Cost of living squeeze in 2022

[Mark Benson]

worsy said:

Welshbeef said:

Armchair_Expert said:

Welshbeef said:

I wonder what impact to energy prices cutting off Russian oil and Gas by the end of 2022 will mean - am guessing it will not mean a reduction rather an increase.

Lewis also went onto say that the price is predicted to fall post April 2023, so the end was in sight - it was going to be 6 months of pain.

Out of interest I have noticed there seems to be an awful lot of hate for Martin Lewis, my mortgage advisor was slating him last year and I notice a lot of eye rolling and huffing / puffing from people in finance when he is mentioned. It seems to me he has worked hard and is a real ambassador for the people, or is he just a con man and I am the mug? Why the hate?

For someone who has without question helped so many people reduce costs get more for less not be ripped off challenge and shop around and get the benefits and rights due and challenge govt with locked into mortgages I’d say it’s hard to not think he has done a great deal to so many.

In many ways he is giving people the education in finances that is so lacking.

I can see why say mortgage brokers etc are not happy as it is then they who lose out

I'm not a huge fan, only because he is a master of pointing out the bleeding obvious. However i also recognise it might not be bleeding obvious to many.

Some of it stems from his commercialising the brand he created but these days the main objections I hear are that he's 'too simplistic' and 'it just doesn't work that way' but they come from people in the industry who've been steeped in finance for 30 years.

Given, as Welshy says there's little financial education given to people in the UK, simplistic is exactly how he needs to be to engage people who don't think much further than the next payday or how much the monthlies are.

He performs an important role in getting people to look more closely at their finances, which can only be a good thing.

[oyster]

worsy said:

Welshbeef said:

Armchair_Expert said:

Welshbeef said:

I wonder what impact to energy prices cutting off Russian oil and Gas by the end of 2022 will mean - am guessing it will not mean a reduction rather an increase.

Lewis also went onto say that the price is predicted to fall post April 2023, so the end was in sight - it was going to be 6 months of pain.

Out of interest I have noticed there seems to be an awful lot of hate for Martin Lewis, my mortgage advisor was slating him last year and I notice a lot of eye rolling and huffing / puffing from people in finance when he is mentioned. It seems to me he has worked hard and is a real ambassador for the people, or is he just a con man and I am the mug? Why the hate?

For someone who has without question helped so many people reduce costs get more for less not be ripped off challenge and shop around and get the benefits and rights due and challenge govt with locked into mortgages I’d say it’s hard to not think he has done a great deal to so many.

In many ways he is giving people the education in finances that is so lacking.

I can see why say mortgage brokers etc are not happy as it is then they who lose out

I'm not a huge fan, only because he is a master of pointing out the bleeding obvious. However i also recognise it might not be bleeding obvious to many.

He's occasionally been too vociferous too early and without considering consequences. His ideas and suggestions are often not fully costed.

In March 2020 when furlough was first announced, there was outcry about people who had 'slipped through the net' because the timing of job changes meant they weren't entitled to furlough. He proposed an idea to the Treasury of allowing recent job leavers to be furloughed by their previous employers - but was too lazy (or perhaps egotistical) to define the criteria of the proposal.
The net outcome of this - he let the Chancellor get away with doing it in a half-arsed way that still left hundreds of thousands of people out of the protection of furlough, but with more people now protected, Sunak could claim this as a big success.

[Red9zero]

Welshbeef said:

Armchair_Expert said:

Welshbeef said:

I wonder what impact to energy prices cutting off Russian oil and Gas by the end of 2022 will mean - am guessing it will not mean a reduction rather an increase.

Lewis also went onto say that the price is predicted to fall post April 2023, so the end was in sight - it was going to be 6 months of pain.

Out of interest I have noticed there seems to be an awful lot of hate for Martin Lewis, my mortgage advisor was slating him last year and I notice a lot of eye rolling and huffing / puffing from people in finance when he is mentioned. It seems to me he has worked hard and is a real ambassador for the people, or is he just a con man and I am the mug? Why the hate?

For someone who has without question helped so many people reduce costs get more for less not be ripped off challenge and shop around and get the benefits and rights due and challenge govt with locked into mortgages I’d say it’s hard to not think he has done a great deal to so many.

In many ways he is giving people the education in finances that is so lacking.

