To be scared sh*tless about the cuts being made.

[lissieloucifer]

We will be hit very, very hard by these cuts. dh is out of work, and has been for some time. he has finally been offered a p/t job (min 12h contract) at a local shop but there is genuinely nothing else out there for him. we receive full HB and CTB, have one child and I am unable to work due to a severe form of teitzes, I did work for Iceland but even working on the till made my condition worse. I receive IB.

my condition (while I am in constant "humming" pain) is subject to flare ups. and flare ups often occur after something as simple as shopping. there is no cure and I am likely to get worse. I am terrified that the DWP (under new guidelines) will take away our HB and CTB because dh cant get a full time job. I am terrified that I will be pronounced fit to work when (if you look at my records) I am not.

anyone else want to sit with me and quake as the coalition plunge us back into poverty?

Arses, I'm also a Band 7 NHS on a substantive post but criminal justice funded - just seen on news that we're having the deepest cut 27.5% - I'm up shit creek! I've dedicated my life to working in the NHS. I suspect I might be out of a job. Here's hoping!

lissie, not forgotten about you. I hope to god the government don't take away what I suspect is your lifeline. It's one of the great things about this country - we look after our less able. I think it's quite right that we manage those long term folk who need support - I'm not sure if people realise that welfare benefits are tiny (beyond your imagination) in comparison to overall deficit.

cccp I am not asure even what I ean last night; ijn fairness I was bloody shattered!

PArtly becuase we have to find a few hundred we are told for legal fees for a partnership (still confirming that) which means cancelling ds1's birthday party. But mainly becuase ultiamtely there is very little in the business I can actually do (DH is an electrical engineer; I am a religion grad with an ASD postgrad; there are no overlaps LOL) and it seems poor DH is going to have to rise at six, spend two hours working, go off to college, return for 6 then spend anopther 3 houts working every day- weekedns are out as I simply cannot cope with ds1 alone. DS3 fine, but not ds1.

What seems wrong I guess is that the Government gives so much chat about respecting carers: now, if you think carers do nothing (not spec. you cccp, a generic you) and shoudln;t get help well I disagree but each to their own. What grates is when the Government say X Y and Z, cuts won;t affect carers and the disabled etc, but it does affect us; in actual sheer slog we have to work harder than other famillies just to achieve the minimum level to be counted.

4 yaers; that's what we need to be compeltely independent of help (barring DLA which is not for us)- it's not a lot, not really. Yet some seem to think that we equate to the mums on lcoal TV last night saying that they ahven;t worked for 17 years becuase it doesn;t apy enough.

Ducky- thank you.

There is so much about this budget that I think they are right about: a 68 retirementa ge is nothing anyway, as DH expects to work until - well as long as he can; he wants to do that.

But why the rather unpleasant lady next door who hides her vodka bottles in our recycling, hates our kids and drives a sport car continues to get a heat allowance I do not know

Dont get me started on heat allowance! How come ex pats living in Spain can still claim heat allowance, and those fat cats with hugh pensions can also claim while ordinary pensioners or those on low incomes struggle- it's madness. I really thought the Tories would look closer at this stuff.

Well, we are not going to be on the poverty line yet (hoping dp's job is safe), but as for future plans I am fucked.

I live in a 2 bed flat (private rental), have 1 dd from my previous marriage and DC2 on the way in Jan. Next year we will need to get a 3 bed place (baby will need his own bedroom at some point) and have applied for social housing, which with the cuts, we definitley won't get. And also with the housing association rents rising to 80% of market rates, it wouldn't be much cheaper anyway.

We live in Devon (job market shite and property prices and rents are HUGE) and in order to upgrade our housing I will need to work (which I was planning to btw). However the childcare element of WTC is being cut and you will have to work at least 24 hours a week instead of 16 to get WTC, which means having to pay for more childcare, which means not being able to afford to work.

Not only that, I wanted to go to uni and retrain as an Occupational Therapist when baby was a little older so I could have an enjoyable and stable career. But with the cuts in public sector jobs and the hike in tuition fees, what the hell is the point??

My future pretty much looks like staying at home with the kids in a flat that's too small and hope that DP doesn't ever lose his job. DP wants another child, I have put my foot down and said no way, we have no room and financially it will not be viable, he is upset, but I am being practical (plus me being 36 it would have to be in the next few years).

I understand we need to make cuts to reduce the deficit, but doing it all so quickly and seemingly hapharzardly is affecting the very people the govt say they are trying to protect. And I think this problem has been caused by BOTH Labour and Tory actions, so neither party are in a position to mudsling as they don't have any moral high ground.

I didn't vote Labour or Tory btw.

Havent read whole thread...and havent had chance to read paper today and digest what all the cuts mean.

I hope that the more vulnerable in society will be protected and the benefits/ support continue and even increase for those who truly need them.

