Have you been worse off since the tories came into power?

[samram]

Just wondered if anybody else is worse off since they came into power?
i work 16 hours a week as single parent
Child care is £88 a week term time and £120 half term.
In april i had my tax credits cut by £65 a week!
I am really really struggling at the moment.
Just wondered if anyone else is the same ?
I dont just mean single parents and mean families too !

Sign? You sign on, every fortnight I believe. They pay your rent, council tax, all sorts of things apparently.

Not tempting tbh Lady?

I get by without having to sign on but if I did need to I would do so, safe in the knowledge that I was claiming from a system I'd paid into for the past 30 years. I therefore would not see it as "free money". Now if I'd never worked then maybe it would be a different view...

They pay rent and council tax, in fact on papaer some of the families I work with get more a month financially than I do. It's paper money though - they don't see it. Cash wise they don't have much and what's there has to pay electricity, gas, water, food etc. I also get much more out of working than just cash - no way would I want to swap places.

lady to call benefits free money is very ignorant and insulting.

I lost my job in 08 and ended up on benefits. Its not an "easy option". It could happen to anyone, you never know what's around the corner.

Yes. And it's going to get worse when DH's hours get cut to 0.6 of a timetable instead of his full-time post.

DillyDally It's relevant because the previous poster suggested that GO's lack of work experience is detrimental to his current position. I pointed out that his GB's lack of work experience combined with inability to balance his own bank account would not bode well for a man left in charge of the country's finances! I can help join the dots for you if you need further help making the leap here. As for his "poverty" - you do know of course that he went to public school, funded by his family and was a "career student", again, funded by his family. I mean you're not naive enough to think the Labour party grew up down the mines are you? haha. Bless. x

But aside berating you for that, I admire your work ethic and believe you're right - there's more to working than just "money in the bank".

The REAL CUTS are yet to come. And disability charities are worried about what the Cameron Tory govt are doing to the disabled...so a lot of them are cruelly worse off. (because of a govt with 22 millionaires, who dont give a damn) As Gabby Logan what she thinks

Alpine pony, I'm no nulab apologist, a million miles away from it; I'm glad George brown was kicked out, he deserved it, it was totally inevitable and I welcomed it

But to to try and make out like Gideon is a safe pair of hands is naive nonsense; right up until 2007 he was pledging to match nulabs spending and was committed to increasing spending on the NHS. Insane.

Btw George brown worked both as a lecturer and a journalist so your assertion that he never had a job is inaccurate. And your definitely overplaying his relatively modest background, in much the same way the Tories have tried to downplay dave and gideons aristo background and Nulab tried to score cheap points with all that bullingdon rubbish.

In any case your kind of partisan knee-jerk defense of a complete lightweight because he's on the right team is self defeating nonsense. Its that kind of simpleminded tribal politics that has left us with the 'broken politics' we endure currently.

There is nothing 'free' about benefits.

You pay in terms of having fuck all, being reliant on the state, being subject to surveillance and judgement, and having right wing twats making ill informed judgements about you based on a few extreme made-up examples in the Daily Mail.

Right, we have lost DLA and just remortgaged the house. A big factor in this is that childcare and commuting costs are now being beyond our means, so we are offsetting while we ride the storm, as there's nothing else left to economise on, and while we find out which one of us ends up being made redundant.

This is completely mad and I can't understand why families end up being fleeced like this. I am so exhausted with it all. It feels like being at war without the bombs.

Thanks for your helpful offer of "joining the dots" AlpinePony - as someone with half a brain I have no problem doing that for myself . I haven't read up on the past life experiences of any of the previous Chancellors - can't be bothered tbh as imho most politicians are in it for themselves. Oh they may start out with noble intentions but the ones who rise to the top generally have their principles elsewhere by the time they reach the giddy heights (that's Labour AND Tory) many of them are no good and have lost touch with normal people - and you can't deny that Gideon's family outdo GB's in the wealth stakes.

