

They approached Bob Geldof and Midge Ure (the original writers of Do They Know It’s Christmas) to ask for permission six months ago.

“I wasn’t as difficult as people might think,” said Mark.

“Bob said he was excited to see what we were going to do, and they’ve approved everything – all the lyrics we wrote, the music video, who we got involved. Everything.”

Lewis said he was amazed to have been approached for help.

“I thought they’d confused me with someone else,” he said. “The nearest I’ve ever got to thinking about a Christmas number one is going to the loo on Boxing Day after too much orange juice the day before.

“Yet once I knew they were serious, and it was for the Trussell Trust, a hugely important charity I’ve a history with, I decided to give it a go, and do it with gusto.”

Mark said he had approached the money-saving expert because “he knows more than most how to help people in this country”.

Here’s the result of their work:

The song is available right now, right here:  https://ladbaby.lnk.to/FoodAidID!6

Remember: 100 per cent of profits from every download of the recording will go towards the fight against food hunger – and that could make a real difference to lives across the country.

Dorries contradicts herself – badly – over sale of Channel 4

Not making sense: Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has been telling us that Channel 4 must be sold because it is not making enough in advertising revenue – but it is in fact making record profits. Confronted with that fact, she said that means now is a good time to sell it. So it IS all about making money, then!

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has come badly unstuck on her reasons for selling Channel 4.

Giving evidence to the Commons Culture Committee on Thursday (May 19), she said Channel 4 is dependent on just one stream of revenue – advertising – but income is falling as advertisers have more choice. She claimed Netflix would be a better option.

And the government cannot allow Channel 4 to borrow to invest, because the taxpayer would be liable for those debts, she said. This actually does make sense of one of the restrictions on the channel’s funding.

But later in the session, the SNP’s John Nicolson pointed out that Channel 4 is currently making record profits – belying what Dorries has been saying about advertising revenue.

Her response?

“That means it would be a good time to sell.”

This is a woman who – like the character Eccles in The Goon Show – refuses to be defeated by logic.

If someone tried to make her understand how gravity works, we may reasonably expect her to say – like Eccles did – that she stays on the ground because she lives there.

What a goon.

And her answer reveals that this sale is not about what’s best for Channel 4.

It’s about making fast money for a spendthrift government.

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Here’s why campaigners are right to seek end of ‘government by WhatsApp’

Social media junkie: for all we know, Boris Johnson is probably deleting WhatsApp messages in this shot.

Government ministers led by Boris Johnson are conducting business via insecure social media services because it is easier than doing the work properly – and because they can hide what they are doing.

That’s the only explanation This Writer can see for Boris Johnson receiving a summary of the material from his ministerial red box via WhatsApp – he’s simply too damned lazy to go through the paperwork himself.

It means some poor civil servant has to do his work for him, in order to present him with a summary that he just about manages to keep in his tiny mind long enough to get it entirely mixed up – as seems to have happened, infamously, in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in 2018. If not that, what was the real reason for his shocking faux pas?

As for hiding what they are doing – we have seen secret WhatsApp messages from Boris Johnson because his former aide Dominic Cummings took screenshots of them – and they include decision-making on the procurement of ventilators, testing in care homes, and Mr Johnson’s description of then health secretary Matt Hancock as “hopeless”.

But there is no official record of these messages. That is unacceptable.

Worse, it has emerged that Johnson and other senior ministers, along with at least one of the six Cabinet Office senior civil servants, downloaded Signal – an app that can instantly delete messages. The only reason for them to do that is to communicate decisions outside of official government channels; government in secret.

That’s why campaigning lawyers from the Good Law Project and Foxglove are challenging the government’s use of these social media platforms in the High Court.

The Good Law Project and Foxglove say records of vital decision-making have been lost to the public, and this could undermine investigations such as next year’s inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

They say the government is potentially in breach of its own data security guidelines and the Public Records Act of 1958, which requires legal checks to be made on messages in case they need to be kept for the public interest:

Cori Crider, director of Foxglove, said: “Our democracy can only work if the decisions of those who represent us are open to scrutiny.

“That can’t happen if officials govern by secret WhatsApp chats that vanish into thin air.”

The government says it has secure channels for exchanging sensitive information, and ministers are obliged to record important decision-making discussions with officials.

It argues that a record is kept of all substantive discussions and only ephemeral messages are deleted.

With proof that Johnson used WhatsApp to communicate decisions – and then deleted them – freely available courtesy of Cummings, it will be interesting to see if any right-thinking judge can uphold that argument.

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/


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