Taxpayer funding for the Royal Family is set to rise by 94%, as public services are cut and households told to ‘tighten their belts’
Taxpayer funding for the Royal Family is set to rise by 94%, as public services are cut and households told to ‘tighten their belts’
Food has increased by nearly 40% in 5 years and, according to projections, will rise to 50% by the end of 2026. Energy has increased by 75+% in the same period. Rents have increased approximately 40% as well.
Wage increases are not keeping up with these costs. Combined with increases in tax plus benefits freezes and cuts most people are putting up with less. Parents skipping meals so their children can eat and the exponential rise in food bank use are only two examples.
Unfortunately, the reaction to this is largely taking the form of “raising the flags” and blaming immigrants.
How much of those rent increases are because of Truss as you are using a 5 year period? Mortgage rates are a pretty big contributor to rent rates and they are getting cheaper compared to 3 years ago.
I don’t know about you, but for us food/energy is pocket change compared to housing. So even if they have increased 40% that makes fuck all difference compared to the reduced mortgage.
It’s not “pocket change”. For most households in UK, food, energy and rent/mortgage take up about 70% of income. That doesn’t include anything else or other bills (or alcohol or going out or clothing etc). For a lower-earning familiy it takes up considerably more than that.
Truss’ budget accelerated for a short-term period what was happening to the economy (and mortgages). Economists believe that the rises would have happened anyway. If mortgages are going DOWN why are rents going UP?
Did you actually read what I said? Put it another way, if rent is 55% of income and energy+food is 15%, the problem really is rent, not food/energy.
By focusing on mortgages (which is how you started) you miss the extent of the problem. That’s why you feel that things for YOU aren’t that bad. It’s not true that 55% goes on rent/mortgage. The numbers are roughly 20% for households with mortgages, 35% for rent (slightly lower for social housing). Low-earners, as I said earlier, get hit the hardest and spend much more of their income on mortgages/rent. The problem is the perfect storm of food + energy + rent\motgage + taxation + low-levels of welfare support in UK.
Wtf are you buying to eat if only 20% of your income goes on mortgage and 50% on food/energy?
Pre-pandemic we would spend £100 a week on food shopping for a family of two adults and two children. We now spend about £200-£250 for the same amount of food (probably less). We don’t buy expensive brands or any alcohol at all. At the same time our monthly energy bill was about £90 a month and is now £190 a month. Our salaries have increased by about 3%. For us, just a regular family in the UK, life has significantly worsened and looks like it will get even worse. Sorry if that shocks you.
Yeah, that is a huge amount of food. Do you eat meat every day or something?
“huge amount”! Ha. (I’m actually vegan - though the rest of the family eat fish and the occasional Frankenchicken!). Food and groceries are just expensive!