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Original poster

...to think that some of you'd like to see Iain Duncan-Smith live on £53 per week for a year

301 replies

SDeuchars · 01/04/2013 20:30

If there are still spaces on the petition, please sign it.

OP posts:
Latara · 02/04/2013 14:02

Laska42 has your son tried care work? It is poorly paid at first but not so bad once you have experience & NVQs.
It's rewarding & sociable, would look good on a CV for most jobs as it shows you are good at working with people.

Lots of Care Agencies and Nursing or Residential Homes are looking for staff & many now give NVQ training too - it's not for some people because it involves personal care but it's worth a try?

Lastofthepodpeople · 02/04/2013 14:04

Wow, they're up to 213000 signatures in two days and I agree that a week isn't enough.
Doubt he'd do it though, not if even if it got a million. I think the govt is quite aware £53 isn't enough to live on, they just don't care.

LittleMissSnowShine · 02/04/2013 14:06

I've signed too, tho I do think it's a stupid gimmick in a way, I would love to see it debated in parliament lol

What IDS needs to come to terms with is that it's not just people on benefits trying to live on a pittance, it is also working families who don't qualify for tax credits (because their combined income is more than £26k) but who do have to pay out on childcare and the other associated costs of going to work and find themselves really very short on money to live on. In this recent cold weather I have been heating just one room in my house on days I'm at home with DS just with a heater, the two of us wearing extra jumpers and playing under blankets. IDS and the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition want to act like we're all in this together?! I'd love to see Sam Cam trying to stay warm and serving up beans and baked potatoes for dinner every night. This is the reality of life for families in modern Britain, and that's with the parents being together and both have degrees. When I think of being a single parent trying to juggle work and childcare or not have qualifications so not being able to get a job I really do despair for us all.

Bridgetbidet · 02/04/2013 14:09

If he did it he would be put in a flat that was perfect one person, with the most fuel efficient heating, good access to local facilities for internet etc, links to public transport, new and fully functioning white goods which don't break down, and access to shopping.

Not like in real life where you live in a house which is inconveniently big and hard to heat, miles from the library where you need to go for the net, only convenient for expensive shops like Costcutter, you have old shitty stuff which breaks down constantly and already have a pile of debt and bills which need to be paid.

I would LOVE to see him pay council tax on £53 pound a week. I really struggle with that bill on much more.

PeneloPeePitstop · 02/04/2013 14:11

Signed it yesterday.
It'd have to be for a year, with no recourse to his wife's family money or other support.

In a damp flat that has one room too many so he has to pay 14% of his rent out of that £53 (which is what they wanted me to do out of my £58 Carers allowance). Plus the council tax contribution. Oh, and have key meters for fas and electric.

Plus make the white goods rickety so they'll fail and need replacement, too.

Oh, and make sure he gets sanctioned for not signing on because he's expected at his workfare placement (which he'd get sanctioned for being late for that to sign on so he can't win either way).

Plus stuff up a couple of payments necessitating numerous calls from his payg mobile to get reinstated... But his credit runs out and there's nothing in the bank...

Dinkysmummy · 02/04/2013 14:20

What I would really like to see is any government official try to live in the circumstance I find myself in. I have a 5yo undergoing assessment for SN, we have just been housed after i lost my job in the recession and threfore being made homeless from private rental accomodation, we have no carpet, curtains, cooker, washing machine, fridge, beds, sofa , wardrobes, chest of drawers ect.
I am on JSA and get child tax credits. I applied for community care grant (which now no longer exists) and was told all I need is a cooker, a bed each, a chest of draws between the pair of us, and a sofa.
A fridge/freezer, washing machine, carpets, curtains ect were considered not to be a reasonable need!
So I have to find the money out of my JSA/tax credits to buy these nessessary items. But having to fork out for laundrette doesn't help either. I can't hang her unformed, not even off the curtain rails, because I don't have any!
I'm searching for a job but can't find one to fit in with school and my dd's appointments and school meetings re her SN.

Could they do it without trying to fill in an expenses form? No. I'm doing my best but with the government forcing so many into work there are too many applicants for the small number of jobs. This is only made worse when the area has seen a major influx in new migrant workers.

I fear I will have to pay for the items I sorely need by credit card and spend the next however many years paying it off!

