Sunak Spends 15 Billion On Helping Cost Of Living Crisis

[Bobbisox1]

https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-living-grant-for-eight-million-households-and-windfall-tax-on-oil-and-gas-companies-announced-by-chancellor-12621672

Whilst it’s a huge help , how will ‘they establish ’ who’s poor and who’s not for the extra £650 as well as the £400 per household?
Would that be for those on benefits?

[barry1010]

The poorest people will probably be defined as those on means tested benefits, so pensioners not on pension credit will miss out.

[pastafreak]

I just read it was for those on pension credit amongst other benefits.

[barry1010]

Even though some pensioners are poorer than those on pension credit. It really is unfair at times like these.

[dannyk13]

Barry // pensioners not on pension credit will miss out.//
Not if they get Winter Fuel payment.

[youngmafbog]

//It beggars belief how much profit companies like BP make and the lame excuse from them is they need it to invest//

No it doesnt, its a World market that works on supply and demand. Part of the market has been shut off so supply is short and prices go up. Admittedly they seem slow to reduce but at the minute its like a fiddlers elbow.

As for invest, have you any idea how much it costs to find and extract oil? Its no longer just scraping it up from the ground.

If Johnson had allowed them to invest and expand (as oil companies wanted to) then maybe we would not be in the mess we are in as they could have opened the taps another 1/4 turn to make up the shortfall. Or some of it.

Personally I really dont think this is a good idea. Future companies could well be put off investing in the UK.

[barry1010]

Is that the annual winter fuel payment all pensioners get or the cold weather payment only some get?

[pastafreak]

barry1010

Even though some pensioners are poorer than those on pension credit. It really is unfair at times like these.

I thought pension credit only tops up as far as the pension amount.

[Bobbisox1]

Same as Pasta

[mushroom25]

on the BBC's Live-Feed summary, it says:-

* All households will receive a £400 discount on energy bills
* Eight million of the lowest income families will also get a one-off payment of £650
* There will be a one-off disability cost of living payment of £150
* pensioners will get £300

[youngmafbog]

It would be far better to scrap the green taxes and VAT on elec/gas.

[barry1010]

Pasta, those on pension credit also get a host of other benefits automatically, such as council tax benefit, housing benefit for renters, help with dental costs and spectacles plus transport costs for hospital appointments - and cold weather payments.
Those that get even 50p above the cut off point lose out on hundreds of pounds every year.

[davebro]

As I read it:
Pensioners not on benefits will get get £300 winter fuel + £400 fuel "discount" (not to be paid back).
People on some benefits £650 + £400 fuel discount.
Pensioners on some benefits £650 + £300 winter fuel + £400 fuel discount.
I could be wrong!

[dannyk13]

Barry , It's for those who get Winter Fuel Allowance.

[davebro]

fuels payts will be per household I suppose. dunno about the £650.

[pastafreak]

I thought of that after I posted Barry.
From BBC...
...pensioner households who receive the winter fuel payment will get £300

Is this on top of winter fuel allowance or instead of the usual £200?.
The 650 is to be paid in July and October.

[Ryzen]

Will it be paid to energy accounts for holiday homes?

[perseverer]

From the BBC

A £650 payment will be made to more than eight million low-income households who receive Universal Credit, tax credits, pension credit and other means-tested benefits.
This will be an automatic payment into bank accounts. It comes in two instalments - the first in July and the second sometime this autumn. Payments for those on tax credits only will follow shortly afterwards.
Those on disability benefits will receive £150 in September, which may be on top of the £650 payment.

Households that receive the Winter Fuel Payment - which is homes with at least one person of pension age - will receive an extra £300 in November or December.
Those on lower incomes, who claim pension credit, will also receive the £650 mentioned earlier.
A small group of pensioners with disabilities will receive a total of £1,500 when all the new payments and discounts they are eligible for are added up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61592496

[douglas9401]

Re 'how do we get this', those who are able can pop down to their local magic money tree plantation and simply help themselves. Everybody else will have a grovelling public servant deliver a cheque personally.

Lucky recipients may even get a glass of wine from the PM as he tours the land for business, not pleasure.

[youngmafbog]

No magic money tree here Douglas, its already paid for (remember taxes are on a % so when prices go up Treasury gets more) plus the ridiculous 'windfall' tax.

[New Judge]

This is an absolutely stupid idea all round. One of the reasons that inflation has finally hit the fan is because the government has been continually printing worthless money. To spend this £15bn it will have to be borrowed. Interest rates will go up over the next few months (they should have already done so - considerably - by now) and would have done so if the Bank of England had done its job properly. So the £15bn the government will borrow to fund this will cost an ever increasing amount to service.

The idea that it will be funded by a windfall tax is fanciful, and even if it is, what will happen next year? Another windfall tax and another £15bn handout? And the year after that?

The country needs energy suppliers to invest in reliable energy sources that are not subject to the wind blowing, the sun shining, or no foreign despots invading other nations. The UK is sitting on coal, it's sitting on gas. If the government has £15bn to spare it should spend it opening a few coalmines, recommissioning some coal-fired power stations (including stopping Drax burning imported wood) and to open up the shale gas industry. The old adage applies - give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. So it is with this: give everybody £400 (or whatever sum has been plucked from thin air) and you help with the gas bills for a year; provide them with reliable energy sources under our own control and you won't have to give anybody anything.