to think that people who depend on benefits will be better off under a Tory government than a Labour one?

[Trapper]

Labour were clear that they would be tougher on benefits than the tories, were clear that they would cut benefits, and were clear that they would continue with austerity measures:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/12/labour-benefits-tories-labour-rachel-reeves-welfare

www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/12/labour-benefits-tories-labour-rachel-reeves-welfare

Me too Betty.
A lot of people especially the poor souls unable to eat or having to queue up outside food banks due to ridiculously low wages for ridiculously hard work along with those sanctioned. Could say look we've had enough. Okay we may go to prison but at least our point and feelings would have been aired and at least we get to eat 3 square meals a day in prison and for the homeless a bed as well.
People can only take so much.
There are alreAdy demonstrations going on aren't there.

I do second that Saskia,

The family next door to my parents when I used to live there were life- long benefit claiments for two generations- they knew exactly how to fill the forms in and how to avoid sanctions/ assessments. Parents, three daughters, two sons, all living on different benefits from the get go. Between them they were fraudulently claiming JSA, DLA, laying about living with partners, working on the side in cash in hand jobs etc.

But take a person really in need of welfare help, they have an accident and are unable to work, marriage breaks down, they have a disabled child requiring 24 hours care. On top of everything else they are confronted with loads of forms to fill in to get help. They are likely to make more 'mistakes' and are therefore more likely to be sanctioned or not get fully what they are entitled to. Thats the problem with the current system.

If all these posters, like Vivienne, think people make a "lifestyle choice" to live on benefits why don't they give up their job, sit on their arse and make that lifestyle choice? You'll soon see how wrong the Daily Mail are, that benefits really ain't that great and life on benefits is no walk in the park.

As for the "genuinely needy" being looked after, don't make me laugh! That's why people have had their adapted cars taken off them. That's why David Clapson died when his JSA was sanctioned and he couldn't keep his insulin cold.

The ignorance of people is astounding. Some of the press have reported story after story after story where people have died or been treated unfairly but still the Tories were voted back in.

There are people earning low wages paying tax. The last government took lots of low paid workers out of tax altogether. I support the cap on benefits being reduced further to £23K. And that's tax free remember. At the moment it's £26K tax free again. It's ludicrous. I think the personal allowance should be raised to £15K. People paying tax on £12K and others collecting £26K tax free. That needs to be sorted out.

I believe Benefits Street starts on the TV again next week. That should give plenty of ammunition for those who think it's generally a lifestyle choice.

Yep, let's keep cutting taxes then the sick and disabled can make up the shortfall!

Op, try telling that to all under 25's who will have their housing benefit scrapped and made homeless. A proportion of these people will be in work but on apprenticeship wages and the minimum wage. Subsequently many will loose their jobs, not to mention the unfortunate ones with learning disabilities and mental health disorders.
Who in their right mind thinks it's a good idea to have angry, disaffected young people living on the streets? Think of the human cost.
Think of crime rates.

BettyCat- not agreeing with it but I think the idea behind those cuts is to stop 18 year olds leaving school, signing on and getting a flat right away. They are trying to make young people stay with parents longer and save before moving out.

And of course some of those younger people will be trapped in abusive households. Housing benefit anyway only covers single young people for a bedsit/room in a shared house.

DP with homeless, the 18 year olds you are describing are mainly ones who have left the care system and do not get social housing till 21 anyway.
Many 18 year old homeless people have left because of abuse.
It is just not that black and white.
HA don't give tenancies to under 21's in our borough.

What is going to happen to young people leaving the care system or young people without families leaving custody? Sometimes even if they have families their probation licences don't allow them to return home. Their rent in probation hostel will still have to be paid.

DP works ...

X posts!

"Signing on and getting a flat right away"

My ''mum' continually threatened to kick me out at 16, told people I was getting a suitcase for my birthday and I would be out out on my ear. I spent my 16th birthday in the council office filling in housing list forms.

I didn't get anything until my DS was 6 months old and I'd been kicked out 3 weeks before his DD, I paid the deposit on a private flat but had a Cat-1 sections and couldn't get up the stairs to the floor my house was on. I was reluctantly taken back and was reminded daily I shouldn't be there till I got that phone call 6 months later.