I never intended to be dependant on the state. This is the result of the reccession... Maybe instead of saying we are in it together from their comfortable homes and lives they should have to have the worries most people have. Take away their expenses, reduce their salaries and make them experience the way those they make decisions for live!

limitedperiodonly · 02/04/2013 14:21

I felt sorry for those poor sods at Morrison's Kent depot today dragooned into listening to Gideon's speech about the glorious welfare reforms.

Is Morrison's on the Workfare list by any chance?

MoreBeta · 02/04/2013 14:23

News just out in the FT behind paywall but here is headline plus first para:

"UK considers cut in minimum wage

Ministers are considering freezing or even cutting the minimum wage, despite embarking on the largest contraction to date in the welfare state with the aim of making ?work pay?."

This is insane and typical of the cack handed way this Coalition is implementing benefit and tax reform.

Cutting NMW will result in Govt paying out more tax credits and removing the incentive to work for many.

Madness. I voted for the Conservative party at the last election and support welfare reform - then they go and remove the incentive and reward for work and hand big business an even bigger subsidy.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

MoreBeta · 02/04/2013 14:26

By the way Jo Swinson LibDem minister is supporting this so it is a Coalition idea.

PeneloPeePitstop · 02/04/2013 14:27

They really have lost it, haven't they?

It's already been pointed out that the minimum wage isn't a living wage.

Latara · 02/04/2013 14:33

Cutting the MInimum Wage. WTF?!!

PS. DinkysMummy i would definitely like to see IDS in your situation, & George Osbourne & the Camerons too, i hope things improve for you soon.

TapselteerieO · 02/04/2013 14:33

I have signed.

If we are all in it together the lot of them should be doing this, anyone who agrees with this should be living the dream on £53 a week, they are all paid by the tax payer, funny they are not voting to cut their own benefits!

HesterShaw · 02/04/2013 14:34

If there was an election tomorrow what does everyone think the result would be?

HesterShaw · 02/04/2013 14:34

Sorry, that was a blatant hijack and should be on another thread.

PeneloPeePitstop · 02/04/2013 14:36

Oh and if it's possible to live on£53 a week perhaps they shouldn't be getting £400 a month food allowance, housing allowance, subsidised bars and restaurants all on top of their MP salary! We'd save millions a month if they all cut that lot to £53

PeneloPeePitstop · 02/04/2013 14:37

Hester - UKIP or BNP scarily.

JustinBsMum · 02/04/2013 14:42

If you are determined enough to win an elected seat in Parliament you will be determined enough to live on 53 quid a week.

I could live on 53 quid a week (not happily but i could live on it) so am sure IdS can.

WhatKindofFool · 02/04/2013 14:47

I'd like him to have to find the money for his mortgage (no Housing Benefit for mortgage payers) from the £54 a week.
Letara - I agree.

Dutchoma · 02/04/2013 15:09

I'm just wondering what he would have to pay out of that £53 a week? A room in a house costs more than that. Toilet paper, washing up liquid, washing powder even if the utility bills were included in the rent. Not to mention food. I could live on £53 a week if it was just for food and for not very long, but for everything?

ModernToss · 02/04/2013 15:26

In a speech in 2011 IDS complained about an entrenched sense of entitlement in UK society. Even though he lives in a house on the Buckinghamshire estate of his father-in-law, the 5th Baron Cottesloe.

This is why they can get to fuck with their 'all in this together', and why I signed this petition yesterday.

WorraLiberty · 02/04/2013 15:29

Just a word of warning about Change.org

I signed a petition on here a few months ago and every since, I've been spammed to kingdom come by Change.fucking org.

I've also had this petition 'kindly' sent to me by them.

Bitofagirl · 02/04/2013 15:38

The caller in question said once he had paid his rent and bills he was left with £53 a week. That is what IDS responded to.

We were with friends over the weekend and discussed this whole story, and this week are totting up how much we spend after mortgage and bills, as we honestly have no idea.

Laska42 · 02/04/2013 15:41

worraliberty and all You can unsubscribe to Change.org mailings .. the link is on their emails ..

WorraLiberty · 02/04/2013 15:43

Really? Thanks Laska I didn't realise that.

They must have been sneaky though cos I didn't sign up to receive them in the first place. Must have been an auto ticked box I didn't spot Blush

Laska42 · 02/04/2013 15:50

I didn't think I had either .. , so yes sneaky