Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
2.5m people will have to take out a loan just to afford central heating this Christmas
Shocking figures revealed as winter fuel costs are hiked by up to £120
Some 2.5 million people will have to borrow money to heat their homes this Christmas. The shock statistics are published as energy users are hit this month with winter fuel hikes of up to £120.
Research published today by affordable property group Circle Housing suggests that around seven million people will be forced to take out a loan to cover extra costs this Christmas.
While four million people say the loans will be to pay for festive food and drink, more than a third of borrowers will use the cash to pay their winter energy bills.
Worryingly, one in 20 borrowers - 350,000 - will use a payday loan while nearly 150,000 will turn to an unofficial lender or loan shark.
Faisel Rahman, the managing director of Fair Finance, a social enterprise which fights financial exclusion, said: "These figures reinforce what we are seeing on the ground as more people are using high cost credit, not for luxuries but for household essentials. While vulnerable tenants are most at risk, this report highlights how the rising costs impact all of us."
Rather than looking forward to enjoying the festive period, one in six people said that they associate Christmas with "dread", "worry" or "anxiety".
Matt Gaskin, financial inclusion officer for Circle Housing said: "Christmas is always a time of year that household budgets can get stretched and people start to feel the pinch. However, with the recent rises in energy bills we are more worried than ever before that people will turn to payday lenders or loan sharks, particularly some of the most vulnerable sections of society."
Full story Independent.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
terrible state of affairs
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Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
........"2.5m people will have to take out a loan just to afford central heating this Christmas"
Good to see that you finally agree with me that they should scrap the climate change act, Reg. It took time but you got there in the end.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
2.5 million is a high figure
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Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Sometimes I really admire your ability to surprise us with your profundity, Keith.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
Profundity? I can think of a more apt word Peter.
Guest 756- Registered: 6 Jun 2012
- Posts: 727
I fill a bag with fallen wood every time I walk the dog. It keeps me warm for free.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
Peter g
another lack of consistency
but as iv said in other threads i welcome your posts no matter how negative
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
IT`S ON HIS DOORSTEP BUT HE STILL CANNOT SEE ?
Hungry in Cameron's Cotswolds: Beyond the 4x4s and classy shops of the PM's own constituency, a food bank is alarmingly busy
In affluent Witney, volunteers are busy preparing Christmas parcels to combat the town's 'grinding poverty'
Witney isn't the sort of place you associate with poverty, homelessness and hunger. That's because it's an affluent market town in the heart of the Cotswolds.
The high street smacks of well-heeled middle England, with high-end boutiques and estate agents offering "substantial" farmhouses in the nearby countryside. There's even a sign outside the butcher advertising "plucked and whole pheasants".
Just five minutes away from this scene of shiny Range Rovers and rural affluence, though, is something that many Witney residents might have hoped was consigned to an earlier age or an area of inner-city deprivation - a busy food bank.
Jo Cypher, a local mother, set up Oxfordshire West Food Bank last April. She is used to visitors remarking on the juxtaposition of Witney's wealth and the "grinding poverty" of the people the food bank supports, especially because the town's Member of Parliament is Prime Minister David Cameron.
Last week, the rise in food bank use was noisily debated in Parliament, but at Elim Church in Witney, where Ms Cypher and her volunteers borrow a room for their supplies, they were busy preparing Christmas parcels with festive treats. "You'd be surprised at how much poverty there is here," she said. "People from outside the area are always shocked, but the poverty here is hidden by the wealth that surrounds it."
The food bank provides dozens of parcels each week after formal referrals from organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and the Job Centre. Ms Cypher said: "In 2013, we shouldn't have to be here, but life is harder. Bills are going up; food is more expensive and it's easier than ever before to get into debt."
A church campaign highlighting problems caused by the cuts A church campaign highlighting problems caused by the cuts
According to Ms Cypher, who says she set the bank up after struggling herself in the last recession, Oxfordshire West Food Bank relies entirely on donations and counts the local Women's Institute, the town's Freemasons, local firms and a nearby Waitrose store among its biggest and most generous donors.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Freemasons are amongst the most generous of organisations; they have a Benevolent Fund for just just causes. Freemasons do give freely.
Roger
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Freemasons Philanthropic ?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
all very third world with the well heeled and down at heel living side by side, the problem is not confined just to inner cities.
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
There has always been a gap between the richest and poorest in the UK, in fact in every single country in the world. They started under a labour government and their spread has increased due to the mess that labour left us all in. They are being used by labour as a cheap political tool to have a pop at the "evil tories". Nothing new there then.
Even if the economy picked up and growth steamed away at 50% there will still be poorer people.
As I keep saying the poorest are being hit the hardest by the three parties' obsession with climate change which has led to a massive increase in their energy bills.
Anyone who doesn't realise this is deluded.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
The rich and poor divide has been in existence for as long as man has been on earth, as an example think back to the Romans or even the Robin Hood era.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
Roger
really not the best thread to debate the wrongs of freemasonay
philip#
poverty wasnt started by any labour govt
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
#34...par for the course....#35...everything is ok then?...just keep pouring more
salt in their wounds ?......not a good Christmas for millions......
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the point here is not the gap between rich and poor but the fact that both sections can live side by side like the situation in dave's area, this is most certainly a new development which has a third world ring to it.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
No not ok but I doubt things will ever change there will always be the haves and have-nots, even under the communist system there were and still are the haves and have-nots.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
And we need to do all we can to change it
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