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Original poster

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

382 replies

samram · 31/05/2011 17:30

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 !

OP posts:
Yukana · 31/05/2011 18:57

Worse off.
ESA have been screwing me around so we were forced to give up on my re-claim. (As baby is arriving soon and we were waiting 4+ months without them moving their asses at all).

Inflation means the weekly shop is tight and especially when I'm going through the ravenous stages of pregnancy, things can get a bit tricky.

We can't afford to buy a car, let alone run one. I know those with cars though are struggling with the insurance rises and paying for repairs.
Due to not having a car, we can barely get out of our rural area as for me and DH alone we're talking £10+ to get to the supermarket/etc.

I am worried about the changes to DLA, not just for myself but for my mother as well. My mother's IS was cut by £50 a week.

Jobs are virtually non-existant if you don't have a degree in the county. Even worse when there is no transport before 7:30am/after 5:30pm.

northernrock · 31/05/2011 18:58

Please lets not for one teeny second assume that Osborne and co are just "doing what is necessary".
There is always a huge element in choice as to which things are cut, and which people are taxed. The way the new government are handling this is extremely radical and also ideological.

Also (and I have said this before but it bears repeating) New Labour's rubbish lack of restriction on banks(which led to the crash) were wholeheartedly endorsed by Tories.
They all had the same policies essentially: No real banking regulation.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 31/05/2011 18:59

What do you get for having an STD

northernrock · 31/05/2011 19:00

Yukana, trust me, there are no jobs in the cities either.
And our buses have been cut so that going anywhere after 6 pm is impossible (unless you pay for a taxi)

slug · 31/05/2011 19:01

financiallybwe are about even, though this has much to do with me getting more money as I act up into my boss's job.

However, we both work in a sector under huge strain. I'm currently doing 3 people's jobs and it's unlikely to get better in the near future. We both work under a regime of rolling short term contracts so we are never more than a few months away from redundancy without redundancy pay.

In my experience, the biggest impact of the Tories has been how much more vulnerable I feel as a working woman. Maternity leave and pay provisions, my right to walk down the road unmolested, my rights over my own body and my daughter's reproductive health and education are all under threat from the Tories.

Frankly they scare me

herbietea · 31/05/2011 19:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

SpringHeeledJack · 31/05/2011 19:02

what northern said

we're worse off. we have managed to keep our CHB- but that's only because dp has been made redundant and we're now on benefits Hmm

the great thing the coalition is managing to pull off is 1. to put a load of folk out of work and then 2. to make out that being unemployed is actually the claimant's fault

the clever bastards

thefirstMrsDeVere · 31/05/2011 19:05

dont forget after they have done those things they are expecting us to come back and volunteer to our jobs for free.

LaWeasel · 31/05/2011 19:06

Yes, DH lost 2 jobs because the economy is still so bad.

We've also lost £50 a week in tax credits but that's partly because our circumstances have improved, next year we will lose a further £70 a week - leaving us entitled to £12 a week while earning less than the average family wage.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 31/05/2011 19:06

AND they are withdrawing funding from and getting charities to borrow money from the Big Society Bank and pay interest. Pay interest to do work that should be funded by our taxes.

DillyDaydreaming · 31/05/2011 19:10

I don't know about being worse off since the Tories came to power (although I don't like em) but I am definitely worse off as a result of the credit crunch. My lease car is being withdrawn this year so I have to find the funds for a reliable car. Petrol has gone up massively, food has gone up etc etc.

cricketballs · 31/05/2011 19:11

worse off due to rising costs, but will be dreading it more in a couple of years when the eldest is due to start uni.

We are in the 'forgotten' bracket of those who earn too much for any help (but in reality are worse off than those who get help as we have to pay our own rent/council tax etc) and we will be out of the help bracket for uni costs, but don't earn enough to see us through it without it hurting a lot.

wikolite · 31/05/2011 19:15

I'm worse off like most people I suspect. I don't blame the Government though it had to happen, the Government couldn't carry on spending money in the way that Labour were, borrowing £150 billion a year isn't sustainable.

northernrock · 31/05/2011 19:21

But the current cuts are a bit like suddenly paying off all your credit cards, having no bus fare to get to work or pay your rent,thereby getting fired. And made homeless.

Sorry, what is going on now is just not sound economic policy. Its a systematic shrinking of the state.

Many many people will be worse off, and in a big way. Many of the people who voted Tory because they believed the hype will find that, oops, they have been made redundant, they can't get another, job, pay their mortgage or send their kids to uni.
And I will have every sympathy. Honest.

LaWeasel · 31/05/2011 19:26

I got my break down wrong, we lost £50 a week tax credits purely due to cuts (and they base it a year behind - so that's based on a year when we earnt 11k!) and then the £70 a week cut next year, is because we are doing better financially - but it is very much in spite of, and not because of the Tories that DH has got a great job now.

In my opinion, disabled people have been utterly shafted which is a disgusting way for any government to behave.

On northernrocks personal budget scale, it's like choosing to only buy food for yourself and not your kids, even though your kids have no way of getting their own food.

maypole1 · 31/05/2011 19:29

Not sure labour had a sound economic policy spend spend spend then when theirs no money left spend some more

Allow millions to stay unemployed for the best part of 10 years oh and allow people to take out mortgages 7 times their wage

likale · 31/05/2011 19:30

I think the vast majority of people will be worse off because there has been an increase in the general tax level as well as reductions to public spending. It was long overdue mind, the previous Governments fiscal policy over the last 5-10 years was getting more and more unsustainable so I can't really complain about the general direction of economic policy, thats not to say that it won't be painful for the population mind.

Glitterknickaz · 31/05/2011 19:30

Shame the economy was starting to recover just before the election. If that recovery had been allowed to continue we'd be well into trying to sort the deficit now, without this level of pain.

Yes some cuts would have happened, but in a gentler, better thought out way. And less of them.

sweetkitty · 31/05/2011 19:31

A lot worse off child tax credit gone and child benefit next. We have 4 DC so it's over 3k a year. We're just over the limit as well.

Fuel and food rocketing as well.

desperatelyseekingsnoozes · 31/05/2011 19:33

Not worse off at all and it is just wrong. It is wrong that people like us are left untouched while those on the breadline are feeling the cuts.

NacMacFeegle · 31/05/2011 19:36

I work part time, childcare element of WTC was cut by £50 a week and housing benefit has also just been dropped by £20 a week, oh joy unconfined.

NacMacFeegle · 31/05/2011 19:36

Oh, and working more will do me no good at all, as I earn about half what I would pay out in childcare.

Minimum wage is not a living wage.

HumperdinkFangboner · 31/05/2011 19:38

Yup much worse off. Worked out that we're £500 p/m worse off than we were this time last year.

Armed Forces have had a pay freeze, the MOD also have slashed travelling expenses and other 'benefits'. Our monthly shop price rises every month despite the list not changing.

BUT DH has a stable job and for that I'm thankful.

wordfactory · 31/05/2011 19:38

Our main hit was during the last throes of Gordon Brown's term - the hike in tax rates was eyewatering...tories have kept it the same though.

manicbmc · 31/05/2011 19:41

Maypole, you didn't listen. Those people who were not working through the labour government also were not working through the last tory government and will probably not work under the coalition.

They just don't seem to understand how the economy works at all and are making a very bad job of it.