To want IDS to crawl back into the primordial slime from whence he came!

[Dawndonnaagain]

Latest leaks on welfare cuts, may just be ideas being posited but still fucking nasty.

think the figures clearly demonstrate the fact many pensioners in the Uk today are wealthy, have not had to undergo any of the cuts unlike the rest of society

Means testing for pensioners is subject to the same criteria as means tested benefits for working age people and don't forget that a working age partner of a pensioner will also have any benefits cut/refused due to their household income. I myself having worked and paid in for 45 years will NEVER be entitled to means tested jsa if I lost my job because DH has a larger than average state pension and the reason his pension is higher is because he paid in for 45 year himself including enhanced NI in the 90s, HE paid in more, HE gets more and what's the problem with that?

Pensions are also being 'capped' for people like me due to retire in a few years time, I will have to work and pay in until 2021 before I get my pension BUT when I do my pension will only be calculated on the contributions I will have made up to April 2016 meaning I will pay in for 5 years and not get a penny extra on my pension.

You do of course realise that pensioners cashing in on their pension pots will not only have a pay a large chunk in tax but if they spend the lot will have to show what they spend it on if they try and claim means tested benefits in the future and if they cant they risk having benefits refused - just like working age people with savings .

Housing benefit isn't paid to landlords, it's paid to people who can't afford their rent themselves. Most landlords don't accept tenants who claim benefits as they are higher risk.

Which means, Ptolemy the money still goes to the landlords if they tenant is paying rent. If the tenant can't afford the rent, there may be a number of reasons for that, it may not be that they've deliberately rented a property they can't afford.

I realise there may be a number of reasons why someone can't afford their rent without help, none of them are a good reason to have a dig at pensioners or people who have a rental property.

Landlords are not doing something wrong by accepting the rent they are due.

This is incredibly powerful.

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lF1JiUx437M

A lot of HB gets paid back to councils and housing associations after it's been given to the tenant.

However much you disagree with his policies (and I do too!), personal attacks are never the right solution. Although his politics are questionable, he genuinely acts from what he truly believes are the right reasons - he's a very moral person, just wrong in his beliefs as to what will make the country better for all.

Here's an idea... Instead of CUTS for the poor, why not TAX the rich?

Seriously, is any party addressing the issue of distribution of wealth?

He's a Victorian moralist; he belongs in a top hat and tails, pontificating about the idle poor.

"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prisons..."
"And the Union workhouses." demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir..."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

We do tax the rich. Anyone who has anything is taxed more than enough, especially as the HRT threshold is so low.

They are Tories, the party of the rich elite. I expect no less.

It's when labour pretend to be different but just implement the same policies, that gets me.

Agree with jackieharris.

We seem to have got to a situation where the Tories have their usual shitting-on-the-poor policies, yet Labour can only make it as far as shitting-on-the-poor-but-being-politer-about-it. Oh, the choice!

"We" don't tax the rich Needle. Not the elite rich with off shore banks. Or the global corps.

And who are the "we"? Genuine question! Are you the tax man?!

Ps, I'm in the paying most bracket and live comfortably. And I would vote for the party saying tax me more. They'd still do better taxing those elite 1% first though!

When questioned this evening, Osbourne refused to definitively rule out cuts to disability benefits.
obfuscation rules the day

YABVU, this document was drawn up by civil servants whose job it is to come up with lists of obviously undoable policy options, so that their ministers end up doing what the civil servants really wanted them to do all along. Have you never seen Yes Minister?

Has Ed Balls ruled out any cuts

The Labour party has signed up to £15 billion of cuts

Rephase that, £30 billion reduction in borrowing, which they have previously said would be 50/50 tax rises and benefits cuts. Today the conservatives called them on the tax rises, which they have said is incorrect, so more than £15 billion of cuts.

Hello Dawn I think we've met before! I haven't read the entire thread because I get incensed by right wingers......Stacklady - you seriously believe IDS is a moral person - dear god. All the posh boys in the cabinet are immoral as far as I'm concerned but IDS has to be the worst. Do you realise that he has spent around 40millionpounds of taxpayer's money on failed IT systems for his Universal Credit............that IS a fact. UC is failing abysmally. The IT systems still don't work - they are constantly stalling/closing down, which means that people don't get their benefits, which incidentally have to be accessed on-line with UC.....a big problem for many people.

Oh sorry I can't go on or I will rant all night. This coalition makes Margaret Thatcher look vaguely reasonable and I never thought such words would come into my mind! They are intent on shrinking the welfare state to the size it was in the 1930s - we've seen nothing yet. And they won't rest until they've privatised all public services and sold off the entire NHS to American multinationals.

The DWP give Job Centre staff targets to sanction people for some made up or trivial reason, and this can mean no money for 4 weeks, 3 months or even 3 years. People who are sanctioned are just told to go to a food bank. How would porky IDS and his ilk manage on £76.00 per week.

Do some of you Tories realise that the vast majority of benefits are claimed by people in work ........because they are so poorly paid, they can't afford to keep a roof over their head, zero hours contracts, or refusal to give employees more than 26 hours work a week (to avoid paying the employer element of Nat Ins.) I must stop - it's late and my blood pressure will be raised.

Sadly I have to agree with your Boulevard - I have very little faith in EM and he has openly stated that he will follow the austerity programme and Rachel Reeves says "Labour is not the party of people on benefits" - all EM has openly declared as far as I know is that he will axe the bedroom tax.

SO what to do in May. I'd like to vote Green but it will be a wasted vote, and I would love to get our Tory MP out so of course will vote Labour - couldn't bring myself to do anything else really.

waves at Nana

Carol, your knee jerk reaction to this is what Labour may or may not be doing? Surely anyone cutting disability benefits is wrong?
Osbourne would not deny the possibility last night. The lives of real people are what we're discussing here.

The poor have borne the brunt

We are all equally entitled to our opinions without being subject to abuse. I support welfare cuts for able bodied people. I support the Welfare state as safety net for those who cannot work, not for those who will not.

I do not support taxing working people any higher but I do support closing tax loopholes and going after tax avoiders.

Unfortunately, unless we raise taxes and increase borrowing cuts will have to be made. So we have zero choice. Even Labour know we have to make cuts. To increase borrowing now would be suicide. Without a strong economy everyone suffres, especially the poor.

Surely anyone cutting disability benefits is wrong?

Genuinely - I don't know. It depends on what those benefits are. I don't know so I can't comment. If they are massively more than the average working person earns then maybe it is right to get them in line .