to be utterly disgusted at people's comments re. welfare cuts

[HappyGoLuckyGirl]

Yes, I'm aware that our welfare system needs reforming. I do not profess to know how this should be done.

I've just read a few articles on the proposed cuts that primarily focused on reducing tax credits. The vitrol is appalling. I can't believe this is the country I live in.

I am a single mother working 40 hours a week also mid way through a 5 year part time degree. I earn slightly over minimum wage. Things are tight enough as it is, with the tax credits I get (80% of which goes on my weekly childcare bill) and now they are planning to reduce them.

I am trying to better myself so I don't always have to rely on benefits to get me through the month and yet I'm being punished! Why are working people being targeted? How is that fair in the slightest? If I wasn't so furious I would cry.

And as for people saying that employers should raise workers wages, I can say with 100% surety that if I approached my employer and asked for a living wage (increase of £8k+) I would be flat out refused and or fired. And I work in a skilled job! What hope do people who work for a large multi-national company have?

I am very this morning.

[Alfieisnoisy]

YANBU. The nasty comments are awful and nearly always from those who think that just because they did well then anyone can achieve the same if they only work hard enough.

Some folk will never get it short of falling on their arses and discovering the reality for themselves.

[yellowcurtains]

What income level are they cutting at? I don't think it's on to go down to just above minimum wage. However, this was bound to be the reaction. When CB was originally cut, many people's reaction was 'stuff them, they must be loaded on that salary' which didn't help people that were losing income they relied on.
Divide and rule, isn't it?

[yellowcurtains]

I do think it's wrong that many businesses in UK expect the govt to prop up workers' incomes. Pretty much the way they expect the school system to provide people work-ready. When I was a child, people were trained for their jobs by the companies that employed them. Pretty sure salaries increased at far higher rates than the last six years too!

[WaferInMyCoffee]

Sadly it is a reflection of selfish society. People just don't seem to care about anyone else. It's the "I work hard and earn lots of money so you should too" attitude. the Classic "the love of money is the root of all evil" - people care too much about money and stuff and not their fellow man. It is a very depressing world we live in where people would rather the poor lose their benefits than the rich pay more taxes. And that the poor are hated and oppressed rather than loved and helped.

I feel very sad about the world at the moment.

[molyholy]

people care too much about money and stuff and not their fellow man

That is it in a nutshell water

Alot of people who are doing okay for themselves couldn't give a flying fuck about others who are suffering. This is due a lot to believing the propaganda spouted by the tories, that anyone in social housing, or receiving benefits are basically scumbags, sucking the welfare system dry.

As a PP has said 'divide and rule'

[LikePirateEyeJavierDog]

They will take away money from the armed forces, and people like you OP who have jobs, families and pressure, because those people haven't got all day to hang around central London setting stuff on fire and weeing on the front of people's flats.

[LikePirateEyeJavierDog]

^ie - quite modest protests are still a lot more visible than a million people struggling to eat who nonetheless have to be at work that day, or soldiers dying because the forces budget has taken away support that might have saved them.

[Fairylea]

Yanbu.

I made the mistake of reading comments on the Daily Fail with regard to the reforms. I despair for humanity if they are examples of the empathy in this country at the moment.

We have a child on high rate dla and dh works 45 hours a week in a minimum wage job. He is a graduate. There are no jobs in our part of the country apart from retail type jobs and agricultural jobs, most of which are passed through generations. I am very worried about the coming welfare cuts. Most of our income comes through dla and tax credits.

[fabby40]

Actually I have friends who were marching Saturday and they were marching because they have families. They are worried for their children's future.
yanbu op. Only Saturday there was a benefit mum on the front cover of the Sun who apparently wants to have a boob job rather than feed her kids. It is just crap snd serves as a way to dividecand rule as others have said.
incidently we lost child benefit as dh is on a high wage but I still care and no I didn't vote for them.

[RebootYourEngine]

YANBU.

There are very few full time jobs around these days. More and more employers are only offering 0, 8, 12, 16, 20 hour contracts. Thats not enough to live on but the companies make it hard for their employees to get second jobs so what are people meant to do.

[prorsum]

Fabby I actually know that woman. It's shocking tbh and not something I would expect of her. A friend and I were talking yesterday of the fun her 14yro son will have at school today, it's just awful.

I can only imagine she got paid by The Sun, something the DWP will take into account, and has no idea the shit she's just brought on herself with regard to social services.

The Tories have done a great divide and rule number, but with this round of cuts many of their voters are going to feel it and I'm have not sympathy for them. They certainly have none for me and people in my position.

[HappyGoLuckyGirl]

I despair, I really do.

I feel so sad for my DS and the world he is going to grow up in.

Where has compassion gone? Where has human decency gone? How is it okay that there are thousands of people relying on food banks to feed their children and yet they are going to have to face even more austerity?

[AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore]

I know a number of people that used to be on benefits (for quite some time, each of them), that are now working low paid jobs, but that are very vile about some of the comments they make about those on benefits.

How soon they forget.

[LashesandLipstick]

YANBU they annoy me too. I've recently lost my DLA and had my PIP appeal turned down because "Lashes has an extensive academic background and therefore cannot have the issues she claims"

Next time I'm having a panic attack and PTSD flashback I'll remind myself my qualifications prevent this from occurring and snap out of it...

