Discounted tickets. Free kids’ meals and bus rides. Wahay!
There’s a cost-of-living squeeze that’s tighter than my dowdy denims especially after chowing down on all those holiday cakes/biscuits yet what does this Government do? Rather than address some of the REAL pressures that affect everyone’s lives such as controlling or reducing prices of energy, fuel and food, they decide to cut VAT on the cost of theme park tickets and give kids free bus rides.
Right. So, what about peeps with no kids or who don’t like theme parks? Any help for those punters?
Okay so they’ve temporarily shelved a 5p increase in future fuel duty which is just as well seeing as how the Treasury has been the main benefactor of higher pump prices. What they could have done is immediately cut existing fuel duty by 5p per litre and mandated this reduction across all forecourts instead of leaving it to retailers to pass on which as we all know, they never do.
Alright, so we were given a discount on our energy green levies of allegedly £150 earlier on in the year (April). Well let me tell you how that has panned out for customers of the pink cephalopod.
Green levies are generally part of the infamous ‘standing charge’ that all energy customers pay per day regardless of consumption. With that in mind, if the Government is offering to remove some of the green levies then logically, you’d think that there would be a reduction in the amount payable in daily standing charges because that is where suppliers usually hide these costs.
WRONG! The pink cephalopod instead applied a small reduction to unit costs. Kerching! With summer approaching and most central heating systems switched off, there is bound to be a reduction in your consumption. So, if a discount is applied to unit rates, how much of that alleged £150 reduction to your bills do you think you’re going to see in your costs after April? It certainly isn’t going to be £150.
If standing charges had been reduced then we might ALL have benefited by the amount proposed by the Government in last year’s budget as energy suppliers could have simply knocked £12.50 off your bill per month until £150 discount had been achieved.
And do I think that reduction to unit costs is going to last right through to year end or at least until I next turn on the boiler? Unlikely because the energy price cap review in July will no doubt push up prices thanks to the war in the Middle East. That £150 ‘help’ off bills is nothing more than a figment of your imagination and clever sleight-of-hand from the Reevemeister.
Let’s turn our thoughts to theme park tickets or tickets to any other attraction that we might be tempted to visit with our little darlings during the school holidays.
There’s a cost-of-living squeeze that’s tighter than my dowdy denims especially after chowing down on all those holiday cakes/biscuits yet what does this Government do? Rather than address some of the REAL pressures that affect everyone’s lives such as controlling or reducing prices of energy, fuel and food, they decide to cut VAT on the cost of theme park tickets and give kids free bus rides.
Right. So, what about peeps with no kids or who don’t like theme parks? Any help for those punters?
Okay so they’ve temporarily shelved a 5p increase in future fuel duty which is just as well seeing as how the Treasury has been the main benefactor of higher pump prices. What they could have done is immediately cut existing fuel duty by 5p per litre and mandated this reduction across all forecourts instead of leaving it to retailers to pass on which as we all know, they never do.
Alright, so we were given a discount on our energy green levies of allegedly £150 earlier on in the year (April). Well let me tell you how that has panned out for customers of the pink cephalopod.
Green levies are generally part of the infamous ‘standing charge’ that all energy customers pay per day regardless of consumption. With that in mind, if the Government is offering to remove some of the green levies then logically, you’d think that there would be a reduction in the amount payable in daily standing charges because that is where suppliers usually hide these costs.
WRONG! The pink cephalopod instead applied a small reduction to unit costs. Kerching! With summer approaching and most central heating systems switched off, there is bound to be a reduction in your consumption. So, if a discount is applied to unit rates, how much of that alleged £150 reduction to your bills do you think you’re going to see in your costs after April? It certainly isn’t going to be £150.
If standing charges had been reduced then we might ALL have benefited by the amount proposed by the Government in last year’s budget as energy suppliers could have simply knocked £12.50 off your bill per month until £150 discount had been achieved.
