Are you paying more because you can’t pay upfront?

Pixie5740

John-K wrote: »

First of all I hope that you are now well, and that your prognosis is good, but on the point raised, That is why you need income insurance, or PPI when you take on debt.

Not everyone is eligible for income protection insurance or PPI. Those with zero hour contracts aren't going to get a pay out because they start working zero hours a week. Same thing with fixed term contracts. Years, and years ago a lender tried to sell me PPI when I was on a 12 month fixed term contract. I asked if it would pay out should I not get another contract straightaway and they said no therefore PPI would have been totally useless for me.

Even when income protection insurance does pay out it doesn't pay out forever all it does is buy you a bit of time.

John-K wrote: »

The agreement that you sign is not that you’ll make a decent effort to pay, as long as you are well, it is that you will make all the payments on time and in full, whatever comes along.

Should the same apply to the banks who were bailed out by the tax payer? I would happily have let them fail, it certainly didn't do Iceland any harm. The people who lost their jobs with the banks were the ones working in branches and call centres not the reckless investment bankers who were taking ridiculous gambles with other people's money.

You sound a lot like an ex of mine. He was a Merchison man as was his father and his grandfather before him. His idea of his family being poor is when he and his brothers were all being privately educated and his parents owning good sized homes in Morningside and the South of France. He didn't know what real poverty is and I'm not sure that you do either, not really.

Pixie5740

I'd never really thought about salary sacrifice not being available to those on minimum wage. It seems a bit daft that a higher rate tax payer can use the cycle to work scheme but someone earning minimum wage who probably can't afford to run a car and/or use public transport and would really benefit from being able to cycle to work can't make use of the scheme.