The attitudes towards the vulnerable are disgusting

[TheFairyCaravan]

YANBU,at all.

What annoys me is David Cameron is supposed to be angry, and someone has mentioned it on this thread, that the Govt are propping up people's wages from "big companies". One of the biggest employers relying on tax credits to prop up wages is the bloody Government! Yet the MPs are just about to take a massive pay rise!

Take a soldier, they can be earning £14k a year. How much in tax credits do you think they need with children? Why not just start paying people properly? I think a lot of people don't realise just who is getting tax credits, it's not just people working in Maccys and Tesco, it's nurses and teachers, police and fire service. People's wages have been left behind for so long now that there is no choice but to top them up.

I am really angry about this,. People believed Cameron when he spouted off about hardworking families and now they're stuffed!

[sparkysparkysparky]

Lashes, that's terrible - people with academic backgrounds can't get PTSD. That would be laughable bollocks if it wasnâ??t have such horrible consequences for you. Can you appeal?

[LashesandLipstick]

Sparky that was the appeal. They also used "the claimant wears makeup and dresses well therefore obviously doesn't have x issue" and "the claimant has a Facebook profile and so obviously has no issues communicating with others", and "claimant had a job therefore is clearly fine" my "job" was a 4hr week temp role because that's all I could face...

It would be funny if it wasn't happening to people every day. I have lots of MH issues stemming from a traumatic event and made worse by not being picked up quickly. You can't see that by looking, they've effectively said "you don't look disabled so bugger off". It's happened to lots of people with MH problems and invisible disabilities, and it's so unfair

[Garlick]

the "I work hard and earn lots of money so you should too" attitude

It doesn't even make sense. Do high earners not actually understand they are well paid because their employment is comparatively rare? Just like you pay more for emeralds than glass. If everybody was able to have one of the better-paid jobs, they wouldn't be rare anymore and they wouldn't be well paid.

As things stand, the not-so-rare work pays badly and that is the work done by millions, instead of thousands or hundreds. Who do people think cleans their offices, stacks the shelves in their supermarkets and drives their delivery vehicles? How the bloody hell do they think they'd cope without all the people doing the support & maintenance work?

[Garlick]

I'm very sorry that happened to you, Lashes - as it does to so many of us.

The system is NOT fair. But most prefer not to believe that, until it happens to them of course (and then they ring up the Daily Mail with a "waah, I'm not one of those horrible scroungers, why is this happening to meee?" sob story.)

[fedupdownhere]

I don't think cutting tax credits is right or fair but I do believe they caused the problem in the 1st place. When I had my oldest child 37 odd years ago wages paid the bills and fed us with a small top up of housing benefit we were by no means rich (low unskilled wage ) but we could pay our way and have a wee bit for saving, then shortly after I had my 3rd child the first form of tax credits came in and wages stopped rising in the same fashion as they used to. I feel that employers relied on the benefit system to keep there wage bills down people knew they could get help so instead of holding on for better pay they accepted jobs thus causing the problem, how we get out of this problem I have no idea but cutting tax credits without putting in place better wages and more full time jobs wont help the families that rely on them

[LashesandLipstick]

Garlick it's a horrible system. It really bugs me, I almost feel penalised for getting a small job and trying to help myself. I'm lucky in that I have supportive family but others don't and it shouldn't be that way

[KitZacJak]

YANBU - most wages are not high enough for the cost of living at the moment so tax credits are needed.

[Toooldtobearsed]

I agree, I agree, I agree - so don't shout at me when I say that I also understand people who are agreeing that these cuts need to be made. They are not all selfish.
In my area, it is not unusual to have generations of the same family who have never worked.
This is a fact.
I know, and know of, these people.
Their expectations are low, as long as they have enough money to get through the week, they have no further aspirations.
Their children have been raised to have no ambition - the state will look after them.
This is what people see.
This is what the politicians are trying to ram down our throats, not those who just need a safety net, a bit of extra support, a helping hand. Those people - the sick, children, disabled and anyone trying to better themselves should be backed to the hilt. It would be a win win situation.

Unfortunately, the welfare state is a sprawling, messy abomination.

I personally have no idea how it could be reformed, but until someone comes up with a reasonable way to tackle the issues, the wrong people will continue to be rewarded and the deserving will lose out.

[BreakingDad77]

YANBU

I am still in shock at the numbers of people who are reliant on these benefits and others who voted Tory.

Its disgusting the amount of tax evasion that has and continues to go on that the government doesn't want to address.

Its disgusting that we subsidise privatised companies, they should go back into gov ownership and we keep the profits.

[LotusLight]

Tax credits are long due for an overhaul. The suggestion is £3bn of savings and average loss of £1400 a year. You can earn that working on a Saturday in a local coffee bar. If I as a single mother of 5 can work Saturdays and do not get a penny of tax credits or child benefits I do not see why lower earners cannot.

Tax credits were massive expanded by Labour to ensure everyone was a benefits claimant and all it did was ensure employers could keep wages down. I am very glad Cameron is tackling it. If that means the less well off have to work an extra day a week or one night a week so be it.