Tag Archives: Cost of Living Crisis

The £600 Energy Payment Scheme

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Most of the details of the £600 Energy Payment Scheme, and how it will work, have been announced, finally.

The Details:

  • The electricity supplier you are with on with on 2 January will be responsible for distributing the £600 energy support payment.
  • There is no precise date for receipt of the payment, yet, but they could begin by the second week in January, providing the scheme goes according to plan.
  • The scheme will end on the 30 of June 2023.
  • The £600 is being made available to help with energy bills but can be used as people see fit.

How you will get the £600

Direct debit electricity customers will have the £600 payment paid directly into their bank accounts.

People paying quarterly or using a pre-payment meter will receive a voucher in the post. The voucher can be redeemed for cash or paid into a bank account.

The voucher will be valid until until 31 March.

This means that vouchers must be cashed by then unless they are lost or damaged, in which case replacements will be issued up to 31 March with a final expiry date of 30 June.

For further information, advice and support on the Cost of Living and the Energy Payment Scheme follow the links below:

NI Direct Website: https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/winter-fuel-payment

Cold Weather Payments: https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/news/cold-weather-payments-triggered-parts-northern-ireland-temperatures-drop

Advice NI: https://www.adviceni.net/

Age NI: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/northern-ireland/

SVP – Society of St. Vincent de Paul: https://www.svp.ie/northern-ireland/

Salvation Army: Debt Advice and Assistance: https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/budget-and-debt-advice

For the full, detailed Energy Payment document click the link: ebss-ni-direction

Fighting for Pay, Pensions, Jobs, Conditions & Public Services

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Workers Party members, joined by Susan Fitzgerald of UNITE the Union (centre), on the picket lines today in support of University and College staff and later with postal workers outside the Tomb Street depot.

Day in and day out, week in and week out thousands of workers across the public and the private sectors are forced to form picket lines at their places of work in the fight for above inflation wage increases. pension rights, job security, conditions of employment and in defence of public services.

No one wants to be on strike, but have been left with no option other than to engage in industrial action. There is too much at stake to passively accept the erosion of our public services, the privatisation of health, education and possibly water. The implications for the quality of life for thousands of families, and of future generations, are too far reaching not to exert all the pressure possible in support of working people.

Food banks, breakfast clubs for hungry children and government energy payment hand outs are now being presented as the norm. Just as obscene profits and huge shareholders dividends are being presented as the natural order of things.

This crisis, like every other crisis that affects the lives and livelihoods of working people, is a crisis caused by the capitalism system and, like every other crisis it creates, working people will be expected to pay the price.

The cost of living, spiralling energy costs, cuts to public services and the struggles to secure a decent wage and working conditions have seen working people find their feet, their voices and their collective. We all have a role to play by supporting those taking industrial action for the benefit of all.

This is a fight we must win.

A Blind Man on a Galloping Horse

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In recent weeks we have seen a clear demonstration of exactly who runs the economy, and consequently our lives: it’s big business, multi-nationals and global conglomerates – not governments.

When the ‘markets’ decided that a recent budget posed a threat to their profits, they effectively pulled the economic plug and dictated how taxes, public spending and wages should be skewed in their favour.

Again and again

That is a scenario that has been recited repeatedly. Governments can say and do what they want – but the markets, the multi-nationals and the big financial institutions will ultimately dictate policy and how our lives are lived. They will recover their losses at out expense, they will enforce austerity, demand that public spending is cut, that services are privatised and that working people bail them out when their fundamentally flawed economics once again hit the rocks.

A blind man on a galloping horse could see that tinkering, negotiating or pandering to capitalism is as pointless as it is futile. That same man on that same horse can also see the impotent and diversionary nature of our local identity politics.

Comforting

How comforting must it be to those who sponge off the backs of working people to know that everything here is seen in terms of Orange and Green, that flags, symbols and culture wars are promoted as more important than jobs, education, public services, opportunity and a quality of life. How re-assuring must it be for all the main political; parties that the Northern Ireland electorate, the local media and almost every civic institution is happy to go along with that, repeat it and re-enforce it?

The current cost of living crisis provides us with only the latest example – if any of us care to look – of the self preserving powers of the economic elite. Profits continue to rise, the markets have been made safe for good returns in investment and all the while children go hungry, homes go unheated and human potential is devalued and wasted.

It is time to tackle the myth that the market and “consumer choice” can provide a solution. This model has patently failed. Lining the pockets of the capitalist class will only deepen the problems.

Thousands of working people across almost every sector of employment have been forced into taking industrial action in defence of decent wages, workplace rights and safer and accessible public services.

The market economy has flexed its muscles. Working people must demonstrate the overwhelming power of unity and solidarity that only the working class movement can muster.

It is time to call time on the anonymous and faceless financial institutions that dictate and direct our lives and time also to call time on their self serving sectarian subalterns in Stormont and elsewhere.

