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 !

laquiter as SE no one can make me redundant. When the credit crunch hit i i adapted my prices/services. My business is not something that's one of life's essentials but is still doing well.

I have been a struggling single parent and a struggling married one. I'm afraid money's often tight when you have children, always has been, always will be.

Taking my income, I work in the public sector, I haven't had a cost of living increase since 2009 yet all other bills have increased, food, gas & electricity, petrol, insurance, etc., etc.. I don't think it is the fault of the Tories but why, if working people are finding it harder to make ends meet should those on benefits not see a reduction too.

Benefits are there for those who can't work, not those who won't work.

I agree with who ever said the public sector is having it's recession now ( or more realistically in the coming years). Dh works in the private sector they were seeing redundancies ( more than 50% of the work force) in 2009. Things are now looking better. In response to OP we are no worse off now, but from 2006/7 to 2008/9 we realy felt a cut in our standard of living, things are getting better for us now. I think the way this goverment has gone after mid-low-income families is shocking and totally spineless.

If the NHS/local government etc. should not be "running at a profit" (and I agree with this sentiment entirely) - then why the fuckety fucking fuck was millions upon millions being "invested" in Iceland on "long-term" plans. If you are a nurse for example who feels that their job is under threat, rather than screeching "evil tories" I would suggest you go to the management "suites" in your swanky hospital and ask what the fuck THEY are doing to reduce REAL costs, and not "nurses wages" which we all know are a drop in the ocean compared to the art work in the atrium, or the manager's jag in his personal parking space - or why most of my "friends" who work for the NHS are management types forever on courses/training/doing extra degrees rather than on the "front line".

As Portofino said, costs are going up everywhere and I'm not 100% convinced that the coalition control the world (It's the Jews btw ). I haven't had a pay-rise in years (3+), I took a tax increase (lucky me) of 500 euros a month starting this January. Food is up. It costs me now 100 euros to fill the tank in my car. Car tax is up. Being private sector, I was "crunched" years ago and downsized to a small "cheap to heat" house etc., etc. All in all we are balanced as a family because we've reduced our outgoings greatly by careful planning. Got a $100 dollar bonus at work this month too. $100 fucking dollars - I'll cancel the yacht order then.

"I agree that someone would have to pay for the mess we are in, but why is it the poorest?"

We have to cut spending, and a huge part of that spending is the welfare state. If you rely on the state, or are part of the state then you may experience a slight tingle during the changes.

Condems have tried to make cuts fairer by raising taxes/levies (or leaving some of the labour ones in place - i.e. 50% income tax) and removing universal benefits for people who arent reliant on the taxpayer.

IMO they've got the balance about right. But you'll never hear a core Labour supporter agree while there are special interest groups who can be leveraged for political gain. ('they're targetting women!', 'they're targetting the disabled!', 'they're targetting my cat!')

Very good post theinet. Pretty much sums up the situation in the UK and on MN.

I'm actually fairly impressed at how many people have realised the current mess is more Labour's fault than the coalitions.

Perhaps the electorate isn't as stupid as I usually think?

Worse off but getting better.

I don't think it's down to the Tories though.

I worked in the construction industry for years, highly qualified very well paid.
I've been made redundant 3 times since the start of the recession and worked for one company that went to the wall without paying anyone.

I got a job in a completely different sector last summer and it is as stable as any job can be now.
I'm earning a third of what I was before though.

However, dd won't need Childress from September (have a childminder) and I am starting to earn more now through bonuses etc.

We don't get tax credits or cb, I could have claimed them when my income dropped but never bothered.

Dp was made redundant a week after I lost the first job but he got another pretty much straight away and has been there ever since. He is also earning less than before.

Niceguy - the fabricated 'mess' is a way in which the Tories can act out their ideologies and has no bearing on reality, nor the last government.

I am a single parent - I work only part time as I am studying for a masters. Luckily I am not considerably worse off, my house is not expensive so we have not been affected by the 30th percentile change, tax credits gone down a bit due to 80% to 70% on childcare costs.

We are struggling but this is mostly due to having to self fund my masters on a single part-time wage.

We're going to lose our child benefit. DH is a higher rate tax payer, but only just, and we live in London, so our living costs are very high.

I'm self-employed and work part-time. My income has been hit by a reduction in the demand for my services over the past few months.

Our food and fuel costs have gone up.

I DO blame the Tories. They have made a choice to reduce the deficit as quickly as possible, and never mind the pain. They could have done things differently.

We lost our child benefit and of course Ni increased. The tax allowance increase helped ease that and we've both had pay rises (both work in private sector in Scotland).
Fuel is a bit of a killer, however as DH uses his own car for work and they only pay something like 18p per mile, he claim the difference between that and the 45p the gov pay, back. So, we are waiting on that claim as it is about £600. It's worth looking at for anyone who pays fuel on their own car in the course of their job - not travelling to and from work though.

I haven't noticed food going up, but fuel yes. My car is not very economical anyway so this bites but we'll be alright. This is mainly due to DH's earning capabilities for commission. Without it we would struggle just now. Things on the up on though.

spudulika I heard on the news (someone please correct me if I've got this wrong, though) that the interest payments on the deficit is greater than our entire annual defence budget. That's got to be a lot of money, just to service a loan. Wasted money really. The sooner we reduce the budget the better, if this is the case.

not really, worse off paying off the Labour made debts of course but if there is no money left in the pot, savings have to be made

If Labour had got in again, no doubt they would still be handing out money willy nilly to every Tom Dick and Harriet who had a sob story :(

Sorry it was TC we lost not CB. Also when we took our mortgage out 4 years ago, we took a smaller amount but at 100% and have stayed on a fixed rate repayment. Financially we probably have thrown money down the drain but for us the stability of our repayments was more important to us.

