To have zero sympathy for this woman

[wasonthelist]

The tearful woman on BBC Question Time claims to have been a Tory voter. She's reaping what she sows.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hame-you-hardworking-mums-tearful-6643284

Meh, I don't want theTories, but I definitely don't want Labour either.

I don't like the benefits culture that does exist but I also detest the spiteful propaganda against the poor, the less well educated, the disabled, women in general.

I'd very much like to see a government invest in children and teenagers from deprived backgrounds, giving them confidence and aspiration. Find their skills, university grants for academic children, apprenticeships for those more practical, everyone has something to offer.

I'd like to see good maternity packages and universal good quality childcare so that women can continue their careers without having to worry about leaving their children and don't end up on their arses after relying on better paid husbands or benefits.

I'd like to see childcare extended to the school years and even teenagers.

Looks like the cuts to working tax credits might be cancelled according to Huffington post.

ll, I have never villified anyone who takes what they are entitled to under the law. That doesn't mean I don't want the law change but I don't blame people who take an entitlement.

ll, I have never villified anyone who takes what they are entitled to under the law.

Really? A few choice quotes from a poster below. Wonder who that was? They sound like vilification to me.

First of all most couples cannot afford 4 children so don't have them rather than expecting the rest of us to pay for them.
...... anyway as she runs a business so in that case she may be a liar but obviously that fact needs to be checked.

Thirdly, why should we support people messing around with nail bars from home whichn make no money whilst full time hard working single mothers support this lady though their taxes?

It was a well known Romanian scam in London to get a "job" being self employed selling the magazine but of course not making much money from it which then meant you got a raft of additional benefits.

....but lots of people including tax credits claimants further into London are not prepared to slump it out here nor be prepared to live nor than 5 minutes away from mother.

All wonderful praiseful sentiments!!! I could go on, but you can all scroll back and read the stuff for yourselves.

Seems like the Tories are having a re-think www.theguardian.com/money/2015/oct/18/tory-mps-increase-pressure-george-osborne-soften-tax-credit-cuts. Wonderful what a slim majority can do to a party. Perhaps Michelle on Question time did them a favour.

Perhaps this was the plan all along, come out with hideous cuts then soften them so we can all say thank thank you and tug our forelocks. Anyone know why the TC's cuts are in a separate bill to all the other budget cuts?

That's reads far more like "we need to get people at the dwp to have a nice chat with claiments so they can learn to budget even if we are likely to lose 71 seats" not we need to stop this happening

WTC cuts are NOT being cancelled - the Huff post is not the 'gospel' !

sorry for the link but it says it all really
www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/612998/Leo-McKinstry-tax-credit-reform

And I know the Express is a right wing paper but their view balances the left-wing bias of the Mirror.

Neither are you, are your sources better then the Huff's or the guardian's?

But I agree that they won't be cancelled, the Tories will hope that people will have forgotten by the next election, so they can get another small majority.

I really don't get this thing about people claiming tax credits then not doing extra hours or over time because they lost TC's. The more hours I work the more I have in my pocket at the end of the week. Yes, some of that is taken from TC's but I still have more money overall. I'm not exceptional and I don't have a career that depends on working all the hours God sends, or have a particularly Calvinist work ethic. I simply don't buy into this meme - people aren't working less hours because of TC's. There are a myriad of reasons.

'... I have paid a lot into the system and will get nothing back'

Roads, a reliable and steady electrical supply, clean water to drink, toilets, showers, gas to heat your home, a peaceful society with good infrastructure that has allowed you to go about your business unmolested?

I would have thought someone as intelligent as you realises that taxes are not a personal banking account and that they go to provide society, in which you are a member, with the reliable infrastructure and peace/freedom from war, protection from criminals via police/justice system, stable food and power supply that allows them to live their lives as they chose and make money, run a business, buy a pint of milk without someone trying to kill them, etc.

Ever lived in a country with really low taxes and the accompanying lack of infrastructure? I can promise you, it sucks big time.