And do I think that reduction to unit costs is going to last right through to year end or at least until I next turn on the boiler? Unlikely because the energy price cap review in July will no doubt push up prices thanks to the war in the Middle East. That £150 ‘help’ off bills is nothing more than a figment of your imagination and clever sleight-of-hand from the Reevemeister.
Let’s turn our thoughts to theme park tickets or tickets to any other attraction that we might be tempted to visit with our little darlings during the school holidays.
When we purchase these tickets, do we ever see a full breakdown of the cost? Does your receipt show the base cost of entry with 20% VAT added on? I don’t recall ever seeing this in the past but then I’ve never really paid attention to it. Without this breakdown, how are you going to know if merchants are passing on a VAT reduction?
Say, for example, that you want to buy a day pass to Alton Towers. Currently, the online price for one of these is around £39 which is quite a chunk of money to pay for a bit of summer fun.
This ticket price would break down as follows:
Cost of entry - £32.50
VAT 20% - £6.50
Total Price - £39.00
Now let’s imagine that Alton Towers is going to pass on the Reevester’s VAT reduction in full. The price of summer fun would now look like this:
Cost of entry - £32.50
VAT 5% - £1.63
Total Price - £34.13 – wow, that’s almost a fiver off!
Ever the cynic, I can’t actually see museums or attractions passing on this discount because let’s face it, they’re having to pay more for energy, wages, etc so what I think will happen in this example is that the basic cost of entry will increase by £5. When lower VAT is then applied, the overall ticket price remains exactly the same. What this means is that the proposed Government discount is being given to help struggling businesses and NOT you.
To test out this theory, I’m going to keep a beady eye on ticket prices of a few local attractions/theme parks to see whether or not their online prices go down.
Again, the key thing about this perk is that the Government has once again left it up to the merchant to pass on the discount. Somehow, I can’t see struggling businesses giving punters reduced entry fees and free kids’ meals (a double discount for families) when they’re being squeezed hard like everyone else.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. And besides, most kids don’t catch buses because their parents prefer to drive everywhere in their humungous Chelsea tractors in case their legs drop off.
I may sound like an old killjoy but remember - the money to cover all of this ‘free’ summer fun will no doubt have to be found in the next budget so don't be surprised to see taxes going up. It's a repeat of 'Eat Out To Help Out' and look what happened there.
Say, for example, that you want to buy a day pass to Alton Towers. Currently, the online price for one of these is around £39 which is quite a chunk of money to pay for a bit of summer fun.
This ticket price would break down as follows:
Cost of entry - £32.50
VAT 20% - £6.50
Total Price - £39.00
Now let’s imagine that Alton Towers is going to pass on the Reevester’s VAT reduction in full. The price of summer fun would now look like this:
Cost of entry - £32.50
VAT 5% - £1.63
Total Price - £34.13 – wow, that’s almost a fiver off!
Ever the cynic, I can’t actually see museums or attractions passing on this discount because let’s face it, they’re having to pay more for energy, wages, etc so what I think will happen in this example is that the basic cost of entry will increase by £5. When lower VAT is then applied, the overall ticket price remains exactly the same. What this means is that the proposed Government discount is being given to help struggling businesses and NOT you.
To test out this theory, I’m going to keep a beady eye on ticket prices of a few local attractions/theme parks to see whether or not their online prices go down.
Again, the key thing about this perk is that the Government has once again left it up to the merchant to pass on the discount. Somehow, I can’t see struggling businesses giving punters reduced entry fees and free kids’ meals (a double discount for families) when they’re being squeezed hard like everyone else.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. And besides, most kids don’t catch buses because their parents prefer to drive everywhere in their humungous Chelsea tractors in case their legs drop off.
I may sound like an old killjoy but remember - the money to cover all of this ‘free’ summer fun will no doubt have to be found in the next budget so don't be surprised to see taxes going up. It's a repeat of 'Eat Out To Help Out' and look what happened there.
