Credit Crunch

With the news full of the phrases “credit crunch”, “financial crisis” and “recession” – it seems that the global economy is on the verge of complete collapse. But over the past few weeks, we have found stories that either confirm the general trend or buck it.

For example, we spoke to Peter Ballantyne from the Milton Keynes Pensioners Association to find out how the credit crunch is affecting people in this area and it seems that, with food and fuel prices rising, it’s really affecting those who are on a tight budget or who only have a state pension to live on.

Struggling

"More and more people are coming to us and saying how much they're suffering at the moment" said Peter.

"Some of the stories we hear are really very harrowing indeed.  Single women seem to be hit the hardest; they're often on the lowest of pensions – somewhere around £50 per week and they are really struggling, especially if they have no other form of income coming in.

"But now, even those lucky enough to be on very good pensions are now beginning to find it difficult to manage and some of our members tell us that they've stopped using the car as much and are having to cut back on all sorts of things.

"Some pensioners really are having to make the choice between heating their homes and eating.”

On the other side of the coin, it seems that whether you are feeling the effects of the credit crunch or not, very much depends on the sector that you work in.
You’d be inclined to think that the travel and entertainment industries might suffer because these might be the kind of luxuries that are the first to go if you are watching your pennies.

Forget troubles

But a St Albans-based company seems to be doing OK.

Theatre Breaks organise short breaks combined with theatre tickets in London, Stratford-upon-Avon and Paris and Managing Director Simon Harding told us that actually things were going rather well and why he thought this was.

 “Travel in general is not at the top of everybody’s list to go out and buy on a day to day basis” he said, “but if you’ve had six dodgy old months and you’ve maybe not been able to afford the holiday that you wanted, or maybe you’ve not had time to go because you’re working too hard, then actually getting out for a quick theatre break up to London, and forgetting about your troubles for a while is exactly what people do in these times.

“It’s not a big cost and it’s something you can do at the drop of a hat - and people like to forget about their woes for a while and stop hearing about banks and their problems.
“We’re doing very well. This year, since May, we’re 11-12 per cent up on this time last year.”

Of course, while companies like Theatre Breaks know their own figures a lot of what is said is also based on what they feel and this too is important. It’s people’s attitudes that can lead to recession because if they think that they shouldn’t be spending money, they don’t, and if money doesn’t go into the economy, this only makes things worse.

So with this in mind, we want to hear your stories, both good AND bad, of how the current financial situation is affecting you, so that we can begin to see if things really are bad for everyone, or whether some are having a good time and some aren’t – just like normal life!