However, the cuts have had to happen. The previous administration have simply created this illusion of wealth and given people a sense of a lifestyle that they should be entitled to, but that we cannot afford.

There needs to be a big mental shift amongst us all to realise that we need to live within our means. Cars dont need to be changed all the time. 18 year olds shouldnt be buying cars on payment plans they cannot afford. We shouldnt be having 3 or 4 children if we cannot afford to have them. My parents would have had more children, they simply didnt as they couldnt afford them. DH and I are the same - we would love at least one more, but we know it would be too much of a stretch financially.

More people need to realise that simply wanting something doesnt mean you are entitled to it.

That is true mistletoekisses, but someone may well live within their means, not have children they can't afford and then BINGO, unexpected, sudden illness enters the equation or redundancy, etc.

It is too simplistic to expect things to go well for an entire working life these days, and that is what the welfare state was there to protect and assist with when needed.

The working poor cant save enough to tie them over for life's eventualities, and sooner or later they come to all of us.

Why does no one seem to mention the mega-wealthy still receiving winter fuel and tv licences, yet are on the backs of part time earners in receipt of a bit of tax credit as if they are the devil in disguise. Don't understand that.

ImGideonsMumAndIHateHimToo Thu 21-Oct-10

"There is so much about this budget that I think they are right about: a 68 retirementa ge is nothing anyway, as DH expects to work until - well as long as he can; he wants to do that."

That's fine if you've got a nice sedentary job somewhere warm. Most of dh's workmates do physical labour- they are not strong enough to go on shovelling when they are 67- in fact, most of them are showing the effects of hard work and too much exposure to cold and wet by the time they get to 60. And there are simply not enough pen pushing jobs in the profession to keep them occupied for the last 8 years. So they would have to start applying for jobs elsewhere- surely a doodle once you're past 60.

If they say "we are all in this together" once more I am going to vomit

I am really worries about losing my TC and CB. I am a SAHM to 2 dc one of whom I home educate. Am also worried about the VAT rise in Jan...I spend a fortune on food as it is!

I will be stocking up on bulky items before the rise.

I have always lived within my means mistletoe, the only debt I have is around £700 on a credit card, which I had to use when I was out of work with anxiety (I didn't want benefits long term). This is nothing these days and I am paying it back slowly. DP has even less debt than me and a small amount of savings that we are keeping for emergencies.

We don't have a mortgage, we have a second hand car, we don't have any goods on HP, we have no loans and I very rarely buy myself anything (although I am now desperate for maternity clothes which I still cannot bring myself to get).

We do not have Sky TV, we very rarely (well never in fact) go out for meals, daytrips etc, all spare money I have is spent on my dd (swimming lessons, school lunches, clothes etc). I am going to visit my parents and taking dd to see her dad next week and do not feel up to a 3 1/2 hr drive because of my pregnancy symptoms. However I cannot afford the train fares for DD and I so I have no choice.

Oh yes I think I know very well what living within my means is without the Coalitian's help thank you very much.

I understand we need the cuts, I really do. However, if you read my post above, you'll see how difficult the govt have made it for me to actually earn any extra money. I am going to be stuck depending on dp which is the exact opposite of what I want.

Dh and I have neitehr got a nice sednetary job somewhere warm; DH is an electrical engineer and I will be back in social work, but with our family life expectancy being 90+ we feel we couldn;t realistically do nothing for thirty years.

There are absolutely careers whcih will become impossible: there always have been, for example my Uncle had to give up sports coaching at fifty- but he had to career change then.

I agree Cory!

My poor Dad works as a mechanic, a very physical job which he worked at least 48 hours a week in. He turned 60 this year and then managed to have a mild heart attack which meant he had to have 2 weeks in hospital and then a month of work which he just about managed to afford.

His employers intially let him work 3 days a week to help him recover, they have now stopped that and he is back up to 4.5 days and is barely coping with that.

He cannot afford to give up work and my Mum cannot help him by working full time as she has to look after my sister's son 2 days a week so that DSis can carry on working (as her and her DH cannot afford FT childcare, MIL looks after baby for 2 days a week as well).

It's all a big mess and my parents are not entitled to any significant benefits. It makes me so angry that someone who is ill is forced to work!

Ys; it is indeed shite that people have to work when tehya re unwell or disabled- but isn;t that a slightly different argument, one about illness support?

Dad has worked as a cleaner ever since he was amde redundant from his managerial role eyars ago, an industrial cleaner which emans lots of heavy lifting and climbing through things. he has no feeling in a leg after a botched operation but he has no pension (he did, it collapsed) and there are not enough benefits for him to keep going if he gives up.

Those in occupations where working above a certain age should be given help to either reskill or retire early via planning etc- Dh for example will hardly be rigging at 70 (stage his specialty).

perhaps this should ahve been done with a wider interim patch: if you are 55 you don;t ahve time to replan or reskill, but if you are 35 you do. if you know.

