Pick a question for Brown, Clegg & Cameron...

Llanjen

Patooie's right. In 1999 I was on Carer's allowance until my Mum died. It was £50 a week. Last year I heard that it's £53 - A rise of £3 in ten years when the minimum wage has nearly doubled and STILL doesn't go far enough!

People in this country (especially tabloid readers) live by "I'm alright Jack" these days. People don't have any sympathy for the out of work. £60 benefit a week to cover food, bills and the expenses of job seeking (sometimes requiring taxi fares) is REALLY hard. Yet some people who are working seem to think these people are having a ball. Yeah a handful of coppers will get you really far down a pub these days!

Kilwinning - sure those parents maybe shouldn't have had seven kids but why should the children suffer? they didn't ask to be born. In this country we should understand that all children are our responsibility by now.

cazrobinson

Employers are suppressing wages because they know that employee's income will be supplemented by the benefits system.

Also, being unemployed cost me more than being employed!

I had to buy a computer, broadband and huge amounts spent on printing CVs. Just to keep myself in the job market.

My job is worth £28,000 in recent surveys (for the work I do) and I get minimum wage!!!

Kilwinning_Bluenose

Llanjen wrote: »

Patooie's right. In 1999 I was on Carer's allowance until my Mum died. It was £50 a week. Last year I heard that it's £53 - A rise of £3 in ten years when the minimum wage has nearly doubled and STILL doesn't go far enough!

People in this country (especially tabloid readers) live by "I'm alright Jack" these days. People don't have any sympathy for the out of work. £60 benefit a week to cover food, bills and the expenses of job seeking (sometimes requiring taxi fares) is REALLY hard. Yet some people who are working seem to think these people are having a ball. Yeah a handful of coppers will get you really far down a pub these days!

Kilwinning - sure those parents maybe shouldn't have had seven kids but why should the children suffer? they didn't ask to be born. In this country we should understand that all children are our responsibility by now.

I'm not blaming the kids, far from it. It just gets to me when people use them to avoid working.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Kilwinning_Bluenose wrote: »

I'm not blaming the kids, far from it. It just gets to me when people use them to avoid working.

The question I would like to ask isn't on there but that's not surprising.
It goes something like "When are all you self important <**********> with over inflated egos going to leave us alone to live our lives free from your pathetic interference?
Not very productive but I am considering totally abstaining in thiselection because I'm pretty disillusioned with the lot of them.
Maybe Guy Fawkes wasn't such a bad guy really.

tori.k

My bug bear is water...one of life's necessities but being stuck with south west water tarrifs (meter or not) is crippling most households in the southwest.
our water cost PA is not far off our council tax for the year and over a third more than last years energy bill.
Worse my disabled OAP MIL social capped tarrif is more then most area's normal yearly water.
I hear the word fairness being shouted from one corner and change from the other's but this issue needs addressing now not some time in 2030.

Saphyra

I voted for the unbanked, and then voted again for the bank charges.

The reason, everyone needs at least two accounts if they choose to have a bank account, just to put some money away in case one of their accounts is hit by a fraudster. (recently this happened to me luckily my bank spotted it and warned me immediately so no money was lost).

Also many companies charge a handling fee to those whoo don't pay by direct debit. Seeing the money physically dwindling helps people curb their spending but no one should be forced to spend more because they can't get a bank account because they don't have a valid form of photo identification. (my partner has this experience)

I also voted for the government sorting out bank charges, these are nothing more than a tax on the poor who can't avoid going overdrawn every now and then, but find themselves struggling to pay it off and so are stuck in a constant loop of paying a fortune every month.

Before the banks were taken to court my partners bank account charged £30 a month for going over drawn (we believed it to be extortionate) now after the court they charge anywhere from £30 to £110 a month. Now unless you received an unexpected bonus or a nice company gave you a refund there is hardly any way to get out of this cycle of debt. (yes we were caught up in this too).

In order to help people avoid this in the first place is the need to find the ultimate cause and any cause can be overcome by a form of education. I back the financial education in schools, if they don't want a proper class in it make it part of the citizenship or better still put it in the curriculum for maths and have it on the GSCE as part of the coursework. Teach about interest rates and how to figure it out, people would find it easier to compare the best deal and know when they are being fleeced.

Can we also do something about these quick pay loans that last till your next pay day they're just as bad as the overdraft charges in the bank.

I would like to see the parties discuss all the issues raised in the poll, and others raised just in this thread.

Binjons

Kilwinning_Bluenose wrote: »

The Earth's climate is cyclical. How did the Ice Age end? People leaving tv's on stand-by or leaving their engine running? ....This country is sinking fast and unless something is done about it, we'll have to bail out very soon.

The Earth has a 6mile wide 'blanket' of atmosphere where all the carbon is getting trapped, which is keeping the heat in & warming everything up - it's not really that difficult to grasp mate.

Ironically that bit about sinking fast is actually much more relevant to other countries, which actually ARE sinking, as we speak & as a result of sea rises, (others are starving because of drought), because of the atmosphere being messed with.

Wake up - climate change isn't a 'maybe' threat that's coming, it's already here!

Where are the millions of people who have to leave there sunken/parched countries just to survive going to go......? Scotland maybe?

bob_59

Binjons wrote: »

Yes I agree.

It seems there's a 'what's best for me' attitude in responses, rather than looking at the wider social benefit or the future. Short term thinking, for short term gain.

It seems a bit hypocritical to blame people for voting for whats best for them, when the reclaiming of bank charges is hardly of benefit to the nation. What about all those who have never defaulted? People who ended up with hundreds or thousands of pounds worth of bank charges did so because they were at fault. The terms are clearly set out by banks and if you choose to spend money you dont have then you should accept the consequences. I agree the charges are extortionate but at the end of the day, it's your choice to spend the money.

Wouldnt it be better to concentrate on asking the polititons what they intend to do about the issues that we have no control over? Such as taxes, energy bills, financial education? In fact most of the other things on the list

metalgal

My particular financial gripe wasn't there. I live in Northern Ireland where for several years they have been threatening to introduce water charges. I think is disgraceful for many reasons but mainly because we already pay for water through our rates.(council tax). I will not be paying twice for my water. Another thing that annoys me is that someone will be making a fortune out of it all. Its water the basic thing needed for live and they are charging us for it. :eek::eek:Not only charging but make substantial profit out of it :eek::eek:

Binjons

bob_59 wrote: »

It seems a bit hypocritical to blame people for voting for whats best for them, when the reclaiming of bank charges is hardly of benefit to the nation. What about all those who have never defaulted? People who ended up with hundreds or thousands of pounds worth of bank charges did so because they were at fault. The terms are clearly set out by banks and if you choose to spend money you dont have then you should accept the consequences. I agree the charges are extortionate but at the end of the day, it's your choice to spend the money.

Fair point, I was still a bit peeved about the results I'd just seen & also thinking of the many money savers for whom I was under the impression bank charges were an important issue. That said it's still a wider matter of fairness & regulating bank activity, which it is important to question government about.

Many people get in trouble with fines because they live so close to the overdraft line that one little mistake gets them fined, then deeper in financial difficulty, ergo more likely to be fined the next time. So I'd argue you should give them a bit of a break.

Financial education for young people is key, as is tackling excessive bank/company profits IMO.

If people want to save money on energy/petrol they should do us all a favour and use less! (in the 70's there was a big drive to insulate houses better - the result has not been energy savings, just people living in warmer houses & walking around in t-shirts )

I appreciate cheaper public transport is an issue - but let's fight for that instead of nominal and inevitably short term cheaper petrol prices.