I can see why say mortgage brokers etc are not happy as it is then they who lose out

It's the fact he gives advice (mainly the bleeding obvious) with no training or qualifications and no comeback.

[kiethton]

My fix expires at the end of next month.

I've just had the projection through - from a monthly cost of £78 to £187.

Most ridiculous thing is the standing charges - 41.65p a day for electricity and 27.22p for gas. That's crazy!

[hotchy]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Wished I fixed back in October when they said the same thing. Too late now so will have to ride it out.

[xeny]

kiethton said:

Most ridiculous thing is the standing charges - 41.65p a day for electricity and 27.22p for gas. That's crazy!

That's paying for the bailouts of the various failed energy companies.

[PRTVR]

xeny said:

That's paying for the bailouts of the various failed energy companies.

That the government via the regulator allowed to set up without sufficient capital to weather a financial storm.

[Sway]

PRTVR said:

xeny said:

That's paying for the bailouts of the various failed energy companies.

That the government via the regulator allowed to set up without sufficient capital to weather a financial storm.

There are limits to capitalisation requirements. They're not free, and it's tough to argue for massive requirements that have required a virtually perfect storm of events to create.

Just like it's going to be really rough for those who can't afford their mortgage, due to rates increasing beyond the stress tests that were already a decent chunk above the 'realistically foreseeable' worst case scenario pre-covid and Ukraine.

[Shnozz]

kiethton said:

My fix expires at the end of next month.

I've just had the projection through - from a monthly cost of 78 to 187.

Most ridiculous thing is the standing charges - 41.65p a day for electricity and 27.22p for gas. That's crazy!

Be thankful you were one of those that fixed with suppliers who remained solvent to honour the fix to its end. It’s a lottery and many lost a fix and we’re thrown into significant price rises already simply due to backing the wrong horse.

[Vanden Saab]

pghstochaj said:

m3jappa said:

pghstochaj said:

Those nasty green taxes that provide installed capacity that will eventually disconnect us from fluctuations in gas prices?

I thought it was higher than 7.8% tbh but there we go.

And yes stop them for now……until the wholesale gas price drops, which I understand will.

I am not sure what industry you are in. However, due to the size and cost of power projects, the power sector works on investment periods of around 3 to
5 to 10 years. If you suddenly remove investment and commitment to the renewable sector then you destroy confidence and investment will not easily return. It happened to the PFI funded energy from waste projects (it killed several companies over night and wasted tens of millions of project development) and it absolutely devastated the domestic solar industry and large scale solar when unforeseen changes took place to ROCs and FiT. People seem to forget this - private investment and private industry cannot just cope with the whim of the government changing, it needs certainty and long term planning.

One of the sister projects to the one I was building missed the ROC deadline for biomass and has not run since. c. 200M of investment into a power station which is unable to run as it lost access to the subsidy required. This kills the industry.

You do not stop them you just take them out of the cost of energy and continue to pay them through general taxation.

[brickwall]

Red9zero said:

Welshbeef said:

Armchair_Expert said:

Welshbeef said:

I wonder what impact to energy prices cutting off Russian oil and Gas by the end of 2022 will mean - am guessing it will not mean a reduction rather an increase.

Lewis also went onto say that the price is predicted to fall post April 2023, so the end was in sight - it was going to be 6 months of pain.

Out of interest I have noticed there seems to be an awful lot of hate for Martin Lewis, my mortgage advisor was slating him last year and I notice a lot of eye rolling and huffing / puffing from people in finance when he is mentioned. It seems to me he has worked hard and is a real ambassador for the people, or is he just a con man and I am the mug? Why the hate?

For someone who has without question helped so many people reduce costs get more for less not be ripped off challenge and shop around and get the benefits and rights due and challenge govt with locked into mortgages I’d say it’s hard to not think he has done a great deal to so many.

In many ways he is giving people the education in finances that is so lacking.

I can see why say mortgage brokers etc are not happy as it is then they who lose out

It's the fact he gives advice (mainly the bleeding obvious) with no training or qualifications and no comeback.

The cynic in me reckons a lot of the ‘old guard’ in the industry don’t like him because he’s revealed they were ripping people off!
There are stacks of Financial Advisors out there who get away with charging fat fees for very little, purely because the clients lack financial education or confidence. Martin Lewis provides that education and confidence, and suddenly lots of people turn around to their supposed ‘financial advisor’ and say “just what am I paying you for?”

