David Cameron welfare reforms-no family will receive more than £25,000 a year.

[Hammy02]

Good idea? I think so. I can't believe a single family receives this much already in benefits. It is about the same as the average income so it would be ridiculous for any one family to have more in benefits than someone that works?

And I an;t feed my oot under $125. not with 2 of glutem free and 4 on dairy free; it's almost a fiver for the only bread they will eat 9autism, 'just make them eat it' doesn;t cut it as a fair few psychs have found with my lot)

Out of interest - all those of you on this thread who say you need the benefits because you can't get a job (single parent, made redundant etc). Fair enough, it's hard to get a job in many parts of the UK at the moment. BUT the thing that baffles me is why, that beiing the case, you haven't made your own jobs ie set up your own businesses or become self-employed? I had to do that a few years back - not because I was a 'natural' entrepreneur but because we needed the money and I couldn't find anything that fitted in with kids' hours and couldn't afford childcare (and my OH's salary meant we couldn't get benefits, but high costs of living in the SE meant I did need to earn). Because I had no choice, I overcame my natural hesitations and did it.

So what's stopping all those of you who can't get a job from creating your own job? Is it fear? Is it lack of knowledge of where to start? Is it the (perceived) high cost of starting up? Or is it that you just can't be bothered because you don't really need to?

Assuming it's not the latter as you all seem to be hard-working types, what would help you to create your own jobs (thereby being in control of your own destiny and potentially earning more, as well as being able to fit your career round your children?

pebbles
If you are able to work, ie not disabled, aren't a carer, not a pensioner. Should you be able to live on benefits for years without anyone questioning it? Handed money at the post office every say Monday for 20+ years, no questions asked

Ican see what you are getting at but no one knows why they are claiming befits what is in their past and lets face see mine and peachys post what is happening with dla and you are getting a lot ofpeople caught up in the net who can not work (carers/disabled) who will lose money they can ill afford and yet the needs(carer/ being disabled ) still remains .

It is not so clear cut as people think I could well be caught in the net of Hb caps as ds3 gets mrc ( means he needs at least 37hrs of care a week ) which means that we lose ctc and we could be capped .

I am paralyised from the waist down and under new rules i may not be entitled to moblity as i can get msyself around my house in a wheelchair so under new rules we can be capped .( does not take account of between juggling ds3 needs and adding in my lack of moblity )becuase lets face it who wants to employ someone who needs time of for ds3 appointments and mine and then they have to make sure they are fully wheelchair accessible/toilets/desks and becuase i have continace issues they would need to provide faclites for me to clean myself up then they are going to look at someone else and who you think will get the job .Oh and I can only work term time and school holidays as ds3 can not go to normal childcare.

yet I am facing being capped becuase we do not get HRC .So not as clear cut as you think

oh and just to clear something up we ar enot entitled to live in houses that the average 50% person can ,we are only entitled to live in houses that fall in the bottom 30% for the area we live in

you have to build a business. You need 16 hrs min guaranteed to be eligable fot working tax credits and below thet income support will take the money back. If your hours go up and down you have to keep reapplying for benefit, which can take 6 weeks to come through leaving you nothing to live on in the meantime. I have thought an ironing business because I wouldn't need childcare as i could dp it from home and fit it around the school run but would not know how to work it with the above system.

And yes- many people with DLA will be subjected to the cap via change to PIP and increasing numbers of people being rejected.

I suspect i will manage to overturn a refusal to support ds3 as it is plaon as day he is severely disabled. It'll take 100% commitment for several months though. I am blessed I am able to fight; being a carer does not eman you can't have issues of your own 9or just the one person to care for)- indeed due to genetics it mewans you are more likely to have extra needs yourself or extra people to care for. probably rightly CA is only paid once per carer regardless of number of people cared for. In the summer when I have both siiagnosed boys home, both of whome need 24/7 care, that works out as an astounding 17p per hour. [arty on dudes 9and random other assorted 80's phrases). before ebing a carer I was a manager for a national charity. I paid my dues in NI thinking there was a support system, yeah bloody right! i;ve een amde repeatedly to feel like a criminal.

DS1 faces renewal end of next eyar. DS1 looks entirely NT and has some major achievements- head of school council, reading age 3 yeras above actual. he also has had treatment for eating disorders (was trying to starve himself and is going back that way- bullemia / anorexia hybrid. he is 11 FFS). He is exceptionally aggressive becuase he has a fundamental lack of understanding of both social norms and cause and effect. I have fresh bruises today and have put into palce a system for people to go to the press if he kills me becuase he might and SSD don't care. he is tiny for his age but will likely hit puberty next eyar like his father. he cannot leave the house without an adult 9bloody ahrd on him as all his friends have vanished now they can play out). Meltdowns damage furniture and people often but are caused by teh basic day to day coping he has to do. He ahs a palce at a specialist autism school in September but he got a palce....... 38 of teh 40 applicants did not. He ahs to have a constant supervisor at school as he was hurting people, poeple who then came after me to my house or got their dh's to wait for me at the gates. people hwo amde my life so hell I coudln;t walk through the school gate without a panic attack for 18 months. I used to volunteer at the school but had to call quits as i'd just get a lline of kids cmplaining about ds1 and it was awful. Now, it's bloody obvious his Sn is life affecting. he will probably get DLA renewed (I anticipate a drop in level simply as there are no services lcoally so I can't prove his needs which is the key). no way he will get PIP though.
Luckily I ahve almsot got an MA in Autism and can help him. I flatter myself that I already ahve hence the school aplce etc. I have found a hobby he loves and is talented at that he can turn into a suitable job godwilling (jewellery design). But managing all this ahs emant handing my own life on a plate to the world of SN. Giving up almost everything and even losing family memebrs happy to spout about kids like miune costing too much and being unaffrodable so needing 'to be rpevented' 9hte hint was eugencis, clarly so. in front of the boys. I did well not to lose it, was my BIL).