Nobody just handed me some money and keys like everyone thinks happens when "people leave school sign on and get a free house" I wasn't offered a B&B homeless shelter Ect the one place I was offered was up 4 flights of steep thin stairs I couldn't get up pregnant let alone with a baby and a section in a house full of alcoholics and drug addicts.

Do people still believe you can just walk into social housing? Are they on the same planet as the rest of us?

It can take years to get adequately housed. And under the Tories, there'll be no new social housing. They are proposing that HA tenants can buy their houses. So where do those with nowhere to go go?

Not everyone has a nice family to fall back on.

ilovesooty Wrapped Betty

yes I was going to say that in my post but I knew lots of people would already say it better than I could.

As always its a blanket cap that just doesn't work for all, as you all said- what about youngsters in the care system, people who need it. Ed Milliband suggested stopping under 25s from claiming housing for the reasons I said in my PP and when he was called out about young people leaving care system, living in abusive households and what they are supposed to do, he said there would be a special fund for those young people in those circumstances. Not sure how that would be implemented.

Wrapped- so sorry you went through such a horrible ordeal, how long ago was this?

Sorry to say this Wrapped your mum sounds awful. Fancy doing that to her dd. My dd is 16 and there's no way I could even contemplate throwing her out.
I don't doubt it made you stronger made you stand on your own 2 feet but even so 16 is quite a vulnerable age isn't it. A time when you need your mum. And she chose not to be there for you. I just can't understand thT.
Okay she took you back for a time very reluctantly and made you feel like an inconvenience.

There might be some information in this Queen's speech. That's around the end of May.I am not in favour for cuts for needy people. But I know one person who claims disability allowance and there is absolutely nothing very much wrong with her at all.

How do you know there is nothing wrong with her? Does she not wear the required hair shirt?

Radio 4 had excellent coverage on the election, including independent expert overview of each manifesto. The Institue for Fiscal Studies briefing reports were always interesting. Anybody wanting an insight might find this useful
www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7733

Georgina thanks for sharing, am watching the run- down now

'absolutely nothing very much'

Margo - that is TERRIFYING about scrapping plans for access to work for disabled people.

I cried on Friday morning because I am so tired and so scared.

One week ago I had triple surgery to my leg to aid my mobility.
If it is successful in 3 months I will need it done to my other leg.
I was diagnosed in 2013, put on the surgery list in May 2014, taken off the list (without my knowledge or consent) and then just got my Op in May 2015. During this time my ESA was stopped as I had gone past the 12 limit for contributions based payment (I was not considered ill enough for the permanent benefit despite my Consultant writing to say that I could not work in any capacity. My paperwork was 'lost' and my appeal date passed before I could fight it). My loss of ESA was nearly £400 per month. I have been selling items to buy food and pay the childrens school lunch/trip/uniform money. (I don't qualify for 'freebies' as my H earns £23K per year).

One of the reasons I was not on top of my paperwork was that I have a child with Specific Learning issues and who is on the spectrum. Receiving NO help and being bullied. Hence more paperwork as I fight the LA for help for child. Added to that I live with a partner I am realising I need to separate from due to his emotional abuse of me.

I would like to start my own small business from home one day after all my surgery is done and I am well enough. I have just been informed that, due to 'cuts' I may not get surgery for my other leg anyway, so working outwith the house, in a rural area with almost no transport, would be tricky).

In the last two years, I have lost my ESA completely.
I would not qualify for LegalAid to leave my H unless I can prove abuse.
My local CAB has reduced its hours.
The legal education service has stopped its direct help for parents.
The education advice charity is not taking on new clients.

And I am using my 'running away' fund (a few hundred quid) to feed my children.

'Boo hoo' for me - no, such is life, and always has been - there are lots like me and many worse off so I try no to feel too sorry for myself, but it is down to a combination of unlucky (health wise) and unforeseeable (marriage wise) circs that I find myself here, at nearly 50, not due to a lack of moral backbone.

Peedoff-can you give us the lowdown when you've watched it? I can't access that link on my phone for some reason?