Windfall tax

Kendall80

kaMelo said:

Well this woman certainly didn't.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-uses-150-council-tax-24132925

Should help her forget about it all for an evening or 2 though. 

P1Fanatic

kaMelo said:

P1Fanatic said:

The problem with these payments towards energy costs & cost of living is there is no way to enforce the recipient to use it towards the actual bill in question. Already there is talk of a £1.2bn consumer energy bill debt and we are in the middle of summer. But how many who received the previous £150 payment actually put it towards their energy bill?

Well this woman certainly didn't.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-uses-150-council-tax-24132925

And I am sure she is not alone. Surely there must be a better way like a voucher or credit note only redeemable by an Energy Supplier. Nowadays it seems that many see necessities as Sky TV, Costa Coffee, latest phone or drinking down the pub ahead of things like utility bills.

talexuser

Section62 said:

Which is why only £400 goes to everybody, 

Still the £400 is wasted on me and a lot of other taxpayers who don't necessarily need it when there are others who do, renters whose landlords will not pass it on etc.

Dave.44

Xbigman said:

Dave.44 said:

Linton said:

Dave.44 said:

In the UK we are substantially self sufficient in oil and gas. We are just not controlling the domestic market. 

It is more complex than that.  If you look up the oil data you will find that we export a lot of crude oil and import about the same amount.  Seems odd but a key reason is that crude oils from different fields are not the same.  The differences lead to different processing requirements and mean that some oils are better for particular products than others. 

So even though we do produce a lot of oil we are still dependent on the world market.

As crude oil is not very useful in its raw form the global market for processed products such as petrol and diesel is also important.  Apparently we only produce about 50%-60% of the diesel we use.  

Yes, I know that we export much of our oil and import the shortfall. We are still substantially self sufficient taking into account the net result.  I notice this morning that George Brown has the same ideas as myself and requesting government to consider. Look at costs of recovery for all oil companies operating in the North Sea as these are substantially unchanged, Look at profit levels and make sure they are not ridiculous. Put a temporary hold on energy cap. Control the Domestic market.

What happens when Norway does the same and stops sending us Gas and Electric. More far fetched would be if France decides the easiest way to keep food prices down in France is not to sell outside the EU. There are repercussions for effectively nationalising anything.


Darren

I am not suggesting that we alter current movements of oil and gas just leave the domestic market where is was and set the price on domestic circumstances.  Cost of recovery etc. Exchange of oil overseas for the right sort that we can refine.  Norway can do what they like as always.  Food is irrelevant to this discussion. That's nit picking!

Malthusian

kaMelo said:

Well this woman certainly didn't.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-uses-150-council-tax-24132925

Why shouldn't she [spend the £150 on beer to share with her friends, for those who don't want to click on Retch]? There's no suggestion in the article that she is financially struggling. The average take home pay of an assistant shop manager is just over £1,500pm - £150 is likely to be less than 10% of her monthly budget.
But there is an underlying point here - most of those struggling with the cost of living crisis were already struggling before the cost of living crisis. A lot of one-off payments made by the government (whether tax cuts or benefit payments) will be used to repay debt. 
(Zythophile Toni by contrast was fine before and is still fine now.)

talexuser

It's a free society last time I looked and she is free to spend her money as she sees fit. If the government does not want to see money wasted then the system should have handouts going straight to the purpose the money was earmarked by vouchers or some such.

kaMelo

Malthusian said:

kaMelo said:

Well this woman certainly didn't.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-uses-150-council-tax-24132925

Why shouldn't she [spend the £150 on beer to share with her friends, for those who don't want to click on Retch]? There's no suggestion in the article that she is financially struggling. The average take home pay of an assistant shop manager is just over £1,500pm - £150 is likely to be less than 10% of her monthly budget.
But there is an underlying point here - most of those struggling with the cost of living crisis were already struggling before the cost of living crisis. A lot of one-off payments made by the government (whether tax cuts or benefit payments) will be used to repay debt. 
(Zythophile Toni by contrast was fine before and is still fine now.)

I wasn't suggesting she shouldn't, my criticism would be of the flawed mechanism used and paying cash rather than reducing bills. The idea that the Council Tax band of your home is a good indication of your financial situation is complete nonsense.

MattMattMattUK

talexuser said:

Section62 said:

Which is why only £400 goes to everybody, 

Still the £400 is wasted on me and a lot of other taxpayers who don't necessarily need it when there are others who do, renters whose landlords will not pass it on etc.

All that just means that either immediately, or at some point in the future it will be injected into the economy, oh and the electorate like receiving bribes and it was the political sweetener the government wanted to offer, so from that perspective it was entirely necessary.