to be fed up of George sodding Osbourne and his Knobbish Ideas

[avivabeaver]

The economy is proving harder to fix than he first thought

Solution- suggest cutting £10bn from the benefits budget and "limit the number of children people can claim for". So- are you supposed to choose your 2 favourite and just feed them then? Or what?

Grovel.

Where do I fit in then. I'm not a responsibility girl, but I'm cooking from scratch and my dd has done 1 hour violin practice.
Can I keep my dd and her violin?

Just for everyones interest there is a thread in NEWS.
How 1 million WORKING people will be affected by cuts.

Monkey.

My link didn't work but if you look at the thread I mention above its on there. Don't mean to alarm, but suggest you read this. I think you may be ok for a while if you have no changes in circumstance as you will stay in the old system until you have to ammend anything.

I just feel like we have been shafted by helping ourselves. We set up a business and struggle on small wage yet could have quite easily sat on our bums and claimed. Yet people still judge because we need tax credit top ups

thanks morethan

"35 hours per week of job searching".

Wonder how that's going to play out in some parts of the country? Will Boris be lending out his bikes?

morethanpotatoprints

Dunno.

Is there a saintly category?

Grovel.

I have too many vices for saintly. Liking your soh though

I am really confused with the new universal credit that is coming out. Does anyone know how it would affect a full time student (single mum)

Monkey.

I know exactly how you feel. Your damned if you don't and damned if you do.

I hope its not to bad for your circumstances. We would be ok if ds2 wasn't leaving education next year. We are first to get the new uc, will have a change of circumstance, due to this and be straight on the new system.

I have mostly been a sahm as was important to me/us. We really struggled before tax credit (we have older dcs)and would hate to go back to those days again, but I guess if it has to be.

I never felt entitled to anything but when you receive a letter telling you that because you earn a low income you will get tax credits, you'd be stupid to refuse. I guess you just get used to it.

usual Are you referring to my post or someone elses? I was just pointing out that education where I live hasn't been fantastic in years gone by, although it seems to be improving. People round here seem to follow in their parents footsteps and if all you see is deprivation and relying on benefits it becomes the norm.

You are quite right tho, no jobs regardless of qualifications.

Violins and TVs!! you lot are the scourge of Hard Working Britain.

Which is about to be scourged big time by universal credit.

Re student income I am not sure Panda. What I do know is that it introduces in-work conditionality.

What this means is that people in work who are deemed not to be earning enough will be expected to (get this... you may laugh or be sick) find more hours work, another job or increase their rate of pay or face the same shit the 'feckless' unemployed have to put up with. Eg compulsory evidenced jobsearching all to be done online. Compulsory jobcentre visits with the threat of sanctions etc. Workfare for the remaining portion of your week.

And this won't apply to those who earn 'enough' per hour eg over minimum wage.

It's Kafkaesque. First ensure there are no jobs, particularly full time ones. Then make sure that those least likely to be able to get further work or a full time job as they lack skills etc are harassed into oblivion.

Panda.

I'm not sure but tbh I think you're as doomed as us all. Unless you work 5 hours your knackered. Anything between 6 and 16 equally knackered.
If you are working 35 hours a week with the min wage (every week) you are ok.

morethanpotatoprints, I've got a feeling that you've got DCs to be proud of and that your tax credits have been well-spent.

you can see why I think riots may be coming now can't you?

Imagine being a young person whose only chance of a job is 24 hours per week in Poundland (under 24 hours employers don't have to pay employers NI, that's why they prefer to employ 2 part timers rather than 1 full timer quite often).

You struggle and strive for your job only to be told that as you are under the income threshold for universal credit you must use the remaining 11 hours of your working week proving that you are looking for extra work or the government may send you back to Poundland to work those hours for free.

That's assuming you get any sort of work anyway given that Poundland may at that point be entirely staffed by workfarers terrified of losing their meagre benefits.

Good god, really? How the fu** can I work 35 hours and do a full time college course and find and pay for childcare to cover the night shifts I am obviously going to have to do to enable me to meet the above requirements???

FOR FU**S SAKE!

I have gone to cook dinner - thanks for the chat!

I had better get playing the lottery! (rushes off to spend weeks benefits on said lottery tickets!)

Affordable housing is the key. I have been on a waiting list for 4 years since my partner passed away, we rented, which was fine as he had a good wage, now I have to rely on housing benefit to top up. I work but do not earn enough to pay the full rent which is £600 for 3 bed, which is the cheapest in the area, I have 3 kids, one is 19 and works on a farm, earns 150 pw and housing benefit is reduced accordingly, DD doing A levels, youngest DS 14, Let me have a council house, I can afford the rent no benefit needed. it's not rocket science.

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/mar/13/universal-credit-single-parents-worse-off

Single parents WORKING longer hours on low wages will be WORSE OFF under universal credit. By about £68 per week!!

What the fuck do the responsibility brigade make of that?!!

The tories will push single mums into poverty if they are on benefits AND if they work. Basically ALL poor single mums are being fucked over however many kids they have, however hard they work, and even if they were married and only had two kids at one point in their lives and didn't choose to be single mums. Fucked, fucked,fucked and fucked some more.

FROM THE ARTICLE:The government's welfare reforms and the introduction of the universal credit will make up to 150,000 of the country's poorest single parents up to £68 a week worse off, potentially pushing 250,000 children further into poverty, new research warns.

The aim of the universal credit is to ensure that work always pays more than benefits, but research by Save the Children suggests that for some single parents in work, the changes could have the opposite effect.

Single parents working longer hours on low pay, who are already below the poverty line, are at risk of being pushed deeper into poverty, the research suggests. A single parent with two children, working full-time on or around the minimum wage, could be as much as £2,500 a year worse off under the new system, it says.

How is it even possible to spend 35 hours every week looking for jobs online?? There surely aren't that many jobs about?! And not all job hunting goes on online - what if people spend a couple of hours walking around a town handing in CVs? Does that not count because it's not online?

Call me sexist but most lone parents are Mums. And the tories have a thing about poor mothers. They will do anything to punish them.

Stephrick housing makes far too much money for the rich to ever be allowed to become 'affordable'.

so no more affordable housing, only penthouses