to ask how you will be affected by the budget announcements?

[manicinsomniac]

Sorry if there's another thread about this, I can only see lots of speculative ones.

Now that it's announced ... I admit I'm struggling to get my head around it. I don't think it's as bad as I thought? I don't think it can be that good though? I don't think there's a single thing in it that affects me. I'm not sure about any of that though because I find it all quite confusing!

So, ordinary people from ordinary families/households - how are you going to be affected, if at all?

They are significantly cutting the money given to working families, even ones where both are working full time. Are those people entitled?

Ellie
I work, DH works. We stopped getting tax credits years ago.
And we have been absolutely shafted by this budget.
As have many/most of my clients.

Do, enlighten me what lessons MY kids should learn?

It all depends on the individual diagnosis, but ASD does not automatically mean you can't go to be successful. Look at Darryl Hannah, Gary Newman, Peter Howson, Susan Boyle, Eminem for goodness sakes! I really hope you don't present your 'you've got no hope' attitude to your daughter.

I definitely do not She has a significant learning delay and it if she was an adult now the support has been removed. Our area does not even have a Learning Disability Team within Social Services. They lost it in the cuts.

You are deluded if you believe everyone is this world is born with an equal chance

Fairylea
What a load of absolute nonsense.

In what way was your life dictated to you?
I'm curious. What decisions were imposed upon you that?

Batman, too many people with ASD are out of work, there are lots of reasons for this but I suspect the main one is that the world is hard to cope with and as such they are at higher risk of depression. The people you name all have one thing in common....money. ALL got their diagnosis after they had made money and could afford to pay someone to assess them.Most adults will not be assessed and many undiagnosed folk are out there struggling with the world.

We also have to battle an education system which pays lip service to inclusion but in reality struggles to truly meet the needs of growing children on the spectrum. Trust me on that one as I am currently in a battle with my local authority over its failure to meet my son's needs. It's only because I am proactive that this is being addressed. Many children will grow up thinking they are failures or stupid. Stands to reason then that they ight struggle in the world of work. That makes me angry as the system should be proactive and it isn't.

I really hope you don't present your 'you've got no hope' attitude to your daughter.

1. How fucking rude of you to criticise the parent of a child with additional needs. 2)Not all wheelchair users are paralympians, by the same token, not all those with ASCs are likely to be successful.

Yy Alfie.

I believe people it is egotistocal for people to say they are successful just based on hard work. There is a huge amount of luck and priviledge involved

I never said that everyone was born with an equal chance. I've also acknowledged that there is a genuine need for benefits/credits in some cases. But there's always an excuse for the rest. And it's getting boring. I have an extended family member who is a single mum with a 13 year old dc, ASD. He has major speech delay (basically has a vocabulary of about 12 words). He has also been diagnosed with epilepsy. He can have major reactions to new environments. Can sometimes show his frustration or displeasure at something by smearing his own faeces on the toilet wall. He'll never leave home, be employable, have a relationship. But his mother has still managed to get and keep a decent job, provide for her son, have a good quality of life and even manage to pay the mortgage on her own house when her husband left. Why is it due can get on with things but so many others can't?

On the subject of things being imposed....

Autism was imposed on me...I certainly didn't choose it and neither did DS. I am proactive and he wont be left to flounder in mainstream but will be given opportunities which will prepare him for the world of work.

Divorce was imposed upon me...I didn't ask my husband to walk away when the going got too tough for him.

I lost my home as I couldn't pay the private rent and childcare on my suddenly single salary...that was imposed upon me too.

I was able to move across country and rent privately while my family helped with childcare.

Currently I get benefits and Carers Allowance which I need while I fight the crap education system which would see my child lost in mainstream.

A good friend didn't choose the hideous abuse she suffered as a child.
She didn't choose the resulting serious mental health issues.

Lots of things can be imposed on someone....sometimes without warning such as a catastrophic illness, sometimes a long term problem. Fact is you don't always get to choose, and nobody is immune, not even YOU.

Ok Ellie I wasn't going to bite...

I was very high achieving at school from a fairly average family. I won a scholarship to a very well thought of independent school where I gained very good A level results and was accepted into Oxford.

Against this background my mum had schizophrenia when I was little and was in and out of mental hospitals and my Gran was alcoholic and moved in with me and my mum. I spent most of my childhood either caring for one or the other. At the same time I got accepted into Oxford my gran was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer my mum couldn't cope and we have no other family. I turned down my place and became a carer for my gran.

