In the news

Is the Charter City panic just conspiracy theory or is there something to it?

Crazy tech. Hope you're recovering well.

You've been to Tattooine, right?

What's not to love about them?

Interesting chart on the interaction between inflation and freezing income tax thresholds (fiscal drag). A policy that the OBR thought in March 2021 would raise £8 bn extra tax is now forecast to raise £30 bn!

https://twitter.com/TomWatersEcon/status/1557023097160667136/photo/1

Speaking with an EE Customer service rep at the moment, she volunteered that she gets her news from GB News, and that the problem with the cost of living crisis is that people on benefits will be supported but that people who've worked their whole lives are getting nothing.

Make a complaint about her, see how she likes life on benefits.

I mean, in-work poverty is a real thing. Obviously framing it as workers vs benefits claimants is problematic but she's right in that it could turn into a huge issue

Sure, but her PoV is that it's workers who are being taxed to pay for benefits claimants who'll get their energy bills paid.

her PoV is that it's workers who are being taxed to pay for benefits claimants who'll get their energy bills paid

You should remind her that you need to earn £40-50k to be a net contributor to the Exchequer... Alternatively she could quit her job and live on benefits over the winter if it's so cushty.

And that the distribution curve of incomes is heavily skewed towards a lot of low income jobs, with far fewer well paid people contributing towards the income tax pot.

The question should be: Why are half of Universal Credit claimants working? If she's so mad about benefits..

I'm well.under that, is there stuff I can claim? Never looked into it tbh.

I'm well.under that, is there stuff I can claim? Never looked into it tbh.

Sadly not. The point is that the average cost per person of public services (NHS, pensions, schools, roads, etc) is higher than what the average earner pays in tax, so it's a nonsense for the EE customer service worker to complain about her taxes subsidising others.

Why are half of Universal Credit claimants working?

That’s not a problem.

Ah well. More chimney climbing practice for the nipper this arvo then.

It is technically a benefit, people often think "benefits is for the lazy".

If it's a problem, that depends on who you ask... The Economist (I know) think this is bad, because it lets companies get away with underpaying people / have jobs that make no economic sense.

But I am not so sure wages will go up in all cases, some people can only work part-time, do you rather have them not work at all?

I am just not sure, as I don't know how UC is distributed over what jobs, I know I had working tax credits years ago before I got my degree and I doubt I would automatically be paid more if those didn't exist.

I wonder if this would be the case if they didn't include those sweet, sweet final salary pensions...

It's all moot anyway as we just borrow the money to pay for this shiz

PSNBR is only 5-10% of spending in “normal” (ie pre COVID) years so most of it is tax funded.

Yeah my point was that additional emergency spending - which I assume bailout payments for cost of living crisis - is probably not going to come from the tax take because that doesn't cover everything anyway

Ah yeah good point. Unless they u-turn on windfall taxes I suppose

@dubtap

Thanks for that

...leading to organized blackouts for industry and even households.

I'm interested in how this works. I see Germany have limited energy usage in public buildings, so they can't out heating/ lights on at certain times.

UK domestic blackout I don't understand. I'm an ex domestic Gas Engineer. If you shut off the gas to a household it would them require a gas engineer to visit to purge the supply before it could be safely used again so this isn't feasible at scale. So I'm wondering if this is bad reporting/ mis informed government briefing or else.

mis informed government

You've met our government, right?

Spain doing the same too. Hotel rooms seem to be exempt thank god :)

Its the 35% of UK electricity that is gas-generated that would be blacked out not domestic gas I suspect.

I'm interested in how this works. I see Germany have limited energy usage in public buildings, so they can't out heating/ lights on at certain times.

UK domestic blackout I don't understand. I'm an ex domestic Gas Engineer. If you shut off the gas to a household it would them require a gas engineer to visit to purge the supply before it could be safely used again so this isn't feasible at scale. So I'm wondering if this is bad reporting/ mis informed government briefing or else.

I imagine it's electricity that will go down as we rely heavily on gas-generation for that.

She’s a BT employee. The Staff have set up food banks for employees that aren’t getting paid enough