Can’t pay, or won’t pay?
Published:
May 23, 2012 at 1:19pm
Now let’s be realistic. It’s not possible that 54,380 households just don’t have the money to pay their utilities bills. How many households are there in Malta? Around 120,000?
True, some of them might be broke, but with the rest, I’d say it’s more a matter of uff, xi dwejjaq, I’d rather spend the money on something else, how boring.
It’s a sentiment we all understand, unless we’re so rich that opportunity cost doesn’t come into it.
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Maybe they are waiting for PL to get elected and believe electricity will be free. They’re holding out.
If we can borrow some terminology from web analytics, I don’t think these are 54,380 unique households. That seems a bit unrealistic.
It’s probably a case of a household not paying and being threatened with suspension, then they cough up the money but refuse to pay the next bill and they might get suspended again. I don’t know how many suspensions you can gather in a year, assuming the bills are issued promptly according to the stipulated 6-month timeframe.
The other alternative is multiple property for the same owner, where you cannot pay your own house, il-flett Għawdex, il-kamra rurali fis-Siġġiewi, and so on.
But they have enough money for coffee mornings, cars and petrol. Halluna nghixu.
In my line of work I am in charge of around 30 different water and electricity meters and visit Arms Ltd once every two weeks on average.
I am sure several notifications were based on wrong estimates for either garages, common areas and/or vacant new apartments with meters already installed. It happened to six of the meters I am in charge of.
I think you’re shrugging off the financial problems of many families a bit too nonchalantly, Daphne. The price hike in utilities bills has impacted many people in an extremely bad way.
True, as you say there will always be the people who just don’t give a damn, but I doubt very much that they are the majority in those 54k households.
[Daphne – I’m not going to get into a battle with you about this, Bubu. Commonsense should tell you that when there are around 120,000 households in Malta it is statistically impossible for 54,300 of those to be unable to pay their water and electricity bills. Something does not add up.
There’s another point: attitude problems. Two adults working and living in the same house can afford to pay their utility bills unless they’re leaving airconditioners and electric heaters on all the time. If two adults are living in the same house and can’t afford the bills, it’s probably because only one of them is working. Then there are the households with five adults, four of whom are working (the father and the three sons/daughters) who still complain that the bills are unaffordable because the full weight continues to be carried by the father, and nobody thinks of this as the utility bills of five people being paid by one person, which of course makes it exorbitant and unaffordable.]
It wasn’t my intention to start a battle, Daphne. It would be interesting to look up the statistics from before the price hikes, though. Just to see if there were a similar number of problem households.
[Daphne – There wouldn’t have been.But again, that isn’t necessarily significant. People are more reluctant to part with large sums of money than small ones.]
I’m sorry, but i really do not agree with you. Fair enough, there might be a number of families who are not coping, but how many of them smoke or blow up their money on super 5 or lotto?
Every month when my pay and my husband’s pay goes into the bank, I divide them into separate compartments: groceries, loan, bills/insurances (including life policy, home insurance and tv/tel/internet bills).
The rest I divide for saving and spending-money. It’s basic financial planning, so that when the actual bills do arrive, I don’t find myself broke and not able to pay.
Maybe these people are just too pig-headed to try it out, because intelligence really doesn’t come into it.
All you have to do is to see on average how much the actual costs add up to in a year, divide by 12, and put aside that amount every month.
I agree with you, toyger – it doesn’t take the IQ of an Einstein to put away the money for the monthly bills.
Which is why I have such a hard time getting my head around the fact that so many families fail to do it out of sheer stupidity.
Aw hell. Perhaps I’m too much the idealist.
But consider the lower end of the financial scale. Let’s say a pensioner who lives alone and gets some €700 a month state pension, or even a single person who gets the minimum wage which amounts to basically the same amount.
Considering a very conservative figure for living expenses of say €4-500 a month, getting a €300 electricity bill every two months eats considerably into your disposable income and leaves no space to maneuver when unexpected expenses invariably crop up.
A large percentage of households live under these or possibly marginally better conditions so I’m really not surprised with the statistics.
@ Bubu:
A pensioner living alone, who tells you he/she gets a €300 energy bill every two months, is either lying or wasting a lot of water/electricity.
DCG you’re quite out of touch with realities on the ground.
[Daphne – Au contraire. I am so much in touch that I’m a super-cynical realist.]
How many of those 54000 smoke?
i completely agree with this GiovDeMartino. Most people claim to be too broke to pay the bills yet they have enough money to gamble or buy cigarette packets as if they were ‘pastizzi’. Completely ridiculous if you ask me.
