Many residents have inclusive free 01 and 02 call packages with their telephone provider, one resident recently told me that their provider charged them for a call to the local jobcentre plus 0845 number.  It is true many providers (TalkTalk included) who have cheaper inclusive packages do not include 0845 as a free number. Newer and more expensive packages with TalkTalk do allow free 0845 phone calls.  To get round this search the website http://www.saynoto0870.com/numbersearch.php My neighbour would have found that the Kilmarnock Jobcentre Plus  0845 604 3719 can also be called on 01563 506525.   Expect delays.

43% OF PEOPLE WORRY THEY CAN’T AFFORD THEIR NEXT FUEL BILL

43% of people are worried they can’t afford their next fuel bill and one in two say energy bills will put a strain on their finances this year, according to new figures released today from Citizens Advice at the start of its Big Energy Week which will help people save money on their fuel bills.

Big Energy Week (16-21 January 2012) will see advisers across country help people spend less on heating and powering their home.  The Week is supported by Consumer Focus, Which?, Energy UK, energy companies, charities, accredited switching sites, Ofgem and the Government. (See end for details of advice event at Westfield which Secretary of State, Chris Huhne will be attending).

Citizens Advice, Chief Executive, Gillian Guy said: “We know hikes in prices have put extra pressure on people’s budgets at a time when money is already tight. Day in day out our Bureaux helping people who can’t afford their fuel bills.

“We’re worried that some people are struggling unnecessarily because they’re not on the best deal; live in homes that haemorrhage heat or are not getting all of the financial help available to them.”

Last November eight times as many people came to Citizens Advice for online advice on cutting their fuel bills compared to the previous November. And in 2011 we helped clients with over 96,000 fuel debt problems.  The Big Energy Week survey also found:

-       having the heating on less topped the list of what people are doing to cut energy bills (53%)

-       one in three people don’t know that energy companies are offering help to insulate their home, rising to 46% in London.

-       71% of people who said their energy bills would put a strain on their finances this year also said they were worried they won’t be able to pay their next fuel bill.

Click here to see full fact file with more survey results and other statistics.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said:  “We know that a lot of households are struggling to cope with rising energy costs. Many people could cut their gas and electricity bills by moving to a better deal with their existing supplier, switching to another supplier altogether, or by taking up home insulation offers. But we need to make sure consumers are aware of this and make it easier for them to take action to save money. That is why I am backing Big Energy Week. We want to get the advice and information out to as many consumers across the country as possible.”

 At www.bigenergyweek.org.uk you can get advice on how to cut your fuel bill, helpful contact telephone numbers and links as well as find out what’s happening in your area. You can also contact your local Citizens Advice Bureaux to for energy saving advice – the number will be in the phone book.

Big Energy Week is helping people save money on their bills by encouraging them to:

• Contact your supplier to check you are you are on the best  tariff and payment method for you.  Monthly direct debit is on average £100 cheaper per year than paying by cash or cheque.

• Visit an accredited switching website to see if you could get your energy cheaper elsewhere. You may be able to save up to £200 off your annual bill by shopping around for a different supplier, particularly if you have never changed energy firm.

• Insulate the walls and the loft of your home and you could save on average around £120 per year.  All major gas and electricity suppliers are giving away free or discounted insulation to any household, not just their own customers. Ask if you’re eligible so you don’t miss out.  That goes for heating oil customers too.

• Check you are not missing out on any benefits or tax credits that could up your income; your local Citizens Advice Bureaux can help you with this.

• Using less energy could save you money, just by doing simple things like turning off lights and switching appliances off at the wall. Turning your thermostat down 1°C alone could cut your heating bill by £60 on average

• If you are unable to pay your bills you should contact your energy supplier immediately as they have to help you manage your bills in a way that you can afford.

• If you use heating oil or liquid petroleum gas to heat your home, shop around and compare prices from different oil suppliers.  You could also save money by buying in bulk with your neighbours; check if there is an oil club you can join or start one up.

Added Gillian: “More and more people are coming to us for advice on how they can save money on their energy bills.  Through Big Energy Week we hope to help lots of people cut their fuel bills and ease their money worries.”

-ends-

For more information contact:

Press.Office@citizensadvice.org.uk

House of Commons Library:

Welfare Reform Bill: reform of disability benefits, Housing Benefit, and other measures
Bill No 154 of Session 2010–11
RESEARCH PAPER 11/23 4 March 2011

Download and read the research paper from HERE

You will need acrobat reader to view this document, available free here

The Tory policy of cuts is having a detrimental effect on the UK’s ability to recover.  Unemployment is rising, welfare cuts will plunge thousands of our children into severe poverty, the disabled and those with long term illness will see the support mechanisms that they rely on either eroded or completely disappear.  Salmonds addiction to Independence is a shambles, no answers to the real questions the Scottish public need to make their mind up, this was demonstrated this week with the question on wither Scotland would keep Sterling as its currency, Swinney squirmed like a worm on the end of a fishing pole. Other recent changes have also shown just how disjointed Scottish policy can be by comparing the new homeless legislation with the Right to buy and the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. All these bills are at odds with each other. How can we ensure every homeless person has the right to a home when we continue to sell off our remaining housing stock, where new build is outstripped by council house sales (albeit at now at a much reduced rate) Where rents are increasing yearly faster than wages are rising, add the costs of SQHS and new build loans met from the Housing revenue account (rents) the position is unsustainable.

