This makes me feel sick with dread.
I fled DV. I have two small children. I have a plan to study full time with the OU when my youngest is old enough to qualify for the 15 hours free childcare, but until then I'm relying on benefits. I buy all my food including meat at the local market and pick up bags of pasta, rice etc from whichever shop has them cheapest. I've gone from spending £70 a week in tescos to spending £38 for a full shop including nappies, wipes, gallons of milk and lots of lovely fresh produce. This frees up my budget so that I can afford heating over the winter (I'm asthmatic and really can't cope with damp cold unheated houses in winter), I have money in the bank for when white goods breath their last or my daughter suddenly outgrows everything and goes up two shoe sizes etc.
I would be fucked. I'd have to go back to shopping in big supermarkets, not having enough money for everyone to have new shoes at the same time regardless of whether they were falling apart, going back to doing 5 mile walks into town with a 1 and 3yo to reduce the amount spent on public transport etc.
I remember being sat upstairs sobbing when I was still with my ex because I didn't know how I'd cope if I left. But when I went into refuge and the support worker talked me through everything I was entitled to, this fantastic safety net, I was so relieved because I knew we would be alright. Now that safety net is, thread by thread, being pulled apart. I can feel it unravelling and it's terrifying. DS is coming up to 18mo, so I've got a year until he can start nursery and I can start studying. My money will come from student finance then and only a few small top ups rather than all my income being state benefits. So I should just about be ok. But what about all the other thousands of women needing that safety net after me?
I think half the issue is detachment. The people frothed up about "scroungers" have never set foot in a women's refuge and listened to the residents stories, I'd bet my best hat on it. They've not stopped and spoken to these "women who have babies just to get free money". These "people claiming a dodgy hip means they can't work". They read the daily mail and decide to treat vast swathes of the population as lesser human beings, to be shamed and humiliated into desperately clawing for work, to be punished for their circumstances.
It's vile. And utterly utterly terrifying. And as someone who studied the rise of the Third Reich in great depth, I can see alarming parallels, especially with regards to propoganda and media. It wouldn't be a great leap at all from where we are now, to workhouses, camps and the such. People can't see it, don't want to see it, and will call me hysterical. But in five years, maybe ten, if this continues juggernauting along this road, people will be looking back and saying "we had no idea at the time what would happen just a few years later, but looking back now I can see the signs".
No one will act though. Words on a screen, on a thread on a forum, on the vast internet. The general public need to unite and protest and fight this, but not enough of us will speak out.