to wonder what benefits will get the chop from the £12 billion of cuts?

[steiner8]

Just that really. I'm wondering which benefits are going to go or be significantly cut. Anyone have any idea?

I did wait to marry and have children. My marriage is secure. I don't have 4/5/6 children and my job was significantly higher paid than minimum wage. But I have a disability and so does my child.

And my self confidence was shattered was being repeatedly raped as a child - it makes me a bit risk adverse. But at least I have compassion and empathy.

Tax credits may be imperfect (they certainly are) but all those who are recommending raising the income tax threshold as a panacea are ignorant of simple economics. Raising the tax threshold is a very expensive and ineffective way of putting more money into the pockets of the low paid, because the higher threshold applies to everyone meaning that well-paid workers benefit disproportionately.

Most of the lowest paid already pay no income tax anyway.

Blame the poor all you want but why make innocent children suffer?

JJXM,

Has it occurred to you that if we weren't paying out for feckless teenagers to have multiple kids by different feckless fathers because "it's my right", or paying stupid housing benefits to keep people (who don't work) in London and the South east because "it's my right", then we might have more money for proper deserving recipients like you.

its not that easy for people living in london/southeast. people cant afford to move just like that and it would mean moving far away from home .i dont think people on low incomes should be driven out. also even if it was as simple as just moving. what about the childrens school and peoples jobs they would loose their jobs and end up on full benefits.

I never said it would be easy. And I am not suggesting that people be thrown out of all London boroughs. But there are places within London much cheaper than westminster or chelsea. this is precisely the entitlement culture people allude to. "home" isn't where you say it is if other people have to support you there.

There are many schools outside of London.

Of course that has crossed my mind but I try not to judge people because I don't know their situations, how they got there, what is going on in their lives. Some people are born in such situations that it is almost impossible to escape them. For every person like me who managed to escape their abusive backgrounds through education - there are ten people who couldn't.

About 6% of care leavers attend university; 23% of the prison population have been in care; more than half of young women who leave care have a child or are already pregnant. If you compare this to the average population then you can see that our backgrounds affect who we become. Sometimes we are lucky enough to escape them and sometimes we aren't.

I don't judge teenage mothers because except a simple twist of fate that could have been me.

Currently not working......

(I was shocked by all the fibromyology hate on Metro online)

BreakingDad so was I. It was ignorant and horrible.

'it occurred to you that if we weren't paying out for feckless teenagers to have multiple kids by different feckless fathers because "it's my right", or paying stupid housing benefits to keep people (who don't work) in London and the South east because "it's my right", then we might have more money for proper deserving recipients like you.'

How can anyone belief that from a government which is cutting benefits to 'genuinely disabled' people in the extreme? Hang around the SN board and it's mindblowing, how hard life has become for carers and disabled children in the past 5 years.

Sandpiper -
I have 2 children (1 with SN, meaning lots of time needed for appointments and lots less sleep which affects my health)
I have had mobility difficulties for over a decade.
I have recently had multiple surgery and am awaiting further surgery so not presently working.

BUT-

I receive £135 pcm child benefit. I use this to help feed my children. I don't smoke, drink, go out, have Sky Tv, go on holiday or buy new clothes (I buy from charity shops when I have to).

My marriage has broken down under the strain and I am in an unendurable situation now.
My parents are dead and I have no extended family to 'take us in'.
I will need to claim HB to resettle myself and the children in modest accomodation suitable for my mobility issues.

I have just watched DC talk about 'no tolerance' and referring to worklessness and addicts in the same sentence. He talks of 'social engineering' and I feel sick with fear.

ScittishMerlottish . I'm sorry that you are feeling so scared. I agree with Labour's Andy Burnham, it is 'disgraceful' that Tories still refuse to spell out the detail of the cuts and are terrifying those in vulnerable positions who are worrying and waiting for the axe to fall.

Even if people are all forced back to work, it will soon be those not paying taxes (earning too little) that are then scapegoated as non contributers. This is the dangerous road of valuing people only by monetary contribution. Soon the Tories will be saying get a second or third job, don't have kids if can't afford etc. The Tories stand for minimising the Welfare state which includes the NHS. But many of their voters simply focus on those on benefits 'having more things' than them and almost wanting to punish them and their children.

