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

DLA, carers, tax credits and child benefit mean many end up far better off than employed care workers anyway usually.

I was a lecturer. As was Dh. Now discuss standards of living and tell us we should be grateful.

Ye, these threads really are an eye opener. It's depressing just how obnoxious and self-absorbed some people are.

The welfare bill is mainly high because of a) pensions and b) housing benefits. It works like this; instead of building hundreds of thousands of new (social) homes, our tax is being used to prop up house prices and rents which all of which goes into the pockets of the already rich (landlords), so basically yours and my tax goes to ensure there is a floor on all rents, housing benefit is basically a subsidy to landlords. If either party decided to divert the £20 billion or so currently paid to landlords via housing benefit into a mass house building programme, the benefits bill would fall, people would have more money in their pocket, there would be less pressure on the NHS (because bad housing conditions causes ill health) and the government would have hundreds of thousands of assets providing a continual income (in the form of social rents). Instead they have decided it is better to screw up the economy and the country by ensuring the rich have it all and everyone else has to live in a state of constant fear. All this so they can be reelected and ironically everyone being screwed over is paying for the very generous pensions and expenses that these cunts get. It couldn't be any more Orwellian.

I am speechless at the attack on carers on this thread.

Dawndonna, Beyond ignore the bullies. You're worth so much more.

:( :(

I am terrified the NHS will be cut. I have a genetic illness. My cousin in the US who is about the same age as me, is almost bed bound as she doesn't get the preventative health care she needs. I manage to work. No insurance company in the land would cover me.

Dawndonna I really hope the unutterable twats on this thread aren't making things even one tiny jot harder for you. I think you're doing an extraordinary and vital job and we should be, as a country, showing our appreciation and respect

Needasilverlining - It is people like that though that vote for cuts, not having a clue how hard they make life for people.

NHS under Labour Wales is in a much worse state than NHS under Coalition England so I'd say you have more to fear if Ed gets in. unilkely, thank God

Yep. Like our beloved PM and his cronies.

In a way it's a good thing such sociopathically selfish people aren't having to be carers. Imagine what it would be like to depend on them.

I don't know how much worse off carers are under this government than they would be under a Labour one. I haven't heard of any cuts to carers allowances except I might have heard the allowance was cut if you had a full time job as well.

Getting back on track circa 1895...

I'm dread the thought of them getting back in. Workhouses next, keep the poor down

NHS care is getting worse. Services are being cut back. If you are a carer, all of these impact you practically. Like the ridiculous ruling that you can only get two free pads a day for an adult who is doubly incontinent. Would you put only 2 nappies a day on your child? And adult nappies are very very expensive to buy.

Armchair, on the matter of deficits: the tories may be claiming they've reduced the deficit but they're paying for it with increased debt. www.economicshelp.org/blog/334/uk-economy/uk-national-debt/

Also worryingly the current account deficit is the largest it has ever been.
www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2014/dec/23/uk-current-account-deficit-osborne-no-plan

The tories have always campaigned on the basis that they're the party for economics. Well they're provably not that any more, if they ever were.

I think the Tories haven done well, things seem to be on the up and we have a better economy than most of Europe. Less taxation is good for everyone - people need to take more responsibility for the situation they find that themselves in - yes I understand circumstances change and people can find themselves disadvantaged for a number of reasons - these are the people who the benefits system should be helping.

It horrifies me to think people can't see what state labour left the country in and that they vote for their policies even though labour don't have any policies as yet nor have they told us how they would pay for any of the changes they want to make. They are also proven liars so why would you believe anything they tell you? Just because they keep saying stuff doesn't make it true...

Ed balls as a chancellor? He couldn't balanace a fish on his nose never mind balance the books!

aside from the fact that balancing a fish on ones nose is probably fairly tricky please don't assume that just because I loathe Tory ideology policy, I would welcome Labour back in. I voted for them then but I wouldn't now - they are toothless, pathetic, embarrassing. They don't deserve the title of Opposition.

DLA, carers, tax credits and child benefit mean many end up far better off than employed care workers anyway usually.

I was a lecturer. As was Dh. Now discuss standards of living and tell us we should be grateful.

If you're in a well-paid job, it's a good idea to carry disability insurance. The state will always pay some multiple of "average" when formulating disability benefits.

No, thanks. I grew out of this sort of thing long ago. Just stop a sec and consider all the research going on in the world, not even scientific, just in the field of social sciences... then consider how much of this research contradicts other research in the same field...are you now saying that it is my obligation to put it all right? :D

I didn't really expect you to given that you don't know any families where there are 3 generations of worklessness

It's one of those nasty little lies that is repeated so that the unemployed can be blamed for unemployment.

I'll vote for whichever party will benefit me and my family (the Tories in this case). It may sound harsh but I really couldn't give a flying fuck about anyone else. People who I care about come first.

Agree with electra. Hence my first post about my (sadly foiled) plan for claiming asylum in indy scotland.

That's the tory sprit, Rich...

Really good and sensible thinking, rich. Because obviously they will never become ill, or disabled, or old, or lose their jobs. Lucky lucky them.

But don't the Tories just flog everything every time they get in? It certainly helps the books look good but we now have very little social housing, a shit train service that costs a bomb, privatised electricity and gas where profits for shareholders is more important than keeping costs down for customers (and let's face it, competition hasn't cut costs), privatised mail service and now stealth flogging off parts of the nhs.

It's like someone taking on a farm running at a loss. They start selling off cows, pigs and tractors and claim the farm is now doing really well. They slash the wages of the farm workers and then sell the farm. The new owner comes in and finds that actually the farms still not making any money and now has less assets but increases the wages of the workers and starts to gradually buy back livestock. . So then they sell it back to the original owner who cuts the wages and starts selling everything again and declares the old owner was useless and goes off to the pub to show off about how well his farm is doing.

Well, you may be morally bankrupt but at least you're honest rich.

Better just hope none of the people that you care about ever get old, or sick, or lose their job, hey?

It horrifies me to think people can't see what state labour left the country in

To be fair, there were mitigating circumstances. Do you remember the global financial crisis, it was in the news a bit ...