To think Gordon Brown is right about UC

[Orangeblossom1976]

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/universal-credit-gordon-brown-poll-tax-riots-benefits-dwp-roll-out-nationwide-a8576751.html

Remember what happened when they tried the tax credits cuts? I think thus might be worse. And with Brexit too...but oh I forgot it is the end of Austerity. Right.

Gordon Brown has it spot on, but Teresa May will not care one bit, until the reality hits when the great British public say enough, and do actually riot.

But did anything productive come out of the 2011 riots?

@AdoreTheBeach no it was the Banks that broke this country, people are too quick to forget that.

Neshoma - having had a child with cancer and having met A LOT of people with children that have cancer - most of the time both parents have to give up work!

You have no idea about any of this clearly. So keep those judgemental comments to yourself please. I was lucky that my work kept my job open for me.

@YorkshirePuddingsGreatestFan is correct. Several Labour run London boroughs ran a universal FSM trial, then Nick Clegg nicked the idea. I guess he had to do something to compensate for all the uni students he screwed over.

For those still blaming Labour, imagine the economy is a business and you're a shareholder.

In 2010 you decide you're not happy with how the business is being run so you sack the managers. All new managers brought in and sweeping changes put into effect. Then eight years on you realise the business is in an even worse state than eight years ago. A few shareholders are far better off and getting higher dividends, but most keep having to invest but they're getting less and less in their dividend/ pay packet every year.

Are you still blaming the managers that left eight years ago?

Are you still blaming the managers that left eight years ago

It would seem so.

Moving. what sort of riot? A riot is not a carefully considered decision with a set date and time, its an explosion of fury, despair and the impossibility of change which will improve things. Sling in a few agitators of whatever political persuasion, looters and freeloaders, and there you have it. Its an angry and violent mob. That kind of riot. God forbid.

Gordon Brown: [Fingers in ears, tongue blowing raspberries]
"I have a golden rule, no more boom & bust, no more boom & bust..."

Along comes a massive bust

Gordon Brown: [double entendre followed by vicious facepalm]
"Oh crap, I didn't see that coming, maybe I shouldn't have got the UK into so much debt. Lets print hundreds of billions of pounds, slip it to the banks and saunter away. Hopefully no one will notice & we can spin it that I saved the world".

Their is NO money: Conservatives spend the next ten years trying to sort out the fecking mess.

Jeremy Corbyn: [stroking his grey beard]
"I have a great idea, lets borrow several hundreds of billions of pounds piss it down the toilet to make everyone feel better & f**k up our childrens/grandchildrens lives because there is no boom & bust.

Level of ignorance pretty steady.

It had nothing to do with labour tax credits came from John Major government, and had nothing to do with labour.
Strange how some folk will spout any old shite without checking first.

He robbed people's pensions and New Labour's stupid immigration policies haven't helped.

Universal credit has cost £16 billion so far, fucking bonkers!

Wonder if it would be salvageable if they tried to make it more like the ones it is replacing in terms of money, so people won't be losing money. Not sure.

Strange how some folk will spout any old shite without checking first.

It is, as the current Tax Credit system did away with all of the previous Conservative systems and was introduced by Brown and Labour, and at the time there was serious miss-givings about introducting them as it essentially was letting businesses of the hook and many for saw what would happen.

So yeah, if you want to spout shit, at least take off the partisan glasses.

£16 billion. Fortunately theres all those austerity savings to pay for it. And while we're at it, on in work benefits, please consider who benefits most from them. Employees? or Employers? Running a business with a workforce that can only work with income propped up by government subsidy suggests to me that the business isnt viable. So stop calling out the poor sods who get it in the wage packet (figure of speech, pedants) and ask a boss or two how much their new jag cost. I can see where the scroungers are.

UC is being rolled out in my area on 17th Oct

Most charity based workers, cab etc are dreading it, as they know working people are going to suffer, this is working people that are not going to be able to afford to pay the rent due to not earning more than minimum wage & decrease in benefits topping up the low wages

Housing is in crisis and private rent is very high, that’s if you are allowed to rent privately- many LL won’t rent to people earning under £25

So if you become evicted for rent arrears due to the weird (4 week or monthly pay your employer) UC two pay days in one calendar month. Leaving you with possibly two or three months without rent money - then you’ll be seen by council as intentionally homeless, so they won’t rehome you and you can’t rent privately

It’s going to see many more suicides, that I’m sure if

Well said longwayoff

Are you still blaming the managers that left eight years ago?

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, you also have the other side trying to whitwash 13 years of labour as though the country resets every election.

Thatcher left a bad legacy in some areas, so did Blair/Brown, you cannot just wipe it off as "not true labour" and think that some of the issues today are not routed in a lot of New Labours policies.

At the time ATOS was rightly derided, but for some, benefit restrictions started in 2010 and is the second coming of the Third Reich. Low wage, zero hour contracts can be traced back to Labour, the Global Financial crash wasn't caused by labour, but we were just as culpable in sub prime mortgages and it doesn't matter that a lot of Tories backed the idea, Labour was at the helm when more bank regulation came through.

If some blame previous managers, others refuse to accept any wrong doing as to why they were sacked.

bank regulation

Should be relaxing of bank regulation.

It was rolled out in my area in June this year. Over the past few weeks I have had a client in despair with a terminally ill husband ( both late fifties), she had never barely sent a text before let alone managed a journal. I've had a Portugese national who has worked here for 4 years who has had to apply for UC ( he has cancer), always worked but now has had to apply for UC and failed the habitual residency test and been without anything for 3 months despite previously receiving child tax credits and housing benefit . He was worried his internet was going to be cut off and was hundreds of pounds in rent arrears and no food. And I have a dying man petrified that when he dies his widow is going to be forced onto UC and made to look for work almost straight away. It really isn't great.

As for the Brown with regards to the OP its a ridiculous claim.

Rolling back the past 2 years investment development and administration is absolute wank that appeals to kneejerky rhetoric without a practical or genuinely beneficial thought in sight.

The entire discontent with the new system (which labour clamored for before) is the transition period. Fix that and everything. Returning to a system that by Labour's own admission was disconnected, outdated and no longer fit for purpose is beyond wasteful, its actively harmful.

What of the claimants that have already been through shit transitioning over? Sorry we gotta disrupt your benefits again.

It is just typical opposition rhetoric, just opposition for oppositions sake.

Short of stopping all benefits and doubling all taxes there is little than any government could have done to reduce the national debt.
Labour policy's had the government spending so much that the country was gaining over 200,000,000,000 pounds a year in debt. Even at 1% that is 200 million in extra interest that has to be paid each year before any other spending is even considered.
The conservatives have gradually bought down the defecit and continuation in current policy's would see it eradicated completely in the next few years at which point the debt can start to reduce. Attempting to cut spending or even further or increasing taxes at a time wage growth has been low due to poor productivity growth and the need to keep the costs of production competitive with other countries would have seen the economy crash.

It was still a conservative gov that started the tax credit system, yes, it's been changed over the years, the concept was the same.
Wages should be good enough, we shouldn't need tax credits, the fault of major and Thatcher.

Posted this on a previous thread.

Wait until some of the Christmas retail temps have to attend in work conditioniality appointments in work time leaving their shop floor short staffed for periods at the busiest time of the year Then the penny will drop with more employers.

Its already dropped with the owner of Next.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tory-peer-and-next-boss-simon-wolfson-slams-insane-universal-credit_uk_59e9aca9e4b0df10767c1802