Yes I have a good work ethic - doesn't mean that I will not claim if I need to though and nor will I see it as "free money". If I can't get another car sorted by December then believe me I WILL be claiming some benefits because I will effectively be out of work.

And I can't be bothered that GB bounced a few cheques in his time OR that Gideon Upward enjoyed trashing drinking establishments with his chums in the Bullingdon Club. All I care about is what they did when they grew up - GB was Chancellor and the PM during good times AND a worldwide recession. Gideon looked on and said he would match the spending before backpedalling furiously when the recession hit.

Yes I am worse off, no I don't care (apart from the car) and if the victory in 2005 (or whenever) had been a Tory one then it would be Gideon taking the blame now - bet he's relieved they didn't win it.

Times are certainly hard for a lot of people around the world. We remain better off here than in plenty of other countries though. At least interest rates seem at present to be remaining low.

I don't know a lot about DLA cuts...but I know of someone who was "re-assessed" and found to be in full working condition and had their DLA stopped. If that person is indeed in full working order, it makes sense for that person to work. Are the Government really stopping DLA for genuinely disabled people?

That was in light of BoffinMums comment.

Xenia you know how you say that if you don't ask, you don't get? And to always be on the lookout for earning opportunities?

Well there is at least one typo in your website text and the layout could do with some reorganisation.

Feel free to PM me and I'll send samples of his work. That's the spirit isn't it?

DH's work that is.

Yes they are Lady - for example a friend of mine with severe mental health issues which make it hard to leave the house had her DLA and ESA stopped. They declared her fit for work when the woman can literally not even get on a bus without a full blown panic attack. She is under the mental health team, having psychotherapy and getting there very slowly. ATOS declared her fit for work, her DLA abd ESA was withdrawn and she was rold to claim Jobseeker's Allowance which I advised her NOT to do. It went to appeal with support from me as her friend, a support worker, her GP, psychotherapist and psychiatrist. They reversed their decision but not before she had been to Hell and back wondering how she was going to cope. Others without her support network (because that's what the people around her are) would have gone under and floundered - and I bet some of them are now signing on, competely unemployable but doing what they are told. Disability is about more than an inability to walk.

will be hit end of year :(

They seem to be hiving of bits and pieces here and there from middle to low income families, yet spending BILLIONS on wars, not recouping corp tax (agreed), unpaid taxes and more interestingly fraudulent activity that they can't be bothered to resource stopping. Not poxy benefit fraud (doesn't cost us that much) but bank fraud. They are losing money hand over fist but firstly do not want to admit it because it is bad publicity and secondly because they don't want to discourage people from purchasing finacial products and services with extensve checks.

Dilly- I presume with the right help she will learn to deal with her mental inabilities? It she unfit to work from home?

What about people who are physically disabled, who won't ever be able to deal with their physical inabilities, how many of those have had their DLA cut?

DLA has nothing to do with ability to work - you're confusing it with incapacity benefit. DLA is supposed to offset the costs of disability and is not means tested. I completed the form exactly the same way as last time but got rejected, despite my GP writing in to support the application.

Something to think on as I was back in the wheelchair on Wednesday.

I work f/t by the way and all my salary now goes on childcare and commuting costs, so the DLA was quite important - I was actually using it to live on.

So you work/ed full time...yet got DLA due to a disability which didn't prevent you from working?

Sorry I know I'm naive, the whole benefit system baffles me.

Aside from say travel expenses to and from a hospital/physio why would you need extra money if you were/are working full time?

What about those who aren't claiming DLA but work full time and have to pay child costs and or commuting costs...how do they find money to live on? Is that provided?

I spend it on taxis, a special car and specialist rehab, until my childcare and commuting costs spiralled.
Ironically I have trouble lifting my youngest and I can't run around after him so the childcare gives him things I can't any more.
I don't get any benefit to live on, it's not linked to ability to work. Incidentally, losing it and spiralling costs means no more rehab, etc.
It bloody stinks.