Preparedness for when

sb44

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

The Sunday paper today is saying that many people are panic buying large amounts of food in response to the upping of the security levels which I guess is to be expected.

Whenever I hear the phrase 'panic buying' I think of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6zaVYWLTkU .

sorryImoved

I have a little key knife. It's very handy. SOG makes a solid one.

Frugalsod

thriftwizard wrote: »

CTC, people have been keeping warm in climates far more severe than ours for centuries without gas central heating. I don't have as much insulation or as many alternative heat sources as I'd like, but I do have thermals and woollies, and I bet your parents do too. With a bit of common sense and luck, in the sense that we don't get a '62/'63-type winter, they'll be fine. Maybe you could casually ask them if they're prepared, "just in case of power cuts?"

If you have to you can simply keep yourself warm then you can avoid having to heat the home. I survived a cold winter a couple of years ago in a cold draughty house simply by wrapping up like an eskimo.

[Deleted User]

You should be aware sorryImoved, that you cannot buy another one of those knives, nor may anyone buy it from you.

I know it's stupid, but that's the law.

moneyistooshorttomention

GQ won't be surprised then..

That was my first reaction on reading the papers today and finding out that it has just been discovered (courtesy of a Freedom of Information Act request) that HMRC plans to be able to raid peoples bank accounts to take back any tax credits they have overpaid.

Apparently, they say they won't take the amount of money in peoples bank accounts down beneath £5,000 in the process of doing this.

GQ = you wuz right
myself = I thought it would be £5,000 that would be the "safe" amount to have in a bank account, so I wuz right.

I can understand the logic behind taking tax people owe out of their bank accounts, as some people can be so remiss about trying to get out of paying their tax bill. Tax credits can be accidentally overpaid quite easily and I've been in that position myself (as I put in a claim some time back, courtesy of thinking "I must be due for some, with the low level income I'm on and people on much better incomes are claiming some and deemed due for it. If I'm not due for any, then they wont give me any. They're giving me some, so they must have worked out I'm due for some". I wasn't deemed to be due for any eventually (courtesy of not having children) and would hate to think they'd have been able to just "dip in and whip it".

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I can understand the logic behind taking tax people owe out of their bank accounts, as some people can be so remiss about trying to get out of paying their tax bill.

It's being able to do it, without resort to the courts, which I object to.

In effect, they will become Judge, Jury and executioner, which is rather worrying, given the number of mistakes they make.

BTW. has anyone else noticed, that this proposal has been made, just after the ISA limit was increased (from just over £5,000) to £15,000?

Frugalsod

The ability to recover tax is quite sensible as some will deliberately withhold any payment. If this covers tax credits then as long as they do not take anyones balance below £5000 it is good but how many people on tax credits have £5000 in their current account anyway?

jk0

What he said:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-31/these-clowns-are-dragging-us-war

Frugalsod

I think that we should have encouraged Russia to be part of Nato so they could see that we were not a threat to them. The small former republics are desperate to join Nato because of Russia's threat to retake its former empire by force again. Ukraine is just the first step. Will Putin stop when he has retaken Hungary?

moneyistooshorttomention

Forgot to add, its called "Direct recovery of debt".

It's the principle I basically object to. If people are trying to avoid paying tax they know they should be paying that's one thing. On the other hand, Tax Credits is income people have taken in good faith that they wouldn't have been given it if they weren't due for it (ie they've trusted the HMRC bods have done their sums correctly).

The other thing its £5,000 beneath which...now. That amount could be lowered once the principle of "Its okay to dip into a bank account..courtesy of our own mistakes" has been established.