I’ll bet many of the women in those households have fake nails, tattooed eyebrows, and hair tortured into Morticia-Adams straight weekly, drive a Vitz, and have a daughter called Shanelle, who, as a young teen already spends her pocket-money on nails and black eye make up, and would love a job vacuuming the carpets of White Rocks, stopping for frequent coffee and cigarette breaks.
You need to add also that those women spend half of their time at Natius’ Ola, in depilation.
And the other half of their time at tombla, in desperation.
The answer to the PQ states domestic as opposed to residential – so these are empty dwellings, rented apartments or holiday homes.
So your argument of “matter of uff, xi dwejjaq,” becomes even stronger.
For the last 30 years, the MLP has told its supporters that energy utilities should be free of charge or just be charge a token fee. They are used to suck the system.
Look at all the commentators on http://www.timesofmalta.com – they are all MLP suckers who do not go to work, or have obtained early retirement.
Another bad habit of most Maltese parents is not to ask their children, who are employed, to contribute towards the family budget.
These parents are rearing selfish and inconsiderate children who think the world owes them a living.
No wonder when they face the realities of life, they can’t stand on their own two feet and keep relying on their parents even in their adult life.
Children are cossetted and pampered into their 20s and even 30s, especially sons by their mothers.
Mother’s ravioli are always better.
Another point is the thousands of Maltese households who do not know the simple basics of budgetting. Utility bills are not sent regularly, but they do not put something aside each month. Then, they are in uproar when a bill suddenly arrives and they have spent all their cash.
So simple, put a sum aside each month in a savings acount, and when the bill finally arrives, pay it and enjoy the interest earned. This way, the longer it takes ARMS to send the bill, the better.
Perhaps these are the same people who spend thousands of euros on gambling and smoking.
I received a letter from Arms regarding a bill which we have contested for over three years.
My husband has all the necessary paperwork and has gone to Arms several times to try and iron out this situation, with letters and affidavits, but Arms have ignored his request.
The bill in question pertains to a rented garage in my husband’s name.
The domestic bill is in my name. Now Arms are threatening to cut off our electricity supply at home. Can Arms do this to us?
[Daphne – It makes no difference if the bill is in your name, if he’s your husband, you both own the house, you don’t have separate estates, and you both live there .]
Dawn il-familji qed jistennew lil Franco Debono biex iwaqqa il-gvern halli kif jitla Joey, jibda itijhom l-elettriku b xejn.
And I am not being sarcastic.
You are perfectly right.
The general feeling is just this.
Igri jitla Joseph (not Joey) biex jaqtalna il-kont tad-dawl u l-ilma.
The beginning of the road to Athens.
Malta Government Bonds with a 7.5% coupon a la Fredu Sant.
Worried that the uptake would not be sufficient this is what he did.
Completely crazy interest rates which the country is still burdened with. Where was Homo Sapiens financial guru Lino Spiteri then ?
When we reach Athens we can always blame dik in-nittiena Merkel.
Kollox tort taghha, ta’ GonziPN u tal-hofra.
Has anyone looked into these numbers to see what it is that they reflect? Let’s not write them off before knowing for sure what it is that is causing this.
Edward, the numbers refer to domestic accounts, not residential.
So garages, holiday homes, unoccupied houses and flats and holiday apartments or those rented out to foreigners (if the bill is not in the occupier’s name but in the landlord’s)
Wonga would make a mint in Malta.
Are these figures over and above those families who receive a subsidy on their electricity bill ? I may be wrong but I believe the figure ran into thousands of families.
Anqas din ma tamettu, li l-prezz tal-energija huwa gholi hafna f’Malta meta tikkompara il- livel tal-pagi taghna.
Dinn Joseph hadimilek?
Kif nixba’ nisma’ argumenti stupidi bhal tieghek. Bhal dak li qallu li meta nixtru z-zejt minn barra, jew prodotti ohra, se jtuna dicount specjali ghax il-livell tal-pagi taghna huwa izghar minn tal-pajjizi l-iktar sinjuri.
The price level of oil supply is largely set on supply output decided by OPEC from time to time and they really don’t give a toss about your salary level in Malta.
Enemalta has to pay the price requested, with some leeway gained with hedging, exchange rates etc.
The global purchase price then has to be reflected into our bills. I’m sure we get billed for some inefficiencies, but I’m equally certain that these amount to a small percentage of the bills we receive considering the cost of oil.
Try reducing your water and electricity usage (the internet is teeming with simple tips) – you’ll be surprised how much money you can save over a year.
DAPHNE I AM FAMILY OF THREE USE 3000 UNITS A YEAR AT .O.17c euro =510 + MTRS 65 +59 + 30 WTR = 664 ABOUT 2 EURO DAILY WHO CAN’T AFFORD 2 EURO DAILY FOR ELECTRICITY WHILE SPENDING OVER 20 EURO LOTTO OR 35 EURO HAIR SETTING .