To ask how people will cope with Universal credit cut.

[ponyexpress22]

Surely they aren't going ahead with cutting it by £20 a week? I'm shocked that the government could stoop this low. What the hell are they doing.

[quote UndertheCedartree]@Babyroobs - thank you for the advice. I am currently trying to get the SMI loan and also trying to get some boarders fee backdated on my PIP.[/quote]
I would definitely try to persevere if you have the strength to as it is a lot of backdated money to miss out on. Hope you get it sorted.

Those of you upset by UC claimants getting an extra £20 per week - why do you not direct your anger at the companies that have made millions out of contracts given to them by the government over the pandemic or those multi millionaires with so much money they can start a space race.

These are the real freeloaders in our society - the amount they get in tax breaks and over priced contracts is obscene - and it will carry on whilst they can convince the population its single mums and migrants who are the problem.

@selflove

Yup, ditto to being £100+ worse off a month, what with the UC cut and the NI increase.

Some people just wouldn't understand how much that sort of money makes a difference. My council sent out a £50 voucher to anyone whose pre-school aged child received the Free 15hours funding (mine does because my income is under £17K), and it was honestly the best thing. An extra £50 to spend on food over the summer made such a wonderful difference. The kids had ice lollies in the food shop every week, we had lemonade at picnics, we had strawberries and blackberries and watermelon for fruit instead of cheaper apples and bananas. When my kids got worms, I could use the rest of the voucher to buy Ovex and we didn't have to all put up with the worms until I got paid.

Being £100+ worse off means that sort of thing is a distant memory. All my outgoings are as small as it's possible to be, I can't cut much further. My kids (5&6) do swimming lessons, and realistically I'll probably end up cancelling them, because otherwise we'll struggle too much. And then because I have 3 kids under 8, I can't take them swimming on my own because of the pool ratios, so they won't learn. It sucks.

Haven't rtft so apologies if this has already been said but I think another you can get a prescription for ovex (or generic equivalent) through the minor ailments scheme.

@Babyroobs - thank you

@Heffapotamus

A single person on UC is going to lose a quarter of their income. In the current climate, removing the uplift is immoral.

Yes. But equally it's immoral to not include legacy benefit recipients for the extra money. The £20 needs to stay but it also needs to be extended to all benefit recipients.

@Ugzbugz

Probably be shot down in flames but it's like the chikd benefit cap, a couple can earn 98k and get child benefit, a single parent could be widowed etc with 5 young kids living in London etc on 50k and has lost £££ in child benefit yet next door could have 5 kids and a 98m income and still get it.

You're right.

I am surprised that the vote is near enough 50-50.

Mumsnet is usually left leaning and more supportive.

Maybe it's the use of the phrase 'benefit cut' , when it patently isn't.

As so many have said, it was clearly stated ut was a temporary measure and like all COVID measures, is to end. But I suppose like someone being on overtime, they get used to it, live up to it and then it is a shock when overtime ends.

I have sympathy for those on UC. However, if those working were paid a proper living wage and that employers were not receiving benefits from the public purse, which is what they are in effect doing, then more money could be spent on disabled, ill or temporarily unemployed claimants.

However, if those working were paid a proper living wage and that employers were not receiving benefits from the public purse, which is what they are in effect doing, then more money could be spent on disabled, ill or temporarily unemployed claimants.

That goes back to the Blair and Brown governments. They encouraged the cheap exploitative labour topped up by tax credits.

Mumsnet is usually left leaning and more supportive.

Research has been done wrt public attitudes towards benefit recipients. It started changing (for the worse) after Blair's attack on the disabled. I've posted a good article about this before. I must try to find it again.

Of course it's also due to the lack of social housing and the public health housing and homelessness emergency. A substantial chunk of benefits goes on the ever increasing high private rentals. A small wage increase won't work on it's own. Lots more social housing is the answer. It's expensive upfront but would work out cheaper in the long-term. Aside from the much lower benefit bill, it would save the current billions spent on temporary accommodation, plus the knock on impact and cost of insecure housing and homelessness - criminal justice system, social services, mental and physical health cost to the NHS, etc.

I hope it’s stopped, no one has given me £20 a week more

You should have applied for UC then

Mumsnet is usually left leaning and more supportive.

It was in 2004 from what I remember. It has got so much bigger now.

I only get 828 a month as it is to raise two kids. I can't work atm due to CPTSD. I will stuggle massively. To top it off i have to pay £52.00 a month for the school bus for one child as they changed the catchment areas. 1st child gets it free.

@Tealightsandd

However, if those working were paid a proper living wage and that employers were not receiving benefits from the public purse, which is what they are in effect doing, then more money could be spent on disabled, ill or temporarily unemployed claimants.

That goes back to the Blair and Brown governments. They encouraged the cheap exploitative labour topped up by tax credits.

Mumsnet is usually left leaning and more supportive.

Research has been done wrt public attitudes towards benefit recipients. It started changing (for the worse) after Blair's attack on the disabled. I've posted a good article about this before. I must try to find it again.

I'd love to read it.

There has been a long campaign to demonise those on benefits. The media, the government, it seems like a deliberate 'look at them look at them hate them they're the reason things are shit..'

TV 'reality' shows that distort reality, the rare family with
15 kids and lots of Your Money somehow becoming Every Person On Benefits, newspaper articles with very manipulative language - single mum of 4 (all with different dads, naturally) gets £££ in benefits huge pile of Xmas gifts spends ££ on make up flat screen TV biggest sky package holidays to Disney land and sleeps every night on a pile of Your Taxes. Throw in that the kids are called Kortnai, Kaden, shardinay and dollar sign hyphen pie to six decimal places for extra hate...

