Thread 7 Starmer : Cats and Conferences

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5145757-thread-6-starmer-were-going-to-need-a-bigger-skip?page=40&reply=138030825

The DLA forms are horrendous. I wouldn't attempt to fill them in unless I absolutely had to. The whole system's Weaponised Red Tape sits neatly beside its Weaponised Incompetence to put people off.

I know! I do them with our families.

Three quarters of a million people many may have been prevented from voting at the last election.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/10/britons-should-be-able-to-use-wider-range-of-id-to-vote-says-watchdog

I hated Tax Credits. I rang up because I couldn’t believe I was entitled to it so wanted to find out the parameters, they couldn’t send me the information so I gave them the relevant details and found we were entitled to it. I completed the annual forms and notified them when my hours increased temporarily. The increased hours resulted in me being paid more money not less as I expected.

After a couple of years I received a letter asking me to pay it all back which we did but it left me very wary of claiming anything else. I think part of the problem was the lack of clear published guidance of how it was calculated.

Having worked in payroll I am also very sceptical of HMRC having received several changes of tax code for certain employees on a daily basis often differing widely.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/09/no-one-cares-who-will-lead-the-tories-next-not-even-them?CMP=share_btn_url

😂

Did anyone else see the wes streeting exchange? Ouch to Victoria Atkins

https://x.com/Haggis_UK/status/1833161197819998579

(I tried to f8nd a non X link and couldnt)

Having claimed it for many years, I always informed them that we were earning a couple of thousand pounds more than expected, and adjusted this upwards if needed half way through the year. I preferred to be underpaid, rather than over.

Through covid, and the fuel uplifts, they fucked it all up, meaning we didn't get the fuel help, then they overpaid us and now that it's ended because we are no longer entitled (all dc are adult's), we are repaying £2000. Fortunately we are now in a position to do this.

By all accounts, universal credit is worse.

Speaking from personal experience, yes people don't realise they are eligible. Some are means tested, some are not. Some are only available in certain areas and so on. So many differing criteria.

Then when they are made aware and try and claim some the whole process is against you. Read into PIP forums and you get a real sense of how awful it can be to fight for what you are entitled to as someone with a disability.

I only this year started my PIP process and i'm dreading it to be honest.

The amount of hate i see online against those who receive PIP and arguing that they don't deserve it because they work is insane and makes me die inside everytime i see it.

I've done both ends of this: working tax credits when my eldest DS was a baby and then tax self assessment for being over 100K and a single parent who isn't eligible for CB.

Both times the tax office has fucked it up, ots completely unintelligible how they work it out and yet it's somehow the tax payer/claimants issue to check its accurate.

I changed jobs and will be doing my utmost to make sure I'm nowhere near that threshold again. I'm not on PAYE to deal with tax returns 🙈

Completely ridiculous state of affairs but I guess it keeps the accountants in jobs.

Sunak didn't care

https://x.com/matt_dathan/status/1833410713848586309

Excl: Rishi Sunak ignored a direct plea from Britain's most senior police officers who wrote to him a week before the election urging him to announce the SDS40 early release measure.

They warned that failure to act would leave criminals exploiting the prisons crisis and police unable to keep the public safe:

Don't let them get to you. Although I must admit they get to me and I have got into some fights on here about it! My DH gets PIP and I know the process is no fun, but you'll get there.

thank you!

it's hard and it's so de-humanising. I try and avoid most of this site (bar these threads) because of it, but sometimes can't help myself.

Benefit bashing is one of MN's favourite topics. That why the sudden outrage at the WFA is quite remarkable

I am sure they will support that state pensions are like to rise by £460 next year

There is such a pleasing symmetry between the WFA threads and the VAT threads. So much so it's reminded me I once read a book on numerology when I was young (in fact I read books on damn near everything when I was young. My DM would leave me in the library while shopping). At the time I thought it sounded like a load of bollocks. However maybe, just maybe there really is something in it.

W=6
F=8
A=1
=15

V=6
A=1
T=4
=11

15-11=4 which is clearly the number of harmony. Or it will be when I have crowbarred some irrelevant tosh in, taking only 45 minutes in a YouTube video I shall entitle : "YOU WON'T BELIEVE HOW STARMERS CABINET MAKES POLICY" (note to self, must have an "angle").

Meanwhile anyone need their horoscope done ?

MN must love being known for such things lol.

yeah the sudden WFA outrage did strike me as odd, is it virtue signalling? or just wanting to complain cos Labour did it?

yeah the sudden WFA outrage did strike me as odd, is it virtue signalling? or just wanting to complain cos Labour did it?

It does feel ... synthetic. Ultimately that's the final destination for algorithm driven "news". It will all end up being totally ignored because it's algorithmic.

The real problem is - unlike the old days - it's basically free-to-print. So spaffing a few billion whatevers has no financial risk. It really is "worthless". It's what "free" gets you.

If we still had to pay per minute or per byte (as anyone who remembers ISDN lines knows) then you would be a lot more choosy over what you let into your life. Imagine having to pay £10 a day to download whatever chuff GBNews are spouting today ?

Mathematically, if growth continues you will not - repeat not - see a top team of players directing the internet. The internet will become (if it hasn't already) a chaotic system where the output for any given input cannot be predicted. No matter who tweets it or who reads it.

You can see why scientists have always had to be careful around tyrannical twats.

It's political and thinking about the optics. No doubt CCHQ are already planning to spend the winners fees on an ad campaign about cold pensioners, featuring a very elderly disabled person in a flat with a gas fire, rather than the majority of fairly affluent pensioners out and about having coffee in garden centres.

I think it might be the next culture war. Young v old. Its really hard because the triple lock means pensioners on the whole have been doing better than the rest of society in respect of inflation and COL.

It does feel like they are there rubbing their hands together with glee so they can exploit poor pensioners freezing to death, when how many pensioners have been sacrificed by Tory HQ due to austerity, NHS waiting lists etc?

There are so many pensioners in need who need MORE than what they currently get, i'd hope that with the WFA being means tested it means that those in receipt of it before who did not need it, that money can be reinvested back into QOL going up.

But yeah young v old does seem to be the next culture war. How many more times can we have the culture war be about LGBT, immigrants or single mums? Time to spice it up eh?

@SerendipityJane You'll have to explain this to me!

W=6
F=8
A=1
=15

V=6
A=1
T=4
=11

How are those numbers allocated to those letters?

https://www.onmanorama.com/lifestyle/astro/2018/09/13/know-yourself-using-numerology.html

When I was little, my DM would leave me in the library while she did the shopping. No one stopped me wondering around and reading anything which looked interesting. Hence my passing interests in crime, psychology, science, history, art, music. If it was on the shelves, I found it, skimmed it, and put it back.

Well, using the letters of my first name adds up to 20. What does that mean?! Is it good or bad?

With WFA I always thought it ridiculous that MIL in an LA funded care home got it.

I've only seen one wfa thread (been trying to avoid) and the op was full of indignance over how they had misinterpreted the information and weren't happy as they will only have basic pension and rent to pay out of it, only to state further down that they had enough money and were talking about the effect on other people.
Talking bollocks then.

This is woo - it means whatever you can get away with charging. We'll make a real psychic out of you yet ....

Like Brexit and the VAT ones then. A pattern is emerging.

Yes that's exactly what I mean! I was worried my post might come across as "anti-pensioner" - I'm not! Thank you