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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think this is another new evil low of the tories

212 replies

seagazer · 04/03/2017 10:38

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/housing-benefit-young-people-18-21-scrapped-universal-credit-exemptions-a7610581.html
But on the other hand corporation tax is being lowered. Angry

OP posts:
Graphista · 06/03/2017 07:56

Astro your last post is correct - we need more jobs, more cheap housing, more training/education.

Yet what are tories doing?

Protectionist economic policies (which economists have shouted don't work) not making housing developers build housing people can actually afford (we've the equivalent of an entire 30 unit block of 'luxury' flats here sat empty for 2 years+ because they're too big - 3 bed plus - too fancy and too expensive for locals! Non locals won't buy because we're in the arse end of nowhere and get cut off from nearest city in winter due to weather conditions)

Keeping wages low - so no economic movement, little spending, people can't save in case they do lose their job.

If people were paid a decent actual living wage they'd feel more secure, would spend more, would be in better health, would work more productively. This would boost the economy as a whole.

If businesses were stopped from getting employees to do unpaid overtime, to do more than the work of one person, from using zero hour contracts, rolling temp contracts, rolling shift hours and instead provide proper regular fixed hours contracts you'd get women, students, disabled people in work far more than they are now.

Tories are short sighted, they say it would cost businesses money and cost them votes. It may cost business in the short term but long term would lead to profit.

Numerous studies bear all this out.

Astro55 · 06/03/2017 08:05

Keeping wages low

I'd agree - I'd shoot whoever came up with the benefits idea for working families - they need a decent wage not top ups - and all this does Iis keep the wages low so because they can't afford to lose the benefit -

A friend will lose £450 a month if she earns an additional £10 a week - keeps her in low paid work because she can't find a job paying the extra £450 plus so she's better off.

Graphista · 06/03/2017 08:27

Yes the so called 'better off in work' calculations are bullshit.

They only compare income and only pay vs income support or jsa or ESA

They don't take into account the COSTS of working

childcare
transport
work clothes and shoes
lunch at work - especially if it's a job not suited to a pack up being taken in)

or the money lost in terms of access to other help, eg free prescriptions in England, free school meals etc.

If nmw is enough to live on then WHY does it need topping up?

If nmw is enough to live on WHY is it LESS than the total amount received directly and indirectly if on benefits? When benefits calculations (and it says this on EVERY letter you get) are based on 'what the government says you need to live on' ?

LakieLady · 06/03/2017 08:40

I work with vulnerable people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and I've recently come back to my job after a 2-year secondment as a benefit adviser on the same project.

Things have got so much worse in the 2 years I was away. Rents have now massively outstripped the amount that can be covered by benefits, the benefit cap is leaving families with next to nothing left to live on after they've paid their rent and the council won't even let you go on the housing register until you've lived in the area for 2 years. The change in rules for the mobility element of PIP and the abolition of the extra £29.25 pw for people on ESA and in the work-related activity group will hit the most vulnerable.

Although these proposals will, in theory, protect young people who are leaving care or estranged from their parents, the sheer incompetence and mismanagement of universal credit will mean that they won't get what they're entitled too.

I've already dealt with 2 cases this year where people have been evicted for rent arrears solely caused by cock-ups and errors with their UC, and we're only 2 months in, ffs. How many more?

CallingGloria · 06/03/2017 08:40

Ifailed Where I live there are places available they are just not wantedby the homeless

MeadowHay · 06/03/2017 11:17

Gloria And you know this how? Lol, you are talking such bollocks. And even if that were the case, all that means is the housing is not safe and appropriate. I know homeless people who would often rather sleep rough than in hostels, but that's because the hostels are understaffed and can't effectively guarantee the safety of all of their residents and/or their belongings. I wouldn't really want to stay somewhere where I was constantly fearful of having my meagre possessions stolen, or of being attacked. The fact that housing provision in our country is so bad that the only alternative we can offer some homeless people (because it really is only some of them at all) is poor, unsafe hostel living that is so scary for them that they would rather sleep rough, is an absolute disgrace for our nation.

MeadowHay · 06/03/2017 11:19

Anyway, we need good quality long-term housing solutions for the homeless (and indeed all of us). Hostels are a stop-gap, but increasingly due to depletion of social housing they are a stop-gap to absolutely nowhere as there is nowhere for these people to move on to.

HelenaDove · 06/03/2017 17:24

Astro thats rubbish The low wage jobs came BEFORE the tax credits. In the late 90s when i was signing on there were jobs paying £50 a week £1.50 an hour and 50p an hour.

