Autumn Statement: What people in Yorkshire think of Jeremy Hunt’s announcement in Autumn Statement

Yorkshire Post

Yorkshire reacts to the Autumn Statement.

Transcript

00:00 Yorkshire has reacted to the autumn statement where minimum wage is rising

00:05 as well as pensions by 8.5% when it comes to the state pension. There's also been a

00:12 lot of other changes and you can see them in our explainer video but here's

00:16 what you think.

00:17 Personally I don't really think the autumn statement is going to make a lot of difference to my life.

00:21 And they're saying that national minimum wage is going up, do you think that's a good thing?

00:26 I think it's a good thing for the people who are working but I think the employers are going to

00:29 struggle because they've got to pay it. It's like swings and roundabouts, some win some lose.

00:34 And what's your view on benefits actually being sanctioned more, being harder, do you know for

00:40 people if they've got mental health or physical health problems they're going to be more

00:43 encouraged to go back into work?

00:45 No I don't agree, I think you'll see the suicide rate soar. I think the pressure that they put on

00:50 disabled people is absolutely disgusting and I think well if we don't have any jobs what are

00:54 they going to do? There's no jobs so what are they going to do to work from home, seriously?

00:58 And what's the cost of living crisis mean to you?

01:02 Well it's meant more money on utilities and things as for everybody else but

01:05 it's not really affected me that much, I'm secure in my finances.

01:10 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced that there'll be a pot for life

01:14 pension reform with state pensions going up 8.5%. What's your view?

01:20 I think it's very good for the pensioners, they're the hardest hit I think when anything

01:24 ever happens because all they've got is the pension.

01:26 As an employer I think the national living wage increase to £11.44 having to pay out more in a

01:35 wage could possibly affect the new business and that's about it really.

01:42 For me personally it'd be the National Insurance Contribution which is going from 12% to 10% on 6th

01:49 January which is £450 a year means that I'm going to be better off so it's in my pocket,

01:56 I'm not their pocket so for me personally that bit is going to be better for me so let's wait and see.

02:03 What did the autumn statement imply to you?

02:05 I wouldn't even know what it was about or anything like that, I just don't think that

02:12 it's something that I've even learnt about.

02:15 Within it and the recent announcements they're basically saying the national

02:21 minimum wage is going to fall. What do you think on that?

02:25 I completely agree that the national minimum wage needs to go up, I think we've all been living

02:30 paycheque to paycheque for too long and I think that they need to acknowledge that and increase

02:36 people's wages for obvious reasons. The cost of living crisis has weighed heavily on everybody

02:42 that I know, myself included, so yeah absolutely for it.

02:46 What do you think about people who are off sick whether it be for mental health or physical

02:53 health issues being asked to search for work otherwise they risk losing free prescriptions

03:00 and other penalisations?

03:03 This is a difficult one for me because I've been there with the mental health side of things so

03:10 obviously I know what it's like when you're at home, you know you've got, you're struggling

03:17 with your mental health, you're not in a situation where you can look for work, it's an invisible

03:23 illness so it never gets as much kind of attention really as a physical. I don't know, I just, I

03:33 think that basically they need to kind of think more about how it's going to affect people ongoing

03:40 because I think if they put too much into making people look for work now I think it's going to

03:47 cause problems further down the line, people are just going to crash.

03:51 And what's your situation as a family in terms of finance and how you manage everything?

03:57 We struggle, like I think everybody I know struggles, like rent's gone up, like we,

04:03 you know, cost of living's gone up, our bills are astronomical and we do live paycheque to paycheque

04:10 and that's just how it is at the moment. We've learned to live with it but it's shocking

04:16 and I just wish it would go back to how it was.

04:18 What would you like to see the government actually do?

04:22 I think we need more work on the cost of gas and electric, I think that's a massive thing for us,

04:27 that's over half of our rent, so we pay about £400 a month in gas and electric and it's just

04:33 disgusting, that's gone up from about £100 a month so I think that's a massive thing for,

04:39 that would be a massive thing for everybody, there's the need to do something about that.

04:43 And have you had to change anything in the cost of living price?

04:46 We've become very tight, we're very, you know, we don't buy as many luxury things and I've turned

04:53 into a bit of a bargain hunter, we're always looking for the cheaper things over the, you

04:58 know, the alternative and I think we've all had to be a bit more frugal with our spending.

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