To think every SAHM, low hour PT worker and carer should read this?

[Peachy]

Well i am not but it matters to you so you must

here

Changes to system WRT worker hours

have a thread in chat and don;t want a debate, or at least won't participate iun one as petrified as we will now certianly lose our home and not up to taking flak. But if it affects you, you need to know.

who is funding this?

And you honestly think this money will prevent them from going down anyway? Hahaahahahaahaaaaaa. That is truly the funniest thing I have read all day besides the other part that you think aid monies actually get to the people.

PMSL!

realtillyminto

To use me as an example people like me have a good education, I have been able to pay for some private healthcare, I have a supportive family around me, relatively good health ( not at this exact point but generally) and a good middle income. If you take money away from me or make things slightly more expensive I may grumble but I will cope.

I agree that often successful people have overcome difficulties in their lives , it shows a certain toughness. It is a quality that I have had for much of my life although there have been times when I have not coped and that does not mean I am less of a person or should have been left on the scrap heap.

Presently I am quite unwell, not awfully so, but enough for us to start being concerned. Because I have a supportive partner he has put me onto bed rest for the weekend so I can be ready for a week at work . Because we have a decent level of income we have paid someone to come in and clean for a few weeks as I am not up to it and dp is caring for me. I also have my mother standing by who is considering moving in to help for a few weeks if I do not get better, she can only do that because of her fortunate circumstances. Because I earn a decent wage my dp is able to work part time, again so he can care for me and run the house and look after dd. Our lives are not chaotic, we are not trying to rob Peter to pay Paul, not moving from one form of temporary accommodation to another and not fleeing violence. So yes at the moment I am not well and I am able to make choices about how to respond to that situation. However if I didn't have a supportive partner and family, a decent income , somewhere safe and pleasant to live, a decent education ( including a degree paid for by the state) those choices would not be open to me.

There was a time in my life when I did not have those advantages and the state stepped in. I had very few choices in terms of how i responded to situation. I will be grateful forever more for that help and I would be willing to sacrifice some of my current lifestyle to enable others to have the same.

Sevenfold we are - but we need to upgrade our infrastructure, otherwise the country will get poorer.

eminencegrise right coz Oxfam and all the other charties dont do any good? glad you found it funny.

twinklytroll DP & i can afford to pay more. the problem is it is not you or me making the decision, its all of us & most people dont agree. i dont think most working people think they can afford to pay more taxes.

there is no magic pot of money from 'rich people'. successive govts have overspent, given us a belief we can afford things we cannot.

now we need to pay the money back. and there is no getting away from it.

'eminencegrise right coz Oxfam and all the other charties dont do any good? glad you found it funny.'

Oxfam is not a government. It's well known that much aid from governments and even the WFB ends up in the wrong hands/lining the pockets of guerillas or worse, just as about any European can tell you what will likely be the end result of bailing out Greece and Italy.

therealtillyminto yes you are right that many people think they cannot afford to pay more tax and would be unwilling to do so. I was just giving my opinion. We are far from being rich , we don't own our own home, our car is old, our holidays are in a tent and we don't buy much. However I recognise that we are more fortunate than most.

omg, Huntycat this is genius .

"Maybe at some point all the moaning poor will die off without state help, and then the rich will have to do those LOW PAID JOBS...Because there is no-one left alive to do them. So you will have to take your own rubbish down the tip, clear up your doubly incontinent relative because there are no more care home workers, and sweep the street yourself..."

That's exactly where sll this is leading. And I can'T decide whether it's funny or not.

In Belgium, tax rates are much higher and everyone didn't leave the country!

