Just been on a course about new benefit system

GB - It's just a massive insurance & pension scheme i am sorry to say this but it isnt. & noone has f**ked off with the money, its just been spent and more besides.

Josephine - Wouldn't you have rather had the £1/2 million?
That doesn't come into my thinking. I was contributing to your education, health and safety (assuming you're younger than me) and helping to keep our streets clear of suffering beggars. I believed in the kitty system. And it should work. It's just a massive insurance & pension scheme. As we've seen so many insurance & pension providers fuck off to the Bahamas with contributors' money, so something very similar has happened to our collective provision.

Claire
Come back when you know what you're talking about.
THIS AFFECTS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.

GB - thank you for the answer and the comments about ponzi. i agree part of the financial system (CDOs) is like a ponzi scheme but not the whole of it.

You are wrong.
ALL DLA claiments are going to be reassessed.
Do you really imagine that all those that are entitled to DLA are going to be still entitled to it when its all over and done?

People in comas have already been deemed fit to work.
They are reassessing people with incurable and degenerative diseases.
Why would they do that?

They are changing the definition of disability.

My OH and my DS are 'entitled' to DLA. I think it is very unlikely that they will retain their benefits.
One has MS and one has ASD/LDs +

This is what could happen:
OH loses his DLA.
This means he loses his car
This means he cannot get to work
This means he loses his job
This means that we will not be working enough hours between us to qualify for WTC
This means I have to leave the job I am qualified for and pays a decent hourly rate and find a full time job.
This job would have to allow me to drop the children off at school and nursery (three seperate settings) pick one up at lunchtime and then pick the other two up in the afternoon.
I will not find a job that allows me to do that.
I will be out of a job
We will no longer be on top up benefits, paying taxes.
We will be on IS and contributing nothing, claiming free school meals and living in poverty.

I cant wait to be in that postion after nearly 30 years of paying taxes.

Disability benefits are included in the £26K cap.

ESA is included in the £26K, and a household is only exempt if someone receives Disability Living Allowance (ie not merely that they can't work, but that they actually need help with bathing or food prep, etc, or that they need mobility assistance). And the plan is to reduce the number of people getting DLA even further.

So unfortunately, this is about disability benefits.

Tilly - see reply to Claire :)

FFS, Claire, I thought I had! Did you know all those insurances stop paying out after two years? It's in the small print. Did you know pension funds are frequently embezzled? Both mine were. I got ripped off by my ex, developed a life-limiting illness, and here I am. You are so rude.

Clarebunting you clearly don't know what you are talking about if you think this doesn't affect people on disability benefits.

It does

Tilly: This is from George Osborne's 2011 party conference speech.

"The second mistake was made by banks who ran up staggering debts of their own, buying financial instruments even they couldn?t understand.

"The banks and those regulating them believed that the bubble would never stop growing, that markets were always self-correcting, that greed was always good, that their ponzi schemes would never collapse, and that none of the debts would ever turn bad."

The entire structure of our economies is now based on debts. There are not enough tangible assets in the world to cover all of the debts. Money is created by new debts, which are traded at a profit between banks (to simplify). It's all just game money. It can't keep going unless people at the bottom keep taking on more debt.

Have a look at www.positivemoney.org.uk/ and neweconomics.org/.

A Ponzi scheme is one where investors are told they're getting a fantastic return on their money, where in fact there is no investment. The scammer has to keep pulling in more investment money; each time, he uses the new money to pay 'dividends' to previous investors. It's a sort of hot-air-based pyramid selling scam. Charles Ponzi.

I don't think this applies to people reliant on disability benefits.

Why do threads always get derailed by people who are entitled to different benefits in their own right? This is about able bodied people who should be getting out of bed in the mornings.

If you have contributed 0.5MM in tax, you've kept a bit more than this. What have you done with it?

You should have savings or other assets.

If you have lived the high life or gambled, then you only have yourself to blame. Maybe you have been altruistic, but you should always make provisions for your own future.

ffs.
As I said, not everybody is able to do that. I have three children with disabilities, I could not, cannot and would not double them up.

GB - please ignore if this is too personal but how can you contribute £0.5m (in tax) then need to rely on benefits? i would have thought you had too much money to qualify.

Dawn, if they don't have the space for a lodger, their benefits will not be cut!

I would have no qualms about doubling up children's sleeping arrangements and renting out two rooms.

Wouldn't you have rather had the £1/2 million? Or at least a large part of it?

Believe it or not Claire some people are not in a position to help themselves.

Some people would not understand how to take in a lodger. Some people do not have the space for a lodger.

Oh, well, Claire, I suppose you'll find out how much your attitude is worth if you ever need backup and find the 'safety net' is full of holes. Can't say I was terribly impressed with the 'net' provided by my contributions of more than £½m while working. I'm glad of it now, mind you, but it didn't kick in when it should have and is about to melt away.

Perhaps you can put your superiority complex in the bank.

Niceguy2, the one thing I find confusing about Universal Credit is that the government both claim that nobody will be worse off at the same time that they claim there will be a cap on benefits. Obviously it makes no sense to bring in UC unless it is actually going to reduce the benefits bill, so presumably some families (for example the ones over the £26k cap) will be worse off? So why are they claiming that nobody will be worse off?

It's just a massive Ponzi scheme. please can someone explain this theory?

Believe it or not, some people ask how they can help themselves - and that might include taking in a lodger - before taking a trip to the benefits office.

Claire, you can't be saying I must have been "brought up to take benefits"?

I didn't even find out what I was entitled to until I was homeless. The benefits 'advisors' had lied when I asked them.