BEING NEUTRAL IS NOT AN OPTION

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In the last twelve months workers across the public and private sectors have taken, were considering taking or were planning to take industrial action in support of justified demands for above inflation pay rises, securing services, health and safety concerns and their workplace rights.

They were representative of every section of the economy: shop workers and transport staff, delivery service drivers, manufactures, factory workers, heath and care staff, postal workers, university lecturers and hospitality staff….. 

Thousands more were engaged in ‘Work to Rule’ protests and thousands more again took action ‘Short of Strike’.

This week the Royal College of Nursing will announce the result of the strike ballot amongst its membership. It is expected to be overwhelmingly in favour.

These are very difficult and challenging times for working people and their families. Health and well being are being compromised, mental health pressures are mounting daily, the call on food banks increases week,ly homes are going unheated and children are going unfed. As a direct result of this economic crisis and the government’s response, many people here will not survive the winter. 

In the midst of this human degradation and suffering, the priorities of the two largest parties: one refuses to form an Executive the the other places the claim to  First Minister above all else. 

Only a socialist society and a socialist economy can bring an end to the exploitation, indignity and misery inflicted on working people by a capitalist system.

However, there are real, immediate and pressing problems confronting working people. The awareness, confidence and belief that has been generated in recent times must not be wasted or watered down.

The current struggles are about much more than above inflation pay rises.

The actions of the trade union movement and the reactions of government, capital and the media have brought the entire set of working relationships into focus.

Now is the time to shift that relationship in favour of working people. We all have a collective responsibility to support and defend the movement towards a new dynamic based on the rights of workers, a high wage economy, an end to zero hours contracts, affordable, accessible and flexible childcare and a four-day working week.

Pretending to neutral is no pretence at all. 

This is how Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the RMT Union summed it up  at a meeting outside Westminster during the week:

Women Demand Better

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The absence of hostel facilities for homeless and vulnerable women was the focus of a major protest rally in Belfast on Saturday, but the issues and the demands went well beyond that.

The ‘Women Demand Better’ rally, organised by UNITE the Union, highlighted the closure of Northern Ireland’s only exclusively female hostel, in May of this year, and the failure of the Department for Communities (DfC) to provide replacement services.

Homeless hostel accommodation should be planned for and funded by DfC, and provided directly by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

The lack of women only accommodation is not a simple administrative matter. Health, well-being and lives are at stake. The Housing Executive, supported by health, social services and mental health services, must step up immediately, assume responsibility and provide a first-class service with the first class staff in waiting.

Women Demand Better also because they are subjected to a disproportionate amount of economic, social and personal hardship as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. Research report after research report is spelling that out very clearly and very painfully.

On average, women earn less than men, because they are more likely to have jobs that pay less than the living wage, because women are also more likely to bear responsibility for managing daily household costs, such as groceries and children’s items and because the majority of unpaid carers are women.

Childcare remains a major obstacle for women returning to, and remaining in, work. For many parents it remains unavailable, or inflexible and unaffordable.

Part time employment and zero hours contracts compound the problems faced by women in the workforce. They do not resolve them.

The gender pay gap persists and leaves women at a further disadvantage.

The lack of a real living wage continues to impact disproportionately on women and young girls.

On top of all that, the problems for women in abusive relationships can be further compounded by the cost-of-living crisis and financial dependency on their abuser.

The Workers Party stands with Women.

Focusing on the Causes

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The weekend saw yet more protests against the cost of living crisis, the cost of fuel,gas and electric price hikes and the obscene and unjustifiable profits being extorted by the major energy companies.

The Workers Party was, once more, on the streets, demanding change and focussing attention on the causes of financial hardship, poverty in our society. This time at Belfast City Hall.

The major political parties at Stormont , Westminster and Dublin, supported by many mainstream media platforms, deliberately misrepresent the source of the crisis, which is anything but current.

Long before the war in Ukraine, long before the current wave of inflation and long before Brexit, families were going hungry, homes were going unheated and queues were lengthening at food banks. People with jobs were relying on top up benefits to help them make ends meet and the ‘working poor’ had become an accepted part of everyday life.

We are witnessing, and living with the consequences of, a capitalist economic system yet again in crisis.

Over a third of the population of Northern Ireland are living on or below the breadline. Child poverty tops 40% in several areas and fuel poverty is a reality for thousands of local families. Low pay, precarious employment and zero hours contracts contribute to mental and physical ill health. That has been the situation for many years.

Poverty is not inevitable and it is not a recent phenomenon. It is the direct result of an economic system that values profit more than people. 

Only a socialist society will consign poverty, deprivation and despair to history. That is a message the Workers Party will continue to send.

Enough is Enough

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Workers Party members, headed by Party President Cllr. Ted Tynan joined the protest organised by the ‘Cost of Living Coalition’ in Dublin at the weekend.

