To think 'in your face Osborne?'

[Littlefluffyclouds81]

I'm not. I know I'm not. I'm personally going to have a glass of wine and celebrate there being a significant amount of egg on the Tories' faces.

whatever happens my husband will always step up and be a good father supporting his children. I have no concerns about thier future.
And if he becomes ill or disabled and the insurance doesn't pay out?

People for too long, which in my opinion started many years ago under a labour government, have been allowed to withdraw from personal responsibility and have felt that society owes them a life and we should all support them.
You're entitled to your opinion, but it rather gets in the way of facts. It started under Thatcher when she destroyed the steel industry and then closed the mines.

This is exactly the reason the House Of Lords is there. It should be filled with leaders of business, doctors, teachers, police etc etc who have excelled in their fields. Informed people who have lived a life and are filled with knowledge and expertise of their field.

Not filled with ex politicians, who see it as a pension.
It was a brave vote considering the reform they have been threatened with

Ok going harsh here,
Methe, your husband falls I'll and you have to leave your job to look after him/dcs. Then he dies.Due to the nature of the illness any insurance is invalidated.

You struggle by on TC and a low income job while trying to raise your dcs.

Still think you wouldn't claim benefits?

The above is a true story by the way, tell me how that is a choice? Tell me how heating (only when near 0) food, Internet and a basic TV package are a luxury when that is all their life is? There are no coffees out,no holidays, no takeaways, no day trips, no fancy food, basic toiletries and sanitary products is high luxury living. Add in the psychological effects of the isolation, no respite, the mundane over and over again all because they fell in love with someone who got sick.
Oh and the credits have been cut because one is deemed old enough to need no childcare etc but asd (although high functioning) means he cannot function alone. Attempting to work any longer leaves you worse off and the reality that you may lose your home next year.

But no, let's not have empathy for people living that life, let's continue to let big corporations avoid tax, help make the rich richer and people le you believe that people are victims of their own creating.

This countries lack of compassion is very concerning, people are flawed.

So yesterday everyone tried to tell me that everyone receiving TC's was a hard working low income worker and now they seem to be attacking methemummy and telling her it's all severely ill/disabled people.

For the record I, like methemummy, am supportive of a basic safety net. I don't however want to fund lifestyle choices, deliberately absent parents or income top ups for middle earners.

And yes, internet connection is essential, that's why it's provided at schools, libraries and other community facilities.

themilksnatcher
internet connection is essential, that's why it's provided at schools, libraries and other community facilities.

Those libraries and community facilities being the ones that are now shut due to local government cuts ....

And what if you cannot get to such a facility due to cancellation of disabled bus passes
so cannot bid on the web only housing list?

If it we're my family I'd hope they'd ask me before demanding more from taxpayers.

I don't however want to fund lifestyle choices, deliberately absent parents or income top ups for middle earners.

Well, would you rather pay higher prices/have more wage legislation/increase the tax free allowance/pay higher taxes to allow increased spending?

Currently a middle income is not enough for many people to live where they are needed. I don't care about a teacher's 'lifestyle choices' - I just want there to be a qualified teacher for every class in my local school. I also want there to be cleaners at my local hospital.

internet connection is essential, that's why it's provided at schools, libraries and other community facilities.

Yes, and if you need public transport to get to a library the cost will be more than the cost of buying a cheap laptop and Internet connection.

your problem is that your arguments are not very good, not that you are being personally attacked.

Ffs thatcher didn't shut the mines. She was PM when the industry was becoming unviable and stood up to the unions who wanted to bring the country to stand still.

Regardless of what people think of tax credits I hope it is noted that once again the lib dems are lying hypocrites. Fallon called the HoL a disgusting institution then used it when his party couldn't win in the elected HoC

What am I supposed to do with the children when I am schlepping down to the local 'community facility' to get some work done....?

whatever happens my husband will step up and be a good father supporting their future

I too thought this like thousands of other women but the minute people are divorced and have a new life they act very differently.

Never for one minute did I think I would have to track my exh down to get child support.

I don't however want to fund lifestyle choices, deliberately absent parents or income top ups for middle earners.

You're not funding deliberately absent parents, you're funding the people abandoned by them. Taking away TCs doesn't make the absentee parent magical reappear with a big fat cheque, it simply punishes people who are already on the receiving end of some pretty brutal punishment.

Middle earners need the top ups if they are going to continue to be earners. Take away the top ups and there are going to be people who will become financially unable to work because work will no longer pay.

internet connection is essential, that's why it's provided at schools, libraries and other community facilities.

