The cost of living…

Now according to the RPI index from Sept 2007 to 2008, food prices have increased by 11.2%; fuel and light prices have increased by 39.6%; and fares and other travel costs have increased by 10.1%.

And now compare this, the Rossi index, the inflation figure excluding housing and associated costs and on which means tested benefit uprating is based, is 6.3%.

So the poor will get poorer.

Kate Green from CPAG says: Food prices and travel fares are up more than ten percent and fuel is up nearly forty percent. These are the basics and … benefits are already well below the poverty line. If benefits and the minimum wage are not uprated in line with the real costs families face this winter, the safety net has a major hole in it. The poorest families must not be excluded from the economic rescue package.

Well it looks like they are being excluded. Benefit rises should reflect the things that poor people spend money on. I would guess that flat screen tellies have probably come down a bit in the last few months…does that make any difference to someone deciding whether to pay for the leckie or buy food.

Sell and rent: the new loan sharks…

So, with the credit crunch putting people in stressful situations no suprise then that some firms are making a financial killing out of misery and desperation. There are an estimated ‘sell and rent back’ loan sharks out there doing good business. And it is set to soar with the impending recession (and repossessions are already sky rocketing).

“The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to demand a crackdown on sale-and-rent-back deals in which hard-up home owners sell their property to specialist firms at a discount in return for tenancy rights. It wants the Financial Services Authority to regulate the fast-growing practice.”

Regulation? From the Financial Services Authority? Same toothless lot who fiddled while the banks went into overdrive and did nothing? They have no history of corporate accountability, I mean why would they, they serve financial capitalism.

And it is ordinary people out in the real world who are suffering the consequences of the credit crunch.