How long till they talk of people with MH problems and disabilities as being a burden? Very slippery slope.

I'm always surprised that the people who genuinely need the money, always seem to struggle like hell to make ends meet. And a few somehow manage to buy the flatscreens and go on holidays. These are not the typical cases of benefit recipients I would think.

As someone else posted upthread, it only takes one event for life to turn into a major fuckup. And sometimes not matter what, people are unable to crawl out of the hole. These people should be helped and not punished further.

No one is arguing that good levels of benefits should be paid to those who have had a "fuck up". It just shouldn't be a lifestyle choice or something to be used to live somewhere you can't afford or in a way you can't afford.

I don't know how anyone on benefits has holidays abroad or buys expensive electrical equipment. I haven't had a holiday for five years now but it's fine.

I have a lovely laptop but am fortunate enough to belong to a customer review programme for Amazon. I got it free in return for writing a review of it. (best item I have ever reviewed...am currently reviewing nail polish for free).

My flat screen TV was bought by my parents when a storm knocked out my previous one.

Neither of the above items could I have bought by myself.

Then again I worked for over 30 years so I have lots of things that others on benefits perhaps do not have. Good saucepans and cooking items, a decent fridge freezer (no..not a SMEG) and the experience to make the most of what I have.

if they cut housing benefit again will that mean those on JSA (£72 a week) will have to top up even more

live somewhere you can't afford or in a way you can't afford

The problem is though people cant just upsticks especially if your leaving an area where you have say family/friends who can help with childcare.

And a few somehow manage to buy the flatscreens and go on holidays

Credit cards? Catalogues? Parents? Buying the TV from a 'man in the pub'? I gave my DB my fairly new flatscreen TV when I unexpectedly won a better one in a bowling contest!

As for holidays, you can get an Easyjet flight and a week in Spain for less than a weekend in the UK in many locations.

The problem is though people cant just upsticks especially if your leaving an area where you have say family/friends who can help with childcare.

story of many immigrants. Except they often don't speak the language or know the system.

"We don't accept child abusers using their own abusive childhood as an excuse for their behaviour. We wouldn't accept a rapist's plea of "well my dad was a rapist" as an excuse. We should not accept "I'm poor because I come from a poor family."

Yes, because child abusers, rapists and The Poor really do belong in the same sentence, dont they?

Jesus wept.

Cattycatcat - thank you. I know that there are many people worse off even than me, and not of their own making.

It isn't the lack of money that bothers me so much as the demonisation.

DC isn't sayingn to me - and my kids - you cant have any more (in fact we will take it away) because there is no money in the pot

They are saying it is because we dont deserve any other treatment, as non productive financial units.

The mark of a society is how it treats its vunerable.
So we are going to hell in a handcart.

Which is why it's far more often men who come over and work here and send money home keepitsimple and then families. There is not an influx of single mothers, one reason being that unless they are meeting up with friends or family here they wouldn't be able to work.

If you are a sole carer of children and have no money, it would be extremely difficult to move to a new area away from your support network and find accommodation, childcare and a job.

I cant add any more to what gatorade said keepitsimple. Immigrants its either load of blokes living in a hovel till they make enough for family to come over or that there is a ethnic network for them to move into.

Also this is bloody 2015 we shouldn't be going backwards!

What is the expectation of those on benefits. If I ever found myself on benefits, I expect not to starve, to have a roof over my head (although not in the expensive area I currently reside in), I'd expect free basic healthcare and I'd expect free primary and secondary education for my kids. And that's it. My expectation is that it is a safety net, not a pocket sprung mattress.

I would fully expect to be poor, and would have no complaints if the above 4 criteria were met. I wouldn't expect to smoke, drink, get a tattooo, have a pet, have a tv or anything beyond the basics of shelter, food , healthcare and kids' education.

And by poor I mean relatively poor to others in this country, not properly poor like poverty means in many parts of the world.

its often easy looking from the outside in.