Many of these facilities have limited opening times or restrictions on how often you can use the internet and how long for. In addition, they may not be as local as a stroll around the corner and public transport needs to be used at which point it could be anything up to £6 at a time to use the internet, plus travel time each way.

If it we're my family I'd hope they'd ask me before demanding more from taxpayers.

That's admirable that you'd step in to help family however not everyone has family and not every family is willing or able to help.

As for 'demanding more from tax payers', I've never seen seen this before, have you? All I've seen is people asking for assurances that they'll have enough money to meet their basic living expenses such as rent, food, and heating.

Methemummy there was a programme on Channel 4 called The Tribe. About an African tribe. They had mobile phones so by your definition they are not poor either.

a, people have to apply for jobs ONLINE.

b. children and teens have to do homework ONLINE.

People who post what you do are either out of touch or just being nasty I shall give you the benefit of the doubt an assume its the former because im sure you dont want to see childrens education suffer due to not being able to complete their homework unless you are an employer and rubbing your hands together gleefully thinking "More fodder for workfare"

Great idea about the community internet spaces. Lets all cut off our home phones and internet and go off to the library straight after work (all libraries open til very late at night and have loads of internet ready computers) so we can go online to pay bills, order food shopping, email a friend etc etc and get back home at a reasonable time to cook food, tidy up, get ready for the next day and supervise children's (mostly online) homework.

Wait, tell the child to stay back at school until it closes and do all of their homework there and then. Then we can walk to the phone box with our 10p or calling card in case we need to ring someone.

Or we could wait till the weekend (make that Saturday only - never seen a library that opens on a Sunday) and spend all day at the community internet service.

We wont be tired at all for work the next day and we will have saved ourselves loads and loads of time and money. Result!

My local library has closed.

That's so sad MissMarpleCat, libraries are so important and it's horrid that so many are having to close or massively scale back.

Our local library has reduced opening times and 5 computers for the public.

It is a regular sight at opening at 1pm people in a scrum to try and be first at the desk to get booked on to a computer to do their job searches.

I have overheard people close to tears saying they had used their last money for bus fare to get to the library and now there are no available computers and they will be sanctioned by the jobcentre for not looking online.

I feel sorry for the people who are desperate in this position and I feel for the staff at the library who have to deal with this every day.

Bus fare across town to the reliable library is £6 return
do that more than once or twice a week and you run short of cash

district libraries are closing

community centres are having their funding slashed

landlines are uncommon in rented homes for the young

so mobile broadband is utterly essential

I'm furious, I used to take dc's every Saturday morning to change books and also activities etc. guess what our tory mp said? 'Get bus to next town'

Fact is though absent parents do get away with paying very little or nothing with next to know repercussions. I teach full time, have a severe disability and get tax credits. They help us survive -myself and my three sons.
My eldest DS' father owes over £10000 and we have been to court, ballifs etc and still nothing.I get minimal for the other two. I have the work ethic, I could stay at home and chose not too. I fully support helping people in dire straits 'there for the grace of God go I'. I had a mortgage and they stopped my dla and I lost it.... I now rent at double the cost and I won my dla back at tribunal. Madness....

Being a natural cynic, I don't think the unelected lords voted the way they did out of giving a shit about the poor. They don't want the assumption to be that employers will be expected to make up the shortfall.

I don't know. I was put in touch with someone from the HoL in regards to my parents mental health problems. She came to a couple of care meetings with me, and was a wonderful advocate for my parent for as long as they needed her. I don't think she was paid either.

And I'm not sure if it's on this thread, but a pp mentioned that someone from the HoL helped to successfully prevent restrictive changes to home educating. I'm sure plenty of them have the best motives. That may change if the Tories decide to create umpteen new Tory peers to assure a majority though...

Hooray and merry christmas all who would have been shafted!

I wish R4 had probably taken it to them this morning though....

some waffle bag (probably grayling) saying 'mwah mwah lords overturning our manifesto' and the presented didn't say what I would have said which was 'actually the lords are HOLDING you to your pre-election statements given Cameron's adamant statements that tax credits WOULDN'T be hit by cuts'

and instead just pointed out it wasn't in their manifesto...

I like this as a potential sideline for the house of lords. vetoing legislation that flies in the face of what the elected politicians said they would do before the election...sort of promise enforcers!

The government want to make 'constitutional changes' to hol now

Multi millionaire Andrew Lloyd Webber flew back from New York (at the tax payers expense no doubt) to vote in the HoL last night, on continuing the tax credit cuts as normal.

Someone tweeted: 'Flying in millionaires to vote for tax credit cuts for the working poor is an excellent look.'

Indeed it is.