Several years on I went back to university to try again, this time studying from home because of my mum and I ended up becoming seriously ill with a pituitary tumour and having to quit.

I then recovered and worked my way up into a well paid career in marketing, became married and had a child. In the space of 6 months (6 years into my marriage) my husband upped and left for an ex before me and went off to Thailand never to be seen again and I got made redundant.

Despite working my guts off to find a similar role I couldn't, and ended up working 16 hours a week in a hotel on minimum wage as that's all there was.

I met my now dh who is on a low wage and we were just about managing with both of us working as many hours as we could. We then had ds - who turned out to be severely autistic so now we claim high rate dla for him and I cannot work and we manage on 15.5k dhs salary and benefits. Dh would do anything for a better job and is trying, believe me. I would work if I could secure good childcare for ds but there is none. I still also have bad health myself including a thyroid problem and pituitary tumour.

We will now be £30 worse off a week as a result of this budget.

Yes ... I made my own salary didn't I?

She will hopefully recieve support for him for the rest of his life (if it doesn't get cut ). What about those with learning disabilities who can moved out, but will never be able to reach high wages or what Ellie said about setting the salary they deserve (paraphrasing

Dawn but I'm fair game for critisism because I don't have an SN child or need to claim benefits? And not because I was born 'lucky' or 'privileged'?How fucking rude indeed.

You need to stop taking your issues out on people like me and focus on those that have unnecessarily, deliberately and selfishly bled the welfare state dry. Or move to Greece to see how life would've been if the government didn't make the cuts needed.

How are you fair game Batman? If you are well off this isn't affecting you

You were born lucky and priviledged Batman. Whatever you say, of course you were for being born with the ability

Ability to do what? Work hard? Weren't you born with that too?

I'm horrified by some of the worse off numbers on this thread.
Looking at things in the longer term (if you survive financially til that point), will the introduction of the living wage offset the losses? So in 3 (?) years time things will be better, its "just" getting there that will be impossible difficult?

Also, those saying they will be worse off if they work more hours, is that including the extra £ you will earn? So if you earn £10,000, and get £5,000 of credits currently. You might move to £10,000 salary and £3,500 credits under the new system (£1500 loss seems a recurring number). If you increase your hours, your salary is £12,000, tax credits £3000 - greater loss, but overall greater household income. NB figures are not actual checked numbers, just guesses to illustrate a point.

Good on your friend Batman, I am glad she can do it but personally I cannot do the same.

Sorry but I am not your friend and I have my own issues, in all likelihood that is undiagnosed ASD and ADHD but despite my son having both these conditions I am not allowed to be assessed. I also held down a job, a well paying job for over 30 years but currently I can't do it physically or emotionally. I beat myself up enough for that without random smug people on the internet pulling their super human friend out of a hat.

We are all individuals with different coping strategies and abilities. I thought Maggie told you all that back in the 80s when she did away with "communities".

So your friend deals with a severely disabled child while also working and paying a mortgage? Firstly she must have bloody good support in place or she wouldn't be able to do so.
Secondly she must also be in good health herself...not something all of us can say.
Thirdly her mortgage must have been low enough for her to repay it AND cope with the needs of a disabled child.

I can't read through all these, sorry. However almost anyone with a Buy to Let is going to be effected, even if you are currently a lower rate taxpayer. Add any salary to your GROSS rents (less agents fees etc) - is that more than £42,500? Then you are going to be hit. Even if you are a lower rate taxpayer now, if the gross rents are high you are going to be hit like a higher rate taxpayer. I can show how if anyone is interested...

You really can't get your head around this, Batman. What of those that work hard but can never obtain promotions or work.in a well paid profession

I have worked hard all my life.

I am not currently employed but I am still working hard.

When all this crap with the education system is over, when DS is finally moved to a special school and settled I can go back to work.

Fact is you can have the ability to work hard but you won't always get to choose what you do if life changes. You might have to work hard in a different way.

And no, I don't support people just sitting idle if they can be working but not because of benefits. I don't support it because I believe most people have a better life if they are in work. I know my life is much richer and not just financially when I work.

what makes me more able than anyone else to gain a promotion?

Batman, are you reading anything I have written?