To worry about the Tory plans after this budget

[bobbywash]

and I accept the election may derail all of this but.....

The chancellor has said an additional 30bn worth of cuts needs to be made in the next parliament for their figures to work.

Now bearing in mind the ring fenced NHS budget and the (wavering) commitment to the education budget and pensions. Where the heck are an additional 30bn of cuts going to come from.

Is there anything left to cut

I really really hope the tories don't win. If they do, essential services will be cut to the bone and everyone but the very richest well suffer. The most disadvantaged will be hurt the most, with many lives ruined and public sector workers doing impossible jobs wit two few resources.

*too

Welfare probably. More disabled people will get an atos miracle and find that they will have essential money cut.

They will cut children's services, respite services and anything for vulnerable people who will struggle to fight back.

Yes, they'll continue to put the boot into poorest people, disabled people etc to claw back whatever they can whilst protecting their own money and that of huge businesses. It's the Conservatives. It's what they do.

I really do hope they get in, they've made great strides in the current term after the mess Labour left them with. It'll be great to se what they can do in a second term.

I've just seen Ed Balls doing a post-Budget interview.

He refused to comment on Labour's plans, what scale of cuts and where.

So don't restrict worries to the Tories. Labour's silence is a concern too.

I can't think what else there is to cut unless they go for pensions and other older age related benefits. Everything else has been cut back as far as it will go.

Oh I don't trust Labour at all, I wouldn't trust Ed and Ed as far as I could throw them, they would sell this country down the river as quickly as you can say "you're in power" If they were any good they would be romping away in the poles, the fact that they are not says a lot about how useless and ineffective they are.

However I just don't see where the additional 30bn will come from. This is nothing short of monstrous. I can only see it coming from Local Authority budgets and welfare, unless Defence goes completely.

Ahh well at least they did tell us "you ain't seen nothing yet" in terms of cuts

poles = polls damn my fat fingers

I also hope Tories get in & continue to cut the welfare bill. I'm also concerned that NHS is ring fenced, it's time to start adjusting people's expectations of healthcare for all - we can't afford this level of spend.

I'm against Defense spending falling below 2% of GDP and against ring fencing of pensions, at some point this demographic group has to have benefits such as bus passes, winter fuel allowance etc cut.

and I used to vote labour

Child benefit will go IMO.
Pregnancy benefits will go.
Free school meals will go
Free childcare will go too.

The welfare state will cease to exist.
They want a return to the 1930s with the poor knowing their place and the elite being above the law.

Baddz, I hope you're wrong but fear you're right.

If they get in again I am going go seriously talk to Dh about getting a job abroad :(

Is there anything left to cut
There is. In certain areas of the country there are large estates of council houses with people who not only never had a job but their parents and grandparents never (!) had them either. Able-bodied and able-minded people who won't apply for a job in McDo because you'd have to get up every morning for that; and who have no education, not because it was not provided to them but because by age 13 they decided they would live on benefits all their life. (I worked with these children, so please don't say "this is a myth, never happens"; and I lived near these areas, so please don't say that the existence of these estates is a myth - I used to go on family visits to these places.) Yes, there is still something left to cut. Benefits where people are physically-mentally able to work, they just don't want to.

I really do hope they get in, they've made great strides in the current term after the mess Labour left them with. It'll be great to se what they can do in a second term.

Bless you. Do come and see what the cuts have done to the three disabled people living in my house. Perhaps you'd like to work my 18 hour day for a few days, the government will pay you 48 pence an hour for it and there are no lunchbreaks, respite care or holidays but I dare say you'll manage.

I'm genuinely scared of what they will hit next .

Here we go. 'I know one so there must be loads'.

Anecdotes do not add up to data.

While a small percentage of people DO abuse the system, it is a drop in the ocean. And while I'm not going to argue with someone about their personal experience, studies have actually found it very hard indeed to find meaningful numbers of these much-paraded/much-derided 'three generations who couldn't be arsed to work' chimeras.

And anyway, does it occur to people that even if/though such attitudes exist, it's not just a case of condemning people as lazy and feckless but of thinking about why they behave like that? You know, seeing it as a social problem rather than pointing the finger and judging and condemning?

I have been waiting over a year for an operation for my mobility.
(hospital shenanigans took me off the waiting list and my letters of complaint remain unanswered).
Then a 2nd Op will need to be done.
The drugs I am on to enable me to walk at all whilst I wait make me so tired I can barely function.
I have a letter from my Consultant saying I cannot work at all.
During that time my contributions based sickness benefit stopped as my H earns over (roughly) £16.5K so my household income is 'too high'.

Our family is on its knees.

I hope the Tories don't take away the child benefit - I use it for food for my children

disabled people will obviously be deemed cured and die or live in poverty.

They said about half from welfare, half from government departments and a relatively small amount from stopping tax evasion. Although they didn't dwell on it obviously - they gave more detail on the tripled church repair fund FFS.

Perhaps you'd like to work my 18 hour day for a few days, the government will pay you 48 pence an hour for it and there are no lunchbreaks, respite care or holidays but I dare say you'll manage.
If this is a job, £00.48 is below the minimum wage. Report it, it's illegal.
If you mean you are the ft carer for someone, you are probably not accessing all help available to you. Would be worth checking (e.g. CAB).

I thought it was a good budget.

I know a family like that too.
That doesn't mean ALL benefit claimants are like that!
Is that really his you think?
I know one so all claimants are work shy!?
Ffs.

I am terrified. I was relying on claiming asylum in independant scotland!!