[Gerradi]

Pablo16v said:

I think it’s important to note that there was a global oil price crisis in 1986 following years of decline and the govt was liable for some huge losses so opted for a different revenue model based on taxation. It seemed a sensible and prudent decision at the time based on the historic oil price data, and I am sure successive govts have enjoyed high tax revenues during subsequent boom years. What they actually did with that money is a mystery though.

It was partly used to fund the huge 3 million dole queue...

[Fundoreen]

Curious how the obviously crafty brains of boris and sunak work. Seems there will be an across the board payment to everyone for energy bills.
Wont make much of a dent but why is it for everyone? The only people that will be suffering are the poorest. Im happy to get nothing if they get more.
We have this situation where work from homers are quids in saving tons of money without travelling to work. That would pay for any extra on a energy bill and they can have multiple holidays.
And they need help with costs?
We seem to live in a world where people that are accustomed to feeling well off have to be protected from feeling slightly less well off.
Tory voters I guess.

[crankedup5]

Fundoreen said:

Curious how the obviously crafty brains of boris and sunak work. Seems there will be an across the board payment to everyone for energy bills.
Wont make much of a dent but why is it for everyone? The only people that will be suffering are the poorest. Im happy to get nothing if they get more.
We have this situation where work from homers are quids in saving tons of money without travelling to work. That would pay for any extra on a energy bill and they can have multiple holidays.
And they need help with costs?
We seem to live in a world where people that are accustomed to feeling well off have to be protected from feeling slightly less well off.
Tory voters I guess.

Includes all those ‘red wall’ voters ?

[skinnyman]

Fundoreen said:

Curious how the obviously crafty brains of boris and sunak work. Seems there will be an across the board payment to everyone for energy bills.
Wont make much of a dent but why is it for everyone? The only people that will be suffering are the poorest. Im happy to get nothing if they get more.
We have this situation where work from homers are quids in saving tons of money without travelling to work. That would pay for any extra on a energy bill and they can have multiple holidays.
And they need help with costs?
We seem to live in a world where people that are accustomed to feeling well off have to be protected from feeling slightly less well off.
Tory voters I guess.

Because plenty of "average" people are suffering too. I have a higher than average salary, which means I get bugger all government help regarding anything, but I'm financing my wife's who gone back to uni, and an 8 & 5yr old, so when energy costs double, fuel costs up 50% and food around 20% we begin to struggle.

Ultimately it's a moot point though, anything that's given now will simply be taken back later.

[MG CHRIS]

PRTVR said:

xeny said:

That's paying for the bailouts of the various failed energy companies.

That the government via the regulator allowed to set up without sufficient capital to weather a financial storm.

And then people like Martin Lewis told people to use them to save a few quid backfired now.

[glazbagun]

Fundoreen said:

Curious how the obviously crafty brains of boris and sunak work. Seems there will be an across the board payment to everyone for energy bills.
Wont make much of a dent but why is it for everyone? The only people that will be suffering are the poorest. Im happy to get nothing if they get more.
We have this situation where work from homers are quids in saving tons of money without travelling to work. That would pay for any extra on a energy bill and they can have multiple holidays.
And they need help with costs?
We seem to live in a world where people that are accustomed to feeling well off have to be protected from feeling slightly less well off.
Tory voters I guess.

It's given to everyone because they'll remember it & hopefully vote Tory IMO. Giving benefits to the poorest leads to headlines of the feckless and workshy with Sky TV, etc, being helped at the expense of the Hard Working Families.

I do wonder at the effects of this vs a tax cut on fuel which would reduce costs for consumers, reduce treasury intake, but be proportionate to energy consumption. Perhaps tax cuts would disproportionately benefit the profligate over the frugal. I just wish we could see the government's maths when decisions like this are made.

[faa77]

Are we still p*ssing-away £11bn in Foreign Aid every year?

[dmahon]

They are funding it via a tax on energy companies, which is also pandering to the crowd.

Pilfering a few billion from private industry when they need to invest in renewables is likely to be a net negative, but they care more about Twitter and The Guardian.

[Throttlebody]

The Govt reaction to the Price Cap will be a trigger point for the public. I suspect people are expecting more than they will actually get. Appease the needy, provide minimal support, but ultimately the final realisation that the Govt extensive free cash cow has now ended will sink in.