Vocal Voices

From a pensioner.

He was careful to hit those working and only those who earn above a certain income level.

It won't fix his black hole. That being said, 10% inflation will fix it nicely in about 5 years.

6.2% inflation. I hope mortgage holders have Looooooong term deals and are prepared for Armageddon. Interest rates are going to rise and they are going to hurt. A Lot.

Suff wrote: Interest rates are going to rise and they are going to hurt. A Lot.

But will interest rates for savers rise? Virtually every High Street bank has steadfastly refused to increase rates despite 2 hikes in the BofE Base Rate. To add insult to injury, Barclays have just introduced a new raft of charges on debit card customers ....

You might as well ask if petrol stations are going to implement the 5p cut immediately and also whether they raised prices 5p immediately before the cut so they could continue to stuff the customer and pocket the 5p drop?

The answer is basically the same.

Since 2019 I've had a credit card from a provider who is not very good but gave me a limit which I could put my work expenses on and pay after the invoice. I haven't used it for a while but as soon as I put the £1,700 worth of accommodation and ferry on it, they sent me a mail telling me they had changed my card to "better reflect my usage". In other words they cut the limit in half and made the card totally useless.

I'm sure they didn't expect the next move. I paid off the card and cancelled it then took out a card with a different provider with a higher limit.

One of my Uncle's, after selling his house in the Hampton court area, started investing in building funds. Now you need to know what you are doing with them as they carry real risk. But he was turning over 8% per build. Average build time 4 months.

It is ever the case. The zero risk investors income is equal to the risk. This is the problem, understanding the risk. Back in 2013 I was very sorely tempted to buy £2,000 worth of bitcoin at $10 a coin. The only consolation I have is that my bitcoin exchange I was using was hacked and everyone lost their holdings. So I would not not be sitting on $9.6m worth of coins today. Also I was out of work both times Tesla shares were extremely low. The last time being $200 per share. Had I bought a few, they would be worth $4,500 each today.

The mainstream banking environment is geared to making money for the banks. Run of the mill investors? Fuel for the banks to make money. Back in 1995 my boss' girlfriend worked for a company which did targeted investments for you. The downside was that the minimum stake was £50k.

What has changed since 1995? The minimum stake is higher, now, that 1995+ interest.....

With a bit of luck Age UK, Age Concern and similar charities will keep on reminding the vast grey vote about the broken promises and how they have been treated by these lying, miserable, thieving b@stard Toxics during elections to come.

No Tory vote ever again from me.

As Rachel Reeves refuses to answer I’ll ask you two. How should the money the pandemic cost be repaid then?

Rishi has done nothing for pensioners. He has broken the manifesto promise of the triple lock but he seems to forget that the majority of pensioners are not wealthy and most are on a fixed income, and quite obviously placed no burden on the treasury furlough scheme during the pandemic. This is a crisis situation for many people on low incomes who will be unable to meet their upcoming energy bills, and I would have had more respect for Rishi if he had done the right thing and introduced an emergency budget instead of tinkering at the edges. The promise of a one penny reduction in income tax in two years time has no relevance to people who are struggling today. The reduction in fuel tax of 5p was useless before it was even announced as it appears many garages had anticipated this and upped the price at the pumps prior to the announcement. I wonder if the Tories will be wiped out at the next election. Rishi will have to come up with something a bit more substantial to help the low paid if this is to be avoided.

miasmum wrote:As Rachel Reeves refuses to answer I’ll ask you two. How should the money the pandemic cost be repaid then?

If we run 5% inflation for a decade it can be paid off out of change. Of course this destroys fixed savings with no real growth and reduces the value of fixed assets which do not appreciate in value over time like houses do.

Essentially it will be paid back, bit by bit, plus we'll pay more in interest than we originally borrowed.

In the meantime anyone on a fairly fixed income will suffer. I remember the forces with minimal pay rises once a year during the 70's. Value of pay diminishing year on year; whilst the car workers went on strike for 20% pay rises more than once a year.

This is hardly big news. Whilst the unions were screaming for 100% furlough and forever, I was saying "whoa there trigger, who's going to pay for this".

Now you know.

miasmum wrote:As Rachel Reeves refuses to answer I’ll ask you two. How should the money the pandemic cost be repaid then?

Income tax, obviously, with a more gradated scheme and new tax bands.
Scrapping tax free allowances on buy-to-let properties and with a rent cap + scrapping B-2-L.
Closing new tax avoidance loopholes the second they are discovered and getting tougher on existing ones with a view to closing them.
Windfall taxes on excess profits from any sector whenever they occur.
Charging VED on all vehicles based on kerb weight - no exemptions.
Cancel HS2.

Scratches the surface. We borrowed more than total tax receipts to fund it.

It will take a decade to recover it by tweaking taxes.

Best bet is to reduce it by inflation. But that is unpopular with the money people because it destroys extreme wealth.

It hurts mortgage owners too when they try to fight it.