And childless ppl were expected to take them. " Havent reproduced? Fuck you then. You can live in poverty."

Gloria ive never heard such rubbish in my life.

HelenaDove · 06/03/2017 17:25

Meadow unfortunately this policy will close hostels Its in the link ive put in on page 5 of thread.

Graphista · 06/03/2017 18:06

It was me said initially about low wages but yes i remember £1ph wages. While tax credits were brought in suposedly to help those on low wages what SHOULD have happened was a decent legal living wage implemented.

I also don't believe homeless people are turning their noses up at acceptable properties, when you see the state of places some people are paying rent for (mouldy, damp, dirty, stuff not working, cold) I can't believe this is palaces or luxury penthouses they're turning down!

HelenaDove · 06/03/2017 18:21

Totally agree Graphista.

An HA has left a tenant without a roof for a week and a half.

HunterofStars · 06/03/2017 18:25

YANBU. I left home at the age of 20 as where I lived at the time was too rural to access anything and I had a heated relationship with my family. If I was in this situation today, I'd be screwed.

Where I currently live at the moment (I live in a HA property) - there are 3 empty flats - one of which has been unoccupied for nearly 2 years. Yet there are people on the housing register/list crying out for properties.

Certainly in my own town, there seems to be more homeless people living on the streets and recently had their possessions chucked around the High Street by a callous security company as they didn't want them sleeping in the doorway. Sad Angry.

HunterofStars · 06/03/2017 18:26

The building was due to be redeveloped but was put on hold for a while btw.

Alfieisnoisy · 06/03/2017 18:41

Gloria you are not strictly correct.

My local council accepts housing applications from homeless people and they get NO say ...they get the one offer "take it or leave it". Have friends who have been through it and while not necessarily happy with where they've been allocated they have had to take the property.

I am sure some homeless folk will say no and then try their luck in the private sector or squat but most wouldn't dare to refuse a property.

I was deemed more or less homeless and was offered a maisonette on a sink estate, I HAD to take it and I lived there for two years before being moved on medical grounds to my current nice area.

Graphista · 06/03/2017 20:17

My sister in a private let was left with half a wall between bathroom and kitchen, shower not working properly and seriously bad mould for 6 months until she finally got a HA place due to her GP calling the housing office himself and threatening to go to press if her and her kids (2 with asthma) weren't rehoused.

It's disgusting how the poor are being treated.

Graphista · 06/03/2017 20:19

Nobody gets any real say on social housing it's 'take it or leave it' if you're lucky and have a good council you might get offered 2 places if you refuse first but if you refuse 2nd (btw that's even if you refuse got damn good reason like health or safety issues) you're put to bottom of list which can be several years long.

HelenaDove · 06/03/2017 20:23

Good on that GP.

Natsku · 06/03/2017 20:48

Reason 567 why I'm glad I left the UK. Fucking Tories. Really need to have another argument with my dad about how he can possibly justify supporting them, maybe this time he'll listen to me.

CallingGloria · 06/03/2017 21:04

Fucking Tories. yeah, because Labour really turned it around when they were in power.

Everyone has problems rich or poor, life is shit which ever side you are on. Hmm

Natsku · 06/03/2017 21:05

Labour were practically Tories last time they were in power.

Rich people have problems too but at least they're not worrying about having a roof over their heads or food in their mouths. Their problems are really not on the same level as the problems of the people affected by these cuts.

Graphista · 06/03/2017 21:23

Blair's 'new' Labour Party was Tory lite imo and I don't know many people that considered it true labour.

SukeyTakeItOffAgain · 06/03/2017 21:29

Whenever anyone says anything against the Tories up pops one of their supporters saying "Yeah but Labour are x, y and z."

Why should not liking the Tory party make you a Labour supporter?

Graphista · 06/03/2017 21:38

Exactly I'm not a labour supporter.

Natsku · 06/03/2017 21:41

I've voted Lib Dem ever since I was able to vote (haven't voted since moving out of the country a decade ago though except for the Brexit referendum). I'd love to support Labour but they are really not doing well so just can't until they sort themselves out. There isn't really a viable Left Wing party at the moment - no wonder the UK is in such a state with austerity etc.

CallingGloria · 06/03/2017 22:20

Their problems are really not on the same level as the problems of the people affected by these cuts. I'd disagree (obviously). Different but equally devastating/overwhelming/distressing.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend all the Green party supporters here.

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