Drip drip drip and it seeps in and not enough people step back and really look at the situation and who is really responsible and why they want people to pick a group that is struggling, powerless and vulnerable and turn on them. No. Like good little drones they turn on who they've been programmed to turn on. No doubt I'll get a lot of hate and stories about next door neighbours with 28 kids who yell "ha ha working suckers we're living off Your Taxes" out the window at 4am every morning as Poor Working Woman sets off for a shift at the first of their 3 jobs they need in order to provide for the single child they can afford to have but I don't give a shit. I'm sick of this.

I just googled how much benefits are
"£257.33 a month for single claimants under 25
£324.84 a month for single claimants aged 25 or over
£403.93 a month for joint claimants both under 25
£509.91 a month for joint claimants with either aged 25 or over"
Jesus Christ! How can anyone survive on that?

@UndertheCedartree
Given incorrect information by UC - doesn't suprise me in the slightest, sadly! And honestly some of them have so little empathy, it's an eye-opener!

Yes twice, months apart! I had queried it at the time of the increase and when I called to check after I got the note on my journal saying the £86 a month was being removed in Oct.
It took me the best part of a week in the end to get to the bottom of it and find out once and for all that I had been given it in the first place.

The whole thing just made me sad tbh. Thinking about how many other people would likely be in the same position as me and a PP who didn't know they were getting it or were told it was for something else, like my health assessment increase (which is actually £5pm) and to have a sudden shock at being less that amount very soon when they are already struggling. I'm reasonably OK at the minute but it really knocked me but I'm sure it'll have a much worse effect on a lot of people.

This thread is sad reading although I did laugh at the PP who has 240k of assets in property and doesn't pay for childcare for basically comparing themselves to people who are struggling to put food in their mouths let alone grasp any rung on the property ladder. I mean fuck me. Either you are so totally out of touch it's not funny or you are having a wee giggle tonight.

I applied for the warm home discount last year when it was open and it was kindly applied to my account but right at the start of summer this year so last winter was a struggle.

PP have been saying they go without food and yet there are some out there who seem gleeful they will now have less.

Thank crunchy there are compassionate people here too otherwise it'd be really easy to lose faith in humanity reading some of these responses.

Honestly who would begrudge the most vulnerable and poor of our society £20. The £20 probably just pushed them above the poverty line, if that with all the inflation from printing money to hand out to billionaires. It should of been given to legacy benefit claimants as well and still should be.
No one begrudged people furlough and mortgage holidays because they are deemed as more deserving because they work when in fact a large number of people on UC work.

Some people here are just nasty and delusional stop demonising the poor because the government tells you to. The reality is only 2% of the U.K. earn above £100k so a mortgaged 3 bed semi and car on finance don’t make you part of the bourgeoisie. Majority of posters here aren’t part of the 1% and that’s exactly who this government serves.
I can’t even fathom wanting people who are on benefits to suffer just because, especially not whilst this government bails out billionaires and multi national corporations and awards their friends lucrative contracts.
I’m not gonna out myself or ramble on but the rich get away with stuff you wouldn’t even believe, perks you never even knew existed all whilst the government demonise the poor and immigrants.

Can you read? They're a single parent, I would guess they were in a loving relationship that then ended. Life happens and circumstances change. Have you never planned something and then life happens and things change, which has an impact on decisions you made many years before.

Those on working/child tax credits as a legacy benefit did get the £20 increase. I got it through the pandemic and then we got a £500 up front payment in April to cover the increase up until October. My weekly payments returned to normal in April.

Whilst the increase was only meant to be a pandemic support payment it has proven that the extra is a more realistic level of support than that usually given to those on the lowest wages or out of work.

That was directed at @Heliachi

I think a big part of the issue is that yes it was temporary but in the same time the costs of basics have risen substantially and people managed because of the extra UC. Those cost increases will be unmanageable with the loss of the uplift.

I am fully reliant on legacy benefits so never had extra but I think as a starting point I was on slightly more than I would be on UC.

@tumbleweed101 only those eligible for working tax credit. I'm only on CTC and didn't qualify for the 500, which is fine.

@Athenajm80

She's been told she's not entitled to mortgage interest support for another 9 months. This is because her previous employer wrongly declared 57p earnings ( tax adjustment after she lost her job). She appealed to HMRC and DWP. The former employer wrote a letter in support...but no. No mortgage help for another 9 months.

Also I echo the other posters experience. There is a huge backlog and disabled people are going without benefits to which they are legally entitled. UC credit have said it will be backdated but if you cant afford to live in the meantime.....

She will be at least a year without her assessment/ the money she is due but they can remove the uplift ?

I'm going to her MP. It's a fucking disgrace and the Tories have blood on their hands.

Indeed, use the money to support the genuine vulnerable. No issue with that, but others will rightly need to go back to how it was before. It's not a cut, it's not news, it was always going to be the case, but entitled people will always want more

But people in poverty are genuinely vulnerable. This will affect all those who've had a big drop in income during Covid. It's not their fault that they live in parts of the country where rents are high and they need UC to cover part of their rent. Nearly half of UC claimants are in work, prices have gone up but wages haven't.

Even if they were able to take on a second job or work more hours, they'd lose most of the extra money because it would just come off their UC.

Someone on min wage would have to work an extra 10 hours to end up £20 a week better off.

Even if they were able to take on a second job or work more hours, they'd lose most of the extra money because it would just come off their UC

So? The system should ensure people are doing the max possible to support themselves not doing just enough hours to get around caps or refusing to work more because they lose benefits. Self responsibility surely has to play a part.