National News Cost of Living Crisis

No, that is not what I am intimating. I'm saying that, like the rest of the population, we all have or are still, paying into the state system. To say that the state pension is being "funded by the younger generation" is totally disingenuous. It's funded by everyone including those who are in receipt of that pension.

Those that reach retirement age do not pay National Insurance.
 
I understand what you are saying @Marked Ox but in 6 months? Then what? So we do it again or do we let it lie with the energy bills hopefully being cheaper with the time of year, or worse what’s stopping the energy companies giving a bigger increase than may have already been planned but with a freeze the energy companies trying to claw back what was frozen.

I think the only way this might change would be the renationalising the energy companies and the government run them.

I said earlier, taxing the North Sea production of Oil and Gas would be an option to help fund this as we already have the mechanisms in place and it would be bringing back a tax that got dropped after the oil price was so low helping those same companies.

The rest would be down to Ofgem to actually focus on protecting the consumer.

I wish we would build up a nationalised element, say 20% of energy production which is focused on green energy and nuclear.
 
I understand what you are saying @Marked Ox but in 6 months? Then what? So we do it again or do we let it lie with the energy bills hopefully being cheaper with the time of year, or worse what’s stopping the energy companies giving a bigger increase than may have already been planned but with a freeze the energy companies trying to claw back what was frozen.

I think the only way this might change would be the renationalising the energy companies and the government run them.
Yay, Bazzer has become a leftie!
 
Those that reach retirement age do not pay National Insurance.
Past tense, they have paid and did so for a long time. Is anyone saying they have no right to a pension because they are old and no longer pay National Insurance? The whole argument that the younger pay for the older is flawed. Everybody pays in and, eventually, everybody gets paid out.
 
How it works is if you ask enough people how they vote & their age you end up with data or stat’s. The older you get the more likely you are to vote Tory. 68 & never voted Tory myself. Never will.
Well bully for you. I take it you will decline any increase in your state pension?
 
The theory of National insurance funding the NHS and pensions is a load of rubbish anyway. It’s never been paid into a UK sovereign wealth fund or pension scheme. It just gets spent like all the other taxes we pay.
 
I said earlier, taxing the North Sea production of Oil and Gas would be an option to help fund this as we already have the mechanisms in place and it would be bringing back a tax that got dropped after the oil price was so low helping those same companies.

The rest would be down to Ofgem to actually focus on protecting the consumer.

I wish we would build up a nationalised element, say 20% of energy production which is focused on green energy and nuclear.
What would have been good was the revenue from North Sea oil being put into a Sovereign Wealth Fund like Norway's rather than used to pay for short-term tax cuts. Norway's fund is currently worth $1.4trillion and is the biggest in the world.
 
Past tense, they have paid and did so for a long time. Is anyone saying they have no right to a pension because they are old and no longer pay National Insurance? The whole argument that the younger pay for the older is flawed. Everybody pays in and, eventually, everybody gets paid out.

Sorry @Manorlounger, I think we are at completely cross purposes here.

I am not for one minute saying no one has a right to a pension… sorry if that is how it came across.

I am saying that we pay NI all our life to receive sufficient credits to receive a full state pension. But, the money we pay now is not invested away somewhere to fund our own pension. It is instead used to fund current pensioners. Our pension will be funded by the younger (none state pension age) generation when our time comes.

That is a model that has to, at some point, become unsustainable if the ageing population continues to rise as we live longer with medical advances etc thus increasing the financial burden.

If someone asked you to invest in a scheme for 40 years with no return on the basis that when you did start to see some dividend it was funded by new investors, I am sure you would question its merits. It is a classic ponzi.
 
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so at the same time doctors and nurses are being refused decent pay offers because they would be "inflationary", those they spend their time keeping alive can get such increases...

Not saying it is right or fair. Plenty of pensioners need a boost whilst others have so much personal income their state pension becomes pin money. Which is why I mentioned earlier that means testing has to become a criteria regardless of historic NI contribution records. Problem is, it is a political hot potato so no party will want to touch it.

By the same token, remove higher rate tax relief on personal pension contributions. Why this is still a thing is madness. A 20% government contribution is plenty.
 
Not saying it is right or fair. Plenty of pensioners need a boost whilst others have so much personal income their state pension becomes pin money. Which is why I mentioned earlier that means testing has to become a criteria regardless of historic NI contribution records. Problem is, it is a political hot potato so no party will want to touch it.

By the same token, remove higher rate tax relief on personal pension contributions. Why this is still a thing is madness. A 20% government contribution is plenty.

If I pay tax on my pension when I retire then I want tax relief on my contributions on the way in.
 
It's not just household that this inept, paralysed woke obsessed government is failing just listen to how it's destroying our economy right under your noses. Absolutely shocking and unforgivable. A must listen.

The Netherlands has the second highest gas price in Europe, with Dutch consumers paying about double the EU average. Only Sweden has a higher gas price, Energievergelijk.nl reports after analyzing figures from the Household Energy Price Index on 33 European countries.
 
It's not just household that this inept, paralysed woke obsessed government is failing just listen to how it's destroying our economy right under your noses. Absolutely shocking and unforgivable. A must listen.

Because gas also plays a significant role in Dutch electricity production, the Netherlands electricity price is also above average. Netherlands residents pay 30.5 euro cents per kWh of electricity, 4 cents more than the European average. The Netherlands has the 10th highest electricity price in Europe.27 Jul 2022

Can’t see how much he would save by moving to the Netherlands or maybe that’s an excuse to reduce their staffing levels.
 
Because gas also plays a significant role in Dutch electricity production, the Netherlands electricity price is also above average. Netherlands residents pay 30.5 euro cents per kWh of electricity, 4 cents more than the European average. The Netherlands has the 10th highest electricity price in Europe.27 Jul 2022

Can’t see how much he would save by moving to the Netherlands or maybe that’s an excuse to reduce their staffing levels.
Listen to the interview! It's not where costs are now it's where his costs are going ie the 260% increase v the capped, albeit currently higher, Dutch rates.

Edit: this is exactly why we got Brexit. Because when people on the front line pointed out the serious pitfalls misiinformed people didn't engage their brains. Harsh but true.
 
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Listen to the interview! It's not where costs are now it's where his costs are going ie the 260% increase v the capped, albeit currently higher, Dutch rates.

Edit: this is exactly why we got Brexit. Because when people on the front line pointed out the serious pitfalls misiinformed people didn't engage their brains. Harsh but true.
We will see, the cost of living is effecting the whole of Europe, we’re not exclusive byte higher cost of living.
Yesterday SKS came out with labours plan to help in this crisis and one of their ideas was to pause the cap increase for 6 months, now what happens in 6 months? So some of this is down to brexit I grant you that but the cost of living is harsh and affecting the whole of Europe.
But I bet he won’t employ the 900 employees he will lose when they move.
 
Gas and electric prices are rocketing all over Europe.
"Next-year electricity rates in Germany advanced as much as 3.7% to 477.50 euros ($487) a megawatt-hour on the
European Energy Exchange AG. That’s almost six times as much as this time last year, with the price doubling in the
past two months alone."

I've read stories of small UK businesses (Chip shops) getting huge increases from hundreds of pounds to thousands in their energy monthly direct debits as apparently the current price cap is for households only and not businesses.

This is a crisis that almost everyone can see is coming, and only the blinkered refuse to acknowledge it. We urgently need a plan to cap bills / subsidise before businesses go bust and families can't afford to heat their homes in the Winter.
 

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