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

You can't judge without knowing the ins and outs, whether someone can work. I used to be in severe pain and took painkillers every day, and worked with children. I was good at my job.

I am now applying for PIP for another condition and struggling to do my desk job.

iHave.
Women's aid 0808 2000 247 can advise you.
I wish you all the best.

Oh yeah, you can totally just get housing from the council.

That's why me and my three children are sharing a bedroom at my parents two-bed flat. We've been here almost six months, sleeping on combinations of airbeds and sofa cushions. That includes my pensioner parents.

We were made homeless because my landlord decided that 'long-term let' (which HE bloody advertised!) was no good when he relocated for work and booted us out.

I am bidding on everything I'm allowed to. 'Allowed' being the operative word because the council won't let me bid on anything less than a 3-bed but are quite happy to leave us horrendously overcrowded.

Most times I bid I'm about 80th in a list of 100 or so, despite being classed as homeless. I don't get a look in. I'm paying storage costs each week for our furniture and belongings. I'm sliding deeper into despair with each week that passes and I think we'll still be here come Christmas.

But hey, I'm only a fucking scrounger, right VivienneMary? Cap my benefits? Are my children somehow worth less than others because their Dad decided he wanted out. I do work, by the way, and I could take up a whole other thread on the way I've been treated like scum by the Job Centre. Probably shouldn't have had my kids if I can't afford them too.

Whisk that's dreadful.

for you whisk, I've been in your situation and it's dreadful. It WILL get better but it's hard to see that when you are in the midst of it.

It wasn't Labour who made single claimants on jsa pay £10 per week coucil tax or closed local job cente meaning a £25 cut to the princely sum of 142 every 2 weeks. So I think yabu

Sorry not read thread. My post sounds ridiculous compared to what others are going through. Good luck to those struggling.

Took my single sister 15 years to get a council flat. She woked since leaving school. Now she is out of work life is bloody tough but would have been far worse without social housing.

I am very sorry for people like whisk but the problem is that I know of the following circumstances.

Girl and Boy of 19. Boy not really interested but girl is and comes off pill on purpose. Girl gets pregnant and doesn't admit it until about three months pg. Boy's mother disappointed but not too heartbroken and is very encouraging. Girl's parents similar.

Boy lives in two bed council flat with mum and younger brother. Girl lives with parents in small owner occupied house and no other siblings. Girl's parents both receive benefits because they are too ill to work (they aren't - the boy's mother told me they've been laying it on for years) Baby born and boy in touch but pays no maintenance. Boy's mum has a little cot on landing.

The two families agree that girl's parents throw her out. The girl is taken in by boy's mother although the relationship between the two has broken down and it is very difficult for everyone to live in this overcrowded space. This continues for four months.

After four months the girl and the baby are given their own council flat. The two families worked in cahoots to achieve this.

This is what stinks about the system and what i strongly object to funding with my money. These young people should be the responsibility of their parents but parents like this know too well how to play the system - they've been doing it for years.

From reading people's stories on here it would appear that it's not the policies per se that are the problem but the whole ludicrous way they are being implemented.
If consultant has put in black and white that someone isn't fit to work then there is no way they should be made to go through any sort of rejection/appeal process.
The same goes with sanctions. For people who are truly working the system to avoid employment ,fair enough ,but if a person has legitimate reason for not attending an appt, there is no way a sanction should be put in place. A lady from one of the food banks told the story on TV of a blind man with 3 children who had been sanctioned for refusing to attend an interview as a driver- dire implementation of a policy.
There needs also to be a whole change in the way people are treated. Everyone has the right to be treated politely and with respect, not made to feel like shit because of circumstances they can't control

Will do Redlocks, I'm around halfway through and taking a break from it to make tea.

Dreadful situation Whisk Can I ask where abouts you are in UK?

Where I live social housing is really easy to come by, I didn't hear about the waiting list or struggles till I looked into it myself because you just don't hear about it around here. Girls as young as 16 left there parents, pregnant, and moved into a council house right away either single or with a partner, rent is very cheap too. We have two huge council estates in my city, containing a mixture of council owned homes and private rent homes. Not particularly 'desirable' areas- lot of drug use and such, but still there for those that need it.

thats what pisses me off about ATOS Piggy- absolutely no dignity involved for the disabled at all, what would happen if pensioners were treated this way in order to get their pensions, or free prescriptions?

Not bashing pensioners, just trying to think of an aspect of the welfare system that doesn't suffer cuts.

