Shopping Price Increases

I switched supermarkets. Probably saving more than the price increases.

For people struggling already, I guess they can claim more government money??

Some basic items seemed to have gone up the most. Which doesnt help at all, the poorer people in society.

Something like tin marrowfat peas[yes I know frozen work out cheaper]. Were 25p per tin. Now 35p. Everywhere it seems.

How do people ‘claim more government money’ fancythat? How does that work?

It is all very well switching supermarkets, but then what? It was announced this morning that the official rate of food inflation is over 17%, and I for one, have certainly noticed it.

People already struggling just have to struggle further or do without fancythat there is no system to just 'claim more government money' because your groceries are becoming more expensive.

Quite so HPQ. I think fancythat’s suggestion was a tad fanciful.

www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment?_ga=2.244914885.1577581359.1677596502-775095460.1677596502&_gac=1.217909922.1677596502.EAIaIQobChMIl42Q-b24_QIVhLTtCh3QYgnPEAAYASAAEgL_LfD_BwE

fancythat

I switched supermarkets. Probably saving more than the price increases.

For people struggling already, I guess they can claim more government money??

Some basic items seemed to have gone up the most. Which doesnt help at all, the poorer people in society.

Something like tin marrowfat peas[yes I know frozen work out cheaper]. Were 25p per tin. Now 35p. Everywhere it seems.

Thosw struggling already shopping as cheaply as they can....there's no extra money to be claimed....where are you getting that notion from? ...people are feeding their children and going hungry themselves.

Or going to food banks and giving up pets they can’t afford to feed.

HousePlantQueen

It is all very well switching supermarkets, but then what? It was announced this morning that the official rate of food inflation is over 17%, and I for one, have certainly noticed it.

People already struggling just have to struggle further or do without fancythat there is no system to just 'claim more government money' because your groceries are becoming more expensive.

I agree it is a case of, and then what?

Claim more government money - some can. There is a government calculator of what you can claim.
I dont know how that works exactly.
Not everyone will be eligible for more than they already claim. Some are.

benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/

Young couple in my street have two small children ,both have athsma ,the mum was telling me that energy prices are crippling them,they cant have a cold house as it affects the wee ones breathing and they are currently spending over £600 a month to keep it at a stable 20 degrees .
Its shocking .Prices in Norway are around £36 a month for a friends daughters family .Norway is, like Scotland, an energy producer and mainly renewables .WE produce enough electricity to power not just ourselves but swathes of England and parts of Wales .So why the hell are we being penalised by the Energy companies that are making a huge amount of money out of us via the "British " government?

Benefit rises come in in early April. This will help those struggling on the state pension. How much help those under state pension will receive I do not know.

www.gov.uk/check-benefits-financial-support

The last link was following on from the one I already sent.

Sarah75

www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment?_ga=2.244914885.1577581359.1677596502-775095460.1677596502&_gac=1.217909922.1677596502.EAIaIQobChMIl42Q-b24_QIVhLTtCh3QYgnPEAAYASAAEgL_LfD_BwE

Exactly Sarah75.
Good link

It only applies if you are already on certain benefits.

paddyann54

Young couple in my street have two small children ,both have athsma ,the mum was telling me that energy prices are crippling them,they cant have a cold house as it affects the wee ones breathing and they are currently spending over £600 a month to keep it at a stable 20 degrees .
Its shocking .Prices in Norway are around £36 a month for a friends daughters family .Norway is, like Scotland, an energy producer and mainly renewables .WE produce enough electricity to power not just ourselves but swathes of England and parts of Wales .So why the hell are we being penalised by the Energy companies that are making a huge amount of money out of us via the "British " government?

I agree with you Paddyanne, but it is not quite as simple as the current situation. To put it bluntly, Norway invested their gas and oil revenues, whereas successive governments, in particular Mrs Thatcher's used it so subsidise tax cuts.