The problem of course is that the people who make these decisions do so from a warm office: they cannot imagine what it is like to stand out in the rain for 8 hours day doing heavy manual labour. Or else they imagine that all firms have a number of nice pen pushing jobs to which an elderly gentleman with no higher qualifications can just be moved on when he gets too old for the slog.

Not really that different Gideon, because it is all wrapped up in the physical type of job my dad has.

Also, he has suffered a sort of post traumatic stress disorder, which means he has constant anxiety and panic attacks about having another heart attack.

The govt are going to reduce incapacity benefit that is related to mental health issues, so he will almost certainly get no help there. Despite the fact that worry and anxiety are noted for being part of the cause of heart attacks.

And at 60, he is just not confident enough to change career and he cannot take a pay cut.

OP, YANBU; I am waiting to hear this afternoon whether my OH is being made redundant, I am 25 wks pg with DC3. Not great.

"Those in occupations where working above a certain age should be given help to either reskill or retire early via planning etc- Dh for example will hardly be rigging at 70 (stage his specialty).

perhaps this should ahve been done with a wider interim patch: if you are 55 you don;t ahve time to replan or reskill, but if you are 35 you do. if you know."

And if all the 35yos retrain and try to get out of the manual work before they get too old to be of interest to new employers- who exactly is going to be doing skilled manual labour? And who will pay for it? Dh works for a small firm: there is no money there to spend on retraining employees- the whole firm would go bust.

Have not read the whole thread, but OP, many of us were scared shitless by the unsustainable spending of the previous government, completely irresponsible and oblivious to the consequences - because they were buying themselves votes by creating a client state. Any sane perosn knows you cannot just spend and spend and never have to pay it back - you have been betrayed by the people who were in power - if you are only now waking up the reality, that is suprising, because it has been obvious for years that the gvt were buying votes by letting us live on tick.
Amazes me how people are still in denial about the reality.
This morning there was a quote in The Times by a numpty they found in the street whose view was 'the cuts should not affect the public sector' [hhmm] - only surprise is they were able to find someone quite so idiotic to interview.
Yes, it scary, but has been for ages - lucky you if you are only just now waking upo to it!

Yes I am aware of IB cuts: as Mum to a xchild with Aspergers eating disorders and related stuff, p[lus a Dh who has been known to be brought home by police after suicide attempt ( many, many eyars ago).

Cory I get where you are coming from but people will ahve in general to work longer. Obvious solutiuon would be to have ages set by career but that would cost far too much; any ideas how to play it? I mean, like you said in a desk job it's not a big issue.

Although even then- LA refuses to take pplications from thsoe over 65; maybe theyr should start tehre?

Why is it the cuts are disproportionately affecting the poorest 10 per cent then?

Why is it that the banks have escaped any form of regulation in bonuses etc?

Why does the government see fit to vilify the poorest, mpst vulnerable people as benefit scroungers and cheats?

And yet those who avoid paying tax and hand out vast sums of tax payers money as banking bonuses -for a job badly done -are not going to suffer at all?

When I look across my city I don't see the people in tower blocks living the life of riley on income support and housing benefit. They are living in shit housing, there are no jobs and it seems that now fewer organisations will have the funding to make their lives a little bit less shit.

An it's criminal that under Labour, life for these people didn't improve, it got worse. And it's criminal that the Tories just think of them as scumbags and have decided to let them rot.

Am ranting but furious.

Yes it looks as ig the WTC limit means you both ahve to work: therefore, carers no longer eligible for WTC mostly I think. A few, of course.

Bizarre.

Im disgusted by the changes to tax credits. They really havent thought them through.

Am also disgusted by the raise in age from 25 to 35 for single room rent. It will just encourage desperate people into shared houses which may not always be good for them- alot of drink and drugs in the houses you can afford in that bracket. Alot of young peoples can only see the escape route is by having a baby.

Even CAB is outraged

"Housing benefit has already been cut back and the extraordinary decision to raise single room rate to 35 year-olds will lead to an explosion of homelessness, and will hit single working people on low incomes as well as the single unemployed"

Im disgusted by the changes to tax credits. They really havent thought them through.

Am also disgusted by the raise in age from 25 to 35 for single room rent. It will just encourage desperate people into shared houses which may not always be good for them- alot of drink and drugs in the houses you can afford in that bracket. Alot of young peoples can only see the escape route is by having a baby.

Even CAB is outraged

"Housing benefit has already been cut back and the extraordinary decision to raise single room rate to 35 year-olds will lead to an explosion of homelessness, and will hit single working people on low incomes as well as the single unemployed"

I know onadietcokebreak, I know.

On a more spotive note if there are any solicitors on ehre who can draft a partnership agreement and save me trawlinga round oens I don;t know I;d appreciate a CAT thanks (yes of course I mean I would pay! Am not a free lunch type).

Best get this moving eh?