I am tired. What I want is security of income (which emans NOT sate!) and a life of some format, but also not to ahve to sacrifice the boy's needs and they eman gighting. A part time job is what I absolutely need (I tried to do a couple of sschool days volunteer shifts a few days for my CV but was asleep by lunchtime ). DH's business taking off is what he absoluely needs; he ahs had his own abttles with severe health issues over the years but has come up fighting. I have o bloody iea what will happen though and in two years we could be homeless and pennililess or quite well off and thriving. it's compeltely up in the air. And I hate that; I hate that lack of control.

yes do not get me started on the Pip that is going to be laughable under that rules i shall be probably entitled to nothing and ds3 not a lot either .

WRT to making own jobs

In the past 5 years I have acquired a degree and I am doing a part time MA slowly, in Autism which also relates to my pre carer field. I actually have a small bsuiness registered but am having to wait for Dh to build me a website as I have absolutely zero skills that way and zero to invest in payinmg someone else.

DH is doing his degree and is a year away: qualifications are legally required in his field. Before redundancy he had his main job but also a small business designed just to cover hobby costs (his field is stage and theatre lighting technology, although he's less a creative and more into the electronics aspect: designing systems, lighting desk repair and design etc. Wants to do an MA that coers design of things like new lighting bulbs, solar technology systems if he can ever afford it). He ahs taken this and is building it; we now make a profit reliably even with investing (as we want to do hire when he graduates you can imagine the desks take a lot of investment- from a few hundred to a few thousand). He states he puts in 16 hours a week but that's a joke; it's easily 40+ on top of studying but becuase some weeks he can't- eg when assignments and exams are on or if ds's have a bad day- he claims the 16 hour elvel which is lower rather than over claim.

Actually honesty has been a lot of our issue: ahd we claimed the CTB we were entitled to, the water rebate we might have some money asdie to help with teh caps. Damn us for trying to minimise our drain on the state eh?

Ph and the otehr thing about businesses- new rules

Anyone not making minimum wage will be deemed as not working and placed on unemployment benefits which in turn will mean doing the whole street cleaning thing.

it's 24 hours per couple, 16 for an individual to qualify under UC too. carers are not exempted so someone partnered with a carer will be penalised for sticking around. We alla ssumed there would be a leeway period for building up a business etc but nope, nothing happened. yet we know that new business will be a saviour for the economy; that businesses take time to make a profit; that it's not just about what you earn, it's also about the kids seeing an ethos of work, seeing people getting up and making their way, growing up accepting that work is part of life.

Is a strange new ruleset for a Tory Government tbh, compeltely anti ethos.

The rules about carers are shite. How people can justify abusing a system which means that people who genuinely need it will lose out - that defies belief.

yes becuase to qulaify for carers you need to be doing 37hrs of care lol now if they was to pay a proper wage for that ( care is normally £10 a hr minimum ) or even the minimum wage I need less benefits .

oh and is classed as a wage as they take that into account when i claim hb/ct or ctc ,yet so by their own rules about people must get minimum wage they are breaking

True goose

But when people focus on the ones who are abusing the system they also cause harm to us. That has been seen time and again on mumsnet.

NT people by definition abuse the system- that's obvius otehrwise it would be genuine. But the comments are used in threads about disability time and again to justify cuts and nastiness against us.

I still love the quote I saw at the bottom of someone's post the other day -

"A rich banker sits at a table with a member of the public and a plate of 12 biscuits. The banker takes 11 of the biscuits and says to the other person, "I'd watch out - that disabled person in the corner is trying to nick your biscuit!"

Easier to focus on us as a way to cut costs than on the people making millions billions out of the system without a single rationale for why they should be 'worth' it?

I love that too Amber, fab isn't it?

Thats right Rob disabled people never work do they?

I mean that lazy Stephen Hawkins chap.....

Now, fuck off judging my child's contribuution level. He's already Head of school council, vice captain of hosue only becuase of investment in his treatment. he will earn, we know how as he has a massive talent.

Twat.

That is the average wage per person though not for a whole family I can't imagine a family of say 2 adults and 2 kids living on that
Most families I know have 2 working parents and still struggle
DH and I have a combined income of c. 40k and we still really struggle sometimes

Absolutely is a family is on that they will get tax credits, whilst UC includes tax credits

Only if you measure contribution soley in monetary value Rob

On the other hand Rob, it wasn't those with disabilities who triggered a world-wide recession by being so spectacularly crap at their jobs that they didn't even understand what they were investing in. Shame we can't say the same about the bankers isn't it?

Oh I don;t know

I expect there's a disabled banker or two

they get everywhere you know

Peachy..I didn't know being a wanker was a disability

Peachy - they don't justify cuts and nastiness to you, of course you know this. But it's the people who take the piss - they take my breath away sometimes, they really do.

Rob, I don't think you know much.

"I think bankers contribute a lot more to Britain than disabled people do."

Whether they work or not, this is judging someone's worth and contribution on the amount of money they have and offer. I think this kind of assessment is rather immature; having lived abroad in a number of countries I can say the wealth of spirit, consideration and generosity which British people offer and enjoy is a heartfelt pleasure to come home to. It may take a slighter wider experience of life to understand this though, which possibly you don't have.