Cost of living increases can push more people into being eligible for some Universal Credit

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/before-you-apply/Check-if-you-can-get-Universal-Credit/

I think food banks will be hit because some people won’t be able to afford to donate any longer. In fact, that probably goes for most charities.

M0nica

Benefit rises come in in early April. This will help those struggling on the state pension. How much help those under state pension will receive I do not know.

Mum’s state pension will go up by just over ten per cent, she’s thrilled by that, it’s really a good rise.
Shopping at Aldi or Lidl and using the pound shop helps a lot, so does buying things from charity shops.

It's a very sad state of affairs.
maddy we have noticed that the donation bins have reduced their contents drastically.
We buy a lot of supermarket own brands where we can but even these prices have risen immensely.
It angers me when you hear of energy making vast amounts and yet our bills keep going up. We are with EON and every so often they do an energy saving event because we have a smart meter. You use as little as you can for an hour and earn some money off your bill. We sat in the dark with no tv, water heater off and no heating on. All we got was £3.80.
We have underfloor heating but it's been off for most of the winter because we can't afford to have it on all the time. We bought a oil filled radiator to heat the one room and an electric blanket which has saved us a lot.
There doesn't seem much end in sight and now shortages of fruit and veg.

Norway's Sovereign Wealth fund is both a blessing to Norway and a curse to many of the countries it invests in. From the beginning Norway set profits aside into what became known as 'Sovereign Wealth Fund'. It is not allowed to invest in Norway in case it destabilised the economy.

Since Norway formed this fund many other smaller countries where a natural product is generating huge profits have set up similar funds. Most Middle Eastern countries have them. All of them are not allowed to invest in their own economies.

As a result they have gone round the world buying up successful businesses, and they run them to make sure the returns to the Sovereign wealth fund is as large as possible and they do not give a toss for the people whose employment earns the money, nor the consumers who buy the products.

Read this, and see how much of British industry is owned by Gulf sovereign wealth funds www.trtworld.com/magazine/gulf-ownership-of-uk-assets-raise-questions-over-undue-influence-45908 and then be afraid, very afraid.

Moonwatcher You are making the mistake that so many people make of confusing the Energy supply companies and the energy producing companies.

The companies supplying and distributing gas to customers have made little or no profit over the past year. British Gas have made £10 per customer. As you know a huge number of small energy supply only companies went bust about a year ago, for just this reason.

The huge sums of money are made by the energy producing companies because the energy they supply is sold at auction and at times like the present, when less gas is coming from Russia this pushes prices up, like tomatoe prices in supermarkets.

However companies that both supply energy and produce it, like Centrica, EDF, Shell are not allowed to use the huge profits from producing energy to subsidise the supply side. For the simple reason that if they did that they would immediately drive out of business companies that supply energy but do not produce it, so would no longer beable to compete with the producer/suppliers on price. Companies like Octopus and Ovo, who do not, I think produce any energy.

The conundrum posed by the two sides of the energy industry, supply close to unprofitable, production, incredibly profitable is one the government must solve and, personally, I think a properly structured and thought through excess profits levy is the way forward. the other way forward is to produce more of our own power from our own resources and from a diverse range of sources, so we are less dependent on oil and gas.

Scary stuff M0nica.

paddyann54

Young couple in my street have two small children ,both have athsma ,the mum was telling me that energy prices are crippling them,they cant have a cold house as it affects the wee ones breathing and they are currently spending over £600 a month to keep it at a stable 20 degrees .
Its shocking .Prices in Norway are around £36 a month for a friends daughters family .Norway is, like Scotland, an energy producer and mainly renewables .WE produce enough electricity to power not just ourselves but swathes of England and parts of Wales .So why the hell are we being penalised by the Energy companies that are making a huge amount of money out of us via the "British " government?

Wales is already a net exporter of electricity, having generated approximately 23.1 TWh in 2020 while consuming 13.8 TWh paddyann54, so we don’t need any from Scotland. We export water too, but we don’t have gas though.