It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

euronorris

The spring budget was the equivalent of trying to plug a dam with a pin.

We're still going to be worse off come April, due to NI % increase. And the fuel.....my god, the fuel. The reduction is so minute, it makes next to no difference.

On the plus side, I did notice that the local morrisons station has reduced its prices today, so hopefully that is the start of the prices coming back down now 🤞🤞🤞

Flugelhorn

thank goodness for the 3.1% - I can support my kids who are minimum wage. 

Slinky

My friend when she was looking for work said of employers who only pay minimum wage, don't value staff properly. If the law would allow them to pay less, they would.

luvchocolate

My 3.1% state pension increase will cover increase in rent,council tax, mobile, broadband. 
Will not support extra food costs or energy. I do have a small works pension so will manage. Worrying times ahead 

EssexHebridean

As a low earner it appears I'll benefit from the NI thing as I believe it wipes out the increase from the new levy, for someone on my income - and the 5p off per litre will definitely benefit us when we next have to fill a car up - which is roughly fortnightly for MrEH's at the moment. It's definitely more than I expected, although I appreciate that not as much as some hoped. 

middlewife

Although I knew energy bills were going UP, still shocked.  Problem is 2 of 3 adults in our house work from home so little potential to save. Our bill will go up from £180 per month to £334 per month, partly due to coming off a fix end of November.  Heating is off, hot water only on for 45 minutes am and 30 minutes pm. Do Not put the oven on, son knows now have a remoska instead. Do not put tumble dryer on and trying to reduce fridges and freezers from 2 of each to one. Use Olio for food when I can, cook from scratch, shower at the pool. Charge phone, tablet and lights from a solar portable panel, drive an EV and wish OH would get rid of his diesel which he uses 4 times a month and could borrow mine, it drives me nuts! You'd think i was asking him to amputate a limb😐not sure what else we can do. Haven't booked a holiday and worry for my son who owns an inefficient 17th century terraced house in Cornwall with no gas...

KxMx

Our household may now qualify for the Warm Home Discount next winter, which will definitely help, and i'm sure the fuel duty cut will help stave off a small amount of increase on goods and services, but absolutely nothing else for us (both too ill to work on UC).

Too poor to afford a car and income too low to pay tax...

Somehow I don't think a 3.1% rise in benefit payments is going to help much with g&e going up by 54% and inflation on everything else as high as it is right now.

Guess we are not in a worthy group to help with this budget statement!

wondercollie

tooldle said:

3.1% is definitely better than nothing. Last year in my organisation we ended up with 1.5% (negotiated up from 1.1%), the year previous we got a bit fat 0%. Who knows what this year will bring. The first negotiating meeting is at the end of this month. For those on the lower end of our pay scale there is normally a lump sum uplift, rather than a percentage. 

tooldle said:

3.1% is definitely better than nothing. Last year in my organisation we ended up with 1.5% (negotiated up from 1.1%), the year previous we got a bit fat 0%. Who knows what this year will bring. The first negotiating meeting is at the end of this month. For those on the lower end of our pay scale there is normally a lump sum uplift, rather than a percentage. 

My contract has just been settled.   It's taken years.

2020 - 0%
2021 -1 %
2022-  1.25%]
2023  - 2%

Inflation here is currently 5%.

The increase I'm getting doesn't even cover the increase in staff parking.

ragz_2

euronorris said:

The spring budget was the equivalent of trying to plug a dam with a pin.

We're still going to be worse off come April, due to NI % increase. And the fuel.....my god, the fuel. The reduction is so minute, it makes next to no difference.

On the plus side, I did notice that the local morrisons station has reduced its prices today, so hopefully that is the start of the prices coming back down now 🤞🤞🤞

I got fuel from Morrisons today, diesel was 173.9p, 3p cheaper than last week when I went but I expect it may have gone higher than 176.9p in between. 
The village BP, however managed to put theirs UP by 2p since yesterday, to 181.9p! 
What I don't understand, is that back in 2014 when crude oil was at its highest, we never paid more than 150p a litre.

With the rise in benefit payments, will the benefit cap rise by 3.1% as well? Its this that really empoverishes my DSis as her private rent, while low for her area, is still over £1,300pcm. 

tooldle

The price of crude oil is the starting point. The process of separating crude into its constituent hyrdro-carbons (petrol, diesel, kerosene etc) requires a lot of energy. I believe fractional distillation requires temps of around 400C. Refineries are few and far between as they are expensive to build, run and maintain. Hence, crude oil is often shipped considerable distances for processing. Throw in transportation of the finished fuel and the cost of providing outlets to sell the product, add on taxes and you have the end cost.