Dh is having to take a pay cut.

At my job we are losing a lot of support staff, so are all working longer hours doing jobs we have never been trained to do. And the student fees are likely to hit us hard: I think I might lose my job.

But it's the fuelling of hatred against disabled people that really hurts me. Less money and more work I can deal with, but the thought that both dcs will grow up in a society that is increasingly conditioned to see them as scroungers is hard to bear.

I agree with who ever said the public sector is having it's recession now ( or more realistically in the coming years). Dh works in the private sector they were seeing redundancies ( more than 50% of the work force) in 2009. Things are now looking better. In response to OP we are no worse off now, but from 2006/7 to 2008/9 we realy felt a cut in our standard of living, things are getting better for us now. I think the way this goverment has gone after mid-low-income families is shocking and totally spineless.

sorry don't know what happened then !

Yes, I pay slightly less tax but have lost my £40 a month tax credit which did help. we are feeling the pinch. No one has had a pay rise in our house. Everything has gone up and my children seem to need more and more (teenagers)

I think any government would have made cuts as we are broke. I do get annoyed though when we are meant to be saving money we are still giving things like child benefit to children who don't even live in Britain etc etc.

Yep
DH made redundant at turn of the year - now working a part-time job (thank feck that turned up) and both trying to run our own business
Living on half what we were, entitled to nothing in the way of anything.
At least our child benefit is safe (for now)

I'm slightly better off in tax, but slightly worse off in nat insurance so roughly the same. We are working flat out and have moved to the otherside of the country and negotiated better contacts so we are better off. But miles away from my friends and family, buy you gotta do what you gotta do!

Everyone is worse off except the uber rich who still get 5% plus interest on their money as they are charging the credit worthy 10%+.

Things should improve in a couple of years but things are so fragile that it will only take a major event that pushes oil up or knocks market confidence to change all that and plunge everyone into even worse conditions.

The only solution is to try and earn a crust by starting your own business on the side and hoping you can grow it enough to make up any shortfall or perhaps even more. Ebay is doing it for me :)...bought a pallet of candle/paraphanalia for £200 and so far have sold the items at boot sales for £500 and still have a third left, all in 3 weeks and away from the wastefull grasping tax man.

this old argument always goes the same way. People who are apolitical or tory supporters always go 'oh no, if anything we're better of now, at least we're not borrowing beyond our means like those awful socialists' and then the rest of us go 'actually life's pretty shit with those know-nothing chinless toffs in charge, at least labour actually gave a damn about poor people...' it's almost like a script now, we've had this thread so many times.

Are you mad toffee just thought I would copy a list of privately educated labour mps including Borden brown who went to scotland most exclusive private school

Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood)
Hugh Bayley (City of York)
Hilary Benn (Leeds Central)
Bob Blizzard (Waveney)
Chris Bryant (Rhondda)
Stephen Byers (North Tyneside)
Charles Clarke (Norwich South)
Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley)
Jim Cousins (Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central)
Alistair Darling (Edinburgh South West)
Quentin Davies (Grantham and Stamford)
Louise Ellman (Liverpool Riverside)
Natascha Engel (North East Derbyshire)
Mark Fisher (Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Barry Gardiner (Brent North)
Linda Gilroy (Plymouth Sutton)
Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Peter Hain (Neath)
Patrick Hall (Bedford and Kempston)
Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East)
Harriet Harman (Camberwell and Peckham)
John Healey (Wentworth)
Margaret Hodge (Barking)
Geoff Hoon (Ashfield)
Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley)
Tessa Jowell (Dulwich and West Norwood)
Sally Keeble (Northampton North)
Ruth Kelly (Bolton West)
Jim Knight (South Dorset)
Ivan Lewis (South Bury)
Martin Linton (Battersea)
Ian Lucas (Wrexham)
Denis MacShane (Rotherham)
Fiona Mactaggart (Slough)
Judy Mallaber (Amber Valley)
John Mann (Bassetlaw)
Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West)
Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South)
Bob Marshall-Andrews (Medway)
Michael Meacher (Oldham West and Royton)
Chris Mole (Ipswich)
Julie Morgan (Cardiff North)
Doug Naysmith (Bristol North West)
Nick Palmer (Broxtowe)
Gordon Prentice (Pendle)
James Purnell (Stalybridge and Hyde)
Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich)
Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West)
Andrew Slaughter (Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush)
John Spellar (Warley)
Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes South West)
Howard Stoate (Dartford)
Gavin Strang (Edinburgh East)
Mark Todd (South Derbyshire)
Kitty Ussher (Burnley)
Keith Vaz (Leicester East)
Malcolm Wicks (Croydon North)
Michael Wills (Swindon North)
Rosie Winterton (Doncaster Central)
Shaun Woodward (St Helens South)

What was that you say about toffs

Don't seem any of these are from the get to to me

People talk as if all the labour mps are different an d come from the hood when its more likely to be notting hill.

You would be hard pushed top find a labour mp who came from humble means so I think labour lovelies should keep very quite on calling people toffs