There should be common sense applied. I know there isn't though.

I'm in the South West PeedOff and I'm in the process of writing a very long catalogue of complaints to the head of Housing Advice, including asking:

why two people classed as 'adequately housed' (level below me) have leapfrogged a whole 30 people to be housed recently,

why important paperwork I handed in in mid-January took two months to action,

why it took two months for them to upgrade me to 'homeless' despite me going in three times a week and being told every time that it would be done that day

and why my phone calls go unreturned and written communication goes unanswered

BeaufortBelle if you know someone who is abusing the system and you're 100% certain of that and can prove it then report them. People like that are the reason people like me and others on this thread are struggling. It is not right that you talk about 'your money' as if you are some great benefactor. I'm working myself and worked before I had my children. I never then, and don't now, feel that 'my money' is reserved for those that I deem worthy of it. It goes to taxes, not a pot for scroungers.

People like you make me feel like I should be grovelling on my knees.

If you saw me you'd think there's nothing wrong with me. However I've had to have 90% of my stomach and digestive system removed causing all sorts of nutritional, continence and mental health issues.

Obviously I don't broadcast that I vomit and shit myself every time I eat but it's a fact.

I don't mention the issues caused by not being able to socialise like a usual person because it's embarrassing. The truth is that I'm isolated, lonely and seriously depressed.

I don't think you'd know any of that unless I told you. Find me an employer who's willing to tolerate me having variable start times up to approx 2pm and sometimes letting me leave early because I've had an accident and I'll jump at it.

Meanwhile don't judge because there's a good chance you don't know the full story.

Gutted cos I'll have to name change now

It wasn't meant to come across like that whisk. I didn't mean to offend.

Sadly I can't prove it - it was from conversations at work between the boy's mum and her friends. Would be my word against hers. But there is a culture of this and it's wrong because it takes the money away from people who really need it. I want my contributions to go to those who really need it; not those who play the system and I don't think it's wrong to say that.

Have you been to see your MP whisk?

peedoffblue DLA is NOT an out of work benefit

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

My job is working with young people (under 25), at one point 75% of my clients had at least one parent dead and one who had not been around forever some both were dead, at least 60% at any one time have been abused either by family or close family friends.
I could go through lots of reasons why young people leave a family home, and although lots made the choice to do this it was for very valid reasons.
I can not think at the moment of a case where someone had done this to "play the system" (though I am sure there would be but I think after doing this work for 10 years and not thinking of one person shows this would be a very low %), and not one went into flats they all went into shared supported housing. I also work very intensively with these clients for normally around 2 years, I have a great bullshit detector the reason for this is not me being naive.
At one point there had been some long term analysis into the cost of our services, and was found for every £1 spent on ours saved £3 in other services social services/police/health care etc.
We have a very high success rate of people moving on to live successfully within the community, over and over we are told directly from our clients they would have never achieved what they had if they had to continue living within the family home/worked with us.

Also just some info to people asking about care leavers, social services has the responsibility to pay for housing, not housing benefit for a person leaving care, there is also a care leaving grant- there are criteria I think its around 12 weeks in care since your 14th birthday (this may have changed).

YANBU at all.

iHAVE you have been treated appallingly by both the system and your emotionally and financially abusive H. Im so sorry you are going through this.

Your situation is an example of how all these cutbacks are affecting people on the ground

Here we go again! The deserving poor, the genuinely needy ignorant crock of shit propaganda that Britain is full of people who have never worked, live on 'Benefits Street' and the magnanimous Tories are going to give more help to the 'genuinely needy', when everyone of their policies the past 5 years have fucked the 'genuinely needy' and disabled.

'Oh, but I know one person who gets DLA and there's nothing wrong with her'. Are you her doctor?

Why do so many believe their lives will be enriched by others being miserable? That is fucking sadistic.

To be fair expat, the deserving poor/benefits street agument has only been used by one person on the thread. What there have been are some real examples of how peoples lives have been affected by the implementation of strategies such as the so called bedroom tax, and how the approach applied to assess people against benefit criteria can adversely affect those who are most in need. One thing I read this afternoon (but then couldn't find source data for) was that 70% of DLA appeals are upheld. Even if it were half that number, it would still be too high.

Oh, yes, of course, because it's so easy to get DLA.

Anecdotes are not evidence.

Not upheld! Or is it upheld? I've confused myself now. The decision to refuse DLA was overturned in 70% of cases. Sorry for the confusion.