Lower benefits if you live up north

I have a different story as do all my colleagues around me. I live in Swansea and work in Cardiff.

I earn really good money that I can't beat outside of London/Brum and have only ever had one job that has so far lasted 12 years, and no, I'm not a Civil Servant.

My house was very cheap, probably half the price of England, my c tax, gas, leccy and water are the same or lower. Petrol is cheaper, I have three major supermarkets within 2 miles. I can choose any utility company I want and have fibre broadband on the way.

My GF of ten years is from the Midlands so I've spent months there, everything is more expensive from haircuts to pasties to car tyres. I've never found a better deal!

If you want to live with the sheep then it will cost you though but for the scroungers in the cites it is cheaper for sure, even drugs are cheaper here.
 
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Grannygrinder":3irt8wm8 said:
I live in Wales now, my choice having moved from the south coast of England.
Food is no cheaper, electricity and gas are more expensive.
But the biggest difference is the wages, i earn now what i was earning in Southampton 10 years ago for a very similar job.

Thats because house prices in southampton are on average about 20,000 pounds more than in say cardiff. (which i assume is the most expensive bit of wales)


Anyway comparing leeds and london...

pint in leeds average 2.80
pint in london average 3.50

Burger and chips leeds (with coke) : 2.50
burger and chips london (without coke) : 3.50

It all soon adds up, especially if you are skint to start with really its only fair that the system takes into account geography when working out benefits. Don't old people in the countryside get a higher fuel allowance than people in the towns? just a thought.
 
There are positives and negatives with living north and south, the question of benefits to be seen as fair need to be distributed fairly or else it is unfair and unfairness breeds dissent.

But perhaps dissent is the intention ?

Anyone noticing the divisions being hammered between different groupings of people, honestly, it is like something wants us all to be disagreeing with each other, hardly a big society method of cohesion is it ?
 
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I think you'll find the house price gap is much more than an average of £20,000.

As an example of wages, Swansea bus driver(First transport) is on about £7.50 an hour.
Southampton bus driver, same company, is on about £10 an hour.

Inner city is cheaper to live in than out of town. Mains gas is very cheap when compared to bottled gas, oil of coal.
My electricity is a lot more expensive than my parents in Southampton even after shopping around.
 
silverclaws":2ofdl5uu said:
There are positives and negatives with living north and south, the question of benefits to be seen as fair need to be distributed fairly or else it is unfair and unfairness breeds dissent.

But perhaps dissent is the intention ?

Anyone noticing the divisions being hammered between different groupings of people, honestly, it is like something wants us all to be disagreeing with each other, hardly a big society method of cohesion is it ?


yeah but surely its a fairer system, because it is cheaper to live up north...I don't feel bitter towards people who work in london getting paid 10% more than me or 20% whatever the london weighting is. Because they have to live and work in london, i feel bad for them in all honesty.



The one that really baffles me is child benefit, people pulling down perfectly good wages get paid the same as someone who is on the breadline. How does that work?
 
Conversely though it is cheaper to live up north, wages often reflect this, but products and services that are available to all countrywide bear the same price tag, so whereas I assume someone in the south could afford something relatively easily, other up north might have to work hard to obtain because wages are less and prices up north are not as cheap as people might think, so any savings might be not so much in real terms.

There is something else, London being the hub of Britain most services are centred on London and those within the area benefit from that, whereas those living further away, services and opportunities become patchy to say the least and non existant in some cases, so it is not all clear cut.

Child benefit to be a fair system has to be available to all rich or poor, but child benefit now, I question, as monies paid increases birth rates and it is said we are over crowded already without the infrastructure to support what we already have , so where is the sense in exasperating the problem with more population, unless of course those that control us are expecting a decline in our numbers, or it is overcrowding and poor opportunities is a political tool.
 
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