Taxable Income (EUR) / Tax Rate %

EUR 0 - 7,900 25%
EUR 7,900 - 11,240 30%
EUR 11,240 - 18,730 40%
EUR 18,730 - 34,330 45%
Above EUR 34,330 50%

Zero-bracket Amount: EUR 6,430 for each taxpayer

Additional tax-free allowance for dependant children:

• 1 child: EUR 1,370
• 2 children: EUR 3,520
• 3 children: EUR 7,880

Municipal taxes must be added to the tax rates above. Plus Social Security payments. There is no council tax as such. Where I live bin bags cost 40 euros for 20.

Nor are the wealthy flocking to Belgium to spend their filthy lucre.

We need a recovery led by production and spending, taxing people more doesn't in any way encourage them to spend more.

[http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/thank-you-timothy-geithner/ this]] is what austerity means for disabled people.[

And Belgium doesn't have a fat, monstrous benefits system creaking at the seams.
People don't mind paying more tax when they feel it is fair and just. They do object being clobbered for tax when they think others are freeloading.

try again

you got any firgures for 'freeloading' lookat? As the Govt own figures show, for DLA its 0.5%.

portofino shocking Belgian tax rates, but I guess you get used to that. I think that fiscal unity is the only way for europe. It's absurd that different eu countries have different levels of income tax.

That stupid 0.5 % figure is ridiculous, based on what is it 0.5%? The people they've caught and are no longer in the system, the people they actually manage to prosecute and recoup the money or the people they suspect?

How about the people who work the stat minimum hours, claim what they can and do cleaning cash in hand?

RealHousewife That is precisely why the Euro is bust! Because countries have very different needs and need to set their own interest rates not be part of some vast zone where requirements are established in country and rolled out to every member state.

Kalskirata - I like this bit:

The three main political parties who typically make up our governments have proved beyond any doubt not just that they are one and the same in all but name, but that they are not our representatives in the world but rather the powerful bankers? here at home.

Big business runs our country. It lets governments feel as though they run it, but they could never have got away with all this if they hadn't known they WOULD get away with it.

...and the penny drops.

But short term unemployment benefit, child benefit and payments to the disabled are higher in Belgium from what I can see. A quick play on the website says that, taking a scenario where you are a lone parent, unable to work yourself due to illness, with 3 children, 2 of which have a low level disability - you would be entitled to more than 1100 euros per month in Child Benefit ALONE.
Unemployment benefit however is definitely based on what you previously put into the system though. The longer you have worked, the more you earned, the more you get back.

Nah! Still too many here assuming that you can tar everyone with the same brush. It's pretty nasty and shows no compassion at all. Then again these same people would argue that compassion is expensive and not affordable any longer.

I think if anything this thread has shown me that there are too many out there who would simply leave people to rot and they would do so without a second thought while comforting themselves with "tif they starve then bought it all on themselves" regardless of whether that's fact or not.

Hiding this thread now but some of you are breathtakingly hideous in your smug and selfish attitudes.

thats DLA fraud Alouisee.

That stupid person, it's the figures for Disability Living Allowance. It's an estimate, as provided by the government. It covers both fraud and government error. Use google.

As I said the other day, this was supposed to be a thread to help people.
It's already been pointed out that only one person has stated that for various reasons they don't want to work.
But one or two (I'm looking at you Alou and Lookat) have wanted to continue to push their point of view. To be honest, I don't know why the rest of us are bothering, it's like talking to a child with their fingers in their ears. Give up, no matter what you do or say, these people will continue with their own point of view, without really listening to what others have to say, they are not open to either persuasion or logic, as long as they think they are right, that's it. We're all of us lazy, feckless, benefit scrounging scum, without the right to families, credit cards and help of any description. It's our own fault because life threw things at us and we weren't strong enough to deal with it, or our partners weren't.

That works both ways though Dawndonna, those who want benefits to remain will justify them just the same that those that want them stopping/reducing will.

Yes we should have a short term safety net to catch those made redundant or find themselves in a different situtation but many see it now as their right and abuse the system. Benefits should be there for the bare essentials, not to pay for lifestyle choices such as having children you cannot support or to allow others to work very little.

Dawndonna good post