Love this, so scores of highly qualified experts and leaders of their field say that Osborne's economic plans are dangerous, wonder what way the right wing on here will try to wriggle out of this one.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/12/osborne-plan-has-no-basis-in-economics?CMP=share_btn_fb

Ugh Mollie that link is horrible I'm beginning to hate that woman on question time every time I see her gurning face in the papers.

I know a few people who rely on tax credits, they are single parents with one or two children, they work at least 30 hours in PAID employment. One works in a care home looking after disabled people she does shifts, she works hard imo. Another is a nurse with one child, one is a teaching assistant with one child. They all work above nmw already so that won't help.

There were far better ways to reform the tax credits system. Insist on being in paid employment not messing about painting nails, setting minimum amounts of hours required to worked to claim and forcing employers to give regular hours.

I think that a lot of people don't really understand the system and the changes that were already coming in with universal credit which would have put an end to anyone choosing to work the minimum hours.

Love this, so scores of highly qualified experts and leaders of their field say that Osborne's economic plans are dangerous, wonder what way the right wing on here will try to wriggle out of this one.

The won't have to even acknowledge it. They read their papers, you read yours. Everyone reinforces their own prejudiced.

I agree Katherine, the way tax credits work the more hours you work the more money you have, they don't encourage part time work. They allow it, but they don't encourage it, there's even a full time 'bonus' so to speak.

Of the people I know who work part time it's usually because they're working for supermarkets on zero hours contracts, they're scared to look for other jobs as they have to be 'available' for 16 hours. I know a few women who've gone part time, well 30 hours so that they can be there after school at least some of the time either because they've no support network or wayward teens and want to keep an eye on them.

But its not a paper's op ed page, its the letters page and the economists as signatories are from a huge range of institutions and have a wide range of backgrounds and political leanings. Fairly balanced I'd reckon.

I try to make informed opinions, using facts and reading a range of sources, not being dogmatic and sticking to one way and I've displayed that on here before.

I'm torn on this one. I do feel sorry for her because she's been lied to and is likely to suffer personally for believing that lie.

That said, I can't help feel some contempt towards her too. She voted for a party nicknamed "the nasty party" who had already proven during their last term that their policy was to cut money and services from the most vulnerable. I assume she was happy with that when it was affecting others. "And then they came for me" springs to mind.

Some of the UC changes still protect lone parents they also protect carers.

There is also a scheme whereby nobody will have there miney slashed ASAP as the difference will be made up until a chane of circumstances happen.

BUT of course this means that the slash will happen to those people who would have been protected from it in advance of the change over rendering the scheme effectively useless.

I'm no fan of UC I think it's harsh expensive and exploits actual workers but it did have this facility built into it

Can you explain that more needsasock?

It Does seem today as if the Tories are softening their stance on TC reduction. What a shame the "opposition" provided no meaningful opposition whatsoever at the time the changes were voted through parliament.

So Tax Credits might be saved by the House of Lords? They're good for something then.

I think we'd be better off not subsidising champagne and any other drink other than tap water in the HOL/Commons.

As things stand at the moment anybody who is likely to be massively hit by UC is entitled to recieve bridging payments so they don't get hit to hard to fast. These bridging payments (this is unless they have climbed down on it since I last checked) stay in place until a change of circumstances and there was talk of tapering them down over time. There sole intention was to make it not such a fast hit.

If they make the hit hard and fast via tax credits before the changeover then the cuts when UC come in are going to be even lower and the bridging payments will only bridge the gap between UC and TC so will be done on the rate of TC AFTER these cuts not really bridging anything at all.

With UC even people in work can be sent on workfare at 48 hours notice so they can be ordered to not attend their PAID work to go and work for free somewhere like Argos and if they cannot do it because they will lose their job or something like that they get sanctioned for up to 3 years.so far the only commitment we have from DC or his party is "we will try not to do that" with UC carers are protected to a degree from the work commitment these TC cuts effect carers allowence so carers who are also in part time employment as well as those who are not will have there wages and CA removed with the taper rate.

So for the joy of having a job that pays less than 110 PW to fit in around the 35 hour minimum caring responsibilities 41p in the pound of CA will be gone