The Poolie Bunker

Just got a letter from the DWP giving details of my winter beer allowance.
Thanks Kier & Rachel for seeing sense.

Ive just got my letter and its £100

£200 for me!

Thats 142 in Spoons

300 for me and it's going in me pocket, bollocks to publicans.

And it's no thanks to Starmer and Reeves, it's thanks to the good people who kicked up a stink AND on top of that the bastards still owe me for last year. GRRRRRR

Was this direct from the Government or power supplier…..because we’ve got £150 refund off our leccy….disguised with fancy words.

Into "ones" bank account in December or January from government (DWP).
Whats the £150 off leccy?

Think there's a separate schemes as well as the WFA, some of the suppliers and some councils run war home discount schemes - could be where the £150 has come from?
Interestingly I read an article yesterday on National Insurance and it turns out any extra money taken in after pensions and benefits are paid out is invested in a government bank account, the The National Insurance Financial Investment Account (NIFIA). The account had credit of over £84bn as of March last year yet come July last year the government decided it couldn't afford to pay WFA??? And why the need to put up employer NI contributions???
According to the law, this fund cannot be used directly for purposes other than pensions and benefits, but in exceptional circumstances can be loaned to the government at negligible interest rates.
So essentially our benefits and pensions are being squeezed in order to support government budgets that the NI scheme was never meant to fund. We've been getting screwed over royally for years but never as much as by our current pseudo-socialist government.

Successive governments for years are always saying there is not enough coming in to maintain pension payments then use that excuse to raise the retirement age or are they hoping you won’t be around to collect your pension, the interest alone on the fund must be phenomenal ?

if only they lowered the costs of gas and electric for everyone this would not be an issue. take the green levy off and only pay it if you support it. plenty of others have problems paying these bills.

Goes back the utility companies being privately foreign owned, the U.K.has its own but we buy it from Norway, the excuse for rising gas prices is they are controlled by global market prices same as oil.

yes, but do these companies supply there product in other countries. if they do therefore they are charging us more. its all down to the green agenda that nobody ever voted for. fact is i stay well clear of anything called either green or smart as they are not what it always says on the can. no wonder reform are milking this along with immigration and many see them as the one choice only no matter what there failings are and in the future.

Biggest ‘own goal’ any political party has ever done more so only a few months since they were elected.

And Milliband charges with his green idealistic policies regardless of either cost or common sense. He claims that our energy costs are high because we're dependent on foreign oil and gas and therefore wind and solar are the future but who owns these nuclear, wind and solar generating facilities? Clue - it's not the £10bn quango that's Great British Energy.
So even when (if) we reach a point where we don't use foreign supplied oil and gas we'll be dependent on foreign supplied wind and solar power.
All utilities need to be brought back into government ownership if we want affordable and secure supplies.

Hard to avoid the green energy scenario, in 2024, renewables generated a record 50.8% of the UK's electricity, exceeding 50% for the first time. Wind power was the largest contributor, making up 29.5% of the total, followed by solar at 5.2% and bioenergy at 7.0% in the 12 months leading up to September 2025..
The new leader of the Green Party Zak Polanski is gaining a lot of popularity, the party has a strong appeal among younger voters, with 36% of 18–24 year olds and 27% of 25–49 year olds saying they would consider voting Green. The Green Party membership has exceeded 150000+ of recent surpassing the Lib Dem’s.

think its because the green party is the best alternative for those who always once voted labour and like what they are saying.

Easy to ignore the Greens actually, about 35000 turned out to vote and the Greens got about 500 votes, less than even Welsh Conservatives!

think its there name that puts many off voting for them. actually they never bleat on about green issues as much as they once did, but many like me see them as a party of sandel wearing vegies or vegans who will shout all immigtants are welcome here. thing is not all of the left are like them even if they are not what i described.