It's getting Dickensian

Mar 28 2006 By Evening Gazette

Two reports dropped almost one after another this week, which got me thinking of a famous quote from a character in a Charles Dickens novel.

That was Mr Micawber in David Copperfield who says: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness.

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds, nought, and six, result misery."

For it was reported this week that the council tax rates in England will rise by an average of 4.5pc from April - pushing the average Band D bill up £54 to £1,214 a year.

And then along comes the news that pay rises are at their lowest level for three years, with latest increases running at an average of 2.8pc.

A study of 150 deals in the three months to February showed the lowest figure since March 2003 after a slight fall of 0.1pc from January's average.

Pay specialists Industrial Relations Services (IRS) said that settlements ranged from 2.4pc to 3pc, with wage rises in service firms falling below those in manufacturing companies.

Most pay deals were lower than those of a year ago.

Then there are the recent huge increases in energy prices.

Earlier this year British Gas announced it was slapping an extra 22pc on gas and electricity bills from March 1 and since then other power companies have followed suit.

These increases have helped push the average cost of heating and lighting a home to more than £1,000 a year.

All these prices rises must be piling on the pressure for many households where money is tight.

And it must make the situation worse if people's pay packets are not expanding to keep pace with costs.

If you take all this into account then many families must be heading into the misery side of the Micawber equation.