Barely getting by? UK is all takin' and no givin'

Dolly Parton

This week the world lost a true superstar as Dolly Parton added her iconic voice to the great choir invisible.

She left a legacy of music that has already stood the test of time - and one of her most memorable hits seems as relevant today as it was when she first released it back in 1980.

“Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin'” is still an anthem for the modern office worker, but it’s the next line that really sums up where many find themselves today: “Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin'.”

Our new commander in chief Andy Burnham has been travelling the land - not Scotland, obviously, but the rest of the land - on a listening tour presumably designed to gauge how much he should be takin’ and exactly what people expected him to be givin’.

Quite what he’s listening to isn’t immediately apparent however. The clamour for more tax relief, more cost of living support and more investment in public services is deafening, but Burnham has refused to rule out more tax rises later this year, while a think-tank has urged him to heap more tax on the elderly to fund better support for young workers.

Easing the tax burden on Scotland might be a way to give the soon-to-be-decided new leader of Scottish Labour a boost, with millions of workers across the country reportedly paying an additional £700 a year in income tax as a result of the UK Government’s freeze on the tax-free personal allowance.

Despite paying more, the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) has warned that £700m is set to be cut from the Scottish government's Budget next year - to correct the difference between forecast and actual income tax revenues.

What this will mean for already cash-strapped councils and public services remains to be seen, but after years of increasingly savage cuts we can assume it won’t be good. As ever it seems like the more we pay, the less we get.

Was it better back in the booming 1980s? Well in many ways it wasn’t all that different. In the USA greed was good, capitalism was booming and the President was a former actor embroiled in controversial military actions in the Middle East. And in the UK we were dealing with a severe recession, rising prices for consumers caused by shocks to the oil price, high interest rates, rising unemployment and savage public spending cuts. Sound familiar?

The seemingly endless chaos in the Middle East continues to have a huge impact on the pockets of residents. Energy regulator Ofgem this week announced to the surprise of no one that its price cap – the maximum amount suppliers can charge for a unit of energy and the standing charge together – would rise by 4% in October, to a three-year high, as a result of rising gas prices linked to the crisis.

This could see a typical household pay £1,723 for their gas and electricity over the course of a year, and next year forecasts are already suggesting this will rise by a further 9% to £1872.

Citizens Advice Scotland director David Hilferty said “the cost of living is getting worse” and added that “we are regularly seeing the brutal reality of people who can’t afford to heat their homes. Many are being pushed into debt to pay for the essentials we all need.”

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney demanded “immediate assistance” from the UK Government - not with the reported £45,000 cost of flights to the World Cup for himself and two aides, as the public generously picked up that bill, but for “families already struggling with other pressures on household budgets” for whom “higher costs are causing unnecessary difficulties.”

Even Energy UK - the body representing energy firms in the UK - said people needed more help paying higher energy bills. By which it meant help from the government, and not, say, energy firms lowering their prices.

These are the same energy firms who reportedly generated profits of around £3 billion in the first three months of 2026 - around £102 of profit from every UK household - and an estimated £6 billion in profits on their UK operations since February.

The Spanish-based firm Iberdrola, owner of Chevron and Scottish Power, reported an 11% rise in net profit for the first quarter of the year, and said growth was driven substantially by its regulated network operations in the United Kingdom.

BP reported global underlying profits of £2.4 billion for the first three months of the year, more than double the figure from a year earlier.

Yet despite such vast profits, services have not improved - the Energy Ombudsman has seen complaints about energy firms increase 16% in the first six months of 2026, with billing disputes and smart meter complaints among the most common problems.

As the late lamented Dolly beautifully sang: “It's a rich man's game no matter what they call it. And you spend your life puttin' money in his wallet.”