Secure the winter fuel payment and cost of living payments
The government has admitted its plans to means test the winter fuel payment for pensioners will push thousands into poverty. Almost 10 million older people will lose the payment, which cost the government £2bn in winter 2023/24. Pensioner cost of living payments added an extra £2.6bn.
Even assuming inflation pushed up the cost of these payments by 10% a year, we’d be able to lock away funding for 36 years. By that time, a surely-grateful Rishi Sunak would be 80.
Completely nationalise the UK’s energy supply
Unite estimates the total cost of nationalising the UK’s energy supply at £90.3bn. However, at market rates, it reckons this could cost more like £196.1bn. Perhaps we could do a deal for £131bn.
This isn’t just the cost of the companies themselves – which would be relatively cheap – but the whole supply chain. Unite argues this isn’t money we’d simply wave off and never see again. In 2022 alone, it reckons nationalisation would have saved consumers £45bn, and cut inflation by at least 4.1%.
Lift the two-child benefit cap until 2063
Lifting the two-child benefit cap would cost £1.3bn a year. Again, assuming its cost went up 10% a year, we’d still be able to pay for that for the next 49 years. If getting kids out of poverty doesn’t strike you as an end in itself – it would lift 250,000 children out of poverty in one fell swoop – consider the benefits.
Child poverty is estimated to cost the UK £39bn a year. With 4.3mn children in the UK living in relative poverty, that’s a cost of around £9,000 per child in poverty. So (and, please, if you have the time to check this maths, please do something useful with your life instead), that’s a cost of about £2.25bn every year to keep 250,000 kids in poverty.
Giving those children an immediate route out of poverty would change this country immediately.
Unconditional cash transfers
The evidence is growing that simply giving people no strings-attached cash is a powerful route out of poverty, while some on the front lines say it is cash rather than food which is the solution.
There are 28.4 million households in the UK, so with our lovely billions we could just give every household £4,600.
Sure, just like stimmy checks in the US, some might spend these on meme-worthy purchases. But for those living in poverty, the money – and agency – can be an escape.
Build loads of cool stadiums
Tottenham Hotspur’s state-of-the-art new stadium cost a reported £1.2bn, and seats 62,850 people. We could build 109 of these grounds, all across the country, seating a total of 6.8 million people. Wouldn’t that be a nice way to watch EastEnders together?
Get Smithy’s legendary takeaway order 2.5 billion times
Next week’s Big Issue cover stars are Gavin and Stacey creators James Corden and Ruth Jones, revealing all about the most anticipated TV comeback of the year.
One of the show’s most enduring bits is Smithy (Corden’s character) specifying his Indian takeaway order: Chicken bhuna, lamb bhuna, prawn bhuna, mushroom rice, bag of chips, keema naan and nine poppadoms.
Using the menu of The Raj in Billericay (a reasonable assumption for Smithy’s takeaway of choice), this order comes to the princely total of £51.35. Our money would pay for this about 2.5 billion times. That’s enough to eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day for the next 119 million years.
Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. This Christmas, you can make a lasting change on a vendor’s life. Buy a magazine from your local vendor in the street every week. If you can’t reach them, buy a Vendor Support Kit.
