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'Food banks, now bedding banks'

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winterwhite Tue 01-Mar-22 13:29:01

This is Gordon Brown in today’s Guardian, talking of families who can't afford sufficient heat, looking for extra blankets and unable to find even them. We’ve all heard enough not to doubt it.

There is a practical side to the article. In the coming budget the Govt look set to inflict on the already desperate still further hardship that ministers themselves will never experience.

The NI hike, the cut to universal credit could be reversed, rises in energy prices could be mitigated, but the budget is on 23 March and I fear that the public is losing sight of miseries at home in the horrors of Ukraine. In my opinion This is what we should be writing to our MPs and party leaders about, and if we don’t we’ll be walking by on the other side.

I’m not good at sending links, but Gordon Brown Guardian 1 March brings it up on Google straightaway.

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M0nica Fri 04-Mar-22 21:01:43

No, I am all in favour of a windfall tax on oil/gas companies when the price of the raw material rockets, as it has, especially as all they are doing are taking the raw material from the ground, processing it and selling it on. Heavy investment is needed to do that, but essentially they are making big profits because oil and gas is scarce and in high demand

I was thinking more generally of all the myriad other industries in this country, retailers to the ordinary consumer, will often take a cut or be perforce too because they will lose too much market share if they do not, and for many companies, extra profis can provide the caapital for expanson and growth.

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Pammie1 Sat 05-Mar-22 19:42:50

growstuff

Zuki

I left an abusive relationship and went into a refuge with a
Three year old over twenty years ago We started of sleeping on the floor I had enough to deal with supporting my child through the changes and coping in a new town and having to leave the job I had previously We weren't provided with furniture
or anything The amount we had to live on was just as low in comparison as it is now The minimum amount t for wages and benefits are no worse now But I think yes Mps should just be Mps
So they actually have time to be helping people I also don't get why our Labour mp never goes to parliament U thought it was part of the job Other jobs would expect you turn up sometimes

It's not true that working age benefits are no lower than they were 20 years ago. They have not risen in line with inflation and the gap between benefits and average incomes has widened. It has also become more difficult for people to be eligible for help such as crisis loans. The Local Housing Allowance system has meant that many unemployed don't have their rents paid in full and most have to pay a percentage of Council Tax.

I agree. Benefits haven’t risen anything like in line with inflation and in addition most benefits have been reformed, do not offer the same level of support and have been made much harder to qualify for, so that they no longer bear any resemblance to those in payment 20 years ago.

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