Clinton: UK’s austerity budget could mean deficit will increase

Condolences to the family of Councillor Jimmy Kelly,

WARD 7 – BALLOCHMYLE

East Ayrshire Council,

RIP.

The irony of it, since the Tories came into office there has been a concerted campaign both politically and in the media against the long term unemployed, and those on Incapacity benefits. As the middle classes saw their level of income being eroded in real terms due to inflation and pay freezes, they howled louder and louder. The main target for their protests was Welfare benefit claimants, the Tories were only too happy to oblige with cuts and I.D.S’s new Welfare Reform Bill, a bill that Thatcher would have been proud of.  Yet the Tory policies to cut the deficit have not had the intended outcome, unemployment is rising, business is going to the wall, the private sector cannot replace the sheer number of public sector job losses. Now we have a pay rise of only 1% until 2015 in the public sector. And there will be more job losses, much more in the coming years.  The priority is to ensure British business is competitive, enters new markets and creates jobs, in other words, Jobs have to come before higher pay and that is why restraint on spending and on pay is important.

Yet for the squeezed middle, this is not the outcome they envisaged, they thought that by cutting billions from welfare their pay would be exempt from future pay freezes.  Any money cut from Welfare was NEVER going to the public sector but towards bringing down the deficit, it was probably the only statement made by Osborn that I believed.

Another irony this week is the debate between David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, who have indicated they were reviewing the way they would implement the withdrawal of child benefit for higher-rate taxpayers. Child benefit is to be withdrawn from families as soon as one parent hits earnings of £44,000, yet a family where both parents are employed could enjoy a joint income of £86,000 a year and still be entitled to CB.

Compare this to the issue of cancer sufferers being made to attend yearly assessments to see if they are fit to return to work or the mantra that it is “not what you can’t do”, but what you can do.  That work should pay, if you can work you should work, yet no-one tells us where these new jobs are coming from.  The entire welfare reform bill is about one thing, saving money, and hitting the poorest in our society hardest.

Am I being asked to believe that someone on £44,000 a year can’t get by each week on £850! That £20-£35 a week CB makes that much of a difference to their finances?  Or is the true story that they have taken on mortgages that they now cannot afford? And this comment from Cameron that “We are all in it together” what rubbish.  The above on £44,000 a year pays the same utility costs as someone on the NMW, pays the same in food costs, clothes, in fact everything.  We are not in it together, by the end of this recession, the cost of reducing the deficit will have largely been born by the poorest in our society, maybe not in monetary terms, but certainly in hardship and the effects on their families, the upper  middle classes and the rich will comfortably weather the storm .  And meanwhile everyone has an agenda, the Tories, the opposition and the Unions.  The Working classes? What about them?

The reform to Scotland’s homelessness legislation will see an end to current system where only those people deemed to be in ‘priority need’ have the right to a home. The Act passed in 2003 effectively extends the right to a home to single homeless people and couples without children. Only the most cold hearted would deny that everyone requires a roof over their head indeed, I would say its a basic human right, this will create additional pressures on every local authority. The impact on allocations right across the board whatever housing group you may be on, will mean fewer offers to those looking to move to larger accomodation or those in medical need. EAC has for several years now, amended their allocations policy in the run up to the 2012 reforms. Every change was made to favour the homeless group, to the detriment to all others.

Police are appealing for help in tracing a vulnerable teenage girl who has been missing since Hogmanay. Naomi Gallagher, from Kilmarnock, was last seen at her grandmother’s house in Helensburgh on 31 December. She has been missing before but not for this length of time.

Naomi is 5ft 4in tall, with brown eyes and shoulder length black hair. She was wearing a purple and grey reversible hooded sweater, a leopard print top, black leggings and a black Ugg boots. Ch Insp Andy Hutton, of Strathclyde Police, said: “We believe that although Naomi was last seen on Hogmanay, that she has been in touch with friends since then and I would ask those she may have been in contact with to call the police and give us any information they have.

“We know that Naomi frequents the Clydebank area and officers are making enquiries there and following up any information they have, however, our primary concern is to make sure she is OK and I would urge her to contact police or her family as soon as she can.

“Although Naomi has gone missing before, she has never been away for this length of time and her family are understandably very distressed.”

Source and Image: BBC

A nine-year-old boy has died and two girls, aged 3 and 4, have been rescued from a fire in Kilmarnock in the early hours. Crews were called to the terraced house in Altonhill Avenue at about 03:15, and found the blaze “well developed”.  The girls, aged three and four, are said to be in a “stable” condition at Crosshouse Hospital.

Our condolences’ to the family at this sad time.

The above headline appears on today’s BBC website.  I really despair when I read these types of articles. Many readers will simply comment; £40K I wish, others will look at the figures and question their reliability.  What really sickens me is the fact that 14 to 18K a year is more in line with average earnings, and many live on the National Minimum wage.  I get livid when I find those on 40K are entitled to working tax credits when others on unemployment struggle to feed their children and heat their homes.  And politicians wonder why the working classes are not turning out at elections? Why should they, what has any political party got to offer them?  Comments welcome.

Weekly average household spending

Grand Tours of Scotland. In this episode its the Clyde and an interesting programme it is. This link is time limited via the BBC iplayer.

Islands of the Clyde