To wonder if I am wrong about benefits cap?

[lesley33]

I have been reading a lot about the proposed benefits cap of £26k. Initially my reaction was that this seemed totally fair. But the more I think about it the more I wonder if I am wrong. Why do people genuinely think this is not fair?

Just to say that £26k is the equivalent of a £35k wage. And many people already have to move to cheaper housing when their wages or hours are reduced. According to estimates this will affect 50,000 households.

These rich kid tories are just horrified to see commoners living amongst them.
They don't want social mobility at all.
They want an underclass to look down on. They love people being in poverty.

Also i have first hand experience of how homeless families are treated and how these socially cleansed families may be treated. I blogged about it on the Frothers blog:

toomanycuts.blogspot.com/2011/12/under-six-and-homeless.html

That is all

I am in a secure affordable tenancy now. I am ok, it just pisses me off, it's not fair at all. you can only get 26k if you are A) in an expensive area and then that is mainly HB and ends up in the landlords pocket. or B) have a very large family.

I am getting fed up with the misleading propaganda on this. The main problem is rents. Cap rents or build more social housing.

That is all i have to say. Just my little tuppence.

If rents were capped and there was affordable housing then of course the benefits wouldn't have to be so high.

Fred - get a grip, you seriously think anyone "wants" to see poverty? Why would any government want additional drains on its resources and ambitions?

who are you refering to as an additional drain on resources?

shall we go back to the old days were severly disabled children were just put in homes?

Was that cheaper for the government?

Why are they causing people already on the poverty line to be poorer?

Thanks for the posts - it is clear that the cap will cause real hardship to some households.

if they keep making unpaid carers worse and worse off, increasing the stress that's already there, then no doubt more disabled children will become completely reliant on the local authority.
I wonder if you have any guess as to how much a foster or home placement for a child who needs 24 hour care is??
a bit more than 55pound a week carers allowance I assure you.

Money worries are enough to make any parent crack up, let alone one whose already under intense stress

But a lot of households who dont claim benefits are suffering real hardship at the moment.

himynameisfred parents caring for severely disabled children wont be affected by the changes to income support so the old days dont come into it.

I didn't write this one, I have just noticed it on the frothers blog. It gives a good description of which households have been exempted. You may be suprised at who HAS NOT been protected.

toomanycuts.blogspot.com/2012/01/do-we-give-26000-year-to-undeserving.html

I'm talking about the reduced housing benefit (that's already happened)

I'm glad to hear there wont be any cuts to income support (it's only £30 a week for me anyway) but I get warned all the time that we'll be worse and worse off and I worry obviously.
Need to look into it

Why have you started yet another thread about this? You could just as well have had this debate on the other one.

I started this thread because I was totally fed up with the frankly poor quality of debate on the original thread. I had started off thinking the cap was fair, but began to question it because of a few posts. But I wanted people's views who thought it wasn't fair - to check out if I should change my opinion. And frankly the quality of debate on the other thread wasn't going to change anyone's opinion.

All it does, though, is start up the same old same old, but on another thread!

Does anyone need shooting here?

No hullgully - this is actually a pretty left wing thread. You would approve

well all right then

There is a lovely thread for the bashers if needed.

If you'd bothered to read the thread through BIWI, you would find that is hasnt descended into same old. And if it pisses you off so much, why bother reading the thread at all?

Because there are so many of them! And no need for yet more, surely?