Are you doing all you can...

I’m at that age where, at 58 I am neither old or young . I’m a typical member of the sandwich generation. Worried about my children (both private sector workers therefore no income right now) and grandchildren (14,12,10 and not yet2) whilst also looking after my father who is in his 80’s .

Today I put a tank of petrol in my car and my sons and managed a bit of shopping (all on my CC) but I have been unable to pay the CC bill this month so I expect it will be stopped in the next few days.

Greymar
I meant that some people are having to cut back their direct debits and paring their food and energy consumption practically to the bone, in order not to accrue much (if any) debt.
Some will have to postpone payments but will still incur interest on those payment 'holidays'.
The Gov help won't (we are told) kick in until June.
That is what I meant when I wrote that people cannot wait for government help.

I knew that was what you meant Gabriella and my above post wasn’t having a go at you .

I know that I m just getting into more debt every day as these bills won’t go away will they ? By cancelling DD’s all I am doing is postponing the inevitable.

Oops sorry I think I’m confusing 2 different threads

There are some people here who are describing very real financial hardship and I wish I could think of a practical way to help. Tinkering with deposit accounts and investments seems so trivial when we are talking about cards being stopped and putting food on the table. Gillybob, Quizqueen - personal question so don’t feel obliged to answer. Is there nobody in your family with some savings who could help you out?
The other thing would be a face to face with someone at your bank but I imagine that is out of the question. Certainly try for a “holiday” from card/rent/mortgage repayments until any help you might be entitled to, kicks in. That should not accrue extra interest, but being upfront might help. Best of luck.

Gillybob
Yo be clear, I wrote the 'other' message before reading yours at 23.09 or any of the subsequent posts.

To not Yo.. ?

A couple of people have suggested that pensions may not continue as a result of this. How could that happen? If we have accepted retirement on the understanding that we will get £X, how could pension companies stop paying? Am I being naive to think that legally they will have to keep paying us what was promised?

We are (so far) in much the same position as before, which is living on small occupational pensions topped up by savings, waiting for the State Pensions to kick in (another 6 years to go for mine . We are lucky to be able to do that, I realise, but I'm expecting inflation to eat into our savings soon, and we have had virtually no interest for ages. We would really suffer if our pensions were cut.

I agree that we are creating an even more divided society. I don't know a lot about who is getting what, as I've been indoors since what seems like the beginning of time, but it seems as though some people are getting a lot more than they would have done if they had lost their jobs in normal circumstances, whilst others are struggling to get even that.

I have seen posts on local social media saying that phone lines to make claims of UC are ringing off the hook, whilst others are getting up to £2500 a month. That seems very unfair to me, as absolutely nobody is at fault here.

I also understand that there are those who are neither properly self-employed nor 'on the books', such as those on zero hours, and they will (as ever) suffer more than most, which is very wrong.

It should be the same payment for everyone, IMO, particularly as it will all have to be paid for out of taxes.