Several thousand people took part in the protest in support of controlling energy costs, affordable housing and investment in public services

Cllr Ted Tynan condemned the “…shameful government inaction which allows continued obscene profiteering by energy companies on the back of the young and old alike – all of whom are facing the eat or heat dilemma this winter”.

“Nationalisation of energy companies is urgently needed”, he said, “in order to restore control of these essential assets and secure the welfare of households”.

Another demonstration against rising prices, soaring energy bills and the escalating cost of living will be held in Belfast next Saturday,1st October.

Organised by the Cost of Living Coalition campaign the protest will take the form of a rally at Belfast City Hall at 1pm

Bankers’ Bonuses, Tax Breaks for the Wealthy and Token Gestures for the Rest of Us

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The undisguised arrogance towards working people and the difficulties they are facing is the main feature of today’s Tory mini-budget.

Tax breaks for businesses and the wealthy, bonuses for bankers, a harsher benefit regime and derisory token gestures for working class people already struggling to heat and eat, signal the clear intent of this government – not that it was ever in any doubt.

The refusal to increase taxes on the big energy companies, and the derisory sums being offered to households to mitigate extortionate and rising bills, make this a budget for business but not for working people.

Public utilities are not luxuries – they are essential services. Gas, electric, water, fuel and broadband services must be taken into public ownership. This will help address avaricious energy prices, alleviate fuel poverty and assist in the battle against climate change. Public ownership would also ensure protection for the jobs of thousands of workers in the energy sector.

That is not a demand that we’ll hear from either the Government or the Opposition benches at Westminster – and it won’t be made by any of the Executive parties at Stormont either.

Announcements like today’s mini-budget make us think that all the Tories live in London, but we have our own home-grown free marketeers at Stormont. Beyond their rhetoric, they are all economic blood brothers. Their record tells the story: low wage economy, zero hours contracts and run-down public services.

Only a socialist economy can deliver for working people and their families.

Women and The Cost of Living Crisis

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Women are being subjected to a disproportionate amount of economic, social and personal hardship as a result of the cost-of-living crisis. That’s not tub thumping,  coat trailing or left wing rhetoric. That’s what research report after research report is spelling out very clearly and very painfully.

Why is that? Well, it’s because women earn less than men on average, because they are more likely to have jobs that pay less than the living wage, because women are also more likely to bear responsibility for managing daily household costs, such as groceries and children’s items and because the majority of unpaid carers are women.

On top of all that, the problems for women in abusive relationships can be further compounded by the cost-of-living crisis and financial dependency on their abuser.

Lower pay, part time work and caring

Women in Northern Ireland earn 5.7% less than men

One fifth of women in work are paid below the real Living Wage,

Only 60% of employed women with dependent children work full time, compared to 94% of employed men with dependent children.

64% of full-time carers in Northern Ireland are women

Women face obstacles in returning to, and staying in work, after maternity leave

The cumulative effect of inflation, pay gaps, gendered roles and workplace barriers means that women are additionally disadvantaged on a number of levels.

Structural change

The collective problems can only be addressed through structural change and ultimately by the creation of a socialist economy. One-off initiatives and gesture politics are not enough.

  • Childcare remains a major obstacle for women returning to, and remaining in, work. For many parents it remains unavailable, or inflexible and unaffordable.
  • Part time employment and zero hours contracts compound the problems faced by women in the workforce. They do not resolve them.
  • The gender pay gap persists and leaves women at a further disadvantage.
  • The lack of a real living wage continues to impact disproportionately on women and young girls.

Same Old (S)Tories

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The first major policy announcement of the new Truss government has, unsurprisingly, all the hallmarks of right-wing, conservative economics and a blatant disregard for the lives and difficulties being faced by working people.

Despite overwhelming support for the nationalisation of energy companies – recent polls suggest that over 70% of people are in favour – the response of the Truss administration is to bail out the companies already making billions of pounds profit through government borrowing, which tax payers will be repaying for years to come. It’s the same old Tories and the same old story.

When working people are looking for an answer to the current energy and cost of living crisis they need to look beyond the Conservatives and also beyond the Labour Party. Liz Truss won’t take energy companies into public ownership and neither will Labour’s Keir Starmer. He says he’s ‘not in favour’ of it – despite Labour’s election manifesto promises.

In the past year energy bills in the UK – where oil, gas and energy are all owned by multi-national companies- have increased by 215%. In the same period bills in France – where the government owns the gas companies and is the major shareholder in the main electricity provider – have risen by just 4%.

Taking our utilities into public ownership could, at a stroke, alleviate the human misery and suffering currently being experienced by young and old alike.

The cost of taking the ‘Big 5’ energy companies into public ownership is estimated to be around £2.8 billion. That’s a lot of money, until you realise that since June last year the government has spent £2.7billion bailing out 28 failing energy companies.

The solution to the cost of utilities crisis is not in vote catching gestures but in bringing gas, electricity, broadband services and fuel into public ownership and public control. Neither the Tories, nor Labour, are going to do that.