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

maybe I really am dim

BeaufortBelle thanks for that. I do get where you're coming from and apologise if I seemed a bit snippy. I'm under a lot of strain at the moment and the past few days haven't helped.

The way I look at it is, as others have said, yes, there are those (and always will be) who abuse the system but unfortunately people like me get caught in the crossfire when it's those people that become the focus.

I haven't been to my MP yet but I've been told by my fantastic HR person at work that I should tell the Housing people in my letter that they have seven days to reply before I go to my MP.

The bottom rate of DLA has effectively been abolished under PIP. Only the middle and higher rate still exists.

In my experience - and it clearly does come down to personal experience, it's all we've got once you reject the figures - a hell of a lot of people lie about why they're on benefits. They look OK but they're not.

I know a girl, good looking, funny, clever, hard working, of 22 who claims the lot. Our neighbours have been known to scoff partic as her parents are millionaires (not difficult in London). She's schizophrenic. Not that you can tell by looking at her, and why the hell should she tell you what's wrong with her?

How would they be better off? We work and yet our wages have to be topped up by tax credits etc as they're not enough for us to live on.

Do you know that rent for a two bedroom house near me is more or less what a new police officer or nurse would bring home in their pay packet a month. If work is supposed to pay, how is that ok? How is it ok that it costs more than some peoples mortgages to pay for childcare so that they can work? Are you surprised that people need tax credits and housing benefit.

Peed Ds was born in 2012, I signed on the list in 2009, got my housing association home in Oct 2013.

ILive She is awful, we're NC now and it'll stay that way. Never realised how horrible and abusive she was until I found MN!

Tribble -agreed, home building is needed urgently, especially in the South East. Neither labour nor the Conservatives have tackled this effectively to date.

Trapper This government certainly won't do anything about it.