Cost of Living Crisis

 Hi SwanTV Viewer

The cost of living is rising at an alarming rate that I cannot see how a new government team can stem the on-rushing tide of inflation and ease the burden on everyone, and in particular those with smaller incomes. Pensioners on fixed incomes who cannot increase that through working extra hours or often re-entering employment. Many have taken up work again either as full or part-time but this is not easy. As you get older you it takes more effort and more rest so that working even 4 hours can leave you ready to sleep. Those on low incomes and claiming Universal Credit can be trapped too. They may find that if they work longer hours then their universal credit payments decrease more than the increase in wages, so some may decide to continue with the status quo. 

And the government is now hanging fire on the announcement about pension and credit increases. Will the pensions triple lock increase be given or the government election promise be broken for a second year? Will universal credits be raised in line with inflation or a lower amount? And now the financial budget has been put back another three weeks so that millions are left in limbo wondering what their income will be in coming months.   

Contrast this to government and local authority pensions. All of these will increase with the rate of inflation. Nobody is making a comparison here. This increase appears to be under the radar. Should this contrast be allowed to continue in view of the fact that we are all paying for this increase in our taxes and council tax (the local authourity pays two thirds of the pension costs) when pensioners and those in receipt of Universal Credits are in the dark about the size of any increases?

So this leaves many families struggling. There are now on total more than 20 Food Banks or Food Shares in Swansea, and I find thgis unbelievable in the UK in 2022, it's almost as if we are a third world country! So what can we do? 

We have had 3 Prime Ministers in as many months and have become a world-wide laughting stock. Will this now settle down and we can start to grow again? Can our education system produce more scientists, linguists, doctors? More practical skills such as carpentry, domestic science? More life skills that will make life easier post-school, money matters, etiquette, job interview techniques, entrepreneurism? Apprenticeships are as important as a university degree, many skills are being lost! Can we believe in the current government or should we have a General Election because the trust has gone or the mandate that Boris Johnson won upon has changed with a new PM? Would the Labour Party have sufficient experienced MPs to be in the Cabinet? There are so many questions unanswered. So what should we do?

Food prices have rocketed in just a few brief months so that even basic dishes are becoming expensive, and ingedients such as milk, cooking oil, pasta, tea and most other essentials are sky-rocketing. You can cut back and go to own products and cheaper stores but it isn't helping right now. Gas And electricity may be pegged in price for a few months but the figure bandied around is an average one and for many people the cost will be much higher. Older people who need to keep warm and feed are finding it impossible and we hear distressing storiues daily. So what can we do?

Do you have an answer to any of these questions? Do you have a money saving idea? What are your views? Let us know. 

Mike Leahy  SwanTV